In our last post, we took a look at the restless evil of foolish speech - today we’re beginning a look at a related topic, because anger is usually obvious in our speech!

A few weeks ago, I was pulling out of church when I heard the sounds of tires screeching and horns blaring coming from the street. When I came to the corner, I saw the man who had apparently been cut off in traffic – he had pulled his car over to a side street, was outside his vehicle with no shirt on, screaming and swearing and shaking his fist (shirt in hand) at the car that had apparently offended him. He was screaming a dare (laced with obscenities, of course) to the other driver to come back and face him in person.

Now, I have been cut off in traffic my fair share of times, and it is aggravating. But, really – how can you possibly take it that personally and flare up that violently over an encounter in traffic? We live in an angry society. People are angry – and the rage quietly simmers under the surface until the smallest incidents make it come exploding out like a volcano unleashing its pressure.

Our society also has a tendency to glorify and gravitate toward anger. Reality tv is more exciting if there is a shocking fight. Popular songs are full of venomous hatred toward someone who has wronged the singer. Video games are more “fun” if there is hatred and murder involved.

Ecclesiastes 7:9 is a great memory verse for this topic -

Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, For anger resides in the bosom of fools.

One of the characteristics of a fool is being quick to become angry.

I’m going to keep this short today and look at this topic more throughout the week. One question I would like to pose before you today is the difference between righteous and sinful anger.

I’d also like to give you a quick homework assignment: go to Bible gateway.com and do a keyword search for the phrase “anger of the Lord” – skim through the references and notice how often God is described as being angry. And yet, contrast that with Exodus 34:6.

How can a good and loving God who is “slow to anger” be described as angry so often? What is He angry about, and how does that compare to what humans are usually angry about?