Wednesday Bible Study: Ladies Night part 10

 

Every morning, I wake up with some song playing in my head- and a lot of times, it gets in the way of the praying I want to start the day with.  Today as I type, it actually helps out this post, because the song- if you follow my music posts, was one of this past week's debuts, a song called Gossip.  The story upcoming is essentially about gossip, and certainly this one line in the song captures what is going on in our passage...

You're not iconic, you are just like them all...

 Our story is about Miriam, a lady we only know a little about.  We know she is the eldest of the three children of Amram and Jochebed, with Aaron in the middle and Moses the baby she guided into the arms of Pharaoh's daughter. We know from Exodus 15 she was a prophetess, and between the three siblings we have in a symbolic way the trinity of prophet, priest, and king.  And there is where our problem starts, but not our story.  You see, I was struggling to get the point of the passage that God wanted, but finally He gave me a clue- run the story backwards, a technique He often uses with me.  And the whole thing became clear, because it got the unnecessary out of my way.  So bear with me as we run the story of Miriam's rebellion back-to-front.

Num 12:15  So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.
Num 12:16  After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran. 

Okay, so here we see her kicked out of the camp for seven days- and the people of Israel patiently (at least it would seem, it's one of the few passages anywhere around it in Numbers where no one is complaining!) waited for her to be restored.  Why seven days?  Because her problem was sin, and after her sin was explained/exposed to her, she needed time to reflect and repent.  Now, if you've jumped ahead behind me, you're saying, "I thought she got the boot because God made her leprous?" True, but leprosy was essentially a symbol of sin's effect on the soul, and its contagion. We move back...

Num 12:14  But the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again."
 

And what would make a father spit in the face of a daughter? Or do anything that would cast her away from him?  Rebellion.  This, at its heart, is the sin that caused this whole mess.  But consider:  God does not abandon Miriam as His daughter just because of her rebellion, but she has to be made to realize the seriousness of the situation.  Otherwise, she'd never spend the seven days contemplating repentance.

Num 12:11  And Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned.
Num 12:12  Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb."
Num 12:13  And Moses cried to the LORD, "O God, please heal her--please."
 

There are two points that we can address from here.  The fact that God ended up insisting on the seven days tells us that when we sin, even Moses praying for us can't shield us from the consequences of sin.  Some things we have to go through in order to learn.  Second, note that Aaron- who is involved, but not leading in, this rebellion- calls Moses "lord", a change in attitude from where the story starts, as you will see.  You see, that problem with the prophet-priest-king thing I mentioned earlier is that it caused a sense of entitlement, and that entitlement was the spark of the rebellion.  At this point, though, Aaron has switched sides apparently.

A side point, then, might be, "Why did God make Miriam a leper and not Aaron?" Well, first off, it will become obvious in a minute or two that Miriam was the real rebel- Aaron, just like with the golden calf deal, just' kinda went along with it'. Also, while Miriam could be a prophetess AND a leper, leprosy would have disqualified Aaron from the priesthood, a consequence far greater and more far reaching to Israel than his part of the situation warranted.  So a third point of this passage is- God is just in His judgments.

Num 12:6  And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.
Num 12:7  Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.
Num 12:8  With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"
Num 12:9  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed.
Num 12:10  When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.

Here, God in His anger sets Miriam straight.  All Christians, all leaders, are NOT created equal.  Miriam's entitlement had grown into self-importance- a self-importance that did NOT match God's plan and hierarchy.  A truly-called Pastor is placed into leadership by God, and it's not for us, even those with great gifts, to challenge them- because by doing so, we challenge Him.  Studying this has led me to confess a sin of my own to the Lord; I'm not going to share it here, because that would be gossip.  And Gossip is the sin that made God mad in the first/last place.  Hang in there, we're almost to the start...

Num 12:1  Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.
Num 12:2  And they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" And the LORD heard it.
Num 12:3  Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.
Num 12:4  And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting." And the three of them came out.
Num 12:5  And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 

By vv 4-5, we see the Anger of God, the anger of a Father yelling at 3 rambunctious kids, "GET OVER HERE!!!"  And in verse 1, we see why.  Miriam and Aaron were talking about Moses and his wife, not in a complimentary way.  Moses' meekness prevented him from challenging the gossip they were spreading directly- But Moses had, as Proverbs says, "a friend closer than a brother" who came to his defense.  Miriam and Aaron's entitlement drove them to question whatever decision Moses had made involving his wife.

So let's line up the questions facing us.  What was the deal with Moses and his wife?  Was this Zipporah the daughter of Jethro, whom he married before returning to Egypt? Most say no, some say yes.  By Cushite, most of us see, "black".  But was she?  Some say the word could have been applied to any of the Gentile people they were familiar with.Was she horning in on their "holy trinity?"  Maybe... I've seen some, including the Rabbinical texts, that believe Miriam was friendly with this wife, and was mad because Moses was ignoring her in doing his duties to God. Why would this situation involve 'getting a word from God', and was their a disconnect in the rebels' thoughts between  HEARING from God, and speaking FOR God?

WE DON'T KNOW!  And God doesn't tell us- because that would be GOSSIP, and that's what made God mad in the first place.  And when we get to this point, not only do we see all the points God was trying to make in clarity, but we see once again, there is a point to everything God put in His Word- and everything He left out.