I am sorry that I wasn't able to make a blog post yesterday. Every few years I go through a period of time when I suffer from cluster headaches and I've been having a spell of them for nine days now, but yesterday's was so bad I couldn't even turn my head and my eyes hurt too much to look at a computer screen. I thank you for your patience. The headache is much better today than it was yesterday; hopefully this will go away soon like it usually does.
In Chapter 12 we find Miriam and Aaron---the sister and brother of Moses---showing prejudice toward Moses' wife due to her cultural background and skin color. They suggest his choice of wife makes him unfit to serve as Israel's leader. We are going to find the Lord being very unhappy with their attitude, and with Miriam's attitude in particular because she appears to be the primary person making discriminatory remarks against Moses' wife. Miriam appears to be the main one suggesting Moses' marriage to a non-Israelite should disqualify him to be in charge of Israel.
"Miriam and Aaron began to talk about Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite." (Numbers 12:1) It is not common in the Bible for a woman's name to appear before a man's in a sentence and this is why many Bible scholars believe Miriam, more than Aaron, is guilty of racial prejudice and of wanting Moses deposed as leader. The wording of verse 1 indicates that Miriam was the first to begin talking against Moses' wife and that she is the main person trying to stir up rebellion against the authority of Moses. Aaron may have agreed with her opinions but, since we won't find the Lord disciplining him the way He will discipline Miriam, I doubt Aaron wants to see his brother overthrown. We'll see that jealousy is at the heart of Miriam's and Aaron's complaints. They are jealous of the fame and glory attached to Moses due to Moses being the spokesperson of the Lord. (As we've already seen, Moses has endured a great deal of opposition due to his job as the Lord's spokesperson. He will continue to endure a great deal of opposition. If Miriam and Aaron had taken that into account, perhaps they wouldn't have envied his position quite so much.) But my personal opinion is that Aaron probably only wanted to share in Moses' glory whereas Miriam probably wanted more glory. Either way, both of them are in the wrong because the Lord has chosen the man He wants to lead Israel at this particular time, and to rebel against God's choice of leader is to rebel against God.
Earlier in the Bible we were told Moses' wife was Zipporah, a Midianite woman. We have seen no mention of Zipporah for some time now and this has led a number of scholars to believe she died and that Moses remarried. When and where did he have an opportunity to meet and marry a Cushite woman in the wilderness? I believe she may have been from among the "mixed multitude" who left Egypt with the Israelites in the exodus. Should Moses have married an Israelite woman and not a woman from another culture? We don't see any evidence that the Lord had a problem with it, although we'll find Him forbidding the Israelites to take wives from among the heathen tribes of the promised land in order to prevent the Israelites from falling into idolatry. I think it's very possible that this Cushite woman had already converted to the God of Israel before Moses married her. Also we have to take into account that Moses' first wife was not an Israelite either but she appears to have believed in the Lord. If both Moses' wives served the Lord, then these women were part of the family of God, and that explains why neither Moses nor the Lord appears to have had a problem with these unions. I find it hard to believe Moses would take for his wife a woman who was not the Lord's will for him, especially not during the years Moses led Israel in the wilderness, for Moses seems to be seeking the Lord's will in everything he does.
This Cushite woman was almost certainly black but her skin color isn't as much of an issue for Miriam and Aaron as her cultural background. But even that isn't the true heart of the matter. The true heart of the matter is their jealousy of Moses; they are simply using his marriage as a way to cast doubt on his qualifications to lead the people. The real problem is that they want glory and authority and would like to obtain it by pointing to his wife and saying to the people, "Why did our leader marry outside of our culture? Was he in the Lord's will when he did this? And if he wasn't following the Lord's will when he chose his wife, how can we be sure he's being truthful when he tells us what the Lord has supposedly said to him? If Moses took a Cushite wife and not an Israelite wife, can we be confident of his loyalty to us and to our God?"
Here's where we find out that their real problem was not with Moses' choice of wife; their real problem was jealousy of Moses. "'Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?' they asked. 'Hasn't He also spoken through us?' And the Lord heard this." (Numbers 12:2) In the book of Exodus we found occasions where the Lord spoke to the people through Aaron and Miriam. Miriam was called a prophetess in Exodus 15:21 where we find her composing a song to the Lord and leading the women in worship. Aaron spoke through the authority of the Lord in Exodus 4 and Exodus 15. As high priest of Israel, Aaron would have communed with the Lord in prayer on a regular basis and the Lord would have spoken to his heart. Miriam and Aaron are telling the truth when they say the Lord has spoken through them, but this doesn't give them the right to usurp Moses' authority or share in the authority the Lord has given solely to Moses. If the Lord had wanted these three siblings to lead Israel together---as equals---He would have said so. Aaron can't be a good high priest and the political leader of Israel at the same time; his duties at the tabernacle take up the majority of his time. His life is meant to revolve around his priestly duties. Miriam can't be an effective worship song composer, women's worship leader, and prophetess if she also has to instruct the nation in political and religious matters. The Lord has assigned to each of these people the job He wants them to have. To crave a position of authority other than the one the Lord gave them is rebellion against God.
We are told "the Lord heard" their complaints. Of course we know the Lord hears everything, so I think what this means is that He took special note of their complaints and was extremely displeased with them. When the Bible tells us the Lord hears something, it usually means action is about to follow.
Tomorrow we'll find the Lord speaking to all three siblings at once, which shows us just how much authority the three of them have been given by Him and why neither Miriam nor Aaron should have tried to grasp some of what the Lord gave Moses for themselves. We'll find the Lord disciplining Miriam by allowing an unclean illness to fall upon her. Aaron's distress (and no doubt guilt, as well) at the appearance of this illness will be very great, which is the Lord's discipline upon him. The discipline is a blessing, for the Lord will use this incident to heal the family feud. Aaron will repent in his heart when he sees the condition of his sister and he will apologize to Moses and beg for his help. Miriam's repentance will be brought about by the Lord's chastisement and by the fact that in order to be healed, Moses---the very person she wronged---must pray for her. How humbling that must have been! The Lord knows it would be very easy for Moses to harbor hurt and bitterness in his heart toward his brother and sister after the incident in Numbers 12, so He softens Moses' heart by having him pray for Miriam. It's difficult to maintain bitterness toward a person for whom we are praying.
Great is the wisdom of God! Join us tomorrow as He masterfully and perfectly resolves this family conflict.
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