Monday, February 24
Genesis 4:1-7
Cain Murders Abel
Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she
conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.” Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
This is the first time we read about anger in the Scriptures. It is a topic that we read about frequently in the Bible. Over four hundred times we read about anger or a person being angry in the New Revised Standard Translation.
We are never told the reason that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and not Cain’s. And though we can speculate and guess—which many people have—the story does not tell us.
What we are told is Cain was angry, in fact Cain was very angry. (Genesis 4:5)
The transliteration of the Hebrew word for what Cain experienced is charah. It has a connection to heat or being hot. We might even describe someone who is frequently angry as a “hot head.” A fire existed in Cain because of the way he was treated by God.
Frequently anger happens because a person has a sense that something happened which is unjust. For Cain it wasn’t right that his brother’s sacrifice was accepted and his wasn’t. This was unjust.
Being angry is a normal human response to the events of our life. Doing what Cain did in this story, of course, is not acceptable. The emotion of anger and actus fueled by anger are much different.
Each of us gets angry based on different reasons. Can you identify in yourself what causes you to be angry? If that something happens, you will probably be angry. What is it for you? Please share. Your response will be helpful to others.
Tuesday, February 25
Numbers 11:1-3, 10-15
Complaining in the Desert
Now when the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, the Lord heard it, and his anger was kindled. Then the fire of the Lord burned against them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp. But the people cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire abated. So that place was called Taberah, because the fire of the Lord burned against them.
Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a wet nurse carries a nursing child, to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors’? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”
In the Bible we often read about God’s anger. God saw something that happened that made God seethe with anger.
Often God’s anger developed when the Israelites worshiped other gods. God’s anger was touched when the weak and vulnerable were not treated fairly.
Some churches have portrayed God as an angry God. They have done this to put the “fear of God” into people. The logic is that if people are afraid of God, they will not fall out of line and do something wrong.
Unfortunately, this image of God has been very damaging to people. People will not approach God is they think that God will be angry with them.
Fortunately, Moses was not afraid to approach God. Moses pleaded with God and made the case with God for why Moses should not be punished for what the Israelites had done.
Have you ever pleaded with God not to be angry? Have you asked God not to be angry because of something you had done? Please share.
Wednesday, February 26
Exodus 34:1-7
Moses Makes New Tablets
The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you broke. Be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and do not let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain, and do not let flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.” So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name, “The Lord.” The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
At this point in the story of God and the Israelites, Moses was at the end of his rope. God had been asking Moses to share a message with the Israelites, but the message was not getting through to them. Moses felt like he was in the middle between God and the Israelites.
So Moses needed to know who God was—how God identified God’s self. Moses could not go on unless God revealed the divine character.
One part of the revealing of God’s character is God is slow to anger. This is a phrase that is used often in the Old Testament. God is capable of becoming angry, but God is slow to anger. Something significant has to happen to cause God to be angry.
Is it helpful for you to think of God as slow to anger? Do you trust that when God becomes angry that God can control the divine self? Do you find it comforting or disturbing that God is slow to anger? Please share.
Thursday, February 27
John 2:13-22
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
This story is illustrative of the character of Jesus. We can read the story in all four gospels. In John’s gospel the story happens early in the book, while in the other gospels the story happens during Holy Week.
Though the word, “angry” is not used in the story, it is not hard to see that Jesus was angry. Something was happening that Jesus saw as gravely unjust. In a way the response of Jesus is similar to the response that God had to the Israelites which we read in the devotion yesterday.
Jesus turned over the tables, he dumped the coins out of their bags, he ordered people who were selling animals as part of the sacrificial system to stop. He was angry.
Many of us might have grown up with an image of Jesus as meek and mild. This story should disabuse us of this idea.
What are your thoughts that Jesus was so angry in this story? Please share.
Friday, February 28
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
Rules for the New Life
So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Those who steal must give up stealing; rather, let them labor, doing good work with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
The last two verses of the fourth chapter of Ephesians is worth memorizing.
Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Ephesians 4:31-32
The writer of Ephesians was not saying that experiencing anger was wrong or should not happen. Instead he was encouraging people to recognize their own anger. He didn’t want people to be influenced by the anger each person might be experiencing.
Learning to express and control our anger might be one of the most important tasks that we ever do. No matter what our age, we are susceptible to anger. A first step in living with anger is acknowledging the presence of anger when it happens.
How well do you do in acknowledging the presence of anger in you? Please share.
Saturday, March 1
James 1:19-21
Hearing and Doing the Word
You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
It’s quite human to experience anger. We see events in the world that are unjust in our eyes, and we respond with anger. Every person who is alive has had that experience.
The Scriptures don’t tell us not to be angry—this would be impossible. However they do exhort us to be able to let go of our anger. We don’t want to find ourselves hurting another person or even ourselves because of our anger.
Our task is the same as what God acknowledged in a reading we encountered earlier in the week. We are to be slow to anger. Another way to put this is we act slowly and judiciously when we experience anger.
What are some strategies you use to respond to anger when you experience it? Please share.
