|
|
Nov 6, 2005
in the name of anger I've seen several people do some disturbing things while angry lately. And, since I've been meditating on the Book of Numbers lately, I thought I would post about anger. Numbers, in my opinion, and my opinion is often right, has one of the best stories about how anger can affect us. It is the story of Balaam. If you aren't familiar with Balaam, here is a quick rundown. The Israelites were on their way from Egypt to the promised land. They were about to have a big fight with a particular city. The king of this city was a bit worried about the situation, so he sent a prophet, Balaam, to put curses on the Israelites. Well, God wasn't too thrilled about this, so he sent an angel to stand in the middle of the road to kill Balaam. Now, Balaam couldn't see the angel, but the donkey he was riding could. So, the donkey sat down and wouldn't budge. So, Balaam got really angry at the donkey and started beating him. Well, apparently the donkey had had enough, so he asked Balaam, "Why are you beating me." Which brings me to the interesting part. Balaam, who was so lost in his anger, did not think it was strange at all that his donkey just talked to him. He simply spoke back to the donkey, "Because you have made a fool of me. If I had a sword I would kill you." Which was ironic, because a. He was making himself look like a fool and b. there was a sword there, but it wasn't there to kill the donkey. Anyway, at that moment, the angel showed himself to Balaam, and then explained all that was going on. I wonder what it was like when the angel left and it was just Balaam and the donkey. Think about it, the donkey was right and Balaam was wrong. So, Balaam had to humble himself to a donkey. He didn't just make an ass of himself in this situation, he was even lower than the ass. It's really scary to see what anger does to people. People's entire characters change in just a flash. They say stuff the don't mean and do stuff they would never do. Then emotions die down and all that is left is regret. Unless pride doesn't allow for that, then grudges come along and consume us. In the end we just end up looking like some guy beating his donkey for no reason. Oh, and the whole story of Balaam is in Numbers 22 and 23. Read it. posted
by Unknown @ 12:22:00 AM |
