ANGER! 6

Another major source of anger is one’s own insecurity. Five times Moses tried to tell God that he was unqualified to lead Israel out of Egypt (Ex 3:11, 14; 4:1, 10, 13). The Lord finally got angry with Moses (Ex 4:14) for rejecting all that he was trying to give Moses to equip him for his task. I can’t help but wonder whether, even though Moses did what the Lord commanded, he didn’t question right to the end if God had made a mistake.

That kind of questioning can provide a breeding ground for resentment against God. “After all”, the thinking goes, “God knew I’m not qualified and yet he pushed me into this position. It will only be a matter of time before I fail. God, why do you want me to be a failure?” Since none of us is perfect, each of us will make mistakes and will fail from time to time. Anger emotionally sets us up to lash out at God for making us failures or at others so they dare not comment on our shortcomings. The result is emotional isolation God and others, and an inability to learn from mistakes as well as equating failing with being a failure. Even the most successful fail. The difference is that they learn from their mistakes and are willing to fail and learn again.

It took almost forty years for Moses to lose control and act out. Other leaders of Israel did not manage as well. King Saul, for instance, became frustrated with his own failings as king. Instead of listening to the counsel and support God gave him through the prophet Samuel, he allowed his anger to grow into bitterness and rage. He became jealous of David and in an outburst of rage even tried to kill his own son because of his support of David. The fits of rage were often followed by times of extreme remorse. Those times were short and Saul became more and more obsessed with killing David (1 Samuel 15-31). Moses and Saul stand in sharp contrast in how they dealt with their anger. Moses, until the end, turned his over to the Lord. Saul kept his anger, nursing it until it grew to be a spirit that tormented him (1 Samuel 16:14-23).