Noses, anger, and Christ-like-ness

In my most recent readings I came across an article in Tabletalk magazine that I found to be very interesting. It was an article entitled: Being slow to anger.

What drew my attention immediately was this sentence:

“From the perspective of the Bible, however, a long nose is in fact a desirable trait for the disciple of Jesus Christ.”

Get your attention? What does our nose have to do with anything related to living the Christian life?

The article continues- “This is because the Hebrew phrase “long of nose” (APH, strong’s # 639) describes one who is slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6). “It is possible to understand this image in the sense that long nostrils take longer to “grow hot” and explode in burning anger. . . Nostrils are a tube through which air moves, and the longer the tube, the more gentle and controlled the air flow.”

Oddly enough, I later read this news item:

Scat spat: Argument over dog poop
leads to Lebanon woman’s arrest.

LEBANON, Ind. — “What began as an argument over dog poop led to one neighbor allegedly pointing a loaded gun at another in Lebanon.

The woman told police Ray’s dog had defecated on her porch, and the man was yelling at Ray about the poop when he decided to move the camera.

Ray got out of her car to scream at the man, then went inside the house to call 911 and came back out with a gun, according to court documents.”

Apparently no long nose here! Seriously though, we can learn a lot from these two articles. For example, anger can quickly lead to costly consequences.

“A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression” (Proverbs 29:22).

“A hot- tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger (long of nose) quiets contention” (Proverbs 15:18).

The positive aspect of being slow to anger is that when we are such, we are being most like God! “To walk in wisdom is to reflect God’s character, most beautifully revealed in His Son.”