We seem to be at a precipice…
Gone are the days of peaceful protests or simply turning the other cheek. Now is the age of venting our volatile emotions on everything from printers to presidents. To do so, we make use of every outlet available to us including social media, news media, texting, blogging, online commenting, and google reviewing. If that’s not enough, we can take it to the streets with picketing, rioting, yelling, punching, throwing rocks, or even shooting people. In fact, we’ve had over 300 public shootings in the last year alone, to the point where even mass murder is becoming rather unsensational.
I wish I could say that practicing Christians are exempt from such anger, but we are not. The people we point at as volatile and hostile out there are sitting amongst us in church every Sunday. Often, we as Christians, do our very best to hide our grievances against a brother or sister until it is too late. Our anger slowly begins to simmer, and eventually boils over into an eruption of hostility… At that point, it is too late. The launch codes have been sent, the red button has been pressed, and the missiles are in the air. The damage is done. It is too late.
What does God say?
The first biblical account of anger is found in Genesis 4. The story begins rather unassuming, with Cain and Abel worshipping the LORD and presenting their offerings to Him. Cain and Abel were both present at church. Beyond that, they’d even brought an offering. So, what happened? How could this worship scene turn quickly to anger, lead eventually to murder, and end ultimately in apostasy? We read, “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 face fell.”
Why was Cain angry? Because he felt dissed by the LORD. He was offended. After all, he’d worked hard from a cursed earth to offer God fruits and grains. Abel, on the other hand, sacrificed an animal. It was the lamb that suffered, not Abel. Cain didn’t understand that Abel’s offering of a lamb pointed to a more acceptable sacrifice (Heb. 11:4), that God was putting into motion the redemptive plan for all mankind. Cain only saw that his hard work, his sweat, his toil, his offering had been disregarded. And at this point, Cain began to simmer inside. Are we really any different than Cain? How do we feel when we are disregarded, when someone doesn’t follow our directions, or doesn’t appreciate our opinion, or cuts us off us in traffic, or reveals something that is amiss in our life? When disregarded, how do we react?
Who are we letting in?
Fortunately, our initial response isn’t yet sin. And thank God! Or I think we’d all be in trouble. Ephesians 4:26 tells us, “Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” In our story, God pleaded with Cain saying, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” At this point, Cain could have turned the burner off and let the water calm…
We can do the same. Even when sin is crouching at the door, Jesus is standing at the door, knocking (Rev. 3:20), asking “Why are you angry? Why has your face fallen?” At this point, we have to make a decision. Who are we going to let through the door? Will we let in Jesus? Will we let in His presence to give us peace, His word to transform our thoughts, His love for those who hate us, His forgiveness for our enemies, His death to self, His resurrection to a new life? Or will we allow our anger to conceive and give birth to sin, to fully grow and bring forth death (James 1:15)? We will all choose to allow either sin or Jesus to rule our hearts.
Anger has grave consequences…
Cain would go on to murder his brother Abel and by so doing, sealed his own fate. Cain had hardened his heart and hardened his heart, and eventually, it was too late for him to repent. He would be forever identified with “the evil one” (1 John 3:12). Cain would also be cursed from the ground, the very place he had earlier found purpose and calling. Finally, Cain would become a fugitive and wonderer, away from his home, away from his family, away from his community, and away from his God.
Do we realize that these same consequences await us if we do not turn from our anger? I wish this was simply a historical lesson. But the story of such anger and its consequences has played out again and again over thousands of years. If we’ve been a part of the church for any time, we’ve seen it with our own eyes in the lives of those we once knew as brother or sister.
Does our anger scare us?
God in His great mercy would still protect Cain, promising vengeance sevenfold on anyone who would attack Cain. Yet even God’s mercy would not prevent the growing tide of consequences that Cain had set into motion. The last of Cain’s offspring, Lamech, would go on to murder someone who had wronged him. Lamech presumed that if Cain’s revenge was sevenfold, his would be seventy times seven. Like Cain, our sin is neither isolated nor benign. It spreads and grows.
What did God consider when He saw all of this? Scripture tells us, “Because the wickedness of man was great… the LORD regretted that he had made man… For the earth was full of violence” (Gen. 6:5-7, 11-13). And what did God do? He flooded the earth, killing everyone. Do we see how one man’s refusal to repent of anger… planted the seed for world destruction? I wonder what God thinks when he looks down at our world today? Does our anger scare us? It should… Because next time God will use a book of matches…
Ah, Jesus… Got it!
As we look at our world today in light of Genesis, it’s hard to find any hope. However, I’m reminded of the time Peter asked Jesus “How often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Then [as if harkening back to our story in Genesis], Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven” (Matt. 18:21-22). Ah, Jesus… Got it… There is only one hope in this world. It is that we might let Jesus rule our hearts, that we might repent of our anger, and that we might learn to forgive those who sin against us. There is a way out. God is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). May we repent, therefore, and turn back, that our sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for us, Jesus (Acts 3:19-20).