© 23 Colin Melbourne
… and Sin Not
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.
Ephesians 4:26-27 KJV
We embrace the primary points of this scripture; that we are to be gracious and forgiving, no matter what sin is committed against us, leaving room for God’s judgment, we are to ensure we don’t brood over it allowing a root of bitterness to grow.
We make peace before we sleep, don’t harbour sin, confess it to Father God, and stay in fellowship with Him.
Notice what else Father is saying about anger.
To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence
You have many valid reasons to be angry, and most will lead you to sin… like Moses.
Tract image © Chick Publns. Used by permission.
Moses became angry, sorely tried by the Jews at Meribah (Numbers Ch. 20), who grumbled and complained at the Prophet because he’d led them into the dessert, and they had no water. The LORD instructed Moses, Numbers 20:8 KJV;
Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.
A wonderful foreshadowing of Christ the Rock issuing forth words of Life: Living Waters freely for all.
But instead of doing as he was told, Moses hit the rock in anger with his rod, frustrated at the stubbornness of the Jews… nonetheless, it gushed out water before their eyes.
However, Moses and Aaron were severely judged for their rebellion, Numbers 20:12 KJV;
And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
They misrepresented God as angry, instead of their patient, long-suffering, life-giving, and merciful Saviour.
Consequently, Aaron died soon afterwards, and Moses perished without setting foot in the Promised Land, Joshua had to lead them instead.
That’s what happens if we direct anger into wrath: Sin, death and disappointment result.
However, Father God commands believers to be angry without sinning.
Be ye angry, and sin not.
Dislodging The Devil
Realise that godly anger without sin is righteous; cancer for example ought to make Christians angry enough to dismiss the Devil and all his evil works with a word, and heal the sick person in Jesus’ Name.
Smith Wigglesworth dealt with cancer in holy anger, so much that he often hit people in the location of the cancer afflicting them.
When onlookers remonstrated with him for being rough, he explained that he was thumping Satan’s works, not the person, and Smith’s miraculous results testify to his effectiveness.
Father endorsed Wigglesworth’s holy anger.
Be ye angry, and sin not.
Deformed Baby Healed
I recall John Wimber, in Edinburgh during the 80’s Charismatic move, relating how a mother put her baby in his arms to be prayed for.
The child was so physically deformed it shocked the Evangelist, causing holy anger to well up in his spirit prompting him to cry out, “No!” simultaneously rebuking the condition, along with the Devil who’d caused it, and the child was healed.
Holy Anger is Righteous
Christ The LORD was angry in the Temple, overturning the tables of money-changers, and making a scourge of small cords to drive them, and their chattels, from His Father’s house. John 2:13-17 KJV;
And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.
And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
That’s the zealous Lord we love, Halleluia!
Be ye angry, and sin not.
Fornicators Skewered
We also find holy anger working under the Old Covenant too, where Phinehas ran a copulating couple through with his javelin, as they flagrantly mocked the word of the LORD.
Fornicators Skewered Jeremias van Winghe, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The LORD endorsed Phinehas for his zeal, and blessed his progeny because of his holy anger. His action also atoned for the sins of Israel. Numbers 25:1-1 KJV;
And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel.
And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor.
And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites. And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian.
Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath, but dare to be angry, and sin not.
© 23 Colin Melbourne
Tract image © Chick Publns. Used by permission.
You may also be interested in reading;