Slow to Anger

We recently got a new German Shepherd puppy named Zena. She is as cute as a button, but a bundle of energy. She's teething, so she is constantly nipping at things around her, including my hand. Despite a pile of chew-toys to chews from (yuck, yuck), she keeps latching on with her mouth to everything else in her sphere of influence, including the edges of furniture, area rugs and my shoes.

I just spent 7 months sleeping downstairs on the sofa, attending to our last dog, Kyra, who was getting so arthritic that I needed to be her nurse-maid through the night. We had to make the decision a couple months ago to "put her to sleep." I have to admit that I was not really ready to raise a puppy again (this will be our 5th German Shepherd). But here we are doing it one more time.

Why do I bring this up? Because I have been experiencing some moments of intense anger. You see, puppies need a lot of correction. They don't understand what it is you are telling them to do. Remember what the Peanuts cartoon characters heard when adults talked to them? The sound of a muted trumpet, "Whah, whah, whah..."

So when I want some "me" time and Zena wants to pee on the rug, or chew on my pant leg, or do any number of puppyish things, I find myself more than annoyed. My anger is palpable. And the anger in my correcting "Off!" or "No!" is a little more intense than might be normal. And I yank her leash a little harder than is necessary.

Where does all that anger come from? She is just a puppy being a puppy. She doesn't deserve to be yelled at. She doesn't deserve such a strong yank on her leash.

As James says, "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires" (Jas. 1:19-20).

Anger is perhaps one of the most commonly felt emotions. Yet, we are often not equipped to deal with it. James is not saying, "Don't be angry." That would be impossible. He is saying that we are called to be like God Himself, who is often described throughout the Old Testament as "slow to anger" as when He revealed Himself to Moses, "and he passed in front of him proclaiming, 'Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness'" (Ex. 34:6).

Anger is what I call a "secondary" emotion. That is, it is usually masking an underlying vulnerable emotion. For instance, when the puppy ignores me and does her thing, I feel powerless and weak. Anger then jumps up to give me the power, through the release of adrenaline in my body, to act. It is called the "fight or flight mechanism." I like to add the word, "freeze." Adrenaline gives me the power to fight the thing that is making me feel weak, to run away, or I may actually freeze in place.

So, since I can't run away, I feel the "fight" mechanism get released. As a result, I raise my voice or yank on the leash.

Jesus felt angry too. You see, even though He is fully divine, He is also fully human. But Jesus did not hurt others when He felt angry. For instance, when the Pharisees showed the hardness of their hearts in the synagogue, "[Jesus] looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored" (Mark 3:5). Jesus' anger resulted in healing the man with the withered hand.

The goal of Christian transformation is to become more and more like Jesus, the Son of God. He is "slow to anger." That is, His anger does not lash out capriciously to hurt others. God's anger burns against the sin of mankind, which is really a rejection of His love and grace. Yet, mankind is not destroyed. God is slow to express that anger. Instead, He reserved it for the day that Jesus was nailed to the cross. Then the righteous wrath of God was poured out on Him.

God is right now offering forgiveness for sin because Jesus took the wrath upon Himself on the cross. Our part is to respond by placing our faith, our trust, in Him.

And when we feel angry with others in the body of Christ, Paul tells us to work as soon as possible to resolve it. Unresolved anger leaves a foothold for the enemy to sew discord in the body. "Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 'In your anger do not sin:' Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold" (Eph. 4:25-27).

Are you struggling with inappropriate bursts of anger? Or are you harboring anger against your brothers or sisters? Let Jesus into those vulnerable places in order to be healed. Receive His patience and His attribute of being slow to anger. Speak the truth to your neighbor and resolve the anger before it becomes an entry-point for the enemy into your relationships and into the church.

Day of Atonement

Yom Kippur is the highest holy day in the Jewish calendar--the Day of Atonement.

"Kippur" is from the same root word for the "mercy seat" or "atonement cover." That is, the solid gold lid that was placed on the top of the Ark of the Testimony. The Ark was a box made of acacia wood covered in hammered gold. In the box were placed the stone tablets upon which were the Ten Commandments written by the very finger of God. Also, a jar of manna and the rod of Aaron that budded (testifying to his selection as the High Priest--see Heb. 9: 4).

The Mercy Seat was made of gold with images of two cherubs looking downwards towards the box. In Isaiah chapter six, it is the cherubim who seem to protect the holiness of God. Thus, the symbolism here is that man's sinfulness contrasted with God's faithfulness is represented by the items in the box. The cherubim form a barrier to God's holiness.

And since their wings formed the back and armrest, the ark formed a throne where God, the Eternal King, would meet with Israel. But this could not happen unless God's holiness was satisfied.

On the Day of Atonement every year, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies behind the curtain and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the Mercy Seat. Thus, God's holiness was guarded as the sins of Israel were expiated (covered) and God's wrath was propitiated (satisfied or appeased). This allowed God Himself to meet with Israel at the place of atonement.

Even the word "atonement" is a theological word introduced from the adverb "atonen" which meant "in accord" or "at one" and probably first used in Tyndale's translation in the early 16th century.

In Romans 3: 25, Paul tells us that Jesus was the "sacrifice of atonement" for us. The word is so difficult to translate that the KJV renders it "propitiation" and the NASB "expiation." Propitiation looks God-ward in relation to our sins (God is satisfied). Expiation looks sin-ward (sins are covered). Atonement actually has both aspects in mind. Our sins are covered, God is satisfied and we are now reconciled, or made "at one" with God.

But the underlying reality is that Paul has the Septuagint word-group that the Greek translators used for kofer in mind. Perhaps we should read it more like this:
"God presented Jesus Christ as the Mercy Seat--the place where our sins are now covered and His righteous wrath is satisfied--the place where we are now made at-one with God."

The same Greek word-group is used infrequently in the New Testament, but when it is used, to incredibly powerful effect. Four of these occurrences:

"God, be merciful to me, a sinner" (Luke 18: 13).

He is "the atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 2: 2; 4: 10).

"For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he may be made a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people" (Heb. 2: 17).

The good news for us is that the Day of Atonement happened when "he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption" (Heb. 9: 12). And now we ourselves can "have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way..." (Heb. 10: 19-20a).

Although the Day of Atonement has now happened, for each person, God is calling us to place our faith in Jesus so that we can experience at-one-ment with Him. In this sense, every day can be the Day of Atonement. Have you placed your faith in Jesus, the one who, in Himself, is "the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only ours, but the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2: 2)?