The Last Straw

"Oh, I'm out of straws!" I said when I took the last one from the tall jar where I keep them.

"Why do you drink from a straw?" questioned my young granddaughter.

"To keep tea from staining my teeth!" I replied.

I do love using a straw, and always ask for one in  if the waitress forgets.  "I figure if I'm going to pay for lunch, at least I shouldn't have to lift my glass to drink!" I kid them.

Of course, the expression, "the last straw," comes from the old saying, "the straw that broke the camel's back," meaning some minor irritation on top of other dissatisfactions or disappointments that results in an explosion of impatience and burst of temper.

The Bible is full of scriptures dealing with anger.  Ephesians 4:26 admonishes, "Be ye angry and sin not," and the rest of the verse advises, "Let not the sun go down on your wrath."

In Proverbs 15:1, we find the wisdom that "A soft answer turneth away wrath," and verse 18 says, "He that is slow to anger appeaseth wrath."

There is a story in the Bible that seems to be a time when Jesus lost his temper. Mark 11:15, as well as verses in the other gospels, tells of Jesus cleansing the temple.  "And they came to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves."

In verse 17 of the same chapter, we read, "And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves."

But a few verses previous, in Mark 11:11, we find Jesus entering the temple the day before, and only looking around.  The Bible doesn't say anything about the money changers there, but could it be that they were there and he controlled his anger, knowing what he would do the next day? At any rate, I'm sure what he found felt like the last straw!

"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city," Proverbs 16:32.  Jesus was brought up on these scriptures, knowing the law and reading the scrolls.  Jesus didn't lose his temper, but used his righteous anger against sin.  The way to "be angry and sin not!"