THE DANGER FOUND IN RAGE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. More than forty men were involved in this plot.

They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”

Acts 23 :12-15

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The Jews in Jerusalem weren’t about to give up. They had been successful in killing Jesus and He had been a far more formidable and powerful foe than this mere man who now carried on His work.

And so even though Paul had been taken back into the custody and safety of the Roman officials, harbored in a Jerusalem barracks as part of his protection plan, we see in our scripture passage today where a conspiracy was being planned to murder Paul.

As we look at this behavior, we see the danger found in rage. It has been said that rage can blind a person to where they lose their humanity. They can get to a point where value is no longer seen in life itself because murderous intent shows that a person has reached that point. This is why we find James, the brother of Jesus, write these words:

“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.” James 1:19-20

The men planning to kill Paul were alleged God-believers. That’s what it was supposed to mean to be Jewish, right? And yet, here they were, planning to murder a man who was one of them who had converted to following Jesus, an action that only brought him closer to God, the God who had given this command to the people of Israel:

“You shall not commit murder.” Exodus 20:13

Rage leads people into sin and wickedness. It drags a person into the depths of transgression and away from the place God wants them to be. It’s that plain and simple.

Did I mention that rage is dangerous?

This is why we find the Apostle Paul, the Gospel-sharing Christian at the center of the Book of Acts, write these words to the church in Ephesus. Paul tells the Christians there:

 “In your anger do not sin” Ephesians 4:26

Six simple words that warn us to avoid anger because it’s what gives birth to rage. Avoid anger altogether and you can divorce yourself from rage altogether. Perhaps this is why our Savior Jesus said these words in His first formal public teaching called the Sermon on the Mount. Look at His words as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” Matthew 5:21-22

Here Jesus is getting to the root cause of murder. It begins with anger and then anger morphs into a blinding rage that leads a person to abandon righteousness and pursue evil. Address anger and you can disempower rage and eliminate any chance of the kind of murderous intent the group of Jerusalem Jews were afflicted with.

For the more than forty men thought they were going to get away with murder. They formed an alliance with an oath, all agreeing to not eat or drink anything until Paul was dead. That’s how obsessed they were with killing him.

And so we read where they “went to the chief priests and the elders” with a request. Essentially, they asked the Sanhedrin to act as accomplices and co-conspirators to Paul’s murder. They were to petition the Roman commander and ask for Paul to be returned to them so they could get “more accurate information about his case.” The gang of Jerusalem Jews would then ambush Paul and assassinate him before he arrived.

That was the plan, a plan immersed in rage that posed to bring Paul great danger.

Would this plot find success?

We’ll see in tomorrow’s message but my prayer is that we are all learning from what God’s word is trying to convey here. Anger that leads to rage with both giving birth to sin is against what the Lord wants from His people. They are emotions and actions that lead us out of righteousness and into wickedness which simply means we are walking opposed to God, a God who can rage too in righteous indignation and judgment against anyone who chooses to challenge Him.

This is the foolishness found in anger and its byproduct, rage. In adopting it against someone, you are welcoming God’s anger and rage to come upon you, and that’s no place anyone should want to be.

So if you are inclined to fall into anger or rage, turn to the Lord and ask Him to help you. For when you do, He will guide you to love instead of hate, to pardon and forgive instead of condemn, to allow judgment to be His because He is the only rightful Judge of all people.

Had the Jerusalem Jews just turned to the God they professed to believe in, no murderous plot would even have been thought of. But they didn’t and ended up being examples of what none of us should ever do.

We need to learn from their mistakes.  

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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