Raging Hearts
The term road rage has been added to our
vocabulary quite recently. It names an alarming
phenomenon in North America. Angry motorists
shoot and kill-or deliberately chase down and
crash their cars into-other drivers whom they
believe have executed some inconsiderate or
otherwise maneuver. This practice has become so
much of a problem that the American Association
of America ran a series of television ads to
teach drivers’ both how to keep their cool
and how to avoid becoming victims.
Matthew tells us that the demoniac was furious
and raging, attacking anyone who ventured to take
the road past the tombs he inhabited. He was more
like an animal than a human being. Likewise, I
believe that when people lose their temper, they
can be-at least temporarily-demon-possessed.
The following story will help illustrate my
reasons for this conviction: A young mother began
watching some Amazing Facts TV programs and felt
drawn to commit her life to Jesus. She began
studying the Bible and believing the truth it
contains. She told her live-in boyfriend that
they must either marry or separate.
This ultimatum infuriated the boyfriend. One
evening, as the woman was nailing a copy of the
Ten Commandments to the wall, he grabbed the
hammer out of her hand and began bludgeoning her
with it. The commotion caused their baby in the
adjoining room to begin to cry. The man thinking
he had killed his girlfriend went into the next
room and killed the child. The couple’s
landlord heard the noise and stormed in to see
what was happening. When the enraged boyfriend
charged him, the landlord shot and killed him.
I learned of the terrible tragedy when the
devastated young woman-who, miraculously, had
survived with only minor injuries-contacted me.
She called to ask if I would conduct the funeral
for her baby, the boy whose father had murdered
him because he last his temper.
It was the fact that the father’s outburst
happened when the mother posted the Ten
Commandments on the wall that struck me most. I
thought it to be significant evidence of the
satanic inspiration of the whole incident. The
devil especially hates the law of God because
that law identifies sin. Scripture tells us that
sin is the transgression of the law (see 1 John 3,4,KJV).
We are truly living in the “age of rage.”
People are simmering and seething inside. Ulcers
and antacids are not the only byproducts of an
angry world-every day, headlines are peppered
with stories of people losing their tempers and
committing some horrific act of violence against
total strangers, fellow workers, or-even more
commonly-members of their own families. *
_________
*It is
perhaps little coincidence that the first act of
murder recorded in the Bible happened when a man
lost his temper and killed his brother (see
Genesis 4:3-8).
We need to take note of this trend. Bible
prophecy has warned us that in the last days,
unbridled anger, tirades, and temper tantrums
would become the norm. The apostle Paul said that
anger is one of the fruits of the flesh. “The
works of the flesh are evident, which are:
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions,
jealousies, outbursts of wrath” (Galatians 5:
19, 20).
Anger Is Very
Costly
An Italian proverb warns, “Anger is a very
expensive commodity.” The great maestro
Toscanini was well known for his ferocious
outbursts of anger. When members of his orchestra
played badly, he would seize anything in sight
and hurl it to the floor.
During one rehearsal, someone played a flat note.
Toscanini reacted by grabbing his own watch,
which was very valuable, and smashing it beyond
repair. Shortly after, he received from his
devoted musicians a luxurious, velvet-lined box
containing two watches-one, a beautiful timepiece;
the other, a cheap watch on which was inscribed
“For rehearsals only.”
More recently, one talented athlete lost his
temper and struck his coach, costing himself a
thirty-two-million-dollar contract. And
heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson “popped his
cork” during one boxing match and proceeded
to bite off a piece of his opponent’s ear!
That outburst cost him millions. The last I heard,
Tyson had squandered more than three hundred
million dollars in winnings and was bankrupt.
However, most people don’t lose that kind of
money because of their anger. Therefore, some
think a bad temper is just an inherited
idiosyncrasy that shouldn’t be taken too
seriously. As long as their tantrums occur
infrequently, there is no need to worry. “Its
just part of our nature,” they say. However,
the Bible lists wrathful outbursts as one of the
works of the flesh, which means that they are
devil-inspired and not something to be taken
lightly. We can’t pass them off jokingly by
saying, “Well, that’s just the way my
family is,” or, “I can’t help it-I’m
Irish!” Biblically, uncontrolled anger is
sin, and there is no excuse for sin.
While the Bible tells of no monetary losses
because of anger, you will find in it stories of
some other staggering costs associated with just
a momentary loss of temper. For instance,
although Moses experienced forty years of
miracles, God did not permit him to lead the
children of Israel into the Promised Land. Why?
Because he lost his temper on the very borders of
Canaan. As Will Rogers said, “Don’t fly
into a rage unless you are prepared for a rough
landing.”
Those who lose their tempers do not realize that
they are at least momentarily demon-possessed.
When you lose your temper, the devil is the one
who finds it-and before you know it; you will be
manifesting the fruits of the flesh. Countless
marriages have died because someone in a
delirious rage thoughtlessly spoke cutting words
that they could not retract. Wars have started in
which multiplied millions have perished because
some ruler, in anger, made a rash decision.
Conversely, Jesus is known for his self-composed
meekness. Those who follow Him will-and should-model
His gentle patience.
Anger Destroys
Us
As the myth goes, Sinbad and his sailors landed
on a tropical island and saw, high up in the palm
trees, coconuts that could quench their thirst
and satisfy their hunger. Unable to reach the
coconuts, Sinbad and his men began throwing
stones and sticks at some chattering monkeys high
in the trees. Enraged, the monkeys plucked the
coconuts and hurled them down at the men-exactly
what Sinbad wanted.
This is a good illustration of how when indulging
our anger, we play into the devil’s hands.
Thomas Kempis said, “When anger enters the
mind, wisdom departs.” Someone else opined,
“The less water in the pot, the quicker it
boils.” Basically, a short fuse indicates a
lack of wisdom. If you are constantly giving
everybody “a piece of your mind,”
eventually, you might not have any left-as the
frustrated teacher once sputtered to her class,
“You have made me so think, I can’t mad
straight!”
I have heard some people say, “Losing your
temper is good for your health. We all need to
vent from time to time to let off some steam.”
I do not believe that for a moment. In fact, the
Bible teaches the opposite. When the king of
Judah lost his temper in the house of God, he
came down with leprosy. “Uzziah became
furious; and he had a censer in his hand to burn
incense. And while he was angry with the priests,
leprosy broke out on his forehead, before the
priests in the house of the Lord” (2
Chronicles 26:19).
Often, anger actually does produce visible
symptoms: a red face, swollen neck veins,
clenched fists, and a stumbling for words.
Harvard researcher Dr. Walter Cannon describes
its more insidious, invisible symptoms:
Respiration deepens, the heart beats more rapidly,
the arterial pressure rises, the blood is shifted
from the stomach and intestines to the heart,
central nervous system, and the muscles; the
processes of the alimentary canal cease, sugar is
freed from the reserves in the liver, the spleen
contracts and discharges its contents of
concentrated corpuscles, and adrenaline is
secreted. The angry person’s vision may be
blurred, because angry clouds the visual centers
of the brain.
I sometimes wonder just how many people are
physically ill because they are simmering or
bitter inside. I know people spend millions of
dollars on sedatives every year in the attempt to
calm their raging hearts. The Bible says, “A
merry heart does good like medicine” (Proverbs
17:22). If that is true, it is probably safe to
say that the opposite is true also-that anger,
bitterness, and an unforgiving spirit can make a
person sick.
Christians must learn to release all their
bitterness and anger through Jesus. He said,
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Neither
could any man tame him.” –Mark 5:4,
KJV
Taming a Wild
Heart
The flamboyant duo Siegfried and Roy had
performed in the Mirage Hotel on the Las Vegas
strip for nearly three decades. Hundreds of
thousands of spectators had come to see their
magic show, highlighted by the performance of
very large and beautiful white tigers. Roy Horn
spent many years training the giant cats to obey
his commands. In his attempts to tame the beasts,
he would go so far as to eat, swim, and sleep
with them.
Then, on October 3, 2003, without explanation, a
seven-year old white tiger that had known Horn
since it was a cub attacked him in front of a
live audience on the magician’s fifty-ninth
birthday. About halfway through the show, the
tiger lunged at Horn and dragged him off the
stage like a toy. Horn’s near fatal injuries
will probably prevent him from ever continuing
his animal act.
The Bible teaches, “The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked; who can
know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Our hearts are
like unpredictable wild beasts; we do not and
cannot know them.
The prophet Balaam thought he could resist the
rewards of King Balak, but he sold out through
misguided rationalization. And Samson thought he
could toy with and tease the temptress Delilah.
He did not recognize the weakness in his own
heart.
When Jesus was here in person, Peter, one of the
disciples closest to Him, thought he knew his own
heart. Jesus warned him of his betrayal
beforehand, but Peter vowed, “Even if I have
to die with You, I will not deny You!” (Matthew
26:35). Of course, three times on that very night,
Peter denied that he knew Jesus.
We all struggle with these wild and unpredictable
Jekyll-and Hyde swings of nature. Paul wrote,
“I don’t understand myself at all, for
I really want to do what is right but I don’t
do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate”
(Romans 7:15, NLV). Human methods fail to
transform, our selfish, rebellious, and depraved
hearts. In fact, true conversion is not heart
surgery, but rather a heart transplant. God has
promised, “I will give you a new heart and
put a new spirit within you; I will take the
heart of stone out of your flesh” (Ezekiel
36:26).
We cannot control our sinful nature. It is only
when we follow Jesus’ heart to replace our
corrupted hearts that the sin-nature can be
brought into subjection. Only Jesus, as our Lord
and Master, can tame the “old man”
within us. “Then you will find rest for your
souls” (Jeremiah 6:16).
“Always,
night and day, he was…crying.” –Mark
5:5, KJV
Always Crying
After the first day of fighting in the Civil War
battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, hundreds of
wounded and bleeding Union soldiers lay crying on
the battlefield. Artillery fire prevented their
relief all though the night and most of the
second day of the conflict, so every moment the
soldiers on the battle lines could hear their
agonized cries, “Water! Water!”
Always restless, always wailing, like dark waves
that rolled from his captive heart through his
vocal cords, came the demoniac’s constant
mournful cries. Echoes of the continual cries of
this poor, lost soul will roll throughout the
universe from those unhappy souls who will be
eternally separated from God’s presence.
“The king said to his servants, ‘Bind
him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him
into outer darkness; there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth’” (Matthew 22:13).”
‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord,
‘for the wicked’” (Isaiah 48:22).
According to commentator Kenneth S. Wuest, the
word crying indicates “a loud scream or
shriek.”* Can you imagine the awful
fear that must have possessed the townspeople as
the blood-curding, animalistic screams of the
demoniac echoed eerily through the mountains and
awakened them in the stillness of the night?
In his book The Valiant Papers, Calvin
Miller wrote, “Crying is common in this
world…Laughter can be heard here and there,
by and large, weeping predominates. With maturity
the sound, reason for crying changes, but never
does it stop. All infants do it everywhere even
in public. By adulthood most crying is done alone
and in the dark.”
Miller’s thoughts find substantiation in the
Bible. Paul observed, “We know that the
whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now” (Romans 8:22, KJV).
However, let us return to the story of the Union
soldiers wailing on the battlefield, as told
through the pen of John W. Halliday:
Soon a noble Southern soldier, Sergeant Richard
Kirkland, rose above the love for his own life,
and told General Kershaw, “I can’t
stand this any longer! Those poor souls have been
crying and crying all night and all day, and it
is more than I can bear! I ask your permission to
go and given them water.”
__________
*Wuest’s Word Studies From the Greek New
Testament, pg. 101.
“But as soon as you show yourself to the
enemy,” warned the general, “you will
be shot!” “Yes, sir,” the soldier
answered. “But to carry a little comfort to
those poor dying men, I’m willing.”
The general hesitated, but his heart was also
touched with his subordinate’s same sympathy.
“Kirkland, it’s sending you to your
death, but I cannot oppose such a motive as yours.
I hope God will protect you. Go.”
So the brave soldier, furnished with a supply of
water, stepped over the stone rampart and began
his work of Christ-like mercy. Wondering eyes
beheld him as he knelt by the nearest sufferer,
tenderly raised his head, and held the refreshing
cup to his parched lips. Every soldier in the
blue Union line understood the tender mission of
the man in gray, and not one shot was fired. For
over an hour, one after another of the crying,
wounded and dying was given the refreshing drink,
had his cramped or mangled limbs straightened,
and covered with his coat or blanket as tenderly
as though by his own mother.
So also it is on life’s great battlefield,
where souls are crying and dying from the fearful
effects of sin. They are thirsty for the water of
life, with none to reach out to them the
refreshing draft they so crave, except the One
stepped over the ramparts of heaven and came down
to risk His all on the cross of Calvary to rescue
them from their sins by giving them the water of
everlasting life.
Henry Ward Beecher said, “God washes the
eyes by tears until they ca hold the invisible
land where tears shall be no more.” There,
Jesus will come and wipe the tears from our eyes.
“Surely he has borne our grief’s, and
carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4).
For the lost, there is always crying within. As
the demoniac, so are the unsaved. However, there
is very good news for the Christian: this crying
is not chronic. “Weeping may endure for a
night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm
30:5).
“Always,
night and day, he was…cutting himself with
stones.” –Mark 5:5, KJV
Cutting
Ourselves
Doctors say that self-mutilation is on the
rise as a medical problem. It is defined, as any
form of compulsive self-harm to the body not
intended to produce death. It is often performed
to release emotional pain, anger, or anxiety; to
rebel against authority; or to feel in control.
Some common forms of self-mutilation are: cutting
the skin with a sharp object (the most common),
burning the skin, picking at the skin, punching
one’s self, sticking one self’s with a
needle, banging the head, pressing the eyes,
biting the fingers or arms, and pulling one’s
own hair.
Most of us would be quick to recognize that
people in the practice of cutting themselves or
gouging themselves with rocks and knives have a
severe mental or emotional disturbance, but these
practices are no more common than the injurious
forms of religious zealotry. In 1973, an
overzealous Roman Catholic, Patrice Tamao, of the
Dominican Republic, allowed himself to be
crucified as thousands watched on television.
Patrice had three 6-inch stainless-steel nails
driven through his hands and feet. He intended to
stay on the cross for forty-eight hours; but when
an infection developed, he requested to be taken
down. He’d been crucified for twenty hours.
It appears that the demoniac was also trying to
atone for his sins with his own blood. If Jesus
had not delivered him, he might have even bled to
death.
This practice of trying to gain merit with God by
inflicting physical punishment on one’s self
lies at the foundation of many false religions.
In some cases, the worshipers might flog
themselves or make long pilgrimages on bloody
knees. Whatever the case, any effort we make to
atone for our sins by punishing ourselves amounts
to nothing more than cutting ourselves with
stones. Such efforts are about as effective as it
would be if airline passengers were to try to
help the pilots of a luxury 747 by flapping their
arms as the plane flew across the ocean.
The apostle Paul wrote, “Though I give my
body to be burned, but have not love, it profits
me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). And he
reminded us that such an attitude is horribly
misguided: “By grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is
the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
In fact, any effort we make to atone for our sins
by deliberately inflicting suffering on ourselves
is an insult to the sacrifice and suffering’s
of God’s Son.
Body Piercing
More than any other time in American history,
people today are mutilating their bodies in a
misguided sacrifice to the god of fad and fashion.
Multiple ear piercing, eyebrow and nose rings,
and tongue studs all testify to the self-destructive
influence the devil exerts on our culture. My
heartaches for the young people of our generation,
and some older ones too, who seem oblivious to
the pagan and satanic history of body piercing
and tattoos.
Scripture tells us what happened when the devil-worshiping
prophets of Baal tried to attract the attention
of their gods by mutilating their bodies. “They
cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their
custom, with knives and lances, until the blood
gushed out of them” (1 Kings 18:28). God
warns strongly that we are not to follow this
example. “You shall not make any cuttings in
your flesh for the dead, nor take too many marks
on you: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:28). In
fact, the Bible plainly teaches that our bodies
are the temple of God, and “if anyone
defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.
For the temple of God is holy, which temple you
are” (1 Corinthians 3: 16, 17).
Imagine a gang of vandals spraying obscene
graffiti on the side of a beautiful cathedral,
gouging the pure while marble walls with a
jackhammer, or hurling stones through the
luminous stained-glass windows. This is what the
devil wants us to do to our bodies, which are to
be God’s holy property and dwelling place.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren by the
mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which
is your reasonable service. And do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
what is good and acceptable and perfect will of
God “ (Romans 12: 1,2).
A rattlesnake trapped by fire can become so
frenzied that it will actually bite itself with
its deadly fangs. Likewise, many who follow the
devil have an inner sense of their impending doom,
and they frequently lash out by hurting
themselves. Satan, who knows that his time is
short, wants to take down with him as many as he
can (Revelation 12:12). One of the best ways he
best serves this purpose is by leading people to
destroy themselves.
Humans are just pawns in the great cosmic
conflict between Christ and Satan. Ultimately,
the devil’s hatred for humans is an
extension of his rabid hatred for Jesus. He knows
how much Jesus loves the human race; he knows
better than we do how much the Son of God gave up
when He came to earth in the form of a man to
redeem us. Remember, Satan once lived as an
unfallen being in the presence of the Almighty.
Satan’s preoccupation with body piercing
might even come from the piercing wounds Jesus
received from the thorns, nails, and a spear.
Satan may not understand why Jesus loves us as He
does, but he knows the depths of His love. And he
recognizes that he can best grieve the Lord by
hurting those He loves. He will do whatever it
takes, even demon-possession, to make sure we
never see Jesus’ love for us. We will talk
more about this in the next section.
Trading
Places
There’s a story about two Filipino
brothers, identical twins, who lived in Manila
and made their living by driving jeepneys,
Filipino taxis. Though they were twins and had
similar jobs, they lived very different lives.
One was married and had children; the other was
single. Then one day, the married brother
accidentally struck and killed a tourist with his
taxi. Accused of reckless driving, the twin was
sentenced to twenty years in the notorious Manila
prison-devastating fate that would leave his wife
and children without an income.
One day, his twin came in to visit him in prison.
He said, “Brother, your family desperately
needs you. Put on my clothes and take my visitor’s
pass and I will put on your prison uniform and
serve the rest of your sentence. Go to your
family.” So, while the guards were not
looking, the twins exchanged clothes, and the
married brother walked out of the prison
unchallenged. Do you think the twin who was freed
could ever stop thinking about the sacrifice that
his brother made in trading places with him?
I would be remiss if I left this section dealing
with the vivid symbols of sin found in the
demoniac story without addressing one of the most
crucial ones. The condition of the lost madman
presents the ultimate picture of sin: the
demoniac was poor, naked, unclean, separated from
God, tormented by devils, and dwelling near death.
Did you catch that, friend? Do you see where I am
going? I just described the condition of Jesus on
the cross! When our Lord suffered and died for
our sins, He embraced the experience of the lost.
“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He
became poor, that you through His poverty might
become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Jesus
experienced the shame and nakedness of the
demoniac so that His rich robes might clothe us.
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He
was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement
for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we
are healed” (Isaiah 53: 5). Like the madman,
Jesus was tortured and tormented by legions of
evil angels. He was separated form humans and God
that he might restore our relationships with our
Lord and our neighbor. The demoniacs hands and
feet were scarred by those who tried to confine
him-as Jesus’’ hands and feet were
wounded by those who fastened Him to the cross.
We can go further. Just as unclean pigs
surrounded the demoniac, dogs surrounded Jesus.
“Dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation
of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My
hands and My feet” (Psalm 22:16). “Then
some began to spit on Him” (Mark 14:65).
Covered with blood and spit, Jesus became unclean.
And just as the demoniac lived by a burial ground,
so Jesus was crucified near a cemetery. “Now
in the place where He was crucified there was a
garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no
one had yet been laid” (John 19:41).
Jesus took our weakness that we might have His
strength. He was separated from God and human
beings that we might be united. He took the
humiliation that we deserve and offered us the
glory that was His.
Christ was treated, as we deserve, that we might
be treated, as He deserves. He was condemned for
our sins, in which He had no share, that we might
be justified by His righteousness, in which we
had no share. He suffered the death that was ours,
that we might receive the life that was His. With
His stripes, we are healed. *
When
Jesus saved and liberated the demoniac from his
wretched condition, He was in effect saying,
“I will soon take your misery upon myself.”
_________
*Ellen G.White, The Desire of Ages (Nampa,
Idaho: Pacific Press, 1940), 25.
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