Miriams Healing, with Study Guide (Footprints From the Bible)

---

God gave the church prophets. It was one of the foundational gifts, because the Word was not completely written. They not only foretold, but they gave forth new revelation. Now that does not happen anymore. When the Scripture was complete, there was no need for further revelation.

But, we do see today that there is a gift of prophecy. This is 1 Corinthians 12, New Testament, verses Now you are the body of Christ [ he is saying this to all the Corinthians ], and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles [ they were the ones who came and gave the message with authority and built the church ], second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.

There were other people in the Bible, women, that were called prophets. In fact, he says that in Micah 6: I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. It was a very important thing for you to see how privileged she was, and how influential she was. Try to imagine for yourself what it was like as Israel began her journey to the Promised Land. Miriam was involved in everything that happened. She heard the complaining when food ran out, and she saw God send the manna every single day for forty years, except Saturday.

She picked her share of manna for her family. Now, the Bible does not tell us that she was married, but Jewish tradition says that she married a man named Hur. There was Aaron on one side and Hur on the other. She heard the awesome voice of God as he thundered from Mount Sinai and gave them his Law. The women were very important in the finishing of that project.

Women brought their gold and silver jewelry; their earrings and nose rings and bracelets and rings; their expensive fabrics and their fine yarns, to offer them before the Lord. Willing women, skilled in weaving and sewing and embroidery worked on all the coverings and the curtains. It tells us that in Exodus Miriam had to be at the head of the line.

She was the leader of the women, and she was a pacesetter. But, something happened to change Miriam--the protective sister, the prophetess who led the women and supported her brother—into his rival. What happened in that two years that it took them to travel from Egypt to the border of the Promised Land? Did her position go to her head? Did the fact that the women looked up to her fill her with pride? Miriam had not usurped leadership! I want you to understand this. She was given leadership by God; but with leadership comes great responsibility.

I wonder if she resented the way Moses handled some things. Moses was a humble man. And so, something began to erode her wholehearted support for Moses. Why should Moses have the final word? Aaron was the high priest. She was a prophetess. They really ought to be equal! You see, instead of being thankful for the influence that God had given her, she wanted more power, more authority, and sometimes when that happens, we lose our influence.

Now something occurred to give them the opportunity they needed to cover their real motives. Turn to Numbers Apparently his first wife, Zipporah, whom he had married forty-two years before, was dead. He has taken another wife, which I find is usually the pattern! But, anyway, he took another wife. She came from the land of Cush, which was around Ethiopia.

Cush was a descendant of Ham, who settled down in that area of Africa, and in southern Arabia. The woman probably was darker skinned. This has overtones of racial prejudice. There was nothing in the Law to forbid his marrying this woman. There were some they were not to marry. They were not to marry any of the Canaanites, or any of the Moabites, but there was nothing forbidding them to marry Cushites. It was strictly a personal thing. That might have been it. Miriam had been very important all those years. In any case, this became a platform that Miriam and Aaron used to advance their own authority to equality with Moses.

They began to talk about Moses. To whom did they talk? It spread among the women as they picked the manna and as they worked together and they ground it, and as they cooked. Look what they say; now their real motive comes out! See, the smoke screen is talking about this woman from another race that he had married, but now it really comes out! Most of us have done this, motivated by pride, jealousy, and envy, we tear down other people or we rebel against the leadership that God has placed over us. The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.

Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. Has your tongue been a destructive influence in your life, or has it brought blessing and healing? Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. I can remember when we were raising our first son, who was the most difficult child to raise. He would just tick me off, and I would scream and say all kinds of things.

I was not very grateful for her interference, I have to tell you! That week, I was reading Scripture and in Proverbs the Lord just gave me a verse that pierced my heart. God really used that. Look at Numbers Look at that phrase at the end of verse 2: The cloud comes down, see? When both of them stepped forward, he said, "Listen to my words:. This is an anthropomorphism. I speak to Moses as clearly as possible, because Moses is my servant--my faithful servant. Whenever there is anything that the senses can perceive in the Old Testament, it is always the Son who reveals the Father.

I deal with him differently. Look at the end of verse 8: Now turn to Romans I would like for us to have a little bit of present-day application of this. Romans 13 is the definitive New Testament passage on authorities. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

This is pretty scary, but you see, everyone lives under some kind of authority. Women who are married live under the headship of their husbands--not inferior--equal in personhood, but willingly taking a place of submission to the one God has given the responsibility to lead them. In the church we have leaders—our elders, pastor, deacons whatever you call them —they are our church leaders. As long as they are consistent in obedience to the Word of God, we are to support them and to follow their leading. Every authority is established by God. Therefore, rebellion is against God.

Rebellion is against God! Do you resent the fact that you have someone supervising you at work? You just really are not into that very much. You like to be on your own. Rebellion is against God. Do you discount or dishonor the leaders of your church? Rebellion is against God, and this brings judgment! It brought judgment to Miriam.

Walk Around the Site

When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam — leprous, like snow. Is she the instigator?

If there is any question I will lean that way! In this case, I think we have to really face it that Miriam was the instigator. She was the one who started this.

What was so terrible about leprosy? It was something you could see! The LORD said to Moses, "Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has an infectious skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them. So, anyone with leprosy had to go outside the camp and stay there until the leprosy left them. Now what was it that Miriam wanted?

She wanted more power, more influence, and more prominence.

Follow by Email (On A Journey is Footprints From the Bible)

She will not even have contact with human beings. That is an unbelievable judgment! A lot of us have this within our hearts, and I think this works both ways! I think we have to recognize that whatever covering God has given us, inside we are all alike. God has fashioned all of our hearts alike, and he has made all men of one blood. We may have personal preferences in whom we marry and whom we want our children to marry. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy; and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.

Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away. Aaron is the high priest. Notice what he says in verse I think the emotion underlying the passage lets us see how much these two brothers really loved their older sister. Now look at v. Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back. I have rebuked and punished her. Even though I will heal her, there needs to be some public humiliation. Why was this necessary? I think the more prominence we have, the more responsibility we have.

Because of sin, we can take so many people with us! The sin had been a public violation of trust, all in the name of the Lord. I hate seeing all of this happen on TV and in the papers, and the papers really camp on it, you know! It is a discipline from the Lord. If they were good people, the sin is so bad that it needs to be exposed. We must not protect what is wrong. How can you judge anybody? The Bible tells us we are to judge that!

They are going to lose your friendship. They are going to lose your support. They are going to lose your companionship. Sometimes that is what God uses. Do you understand the difference there, girls? In this case, Miriam, the leader of women, the prophetess who wanted to be equal with the leader God had appointed, was outside the camp alone for seven days. What do you think she thought of when she was there? What do you think she was like when she came back in? Not quite so sure of herself!

Do you think there was a loss of influence? Certainly, she was no longer on a pedestal! They are on the border of the Promised Land for the second time.

Similar authors to follow

She is still a woman of influence, because they record her death, but I am sure that there was a definite diminishing of the influence that she had. Now let me make the analogy for you! The Israelites were born in Egypt into slavery. No one signed up to be a slave. They were born into it and they could never get out of it by their own effort. Nothing could get them out of it, and for four hundred years they were born slaves in Egypt. The only way they could get out of Egypt was to believe on the leader God sent to deliver them, and to follow him out—and that was Moses!

And he delivered them. God did it; he used Moses. Now you and I are born slaves to sin. The Scripture says that. That sweet little baby that some of you brought here today and you hold in your arms, has a sin nature and is a slave to sin by birth! Now, there is nothing we can do to rescue ourselves from our sinful nature. The only thing we can do is to trust the deliverer God sent to rescue us.

The Bible says that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. He came to give his life for you, and for you, and for you, and for me—so that our sins could be forgiven! So that we could have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. We could have a divine nature. We could be ready for heaven. We can have access to God. Jesus Christ did that. He did it all. There is not anything we can add to it, but there is one thing we have to do. God gave Jesus Christ as his gift, and no gift is yours until you take it.

I need you to control me, so I trust you as the one who died in my place and rose from the dead. I trust you as my Savior, my God. You will have the Holy Spirit indwelling you forever. But you must do what the Israelites did. They had to believe on the leader God sent them, and they had to follow him out, and he will do the very same thing for you. I want you to turn to Philippians for a minute. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ [ and you do ], if any comfort from his love [ and you do ], if any fellowship with the Spirit [ and you have that ], if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Now can you imagine what would happen if everybody in this room, in the area where they ministered, in their church or in their home, had this attitude?

Now what is it that keeps us from doing that? What are the things that keep you from actively serving God in some area specifically? Busy-ness in things that are not as important! Miriam is also called a Prophetess - someone through whom God speaks.

But life in the wilderness is hard. In Numbers 12, this comes to the foreground. Hasn't he also spoken through us? So they challenge him on his marriage to a Cushite woman, his second wife. There is no consensus about whether this would have increased his status or decreased it. Most think dark skin was highly valued at that point in time, and the dissension might have been nothing more than petty jealousy between a wife and a sister.

Others emphasize the issue of racial purity and claim that people objected to Moses bringing mixed relationship into the community. And others think that his having two wives might have been the problem. In the face of this attack, Moses is silent. God, however, is anything but silent. God calls all three of them into the tent of meeting. He takes nothing away from them, including the honor of actually speaking to him at that very moment.

However, God also affirms his loyalty to Moses, proclaiming that he speaks to Moses face to face, while other prophets only hear God in visions and dreams. And suddenly Miriam comes down with a case of leprosy. Leprosy is a dreaded disease, and Moses immediately pleads to God on her behalf; she is healed.

• Red-N-Gold: Issue 32
• Taming Mad Max
• Loves Magic (Boadicea series)
• Knowing the Truth
• Sensible Ecstasy: Mysticism, Sexual Difference, and the Demands of History (Religion and Postmoderni