The Anger Issue of Moses

The Anger Issue of Moses (w)

Moses is sometimes referred to as the greatest of prophets. The coming together of the Hebrews as a nation took place on Moses’ watch and he was very much involved in its entire development. The Exodus is referred to throughout the Bible and is all about beginnings.

Perhaps because of the incredible way He was used, we tend to look at Moses as if he was a close to perfect man; he provides us with an excellent example. To see how God can begin with a baby and develop him into the leader he became is very encouraging. That God can take a baby and make him into a great man of God, giving him the specific skills that he would need to fulfill his calling, shows very clearly how God can change a life for the better. If He did it with Moses, He can do it with you or me.

We often see only the many ways in which Moses had been used by God. Moses was so mightily used that we, limited humans, may tend to think that Moses had become a person who so far exceeded our own capabilities that he could no longer remain a good example for us. Believing him to be close to perfect and knowing how far short we all fall, can cause us to no longer look at Moses as an example of how we can be used.

Never-the-less, all scripture is for our edification (2 Timothy 3:16). That means Moses, as great a man of God as he had become, remains a good example for us. For that to be the case, we must see Moses as a person with whom we can identify. He was just like us. To keep him in view, he cannot have been the perfect person we tend to think of him as having been.

While we know none of us are perfect, it may come as a surprise to discover that Moses was just as far from being perfect as all of us are. Moses had his own personality problem and it had a negative effect on his ability to lead and to be an example for those under him. Be that as it may, that did not stop God from using him exactly as planned. Since he was not a perfect person and we can read about his imperfections, he remains a good example for us. However, that is only the case if we are able to recognize the shortcoming he had.

What is often overlooked is that Moses had a serious anger problem, one that was troublesome enough that four different scriptures clearly bring it up. His anger had a negative effect on his relationships. However, it did not prevent God from choosing him or using him after he was chosen. God used Moses in spite of his shortcoming.

Moses was not rejected because of his problem. God knew he had it and chose Moses even before Moses could have known about it himself. Furthermore, He did not wait for Moses to clean up his own act. God had knowingly chosen an imperfect person. It makes sense, right. If we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), God has no perfect people from whom he can choose. All who are called have their own imperfections and they limit (physically) what can be accomplished.

However, God is not limited by our human shortcomings. Moses did not succeed because he was superhuman. He succeeded because God was working through his life. That’s always what God is showing us. We are each called by God and His choice has nothing to do with our own desires.

The all important thing is that we are willing to be used. We are Gods choice and He uses us, complete with our imperfections, in the way He chooses.

I cannot recall any other man of God whose character flaw is on display in four different incidents. God wanted all of us to understand, that as great as he was, Moses was not a perfect person. He was a normal person with his own strengths and weaknesses. Just like the rest of us, he was a flawed person.

God had used Moses to lead the Exodus and had carefully prepared him over eighty long years. During the entire time, God was also dealing with him about his own shortcoming. There is no final incident in scripture demonstrating that Moses ever completely overcame his temper problem and it ultimately prevented him from entering the promised land. It seems to have been a struggle for him during his entire life. He died on a mountaintop just short of the Promised Land.

Perhaps the reason Moses’ anger issue often goes unnoticed is that the language describing the angry way the Lord seems to react sounds as if Moses is reacting in the same way. He is not. The strong language describing the Lords reaction has a specific purpose. He is showing just how serious it is for men to live in disobedience to God. When they fall short (which happens nearly all the time), God only appears to be angry. He is very much in control.

While their reactions sound very similar, when Moses would become angry, he was livid. Moses was anything but in control. He would completely lose it and he would not deliver the best message to his Hebrew brothers. Moses was still in training; God was teaching him to have a godly response.

Moses may not have been in contact with his old life for many years. This incident begins with Moses going out to look on his people. He seems to be checking out his past. What had they been like. He seems to have known he was of Hebrew origin. Concern for them be have begun at this time. Most of us do a similar thing. We want to know our roots. We often want to identify with them.

Many of us are familiar with this incident; it’s the first time we see his anger is on display. He uncontrollably lashed out at the man and he died. In a fit of rage, he killed an Egyptian and it wasn’t necessary. Moses was a prince of Egypt. He could have just ordered them to: “Settle down there!” The fight could have been stopped by a simple word from a person in authority. They would have all listened. What should have amounted to nothing, became brutal.

His outburst came on him suddenly and there was no justification for it. There is never justification for an outburst that causes us to lose control. If we are to develop into people who reflect God’s character, we must learn to react to things the way He would. God is always in control and His

One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (Exodus 2:11,12 ESV response is always measured and appropriate. That was what Moses was expected to learn and that’s we are expected to learn, as well.

Once he had done the deed, Moses immediately knew he had gone too far. He came somewhat to his senses, understood what he had done, and hid the body. He tried to correct for his action by hiding the evidence, a very human response. Even as the adopted grandson of Pharaoh, he should not have taken the life of anyone. Knowing he had done the wrong thing, he was immediately overcome with fear, but could not undo what he had done. His uncontrolled anger issue surfacedand had become public.

In spite of Moses action being completely uncalled for, It was that very act that God used to move Moses from the palace of Egypt to the desert of Midian. God had finished preparing Moses to lead the Exodus, physically. He would next deal with Moses at the spiritual level. That would not take place in the palace of Egypt. He would learn to hear God in the desert of Midian and it would require a second forty years of preparation. A drastic move was about to take place. God had used Moses’ own personality defect to move him to the next stage of his preparation.Moses would not have readily made such an extreme move. Living in the palace and being a prince of Egypt was not something that he was likely to leave behind willingly. He had been leading a privileged life and lived in the best of places. God would not simply have told him to give up his entire future and move into a tent and tend sheep. Something major would have been needed to prompt him to flee the palace and live in the desert.

It was to be a huge change in the way he would live and would require something equally huge to prompt him to do it. Moses was not listening for the voice of God, at that point. Fear was what made that move possible. As bad as his outburst had been, God remained free to use that very outburst to move Moses onto the next phase of his preparation. Neither did it cause the Lord to have second thoughts about using Moses. Gods plan went forward as originally intended.

God had used Moses’ own problem area to move him from the palace to the desert. At that point, Moses would not have understood that he was exactly where God had wanted him to be. His concern would have been only for his own safety. He was thinking about himself. Moses was doing exactly what we all do.

Moses may not have been thinking about God, at all, at that juncture. However, God was clearly thinking about Moses. Even though he was precisely in the center of God’s will, he was almost certainly unaware that he was where God wanted him to be.He would have been asking: How could this all be happening to me? Why, all of a sudden, is everything falling apart? He would not have seen God working in his life. As perfectly as Gods’ plan was coming together, Moses would not have understood.

We frequently find ourselves asking, where is God? Why isn’t he using me? Why is He allowing all this to happen? When we are embroiled in trouble it’s difficult for us to see God working in our lives. We are prone to see Him working only when things seem to be going well.

When God is teaching us a new thing or is getting us ready for a change, things are almost certain to be difficult. We like the status quo. Change is only wanted when things have already been going badly, not when they have been going well. Who wants to leave the palace and live in the desert? However, God is always working in our lives, in both good times and bad.

God only moves us for the better. If the desert is not thought of as better than the palace, weare looking at things from our own perspective. By the time we have become a prince in the palace, we have already reached the pinnacle of what can be learned there. It’s time to enter a new phase of growth and that will involve a significant change. When it comes, it will, almost certainly, be unexpectedly difficult.

Moses had no idea that God was moving in his life or that he was in the very center of Gods will. Moses didn’t learn what he was being prepared for until it was time to begin, until it was actually time to return to Egypt and stand up to pharaoh. Even though the training had been ongoing for eighty years, Moses was unaware, for the entire time, what was happening to him.

Never-the-less, when the day finally came, Moses was ready. God had been actively working in his life for eighty years. Even though he clearly had an anger issue, Moses had never been living outside of God’s perfect will. Just because we cannot see what God is doing, it does not mean that

He has abandoned us. He will never leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8). God works in our lives, even in those hidden corners of our lives that would not exist in a more perfect person; truth be known, none of us are perfect. God had not only chosen an imperfect person to lead His people, He had actually used the exact thing that made him imperfect to make it all happen. God will not only use you, but He will both recognize and move through your problem areas. That does not mean that He will allow your sin to go on indefinitely without being dealt with. A day of reconning will eventually come.

And Moses said to them, Let no one leave any of it (mana) over till the morning.” But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them (Exodus 16:19,20 ESV).

Moses anger surfaced a second time when the fleeing Hebrews collected their mana. Counter to instructions, his people kept some overnight and it had gone bad. When it bread worms, the Hebrews would have immediately realized that resulting spoilage was the reason for the instructions to not keep it overnight. The rotting worms would have been enough. God had already dealt with that issue and Moses would have needed to do nothing more. It could have simply been an “I told you so” moment.

Moses had to help God along. But, God had it under control and didn’t need Moses’ help. Moses didn’t see it that way. In his own eyes, he was too important. However, his outburst served no purpose other than to show todays reader that he was an imperfect man.

We see and understand Moses’ outburst. What is easily missed is that it had been an opportunity for Moses to overcome. He should have seen that God had already dealt with the people who had collected too much. The decay and worms was its own reward. Those who had collected too muchwould have, by then, understood the result and already known why they had been instructed to keep none overnight.

Even though the problem had already been taken care of, Moses had to insert himself into the situation anyway. Not only was his anger unnecessary, but, so was his involvement. Moses had blown it for the second time; but, there was still more testing to come.

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. (Numbers 20: 8-11 ESV)

The outburst that most of us remember was that Moses struck the rock. Previously, when water had been needed, Moses had been instructed to strike the rock. He did it and water came gushing 0ut. Moses had done exactly what he had been told to do.

However, God does not always move in identical ways. We are to listen for His voice for today, not yesterday. The second time the need for water came up, Moses was told to speak to the rock, not to strike it. He was listening with only one ear. He took matters into his own hands and did it the way it had previously been done. He struck the rock the second time when he had been told to speak to it. God was showing Moses that he needed to listen up, take a step back, and move more slowly.

Why would he have become angered? Being thirsty in the middle of a desert is normal. Thirsty migrants may have expressed it out of their own desperation; but, the people were not making an unreasonable request. Those who become easily angered often react very quickly. We are supposed to think first, then respond. If we respond first and then think, we will probably not hear Gods voice for today. Moses’ quick response, even when attempting to obey, resulted in an uncalled for outburst.

God was working on Moses exact problem. His anger had to go. God was not waiting until they had reached the promised land to deal with it. Even while Moses was leading his people, God was still actively working in Moses own life to bring him to a better place.

Was Moses listening? I wonder. If not, that didn’t stop God. There is no doubt that, in most cases, he very carefully did exactly what God had given him to do. He was an extremely obedient and humble man of God and had come a long way. That’s why we hold him is such high regard. Even at that, Moses was still an imperfect man. As such, God was still working in his life to bring him to the perfect place He had for him.

They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made forthemselvesagoldencalfandhaveworshipeditandsacrificedtoitand

These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses,

I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them

and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”But Moses implored the Lord his God and said,

O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and

with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, With evil intent did he bring them

out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn

from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. (Exodus 32:8-12 ESV) said,

Here is a case in which Moses does not become angry. In contrast, the Lord appears to be angry. But, God is never out of control. His response is always measured and for a purpose. That’s how He was training Moses to react. The Lord sounds very much like He was behaving the way Moses often did, out of control. Perhaps, it only looked that way. I think He was showing Moses how an angry outburst looked and that it was not helpful. God was testing Moses with this encounter.

If, indeed, this was such a test, it is one that Moses passed. At last, he not only didn’t lose it himself; but, he actually encouraged the Lord to cool down. I think God was pleased with the way Moses behaved at that moment. Never-the-less, he only remained cool that once. While he may have been making progress, he hadn’t entirely overcome his own anger issue. God would continue to deal with him.

The real test was yet to come. Moses had done well while he was only talking about it with God. At that point, he had not encountered the rebellion for himself. When he actually got to the scene, it was another matter. In this case, Moses had been given advance warning that there was trouble in the camp. Even after having had time to prepare himself, he still “flew off the handle”. Hearing about it was one thing; experiencing it was something entirely different. For the fourth time, Moses came unhinged.

When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.” But he said,

It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 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. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel

drink it. (Exodus 32:17-20 ESV) After spending forty days on Mount Sinai and receiving the Ten commandments, Moses came down with them carved on two specially prepared stone slabs. He had just experienced forty days of being alone in Gods presence. He had been very close to the Lord. After such a close encounter with God for such a long time, one might think he would be in a very calm state.

Having had advance warning what was afoot and presumably arriving at the scene in a very calm state, Moses had a golden opportunity to refrain from having an angry outburst. This was the ultimate test. God knew how His people were going to react and Moses reacted in his typical way. When he became enraged, he completely lost sight of what God had just done and angrily dashed the tablets to pieces.

Presenting the Hebrews with the tablets containing the Law may have been the most significant thing Moses was ever asked to do. God had written a perfect message using an imperfect man to bring it to an imperfect people. The imperfect man showed his true colors. God already knew how Moses would react. Moses had to recognize his problem and experiencing it was how he learned.

Notice that Moses is not reprimanded for losing control and God provided new tablets. While it was all a part of God reaching the Hebrews, it was also what God was doing in the life of Moses. He was no more perfect than you or me. Even though this incident had been the fourth time that Moses had lost control, God continued to use him. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Romans 11:29).

Through all four incidents, God had been testing Moses and he repeatedly failed his test. God never rebuked him for his failure and even though each failure had an impact on those around him, God never lost control. His plan always moved forward in spite of the imperfect way his man had carried on. He is teaching us that we are to have a godly response, not an imperfect human one.

Even though Gods plan always came off exactly as planned, a day of reckoning eventually came. Because of his anger issue, Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land. God took him to the very border of Canaan, but would not allow him to cross it. He was taken to the top of Mount Nebo where he died (Deuteronomy 34:5). God had taken him at a spiritual high (that’s what a mountain top experience represents). I suspect that Moses had never been any closer to the Lord than he had been at the moment of his own passing.

God had provided Moses with a special preview. He was allowed to see the Promised Land from the mountain top (from a distance). It was a unique privilege given to a man who had been very dedicated to the implementation of God’s plan. Moses was being rewarded.

Neither Moses nor Aaron was allowed to enter the promised land because of their parts in the golden calf issue. Aaron also died short of the river crossing. He died on Mt Hor, also a mountain top (Numbers 20:25-28).

I do not feel that causing him to die before completing the journey can be looked on as a punishment. There might be room for disagreement about that. No doubt, his blessing was withheld; but, no real punishment was ever pronounced. Moses was very old. It may have been time for him to die.

What a lesson for us! Getting close was not good enough. The reward would only be received when the lesson was completely learned. Getting it right a single time was a start; but. until it had become habitual it would not be fully learned. As He had done with Moses, God will continue to teach us until we get it right. Knowing that tells up to put our own tendencies aside and submit to Gods will for us?

The next step for the Hebrews was to begin the conquest. The military battles that made up much of the conquest represented the spiritual conquest in which we are instructed to win the lost. However, they were actual battles fought with swords. The physical reflects the spiritual. A younger leader was needed and Joshua was ready and waiting in the wings. God would next deal with the coming generation.

While never once do we read that God had reprimanded him for his temper tantrums, it does not look as if Moses ever managed to entirely overcome them. None of us ever reach perfection in the physical sense. As best as he could, in a human sense, Moses served God with every fiber of his being for many years. We do what we can do. What we cannot, we leave in the hands of God.

We want to be used and we step up expecting to see God move. That becomes our step of faith. Remember, we will be judged by our faith, not the results. As imperfectly as we take our step, it remains our step of faith. We are responsible only for taking the step; God is responsible for the results.

God is not about punishment. He is about change. He worked to change Moses and he changes us today. We all go through it. Since he had his own imperfect nature, Moses continues to be a really good example for us. God will use us in a perfect way in spite of the fact that we are continuously behaving in imperfect ways. God knew about Moses’ problem and used him in spite of it.

He will do the same for us. He will never reject us because we are imperfect. Even though we are far from perfect, God has a plan for each of us. He will continue to use us even while he is dealing with our own problem areas.