Anger cost Moses the Promised Land

William Wa lford wr ote the ly r ics in 1845. You will recognize them from the hymn: “Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, May I thy consolation share, Till from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height, I view my home and take my flight.”

For those who are familiar with the hymn, but not its symbolism, or with the geography of the Holy Land, the reference is to Moses. Mount Pisgah is one of the peaks of Mount Nebo, east of the Jordan River, just outside the boundary of Canaan.

Chapter 34 of the book of Deuteronomy begins: “Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho…” What follows is one of the most woeful texts in all of the Old Testament. God said to Moses: “ Vi ew t he l a nd o f Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession; you shall die there on the mountain that you ascend because you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to maintain my holiness among the Israelites. Although you may view the land from a distance, you shall not enter it.”

For forty years, Moses had led God’s people from their slavery in Egypt to the edge of Canaan, the homeland promised them from the days of Abraham. But Moses himself was forbidden by God to enter the promised land.

It seems extreme, but the reason God gives is that years before, Moses had let his anger boil over and burst forth. The children of Israel had come to the wilderness of Zin, just beneath Mount Sinai. The people were perishing because of the lack of water. God told Moses and Aaron to speak to a rock. Instead, Moses became angry with the complaining, verbally assaulted the people, then stood on the rock and struck it twice with a rod.

It is Moses’ act—his striking the rock—that gets my attention. Another famous hymnist, Frances Havergal, wrote in her book, Kept For the Master’s Use: “Quick, angry motions of the heart will sometimes force themselves into expression by the hand, though the tongue may be restrained. The very way in which we close a door or lay down a book may be a victory or a defeat…” Moses let his anger get the best of him and it cost him the promised land.

In his commentary on Ephesians, John A. Mackey offers his take on the Bible verse, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger:” “The time in hours of darkness, when one is about to lay one’s head in weariness upon one’s pillow, is a bad time for anger to blaze forth. No one is one’s self when mind and body are exhausted. At the hour of sleep let one compose one’s spirit, forgetting the wrongs one has received. Otherwise, the powers of darkness will find an in-road and the devil will catch the human spirit off guard. Then the morning will break, not upon a Christian warrior ready to do justice, but upon a broken and dishonored wouldbe- follower-of-Christ.”

The phrase, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger,” may very well be intended to be taken literally. But I believe it can also refer to our life on earth before God.

There comes that hour in every life when the sun goes down, and our day here will be over. Our opportunity to live above and beyond anger will be at an end. Remember, anger cost Moses the Promised Land.