Untitled Sermon (2)

When I was a kid I used to have anger issues so much so that I would let that anger cloud my judgement. I remember my brother not letting me in the house so I broke on of our windows and instead of it being a window that was small and would be cheaper to fix. I chose the window that was the largest and cost the most to fix. I did not care of the consequences at the time I was only thinking about myself. That is something that we can see Jonah doing is he is only thinking about himself when it comes to the people of Nineveh. We can see this by God telling Jonah to go down to Nineveh in Jonah 1:1-3 “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.” and instead of doing what God wants and going down to Nineveh and thinking what might happen to them if he does not. Jonah thinks about himself and runs from what God had told Jonah to do. That being said Jonah anger does not reach out to everyone just the people of Nineveh or the Assyrians who Jonah deemed were not worthy. We can see this in Jonah 1:11-12 “Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” where Jonah thought about the people on the ship over his own life.

Now I did not think about the consequences until my anger has subsided or until I was caught for what I had done. I would then realize that my anger had made me in trouble and because of that I was forced to ask for forgiveness. Which is kind of a Coincidence as like Jonah was not willing to forgive the Assyrians however he wanted God to forgive him. Just as when I was angry at my brother I was not caring about him or what had happened to him at the time. However when I was in trouble for breaking the window I would ask for forgiveness when I was not willing to forgive my brother.

We can also see other people in the Bible who let their anger get the best of them. One of those men is Moses who let his anger at the Israelites not listening and keep on bickering that that they were led the the wilderness to die and it would have been better for them to stay in Egypt where they were in bondage. First in Exodus 32:19 “And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.” Moses broke the tablets when he saw them molding a golden calf next was in Numbers 20:8-11 ““Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.” Where Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it as God had commanded. So instead of thinking what God wanted him to do he did his own thing. I think if anger as sin as it keeps us from God and separates what God wants us to do and keeps us doing what we want to do.

When we let anger get the best of us then we are not doing what God wants us to do. That is why it is important that we keep our cool as if we are to do God’s will then we must go into every situation level headed. Which reminds me of Jesus being crucified on the cross. While I can only speculate about how Jesus was feeling He did not hold that against us rather He forgave us. So that we could be with Him forever in heaven.