Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses
1 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.)
Miriam was a prophetess and Aaron was the High Priest as appointed by the Lord. Both of them had been chosen by God to support and help the one he had chosen to lead his people – Moses. It would seem though, that Miriam had an issue with Moses’ wife and began a grievance which she then shared with Aaron. Aaron then seems to have taken on the offense of his sister and together they were complaining against Moses. They began to show pride where they were considering themselves just as anointed and important as Moses, and somehow his position was lessened by their very human opinion of his wife. Pride is the greatest of sins in God’s eyes and he heard them and knew their hearts. Moses, however, paid them no mind – being a very humble man. He knew his position with God and was not moved by the opinions of men, even though they were close family to him. He did not even complain to God about them – but God heard.
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?”
God summons the three of them and puts Aaron and Miriam in their places, giving them a very real comparison on how different he spoke with Moses compared to themselves. He rebukes them and asks why they they were not afraid to speak against him seeing as how inferior they were to Moses. God compared Moses to a friend that one speaks with face to face, rather than an acquaintance who is spoken with through indirect means. He reveals that he is insulted and angry with them that they should dare to assume that they held the same standing with him as their brother did.
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[a]—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.”
There is no more clear sign of God’s displeasure then when he removes his presence. But in addition to his presence lifting, they discover that Miriam has become leprous. God often used this illness as punishment, fitting in that it literally eats the skin and causes the skin to die and fall off in layers. This could be to symbolize the way that pride and discontent eats away at our spirits and our relationships. Miriam wasn’t just leprous – the disease was at such an advanced stage that her skin was white as snow. This means the solid flesh was losing it consistency, becoming petrified and dead. Aaron recognizes the advanced stage of the disease and begs Moses for forgiveness. Oddly, it wasn’t Moses who was angry with them and therefore didn’t need to forgive them – it was God they should have requested forgiveness from. At the same time though, showing this submission to Moses was in essence a repentant act – reversing his prideful words of late.
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. 16 After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.
Moses interceded on Miriam’s behalf to the Lord. God decides to heal her, but she has to stay outside the camp in shame according to the laws God gave in Leviticus concerning skin diseases. Once she was declared clean, she would be able to re-join the camp. The entire camp did not move until she was able to re-join them.
Footnotes
Numbers 12:10 The Hebrew for leprous was used for various diseases affecting the skin.
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Numbers 13
Exploring Canaan
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”
3 So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. 4 These are their names:
from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zakkur;
5 from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
6 from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
7 from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
8 from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;
9 from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
10 from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
11 from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi;
12 from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
13 from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
14 from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
15 from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki.
16 These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.)
17 When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, “Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. 18 See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. 19 What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? 20 How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
God directs Moses to send a leader from each tribe to explore the new land that God has promised to them. It would seem that the people did not really believe that the land was good that God was sending them to. He told them to send spies to prove his word as truth. (Deuteronomy 1:22) They did not truly trust God and needed to witness it with their own eyes. This is the reason the leaders were chosen to go – men of reputation and leadership who could convince the rest of their tribe the truth of God’s goodness. Moses gives instruction on what to look for in their reconnaissance.
21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they reached the Valley of Eshkol,[a] they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. 25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.
They travel in the new land for 40 days – taking a good amount of time to survey the land. It is probable that they broke into smaller groups to infiltrate more efficiently. They collected fruit and intel as Moses commanded. It is remarkable that the people could stand to wait for the report of the spies. Here they were – on the border of their promise, ready to enter, but they distrusted God. They listened to their own minds and gave in to worry, doubt and unbelief and so ended up just sitting and waiting to see if God was faithful instead of just taking him at his word and following his command for the next step into the promised land.
Report on the Exploration
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
The spies return with proof that the land was just as wonderful as God has foretold. But in the same breath they give a report of fortification and impenetrability. They confirm God’s assessment of the land, but deny that he can give it to them. They see the forces only in their own power and acknowledge that they are not strong enough to conquer the land – forgetting completely that God did not say they would TAKE the land, but that God would GIVE them the land. Even in the face of proof of God’s goodness, they still stood in doubt in his word – they just could not trust in him. They preferred to lean on their own understanding.
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
Caleb was the only one (backed by Joshua) who trusted God. He saw the promise, the goodness of God, right there – just waiting for them to take possession. He knew that God would prevail and speaks with confidence. Notice – he doesn’t say that they should go and TAKE it – he says “we should go up and possess it” – exactly the words God used in his promise to them. The righteous believe that all things are possible when they believe in God’s promises.
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
The men who went with Joshua and Caleb were so convinced of their own understanding of the situation and their inability to take the land that they not only gave their bad report to Moses, but also spread it throughout the camp. This would effectively discourage all of the people, especially since these were leaders of their tribes. The people would believe them over Joshua and Caleb – and even God. Their hearts would shrink in their chests and they would be afraid to move forward. It was this fear, doubt, and unbelief that would cause them to stay in the desert until they died. Those who did not believe they could have the promise of God – did not receive the promise of God. This lesson should be remembered – if God said it, it must be so! Do not doubt! Do not rely on your own strength or understanding – trust God alone! Amen!
Footnotes
Numbers 13:23 Eshkol means cluster; also in verse 24.
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