Aaron and Miriam rise up against Moses
12
📚And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married (for he had married an Ethiopian woman). 2 📚And they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken also through us?” And the LORD heard it. 12:1-2 Moses’ first wife was Zipporah, a Midianite (Ex 2:15-16, 21; 2:1). It would seem from this verse that she had died and Moses had remarried. His wife was an Ethiopian woman. Moses’ brother and sister used this as an occasion to speak against Moses. But it is clear from v 2 that they were not satisfied to be subordinate to Moses and were rebelling against his leadership. They were not content to be in the position God gave them. This is a grievous sin – see note at Num 16:9-11. We must learn to accept the position God gives to us in His Church. Struggling and striving for position and honors is not Christ’s way (Ps 75:6-7; Matt 20:25-28; 23:11-12; Luke 17:10). Our concern should not be to gain a high place but to be zealous and faithful in the place where God has put us, and to seek His honor, not our own. Note at 16:1-2.⚜
3 📚(Now the man Moses was very meek, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
12:3 The Bible records both the virtues and sins of God’s people. Moses meekly endured the verbal attacks and rebellion of his brother and sister. He did not defend himself. He did not consider his prestige. In this he was a great example to us all. Christ was an even greater example (Isa 53:7; Heb 12:2-3; 1 Pet 2:21-23).⚜
4 📚And the LORD spoke suddenly to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, “You three come to the tabernacle of the congregation”. And the three of them came. 5 📚And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the doorway of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. 6 📚And he said, “Listen now to my words. If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known to him in a vision 📖, and will speak to him in a dream 📖.
12:6 This was one way God used to reveal His truth to the people then. He frequently made use of visions and dreams.⚜
7 📚Not so with my servant Moses who is faithful in all my household. 8 📚With him I will speak mouth to mouth 📖, and openly, and not in riddles. And he sees the form 📖 of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
12:4-8 Sometimes God lets His servants suffer opposition, rebellion, and slander for a long time, but here it was necessary for the good of His people to speedily judge the case and vindicate Moses.⚜
9 📚And the anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them.
10 📚And the cloud went up from the tabernacle, and immediately Miriam became leprous, white as snow. And Aaron looked at Miriam, and saw that she was leprous 📖. 11 📚And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not lay this sin to our account, which we have foolishly committed and of which we are guilty. 12 📚Do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb”.
12:11-12 Aaron’s anguish and repentance are clear. He calls Moses “my lord” (here meaning my master or my leader), and there is no reason to think he ever rebelled again.⚜
13 📚And Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “Heal her now, O God, I beg you”.
14 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “If her father had only spit in her face, should she not be ashamed for seven days? Have her confined outside the camp for seven days, and after that let her be received inside again”.
12:14 Even when sin is forgiven it is right for the guilty to bear something of the consequences of it. Note at 14:22-23.⚜
15 📚And Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days; and the people did not set out until Miriam was brought in again.
16 📚And afterwards the people moved from Hazeroth, and camped in the desert of Paran.