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Larryv2
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Joined: 2022/2/17
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 ANGER and SHAME “….. and thou shalt rule over him”

ANGER and SHAME “….. and thou shalt rule over him”

By way of introduction: This study is going to explore anger and the concept of ruling over anger.

You have probably heard that God is the master of the Sea and He’s the ruler of Heaven & Earth. How we know that, is because of a powerful truth that’s revealed in the very beginning of the bible. God named: Heaven, Earth, and the Sea (Gen 1:5,8,10). “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Gen 1: 3-5)

He could have called them chocolate and vanilla, if he wanted, the point is that naming (or calling by name) involves more that connecting letter sounds together to create a word. The idea also involves observing distinct qualities, classifying things according to their nature. Light makes things visible, and darkness conceals things, that’s their nature, see the Gospel of John for more on that.

In Gen 1:26, 28 God gave dominion over every living thing and then in Chapter 2 verse 19 When the LORD God delegated the job of naming every living creature to Adam, it wasn’t an exercise in linguistics, God was teaching Adam how to manage, it was a scientific endeavor to identify and classify the unique characteristics of every living creature. That’s a big job but God had created and equipped Adam with what he needed to do the job.

I’m sure everyone knows the story but I encourage you to read it for yourselves, but this is a summery of something else that God named:

Iniquity made it’s first appearance, in the heart of Lucifer, when he said …”I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14 , Ezekiel 28:15). That thought… that believing a lie, it’s skewed, it’s off, it’s out of balance and it was enough to set the world on it’s end.

Lucifer was cast down, and his name was changed to Satan, and then he spread iniquity to Eve “…ye shall be as gods” (Gen 3:5) He truly is the father of lies. SO, Eve’s thinking was effected by the iniquitous thought that she could be “like god”… …. her thinking was tainted by iniquity, and, to her, it was a small thing if she took more of an executive roll and determined what was true. Her husband had his own thoughts on that matter. Adam’s iniquity was that he valued his relationship with Eve more than his relationship with God.
The decisions were made the deed was done and the consequence passed down to all of humanity. Beginning with their son Cain: Cain decided that he was qualified to decide that an offering from the cursed ground was ample sacrifice for the LORD and, picking up at Genesis, 4: 4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. 6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

I’m sure you know that Cain ended up killing Abel. The thing is, Cain was visibly mad and God spoke directly with him about it. Not all anger is tainted by iniquity, but Cain’s anger was.

Iniquity has a way of twisting our thinking and God intervened and gave Cain the tools to untangle his thinking.
1. Be more inquisitive than reactive “Why art thou wroth?”
2. Look at the situation reasonably “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?”
3. Don’t let him rule over you, you are supposed to rule over it.
How do you rule over your emotions/ iniquity? God gave us some examples for how to rule; he gave the Sun and moon to rule over the day and night, so to rule something, you should be present and engaged, there’s no question which light rules day and which rules night.


Remember the first principle of rulership is to name it…. Identify it and classify it and then reason with God about it.




1. Anger, lust, fear, greed, shame, pride, whatever the emotion, if iniquity twists it…. Rule over it.

2. Curiosity is humility. Let it begin your conversation with God.

3. Being reasonable is crucial but be sure not to reason with the emotion, reason with God, rule the emotion.

4. Show me and angry man and I will show you someone that is trying to protect SOMETHING. Anger, by nature, is a protective emotion. The thing is, we often use anger to protect ourselves from feeling uncomfortable feelings or it just spills out where it doesn’t belong because we feel like we are in danger. Road Rage during Covid-19 for example.


It’s not my word and it’s not your word, it’s God’s word so I don’t want to take any liberties by adding to or taking away from it, it’s on you dear reader, to read it for yourself and to decern the difference between speculation and proclaiming biblical truth. I’m about to speculate, for the sake of showing how a principle could have applied.

This is possibly what it would have looked look like for Cain; Lord, I feel angry… Is this legitimate anger or am I using anger to protect myself from feeling shame or fear or is it something else?

In the case of Cain, he didn’t have a righteous reason to be angry, so we know that it was driven by iniquity. Just like when God gave Adam dominion “…over all the earth,” God told Cain that he should “rule over him”. I believe the “him” the LORD was referring to is the “seed” of the serpent as opposed to the “seed” of the woman” (Gen 3:14-15).
“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”
My friends: if sin is at the door, DON’T invite him in! Rule over him, call it want it is and send him packing.

SO, what if it’s too strong for you to rule over? Well, welcome to the human race! The fact is, none of us can! The bible would be a short book if we could perfectly rule over our iniquity. Iniquity is this wounded place inside each and everyone of us where we believe the lie: unrighteous anger, lust, greed, addictions, and the likes, are examples of what happens when we open the door to the untruthful voices: “yay hath God said?”, “It doesn’t really matter what the LORD said”, “I deserve revenge” “I should take what I want”, “I should be ashamed!” “I shouldn’t be ashamed” “I deserve to be treated bad” “I deserve to be treated better” “I’m too fat” “I’m too stupid” those, and a thousand others, untruths… they bind us… they hurt us.

In my 54 years I have personally seen people caught in the act stealing, lying and adultery. In every case, unless they had already hardened their hearts, they looked down… they hung their heads in shame… I have had occasion to hang my own head in shame and it’s an awful feeling that can turn into a beautiful experience!

Like with anger, there is a righteous shame and there is shame that is driven by iniquity. When you blame yourself for something that’s not your fault, that’s iniquity. Or that moment when the light of truth shines on you, and you can do nothing but hang your head in shame…. The gospel was made for both! Jesus was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities! Amongst all the voices in your head, Don’t turn away when you hear the voice of truth, Jesus already knows, just look. Truth sets us free:

“Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:….” Heb 3: 7-8

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.” Isa 45:22

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3: 14-18



The bible says a lot about anger:

“Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.” Proverbs 22:24-25

“He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly:….” Proverbs 14:17

“…let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” James 1:19-20


“Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.” Ecclesiastes 7:9

I believe that those are examples of anger that is tainted by iniquity while we also see examples of a Zealous, righteous anger such as:
Jesus driving the money changers from the temple, John 2: 14 ”And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; 16And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
17And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
or this exchange in Mark 3:5
“And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other”

We see statements like this, “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” Psalms 7:11

The bible uses much more precise wording like fiery indignation, wrath, Wroth, and so on but, I think they all would fit comfortably within the understood meaning of anger. The dividing line is, is anger reasonable and righteous or is it tainted by iniquity?
Is the anger in keeping with God’s true character and nature or is it an anger that’s sprung forth from the root of bitterness, is it a cover for shame or fear?

If you witness someone molesting a child, I pray that you can muster up some Godly anger and intervene. Abortion should make us angry, injustice and abuse of power should make us angry, however

“Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:” Ephesians 4:26
How often have you witnessed someone taking out their anger on someone they should be loving and protecting or how often have you seen someone get caught being dishonest or in an intellectual inconsistency and, instead of responding in humility, they burst forty in an angry outburst? Yah… God commands better from us.

 2022/8/15 16:28Profile





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