Numbers 12:1-10 (ESV)
Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses
1 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. 2 And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the LORD heard it. 3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. 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. 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. 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. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 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?” 9 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them, and he departed.
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.
When Miriam and Aaron (Moses’ sister and brother) attempted to assert their authority over, or at least along side, Moses, we see God’s response. God was into a “shared” leadership model. Apparently, since she was impacted the most, it was Miriam who had the spirit of envy for leadership. It is interesting that she used a ruse to initiate her coup. In verse one we read that she had a racial prejudice bias. She didn’t like the color of Moses’ wife’s skin. Apparently, the nature of racism did not originate with white men (although they did their part to accelerate it). This was one woman (a Jew) who should racial bias toward another woman (an African). God stepped in and inter vented on the behalf of Moses and his wife, but more importantly for the character of Himself. Miriam and Aaron were wrong in two ways. The first was they were attempting to usurp Moses’ authority. The second was their lack of love for another human being. The irony here is the Miriam was, in essence, compelling about skin color of Moses’s wife, Zipporah. God’s discipline of Miriam was to change her skin color. She could look at Zipporah and see, because of her skin color, that she was not an Israelite. Miriam shamed her based on what she could see on the outside. So, God disciplined her and brought her shame (sending her outside the camp) based upon how people saw her, her skin color. God had already commanded the people to take in the foreigner, even to eat the Passover (Deuteronomy 12). God intervened in this attempted leadership coup. Miriam and Aaron used racial prejudice as a reason, but the real desire here was power. The basis for all racism. God condemned both the racism and the power grab, two things that are often sandwiched together. God hates them both.
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