Three Thieves of Thanksgiving-Envy
CCCAG November 26th, 2017
Scripture-Numbers 12
Dwight L. Moody once told the fable of an eagle who was envious of another that could fly better than he could. One day the bird saw a hunter with a bow and arrow and said to him, “I wish you would shoot down that eagle up there.” The man said he would if he had some feathers for his arrow. So, the jealous eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow was shot, but it didn’t quite reach the rival bird because he was flying too high. The first eagle pulled out another feather, then another—until he had lost so many that he himself couldn’t fly. The hunter took advantage of the situation, turned around, and killed the now helpless eagle.
Moody made this application: if you are envious of others, the one you will hurt the most by your actions will be yourself.
Today we will be continuing our series on being thankful by studying the second thing that will steal your ability to be thankful.
Last week we talked about the dangers of comparison. As bad as comparison can be, it’s only the doorway to a larger problem, and that is envy.
Envy, and it’s close cousin jealousy, are not just the attributes of those who don’t know Jesus, or those who are young in the faith. Envy sneaks it’s way into each of our hearts, even if we have been following Christ for years.
You have three people involved in the biblical account we are going to read today, which takes place several years after the Exodus of Israel from Egypt
you have the high priest of Israel, Aaron
along with one of the best-known prophetesses, Miriam
publicly criticizing the leader of Israel- Moses.
You have both a man and a women, who hold the positions of high priest and prophet giving a rebuke to their leader.
In our context with the church, it would be like the church board bringing rebuke against the pastor of the church.
IF the pastor were in sin, they have a duty, and a responsibility to do just that if they were doing it to protect the body of believers from a shepherd who was going astray.
However, that is not the case here in Numbers chapter 12 as we will see.
Scripture Text- Numbers 12:1-15
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.
3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
4 At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them went out. 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 the two of them stepped forward, 6 he said, “Listen to my words:
“When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.
10 When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous—it became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease, 11 and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”
13 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “Please, God, heal her!”
14 The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.” 15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.
Prayer- Dangers of comparison and jealousy
Before we read today’s scripture, we acknowledged that Miriam and Aaron, as spiritual leaders had to right and even the responsibility to advise and even rebuke Moses if he fell into sin.
In this case, they accuse him of marrying outside of the tribe of Israel. Although the bible doesn’t record the event, we can assume that his first wife, Zipporah had died. Moses being a healthy man with normal drives decided that he should marry again. Some of you might be thinking, “Pastor, he’s about 85 years old…why does he need a wife?” Remember, God has been supernaturally empowering Moses with the gift strength and vigor to be able to continue to lead several million people.
That, and it’s still going to be 35 years before he dies. Most marriages in our time don’t last half that long, and besides,
Someone has to cook him supper.
Miriam and Aaron were appealing to God’s law (Deut 7) commanded them not to marry outside of the tribe when they came into the promised land, specifically with the Canaanites because God wanted the Canaanites wiped out because of their great evil.
However, this was not the case with Moses, as he took a woman from the area of Cush (modern day Ethiopia)- in other words, he married a black woman.
That raise a question we should answer before we continue. Why did Moses marry outside of the nation of Israel?
The short answer is- the bible really doesn’t say why, so we can’t say with any certainty.
Practically, I can think of a few reasons why he chose to go outside the nation- first and foremost any children born of this wife would be barred from entering into the full fellowship of being Hebrew.
A modern way of looking at this is they would have held a “Green Card”, but would not have been full citizens in Israel, and therefore ineligible for leadership. I believe Moses was very intentional in avoiding his family becoming a ruling dynasty of kings over Israel. This avoided the problem of his line usurping authority over Aaron’s line for the position of high priest.
The scripture is very careful here to include the phrase about Moses’ humility- had he been a proud man and all about him, he would have had multiple sons with this Cushite woman, and established his kingship and dynasty over Israel, but because Moses was submitted to God, the wife he chose avoided all of those entanglements.
Miriam doesn’t like this, so she comes up with this accusation.
Why did she do it? Why does Miriam care who her brother marries?
Why was Miraim so filled with Envy and jealousy that she tried to cause a rebellion within Israel
I. Miriam’s reasons-
A. It should be noted that she is Moses’ big sister- probably by at least 10 years. Anyone have a domineering big sister? Tammie is a big sister and I watch her interactions with her brother Kevin, and she is a mom to him more than a sister, and I have seen this in several families where the first born is a female.
B. Remember back to her childhood and the command of Pharaoh- all Hebrew male children had to be put to death. Moses never would have made it out of infancy had it not been for Miriam helping to hide him in the basket and floated him into the area where Pharaoh’s daughter was bathing.
C. Since we assume Zipporah has died, Miriam has probably been taking care of Moses- cooking, cleaning, taking care of the tent and the servants there. There is no doubt she loved her little brother, and wanted him taken care of, and got comfortable in her role. This would have included controlling access to Moses- if you want to see the leader, you have to go through her first.
D. Then comes this Cushite woman- Miriam loses that position….
E. Do you understand her a little better now? Put yourself in her place. Not only has she been “replaced”, not only has she lost her position of prominence, not only has Moses seemingly kicked her to the curb-
F. But he did it with a black woman- someone not a descendant of Jacob. There is an aspect of racism here against anyone who is not a descendant of Jacob.
G. Her feelings here are not the problem- I can empathize to a large degree her feeling hurt by all of this- it’s her response that becomes the problem. She goes out and gets her other little brother, Aaron (who by the way is also older than Moses) to take up her case and go to the people and try to embarrass Moses so he will get rid of his new wife.
I went through Miriam’s reasons to help show you this-
People have reasons for doing what they do. Most, if not all evil behavior comes from a place of deep brokenness and hurt within a person.
Most, if not all of the evil that exists within you and I that drive us toward actions that don’t honor God comes from places of deep hurt, deep brokenness, and deeply rooted sin that we never have fully repented of.
Miriam’s actions are recorded for us so that we can hold her up and see ourselves in her, not just cluck our tongues at some foolish woman that lived during the bronze age.
Miriam is an example to us of-
II. Dangers of Envy or jealousy
Miriam’s situation, and the response in envy and jealousy can teach us the dangers of allowing these emotions to fill our hearts and minds. Miriam has allowed her heart to focus on these things, and it has started her down a road that led to a pretty severe reaction by God.
First she allowed these emotions of envy to do is-
a. Elevates herself
She points out to the people, “Has God only spoke through Moses?”
In other words, look at me.
Indeed God had used Miriam.
She saved the infant Moses.
She made sure that Moses’ mother was his wet nurse so that he would be instilled with Hebrew Values,
She is the Moses’ sister, she enjoyed a position of influence and some authority.
God had used her to lead worship a few times, so now she is in her own mind a big deal.
Miriam has allowed her gifts and position and how God has used her in the past to lead her to assume she has a high position of authority within Israel
In the church, we see this quite often. Sometimes a person with a gift will use that gift to draw to themselves a crowd, and then use that crowd to usurp lawful authority.
The bible calls that a Jezebel spirit- one that falsely elevates human gifts to take people’s eyes off of biblical and spiritual authority.
Tammie and I have seen that kind of spirit destroy church’s. That’s why among the critical instructions in spiritual leadership that the Apostle Paul passes onto his student pastor Timothy is lay hands on no person suddenly. If a person desires a position of prominence or recognition in the church, you are to examine that person. Elevate on a trial basis and watch for an attitude change.
A pastor once had a student minister assigned to him by his denomination for a period of internship. The pastor immediately noticed that this young man shied away from doing what the student considered menial tasks- emptying garbage’s, putting away chairs after meetings, or cleaning the bathroom. During his weekly evaluation of this student the pastor brought up how people were starting to notice his reluctance.
The young minister said, “I have just spent 6 years in college and seminary. I am now a PhD candidate. Such work is beneath my education, and my station in life and as a pastor in this church.”
The pastor stood up and asked the young student minister to follow him outside. He walked over to a large pothole they had in the parking lot and asked the young minister what he saw. “I see a hole in the pavement…we should have someone fix it”
The pastor replied from Isaiah 40
Isa 40:3-4 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (4) Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
He continue saying “Son, our job is to make smooth the way to Jesus Christ for people. That means you need to be willing to do whatever it takes, even laying down in the pothole so someone can get in the parking lot in order to meet Jesus. If you can’t do that- if you can’t lay aside your desires and need for recognition, you need to leave the ministry.”
Elevating oneself is the desire for fame and recognition, which we said last week is really the desire to be worshipped.
The second thing envy or jealousy does is it
b. Feeds selfishness
If you get nothing else out of todays message, write this down and post it where you can see it often- selfishness is really self-worship. It’s elevating your needs and desires above what is best for others, and especially what is best for God’s kingdom.
Once you start down that path of self worship, it gives you an excuse to start to rebel
A. Causes you to rebel
1. Against authority
We are going to read a bible verse that is not on people’s social media walls. You won’t find it quoted on a Facebook wall or a Tweet. It’s not one that people commit to memory and pull out when times get tough.
But it’s an essential thought for us to live the lives God has called us to and to be blessed in His Kingdom.
Hebrews 13:17
Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
If you rebel against an authority (not just in the church) God has placed over your life- you’re not making their life difficult- you are crushing any chance of God blessing yours.
In the case of Miriam, her rebellion against her little brother threatened the entire nation.
Remember what happened when Moses went up on the Mountain for 40 days to receive the law? Aaron converted to a priest of Ba’al and lead idol worship services and just about got the entire nation destroyed. Now Moses’ sister is starting to stir up trouble, which is why God dealt with this immediately and forcefully.
2. Because Rebellion unchecked will spread to others
The thought would have spread through the camp- If Miriam can get away with this, then I should be able to get away with this.
So, God gave immediate consequences. Let’s look at God’s reaction to Miriam’s rebellion
III. Consequences of Envy
What were Miriam’s consequences?
A. First, What was hidden on the inside worked its way out
The ugliness of sin, previously hidden in her heart, was now shown for what it was- death.
In the Bronze age that this event took place in, Leprosy was a death sentence, and a very slow one at that. Today we call it Hansen’s Disease, and it’s no longer a huge threat as it can be cured with strong antibiotics. However, in the Bronze age it was a highly contagious pathogen that if left unchecked could easily spread throughout a community.
When you read through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, there is quite a bit of talk about various skin diseases, and ways to tell if something was leprous, or just a bad zit. Not only that, but rules about washing, isolation, even burning clothes and smashing pots that had any contact with a suspected skin disease because people feared leprosy.
The bible uses leprosy as a type, or example of what sin lurking beneath the surface does in our lives. Leprosy is a slow killer, attacking the nerves in your fingers, toes, face. It takes away the sensation of pain, so that you can injure these areas without knowing it, causing a secondary infection that will rot off that area of your body.
Sin works the same way. Repeated, unrepented sin numbs you to the serious consequences of rebellion, until it’s too late and you lose whatever you had in God up to that point. Miriam’s leprosy was a picture to all of Israel and to us today that sin is dangerous to play with.
We can’t dance with the devil and then try hold hands with Jesus. A person cannot service two masters, and if you keep trying to live a double life, you will find yourself in the second part of Miriam’s punishment-
B. Isolation
Miriam was banished to the outside of the camp where she was forced to live alone for an entire week. God’s law was very specific about lepers- No human contact.
One of the worse punishments you can give a person is isolation. That’s why prison’s use it to punish prisoners- because it works!
No one wants a week in the hole- little light, no human contact except when they toss in your food, and low lights.
Because of her position, Miriam, was very well-known and social person is placed in isolation. One second she is known by everyone, the next no one wants to be near her, and suddenly she is alone in a tent, a weeks’ worth of food and water at her feet, at the mercy of her brother’s forgiveness. If Moses doesn’t beg God for her restoration, this is her life until she dies.
Envy and jealousy do that to us. They place us on an island of our own making when all we can think about is what we don’t have and what we want.
You look, you want, you resent, and if you don’t repent, you rebel
And you end up covered in the evidence of your sin and isolated from those who should matter to you.
And most of all, you fail to receive the fullness of God’s blessing on your life.
How do we fix it?
IV. Remedy
A. Cultivate humility (like Moses)
This narrative describes Moses as the most humble man in the earth at his time.
But there is one that came later that beats him in this area-
The Apostle Paul describes the character our LORD show us, and as being followers of Christ, the character we are to show the world.
Let’s rise as I read this last scripture as a prayer for all of us to consider as we prepare to close today.
Php 2:5-8 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, (6) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, (7) but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (8) And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Prayer/Altar Call- ridding us of selfishness, envy and jealousy
