There Is An Old Korean Proverb that says, “If you kick a stone in anger, you’ll hurt your own foot.” In the heat of the moment when we lash out in anger at others, who suffers? We do. The French tell us that “anger is a bad counselor.” Robert G. Ingersoll is quoted as saying, “Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.”
When we lose our temper, when our anger blows out the lamp of our mind, it is so easy to say and do things that we will regret for the rest of our lives. King Saul is an excellent example of one who constantly lost his temper. David said of him when talking to Jonathan, “But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me.” No one, not even his own son, was safe when Saul was out of control with anger. It was his undoing, as it has been of many otherwise gifted men and women.
Moses in a fit of anger spoke inadvisable with his lips and smote the rock to which he was only to speak. As a result Moses was not allowed to lead the children of Israel into the promised land.
Unfortunately, most of us can recall an example in our own lives when in anger we said or did something for which we are now truly sorry. How thankful we are for forgiveness.
When we are angry, we cannot depend upon our minds to lead us in the right direction. This is why Paul tells us, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” It is a comfort to know that being angry itself is not a sin, but sadly, being angry has led many otherwise sensible people to sin. Our temper is one thing we can’t get rid of by losing it.
The secret is to follow that advice Paul gave us, to be angry but sin not. How? One method is, when we feel the surge of anger welling up in us, to stop, count to ten, delay saying or doing anything until we can get control of our emotions. It is what we say or do almost by reflex action when we are angry that leads us into trouble.
Delay, walk away, run in the opposite direction, but do not allow our anger to be our counselor, as the French saying warns. Solomon tells us, “He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly.” He also tells us to stay away from one who is angry. Here is how he put it: “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go.”
Solomon also observed that “An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.” In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon exhorts us by saying, “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.”
Paul picks up the problem of being hasty to be angry when he gives us the qualifications for a bishop: “For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre.” People who cannot handle their anger are not suitable for responsible positions, as the example of King Saul so clearly demonstrates.
The Lord should be our example as to how to control our anger. Peter tells us, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to Him who judges righteously.”
When Jesus was angry, he was angry not because he personally was attacked, but because of the way God’s house was not respected. He took action in driving out the moneychangers, but he was in control of his anger. When we feel that flash of anger flaring up, let us remember to stop, to delay, and to move away. Action may be required, but if we act in haste we may end up repenting at leisure. A fool reacts without thinking, and ends up hurting himself, as the Korean proverb advises.
Solomon gives us the better choice when he said, “Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One