There are many things in this life that are not sinful in and of themselves, but when they are misused they can be deemed as sinful or harmful.
In spite of all that God has done for man, men still refuse to have respect for Him. The Lord never has nor ever will compete for respect from man.
God offers no account of anyone (apart from Jesus Christ) who ever suffered quite like Job. Job in many ways serves as an example for believers today.
When speaking of anger, the scripture uses descriptive terms that could equally be applied to the truths concerning fire. In doing so, the Bible makes a connection that can help believers gain a better understanding of the benefits or dangers of anger. According to scripture, anger can be kindled, a term used to describe the starting of a fire (Exodus 4:14; Numbers 11:1; Deuteronomy 32:22; Jeremiah 15:14), either a little (Psalm 2:12) or greatly (Numbers 11:10; 1 Samuel 11:6). The Bible also describes anger as waxing hot (Exodus 32:19), another connection to fire. These similarities are by divine design. As is true concerning fire, anger can be useful and productive, but it can also be destructive and harmful, especially when it gets out of control.
In Deuteronomy 7:7-8, the Lord expressed His great love for the nation of Israel. In the midst of this declaration, the Lord provided reasons why He placed His love upon this particular nation. In Deuteronomy 1:27, the people began to murmur and their murmurings bred lies. They stated that the Lord brought them out of Egypt to destroy them because of His great hatred for them. Their statements were completely false. This is true in most circumstances when people turn to murmuring. The problem gets exaggerated and the truth corrupted. Fabricating lies helps the one murmuring to feel better about voicing the complaint. Interestingly, the truth is usually not worth murmuring about.
Few men, if any, have been afflicted like Job. His troubles involved the catastrophic loss of family members as well as physical ailments beyond most people's ability to endure. During the depths of these difficult trials, Job's three “friends” (Job 2:11) visited him. They showed up to comfort him but instead turned out to be additional sources of grief. Each word spoken by his friends seemed to compound his already miserable condition and circumstances. Job did not consider this to be the work of a friend and told them that, “To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend.” Later in the same chapter, Job said that his friends dug a pit for him (Job 6:27). Job’s friends should have shown him pity during his troublesome times instead of scorning (Job 16:20) and abhorring him (Job 19:19). True friends know how to comfort and console their friends as they experience trouble and pain in life. They certainly do not unrighteously judge and condemn.
As we have seen, courage comes from a strength of heart. On the contrary, the Bible likens discouragement (the opposite of courage) to a melted heart (Joshua 2:11). In other words, discouragement takes place when a man’s heart loses strength. The Bible reveals that discouragement comes through various avenues of life. Men become discouraged because of “the way” (i.e., the circumstances of life) (Numbers 21:4). Discouragement also results from fear and unbelief (Deuteronomy 1:28) and the magnitude of a task (1 Chronicles 28:20). Ultimately, discouragement rears its ugly head as a result of a lack of faith in God and His word. Since discouragement and a lack of faith go hand in hand, a discouraged man cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6).
