Reflections on Numbers 12

Numbers 12 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Although Moses was the most humble person in all the world, Miriam and Aaron started complaining, "Moses had no right to marry that woman from Ethiopia! Who does he think he is? The LORD has spoken to us, not just to him." The LORD heard their complaint
   
2. (SEE 12:1)
   
3. (SEE 12:1)
   
4. and told Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to come to the entrance of the sacred tent.
   
5. There the LORD appeared in a cloud and told Aaron and Miriam to come closer.
   
6. Then after commanding them to listen carefully, he said: "I, the LORD, speak to prophets in visions and dreams.
   
7. But my servant Moses is the leader of my people.
   
8. He sees me face to face, and everything I say to him is perfectly clear. You have no right to criticize my servant Moses."
   
9. The LORD became angry at Aaron and Miriam. And after the LORD left
   
10. and the cloud disappeared from over the sacred tent, Miriam's skin turned white with leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened to her,
    
11. he said to Moses, "Sir, please don't punish us for doing such a foolish thing.
    
12. Don't let Miriam's flesh rot away like a child born dead!"
    
13. Moses prayed, "LORD God, please heal her."
    
14. But the LORD replied, "Miriam would be disgraced for seven days if her father had punished her by spitting in her face. So make her stay outside the camp for seven days, before coming back."
    
15. The people of Israel did not move their camp until Miriam returned seven days later.
    
16. Then they left Hazeroth and set up camp in the Paran Desert.
    
    

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    Miriam and Aaron, Moses' older siblings, evidently became jealous of his relationship with God, and more particularly his authority over the people. The issues was not so much that they thought he was not worthy or should be deposed as it was that they wanted to share in his position of authority. But as so typically is the case, they didn't attempt to make their case directly. They came at it obliquely by criticizing his choice for a wife. She was Cushite, they said, as if that said it all. God had not forbidden an Israelite marriage to a Cushite, so they were either voicing a prejudice against Cushites in general and included Moses' wife, or were simply reaching for anything with which to criticize Moses.  Verse 2, however, gets at the real issue, "Does the LORD speak only through Moses? Does He not also speak through us?"
    
    Jealousy is not logical, though. In what way were they going to benefit themselves by criticizing Moses? Would it make them more important by making him look less credible? And if so, more important in whose eyes? Actions driven by jealousy are ugly and bring ugly results. But on this occasion God intervened before the circumstances had a chance to deteriorate. Not only were Miriam and Aaron blind to the fact that they could not possibly benefit by this criticism of Moses, they were also blind to the fact that it was ultimately God of whom they were being critical. Moses had not sought the role he was fulfilling with Israel. He wanted to avoid it. It was God who chose Moses and gave him the position of being His spokesperson and mediator to the people. In the beginning Aaron had often served as the mouthpiece, but Moses was the one to whom God gave His messages. It was God with whom they were ultimately dissatisfied. And God did not remain silent in the face of their criticism.
    
    God called for Moses and his siblings to go to the tabernacle together. When they got there the Lord descended in a "pillar of cloud," and summoned Aaron and Miriam to step forward. Then He spoke to them and validated Moses as His unequivocal spokesperson. Though God spoke in visions and dreams with His prophets, He spoke directly with Moses, for Moses was "faithful in all My household." (12:7) When God left and the cloud lifted, Miriam was left with a skin disease which was evidently already in an advanced form. Miriam found herself at Moses' mercy to mediate on their behalf before the Lord, which Moses did. But God refused to heal her immediately. In any other case of a person being unclean they would have to stay outside the camp for seven days before they became ceremonially clean. This, too, was to be Miriam's fate. Her sin and punishment were made public to the whole Israelite camp. Besides the knowledge of her confinement outside the camp, Israel's travel to the next destination was delayed until her confinement was complete.