Anger Intended to Destroy

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Nehemiah 4:7 – 12

We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. Until we are in heaven and God does away with sin and all its effects, we will be plagued with anger. Anger is both a result and a cause of fear. When Sanballat and Tobias discovered their attempts to discourage the Jews from rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, they turned their anger up a notch by threatening the Jews with bodily harm. Let’s consider how anger threatens to destroy. 

1. ANGER DISTORTS REALITY! One of the most common reasons for anger is because one’s expectations are not met! Satan knows how to push our buttons to make us angry. Whenever that part of us that remains not surrendered to God is threatened the usual response is anger. In the OT anger most often refers to God’s response to man’s rebellion and sin. Anger means to vex, agitate, provoke the heart to a heated condition leading to specific actions. Only in God’s case does anger NOT distort reality. So how does anger distort reality? 1^st it ignores the truth and reality of God – Romans 1:18-33; 2^nd it discourages the glory of God – Rom. 1:23; 3^rd it changes the truth of God so we serve self rather than Him – 1:25; 4^th it encourages gross immorality – 1:27; 5^th it causes us to abandon the knowledge of God – 1:23; and 6^th it condones and practices sin as the normal way of life – 1:28-33.
2. ANGER DESTROYS HOPE! Remember this whole building project in grounded in renewed hope that came from God! He directed everything so that exactly the right time the Jews could build the wall. When ungodliness even thinks God’s people are gaining ground through hope from God, it begins to destroy the hope and stir up trouble. Hope is usually destroyed with threats of some kind. In this case the very lives of the Jews were threatened! The sad truth is this very thing still happens today, and it even happens in local churches through ungodly leaders and members who like to control others. Satan makes sure he’s got at least one or two Sanballat’s and Tobias’s  who are ready to stop anything that looks like progress that wasn’t their idea!
3. ANGER DEVALUES GODLINESS! Notice verse 7 they were “very” angry. That is rage or indignation, wrath, fury. One pastor expressed it well by saying it is “anger out of control.” Sanballat and Tobias were so angry in their hearts at the renewed hope in the Jewish community they planned to fight against Jerusalem. The Jews had lived in oppression, disharmony, and ungodliness for so long that all that became normal. Under those conditions reality became distorted and hope faded. Those are results, not causes! What caused such conditions? Unspiritual hearts hostile toward God-Rom. 8:5-9; Gal. 5;16-26. All these threats were a manifestation of inner anger, often the worst kind. Dear Reader, is there some part of your life that God is encouraging you to move forward? Has He prompted you with a ray of hope? In response have you perhaps balked at the idea of surrendering control of that part of your life? You are fighting a battle you can’t win! It is so much easier to allow God to control ALL your life and share with you the blessings He has prepared for you.

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