There was once a young man decided to join a monastery that had a vow of silence. The monks were not allowed to speak with the exception of their birthday. Once a year on their birthday each monk could come before the monk in charge and speak two words. They always chose their words carefully.
Well on his birthday our man arrive at the office of the monk in charge and took his appointed seat. “Well Andrew, you have been a monk with us almost a year and since this is your birthday, you are allowed to speak two words, do you have anything to say?”
"Bad food!", Replied the monk Andrew.
“Well, ok”, and the head monk wrote what Andrew said in his file.
The next year, Andrew the monk arrived at the office of the monk in charge and took his appointed seat. The second year Andrew said, “Bed hard”. The monk in charge wrote his words down in his file.
During his third year when Andrew was called to office, and he didn’t even bother taking his seat – he quickly blurted out, “Work boring”.
“Well that’s it!” shouted the Monk in charge. “I have to ask to leave our monastery”.
“But why? What did I do?” asked Andrew breaking his vow of silence.
“Why? Isn’t is obvious? For the past three years you’ve done nothing but complain.
Sometimes when we complain, we complain about everything except what we have a problem with. We avoid talking about what we think the real problem is by complaining about something that is unrelated. This is what we find here in our passage this morning. Here in our passage we see Miriam complaining about one thing, when she is really upset about something all together different. Miriam complains about Moses’ wife and about hearing God, but in reality, she is just fed up with Moses.
Right up front I want us to notice that God intervenes and Miriam suffers. She seems to suffer a fairly harsh punishment for simply complaining. That is because she is not simply complaining. See, Miriam has been tremendously blessed by God. She has been given wisdom, talent, insight – beyond the average Hebrew. She also is blessed to be one of the leaders of the people, leading right along with her brothers Moses and Aaron. What Miriam does, is she looks past what her blessing and becomes jealous and envious of what God has given her brother Moses. This is what God reacts to.
Looking in your bibles you will see right there in verse one, “Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.” Now the NIV has difficulty translating this verse. This verse is in the third person feminine singular and it specifically refers to Miriam doing the talking and implies that Aaron does nothing, and in doing so, agrees with his sister.
So, Miriam is the complainer. Miriam is the aggressor. Miriam is the one who looks past all she is blessed with. Her speech is hostile, we see this clearly in the Hebrew, and her questions are rhetorical, she seeks no answer, she in fact her questions are simply accusations. Num. 12:2 “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?”
What is she complaining about? First, about Moses wife, apparently fairly new wife. This is not Zipporah. Zipporah had been around a long time, why would Miriam complain about her now? There is no attempt in our story to identify her as Zipporah, this is a different woman. She is described as a Cushite. A Cushite in biblical terms, refers to either Nubians or what we know today as modern day Ethiopians. So she is either a Nubian or and Ethiopian.
So what is she complaining about here? Is it the fact that Moses had married a foreign woman? Weren’t the Hebrews specifically told not to marry foreign women? Not exactly. God did not want the Hebrews to marry unbelievers, specifically Canaanites. God is against us marrying unbelievers because it will make our spiritual maturity much more difficult and unbelievers tend to pull believers away from their relationship with God. Clearly what is going on here is not only racism, but racism against interracial couples.
Most likely this woman came with the Hebrews when they escaped Egypt. Egypt was a land that had many nationalities living within its boarders. Many different of the nationalities in Egypt were there as a result of slavery. However we do know the Nubians had a great influence on Egypt and had even taken a large amount of Egyptian territory at different times. If you have been to Egypt, when you tour the tombs, many of the inscriptions are painted. It is very common to have many of the people in the tombs depicted with very dark skin, either as servants, combatants and even Egyptians. This is because of the influx of people from Nubia and other African nations to the south of Egypt. These nations from the south would have mixed in with the Egyptians, and with the Hebrews.
What all this means is this: Moses’ wife whatever she looks like, whatever her origins, would be considered Hebrew. Moses’ first wife Zipporah wasn’t a Hebrew, she was a Medianite – but that wasn’t a problem, was it? As the Hebrews left Egypt, and as they traveled they picked people of many different nationalities who were integrated into the nation, and were considered Hebrew. Look at Rahab who was from Jericho, she wasn’t Hebrew, yet she is in the lineage of Jesus Christ – who is very much Jewish, and by the way Jesus would have, without a doubt had very dark skin. We have many images of Jesus that we are familiar with, and many of those images are influenced by European art – but understand all the art we have about Jesus today is simply a guess for no one knows what Jesus really looked like, but there is one thing for sure, Jesus didn’t look European.
Go to Israel today. You will see soldiers with very light skin to very dark skin, you will see people of a number of different nationalities – All Israelis. Being Jewish is not based upon the color of your skin, as here in America, being American is not based upon the color of your skin.
When I was a pastor in Oklahoma, the number one question I would get from the teens was, “Can we date people of other races?” My answer was, yes, but make sure they are believers. This, to my surprise, upset a number of the parents. They allowed their kids to date, but did not want their kids involved with kids who were of different ethnicities. I was approached by several parents and was told that I could not tell the kids such a thing. Each time I asked, “ Are you Christian parents, who want to bring up you children to live as Christians?” They always answered, of course. “Then, raise your children according to the biblical standard which is approval of interracial relationships, and not the current social standard.” This is a reminder for us here today, our life is guided by the biblical standard, period.
Miriam’s complaint is illegitimate. But Moses’ wife is not the real issue is it? Miriam is piling up perceived problems to make her complaint sound stronger. But notice who intervenes: God himself, Num. 12:5 “Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward,”. God takes care of things himself. Being summoned by God, that cannot be a good thing.
We see in verse 3 a mention of Moses humility. In context the Hebrew is attempting to get across that Moses would have let the challenge go unanswered, He would not be assertive. Moses would let God take care of things. So God does.
Miriam is not happy with God’s plan in her life, she wants what Moses has. But, she has so much…..Now, I feel I need to point out that Moses, Aaron and Miriam are all in their 80’s, Miriam, might even be in her 90’s. This is no squabble among youth. These siblings should know better. Miriam, has led a tremendous life, with tremendous authority – but apparently that is not enough anymore.
We read in Micah 6:4 , “I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. Miriam isn’t just another Hebrew, and she isn’t just the sister, Miriam is one of the three leaders of Israel
First see her in Exodus chapter 2 as a little girl, probably about seven or eight years older than Moses. She is sharp and full of wisdom as she watches the basket Moses is in float down the river and into the hand of Pharaoh’s daughter. Remember, Ex. 1:22, ‘Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”’ So Moses’ mother places him in a basket in the Nile river in an attempt to save her son, sending Miriam to watch the basket. When the basket winds up in the hands of the daughter of Pharaoh. Miriam has enough wits to suggests her own mother as a nursemaid for her brother Moses.
Miriam is impressive at such a young age. She is described as a prophetess, the first one in all of Israel, and this would give her great authority among the people. In Exodus 15 we see this woman in action in her role as prophetess.
“Ex. 15:19 When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing. 21 Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.”
Miriam leads the woman in song and dance worshiping God for saving them all from certain death. She is thought very highly among the people, in fact they love her so much, the people wait for her, until she is healed and able to travel with them.
God has blessed Miriam with so much. She has had a long and very rich life. She has been part of a leadership team that has led a people who faced no chance of survival in the desert, but instead has led them through peril to the land promised them by God.
But she sees what her brother has and wants that too. Now let’s pay attention here. This is more than wanting the life that you see someone else has. This is about overlooking what God has given you. Not only does Miriam covet her brother Moses, she ignores who she is, she treats God’s gift in her life as irrelevant.
Do you see that?
It is not that she complains. But in her complaint she ridicules God’s blessing upon her.
And so God summoned Aaron and Miriam. Aaron is there because he has been silent, Aaron needs to know where Moses stands before God, so he will take action next time. Miriam is there as we saw earlier, because she made the actual complaints against Moses.
God informs them of who Moses is. We see this in verses 6-8. God, in the OT, doesn’t usually talk directly to men and women, but he speaks with them indirectly in visions and dreams. But Moses, he speaks face to face. We saw a couple of weeks ago that that doesn’t mean physically face to face, but a close relationship. And, And, God speaks with Moses on a regular basis. God has a regular close relationship with Moses. This implies that God does not have a regular and close relationship with Miriam and Aaron.
I think what we see here in much more than, don’t mess with God’s chosen, for Aaron and Miriam are also chosen leaders. What we have here is God’s contempt for how Miriam has acted in her envy of Moses AND her setting aside of what God has given her. Clearly God has chosen to speak with Moses in a regular way. This was done out in the open, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, where everyone could see. God speaking to Moses was not a mystery, or a secret thing…so the question is this: The whole nation sees God speaking to Moses on a regular basis, when do they see God speaking to Miriam?
Miriam presumes she is more than who she is and so she is struck with leprosy. Being struck with leprosy was regarded as judgment from God. Ironically she is turned snow white, from the leprosy – showing that it is also judgment for her racism against interracial marriage. So she is judged by God for her actions. If Miriam’s father had spit in her facing showing his contempt she would have been an outcast for seven days. We see this in Duet 25:9. God shows his contempt and she has leprosy for seven days.
Let’s apply this to ourselves. We see in the NT that all of us who are Christians have been chosen by God. God is addressing for us more than racism, and more than complaints: God is asking us to examine our lives, especially those of us who are advanced in our years. When I am envious, jealous, over the life that someone else has, I in effect, by my actions show that I am not grateful for the gifts and blessing God has given me in my life, in fact, I treat those gifts as not being worthwhile…..
Janet lost her husband suddenly. He was taking out the trash and never made it out the door. A massive heart attack had taken his life. Those next few weeks were very difficult, and easily the worst days of Janet’s life. As with many people who face the tragedy of the loss of a spouse, Janet set aside her formerly bust life, and was able to consider all that had been a part of her life, and all that still was a part of her life.
Janet certainly had a great deal to complain about and Janet sometimes felt a bit of jealousy when she visited with her friends who still had their husbands. But then she came to realize that what she had in her life was more than what she had at this time and place right now. What she had in her life was a culmination of many years of relationships and experiences, what she had was a sum total of not just now, and not just everything past – but everything in eternity. For God had not only given her things in the past, and God had not only given her things in the present, but God had given her an eternity of life.
May we realize the richness of the blessings of God in our life, and know that what we have now, and what we have had in the past is not the sum total of the blessings of God, but just a preview.
