When I was five years old, my mother asked me who my favorite person in the Bible was. I told her it was Moses. She asked me why, but I refused to tell her. “Was it because you remember the story of how as a baby he was put in a basket and sent down the river?” I shook my head. “Was it because he led his people out of slavery and parted the Red Sea?” No, that wasn’t it.
Finally, I confessed. “Moses is my favorite, because Moses got to be bad.”
Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands… As soon as he came near the camp and saw the [golden] calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. – Exodus 32:15, 19-20 (NRSV)
From a child’s perspective, Moses got to do the very things I was being told not to do. He got to have a big temper tantrum. He got to throw his things and break them. And then he got to break his brother’s new toy, too. Moses got to be very bad, and as a child, I was envious.
As an adult, I see the story differently. I know the damage that violent adult temper tantrums can do. And Moses learned that too. Yes, the people should not have worshipped a golden calf, but Moses came to deeply regret breaking the tablets that contained God’s precious Ten Commandments. Initially, Moses was right, but his violent reaction was wrong. That’s the way losing your temper works. In losing your temper, you switch from the winner’s side to the loser’s.
Prayer ~ Loving God, when I am angry but right, help me to rein in my temper, so that my righteousness will serve you and not the devil. Amen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lillian Daniel serves as Conference Minister with the Michigan Conference UCC. She is the author of Tired of Apologizing for a Church I Don’t Belong To and When “Spiritual But Not Religious” Is Not Enough.