Jacob Chanikuzhy

On anger, Buddha has this beautiful statement to his credit: “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” Once the meek man Moses himself terribly burned his hands by what appeared to be an act he did in anger. We can read this story in the Numbers 20. According to this story, the people of Israel were fed up with their 40 years of journey in the wilderness, and they complained about the tasteless food and above all about the lack of water. Moses and Aaron prostrated before God – supposedly making a supplication for water. God instructed Moses, “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation […] , and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water…” (Numbers 20,8). It is remarkable that this is the first time, in the Book of Numbers, that God did not get angry with the people when they made a complaint. All other murmurings before were promptly punished by God (Numbers 11, 4-35; 12,9;14, 11-12; 14, 26-35; 16, 21.45). But, why didn’t God punish his people this time? Scholars hold that the semantic analysis of the text shows that in this case the people were not only making a reasonable complaint but also complaining in a right manner, following the pattern of a law suit. God accepted their complaints and resolved to solve their problem by granting their request.
Moses should have felt happy and relieved that God considered the complaint of the people with good humour, and people and even their livestock were going to get plenty of water at their disposal. However, the subsequent acts of Moses appeared bit strange. He was apparently angry at the people and called them rebels and spoke to them harshly. In his anger he also struck the rock twice. This was not the will of God. Actually God had asked Moses to take the rod and in front of the people to command the rock to bring water. But, in what seemed to be a feat of anger Moses hit the rock with the rod. As the later events illustrate, God was displeased with the act of Moses.
Moses was to be the mediator between God and the people and as such he had to faithfully represent God before the people. In this instance, God did not consider the action of his people as an act of rebellion, neither did he get angry with them nor reject their request. Instead of representing this gracious face of God, Moses abused his authority and wrongly accused the people as rebellious. Actually, it was Moses who was rebellious as he disobeyed God by speaking to people harshly and not speaking to the rock. Was Moses frustrated or angry that God did not punish Israel immediately?!
Moses’ striking the rock with the rod, contrary to the divine mandate, is interpreted as s a symbol of abusing the rod of authority. Like Moses, many fall prey to abuse their authority to vent their anger, to placate their own egos, to strike down others’ dreams and hopes, to threaten those who raise their voice for their legitimate rights…
There may be occasions of legitimate anger. We might think that if anybody can get angry in the right manner, that would be Moses since Moses is described in the Bible as the meekest of all. However, even Moses failed. The failure of Moses is shocking because Moses failed in the very virtue of meekness for which the Bible praised him (Numbers 12,3). This should be a warning to all those who feel self-confident about their values and virtues. The incident also explains that the reason why Moses could not enter the Promised Land was not the collective sin of the people of Israel, but his own personal sin. The truth that even Moses, the greatest prophet and leader of the Jews could not achieve the goal towards which he himself was leading his people because of an instance of the abuse of power, should keep us on guard about how we exercise power and authority however small or great it be.