Anger’s Destructive Power
And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. -Exodus 32:19
We all get mad sometimes. Sometimes it’s justified and called for, (as I believe was the case with Moses in the verse above), and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s out of an unhealthy bitterness or rage.
Anger is destructive
Sometimes, if the thing being destroyed or dealt with is evil, anger can produce positive results, after all: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil. . .” (Proverbs 8:13). For Moses, when he saw the people’s idolatry and appalling unfaithfulness toward God, His anger was quite well justified. And later we find that God was very much in agreement with Moses’ anger, as He said Himself, “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation” (Exodus 32:10).
But many times, anger produces destructive outcomes that are not helpful or godly in the least. God is and was from the very beginning a creator of things, and not a destroyer. And God’s nature is that He is slow to anger, and long-suffering, and seeking to restore and heal. Yet it is principally in the devil’s purposes to destroy and to burn with rage.
An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression. -Proverbs 29:22
It is in God’s power to restore that which man destroys
If you think you’ve destroyed some valuable object, what about Moses? Moses had just received the Ten Commandments—perhaps the most important document in the history of mankind, “written with the finger of God” (Ex 31:18), and literally set in stone—and it doesn’t hardly last five minutes once Moses gets down and sees what the people are doing.
And if you think you’ve incurred some ill consequence because of a destructive sin, what about the people of Israel? After being taken out of Egypt and having seen all of God’s miracles and wonders, they rebelled and made a golden calf to worship. They were in deep trouble.
But, look at God’s desire to give the people a second chance:
And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. -Exodus 34:1
As if it weren’t miraculous enough that God had written the Ten Commandments the first time, God tells Moses that He will repeat Himself: a Kingly redo. A Divine do-over.
A second chance
In the account in the book of Exodus, Moses interceded on the people’s behalf, and they were spared and given another chance. And hundreds of years later in Jewish history, when everything had gone wrong, and the people were led away captive, and their temple was destroyed, God granted them a return after 70 years: and the temple was rebuilt.
If God’s anger burns against us, and we suffer loss, God is always there: ready and willing to heal and restore us. What is the missing ingredient?
Repentance: turning from your selfish ways
When we turn from our own sin, God turns to us. When we reject our own stubbornness, God accepts us again. And if there have been heartaches or struggles, chances are, it was only sent from God to teach us a lesson and bring us back to Him. Ultimately, He can restore the lost years, and bind up the broken hearts:
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. -Joel 2:25-26
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