September 5 “OUCH!

A man tormented by the guilt of murder will be a fugitive till death. Let no one support him. ~Proverbs 28:17 

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” And, while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Lord said, “What have you done to Abel? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” But the Lord said to him, “Not so. If anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So, Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. ~Genesis 4:8-16 

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother is subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, “raca,” is answerable to the authorities. But anyone who says, “you fool,” will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there, in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. ~Matthew 5:21-24 

Okay, I’m dating myself here, but, by any chance, do any of you remember the old suspense TV show called, “The Fugitive”? Okay, for all you young-uns, it involved a man who was a doctor who was accused of murdering his wife. The series involved his attempts to prove his innocence, along with staying on the run to avoid being arrested and, then, if that weren’t enough, managing to stumble into other mysteries that he would help to solve due to his medical expertise and so forth, in spite of the risk and danger. 

It was made into a movie in 1993, starring Harrison Ford, if you care to get the recap someday. Anyway, the premise of that series involved a man who was trying to prove his innocence. Today’s proverb involves a person who really is guilty. No matter how hard-hearted that person may seem, deep down in the soul, the knowledge of taking another’s life, must be an event that does not leave one in peace, no matter how far it is buried within. 

I’m not very worried about committing murder in my lifetime and, chances are, I doubt you are either. As I’ve said in earlier devotionals, the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not commit murder,” is the one commandment that we don’t have to worry about breaking. But, unfortunately it is an idea that would sometimes cross our minds. Then, Jesus comes along and raises the bar and redefines what murder is in God’s eyes, and there we are back in the realm of possibility again. 

Who hasn’t been angry? We’d like to hope that all of our anger is righteous anger and justified, but when we think about it, would Jesus see it the same way? How can anger toward another person, and murder be equivalent in God’s sight? To us, from a human perspective it may seem like God is making the mountain and the mole hill equal in His eyes. We see the difference. Surely, He does too. 

What if our problem is that we focus too much on the difference and don’t appreciate enough how much they are alike? Anger and murder stem from the same root. If you think of it like a weed, murder is like the weed that has gone to seed. How many weeds do we pull in our gardens before they have developed to that point? Don’t we weed our gardens to prevent the weeds from taking over? 

Sinful anger is like that weed. It needs to be dealt with while it is small and easily removed, or it will grow into something that is harder to deal with. That’s really what God said to Cain when Cain was angry at his brother and only thinking about murder. “Sin is crouching at your door.”

We’ve often brought up the passage in James that says: “What causes quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1) Does that sound like a person at peace? We are usually angry at another person for thwarting our desires, getting in our way, and impeding our progress. But what if we saw anger as Jesus does, as a step along the line to murder? What if our angry outbursts against another person haunted us the rest of our lives as the murder haunts the fugitive the rest of his life as in our proverb? Jesus seems to be warning that it could. 

Both anger and murder are subject to the same judgment and that’s why He sees them as the same. Most of us will never be guilty of actual murder, but most of us have experienced sinful anger. And actually, some of us are troubled by regrets about what we said, just as if we had acted in it. Anger is just the first step along the way. 

“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.” (Ephesians 4:26-27) “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” (Hebrews 12:15) Deal with your problems while they are small. Do not let them fester and grow. Remember the path that your anger is placing you on, and deal with it while you can, before it takes hold of you and spills out onto others. 

Prayer: Father, even You get angry, but You never stop loving! In fact, it is Your loving concern for us that makes you so angry at the things that ruin us. Our anger is often selfish. But in You even your anger is otherish love. And on top of it all, you directed your anger at sin in such a way as to save us rather than condemn us. Praise and glory and honor to you, Oh Lord! In Jesus’ name amen.  

Song: 10,000 Reasons