Conflict Management

Photo by Kevin Dooley

Exodus 32 is an amazing story of conflict management. Many times, when we are in a conflict, we respond from out gut feelings or our emotions. Somebody hurt us, or made us angry, and we just react. Many times, we regret this later.

God is angry with the people of Israel. He is almost on the way to do something that he may regret later – consume them:

And Jehovah said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

And here comes Moses. He helps god do what we should all do when something like this happens to us. Stop. Reflect. Think about the other person and your relationship with him or her. Respond out of thinking and not out of feeling:

And Moses besought Jehovah his God, and said, Jehovah, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, that thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying, For evil did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fiercz wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

Next time you find yourself in a situation where you are full of emotions and going to act out on them, try to look for your own Moses. That person that will help you with the process: Stop. Reflect. Think about the other side. React out of thinking and out of feeling.

And Jehovah repented of the evil which he said he would do unto his people.

Elad

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