Anger Issues - Part one

Day two hundred forty-seven

1 Samuel 25
In the last chapter we found David behaving like "a man after God's own heart."  He had been given the opportunity to take revenge against King Saul.  Instead of murdering his enemy and claiming the kingdom of Israel for himself, David exercised grace and wisdom.  He allowed Saul to live and he even reached out to his enemy in love and forgiveness.

Chapter 25 finds David in a different set of circumstances and in an entirely different state of mind.  Here we see what happens when anger is allowed to control our lives.

Background
David is on the run from Saul.  He and his men are hiding in the wilderness.  While there, they are doing two things: fighting skirmishes with some of the wild tribes in the area (1 Samuel 23) and they are serving as a protective force for the shepherds in the area (1 Samuel 25:7).

Now, it was customary for the person who received the protection to reward the person who provided the protection.  So when David heard that it was sheering time (v 4) he sent some of his men to remind Nabal that they had provided protection and as a result none of his sheep had been lost (v 7).  David's request is reasonable because this is the time when the shepherds sold their wool and made their profits from the flocks.

David's men greet Nabal with kindness and courtesy (v 6).  They remind Nabal of the service provided (v 7) and make no demands on him, but ask him to do what is right (v 8).

Instead of responding with gratitude, Nabal answers David's men with harsh words.  In verses 9-11 Nabal calls David's integrity into question; he calls him a rebel, and he refuses to do the right thing by David and his men.

The Reaction
When David's men return to him and tell him Nabal's response (vv 12-13), David blows a gasket!  He becomes so angry that he gathers his men together to exact revenge upon Nabal.  What is up with that?  He prepares 400+ men to go after one man.  Does that seem like overkill?

Anger can make us do some pretty stupid things. This is a common affliction among men.  We have been loosing our cool in every country of the world for years.  Anger has become one of the favorite topics of ancient proverbs:

"He who flies off the handle always makes a bad landing." ~Chinese Proverb

It was a topic of discussion among many philosophers:

"It is easy to fly into a passion- anybody can do that - but to be angry with the right person to the right extent and at the right time and with the right object and in the right way - that is not easy, and it is not everyone who can do it." ~Aristotle

Words of wisdom abound on this topic:

"Anger like fire, finally dies out - but only after leaving a path of destruction." ~Unknown

"A man in a passion rides a horse that runs away with him."

"Anger is a momentary madness."

"Anger blows out the lamp of the mind."

My personal favorite:

"The proud man hath no God; the envious man hath no neighbor; the angry man hath not himself."

It appears that David has let his anger get the best of him.  He shouldn't have been too surprised at Nabal's response, look at how the scriptures describe him:  Churlish (hard to get along with) and evil in his doings (v 3).  This guy has a reputation for being a jerk, why would he treat David any different than he did everyone else?

As a result of his anger, David is temporarily blinded by his rage.  Taking a force of 400+ men to take care of one man because he feels insulted seems a little insane (vv21-22).  David forgets that we cannot always control what the other person does to us; but we are in absolute control of how we respond to what the other person does!

Have you ever been like David?  Have you let anger get the best of you?  Have you said or done things while you were angry that you wish you hadn't?  I think we all have.  The fact is we all get angry from time to time.  The problem is we don't always control our anger as we should.  Often, our anger controls us and before we know it, our anger has caused devastation and destruction on a scale we never imagined!

The Lord is aware of our weakness with anger and He provides ways to help us calm down.  In David's case, the Lord will work through another to help him see his error.  It is one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament and will require a post of its very own.  There are just too many lessons for one post!