Rev. David Holwick ZB Make It Count, #9
First Baptist Church (original date cancelled by Hurricane Irene)
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 4, 2011
Numbers 12:1-8
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I. Maybe they ARE out to get you.
A. Stabbed in the back.
1) Julia Popova, a 22-year-old Russian woman, was walking home
from work when someone tried to snatch her purse.
She couldn't fight the man off, so after losing her handbag
she just went home.
As she walked in the door, her horrified parents discovered
a six-inch knife buried just an inch from her spine.
A photo of her on the internet shows a deeply embedded
knife sticking straight out of her back.
At first I thought it was fake, one of those movie props
like the arrow that fits around your head.
But it was the real thing.
A line of blood streamed down her back.
2) What literally happened to Julia can figuratively happen
to us.
Co-workers or even family members will try to cut you
down a notch so they can move up.
Henry Kissinger, who was an expert in surviving palace
intrigues in the White House, once said
"Even a paranoid can have enemies."
#63447
3) Moses had some enemies.
a) They were in his own family - all of his siblings.
b) The root was jealousy for his spiritual status.
B. Ultimately, your problem is not other people.
1) Our opposition can be real, and it can hurt.
2) But the real issue is to know who you are and what you
are about.
3) God has given you what you need to thrive.
4) It is up to you to take hold of it.
II. Israel's "First Family."
A. Aaron was the high priest.
1) Jews named "Cohen" trace themselves back to him.
a) Genetic research has given surprising support to this
claim.
2) Aaron was in charge of the religious observances of Israel.
a) The sacrifices and rituals were all controlled by him.
3) With Moses, he had confronted Pharaoh and led the Exodus.
a) He also caved in to the people when they wanted a
golden calf, and agreed to make them one.
b) But he never really owned up to it.
"I took their gold, threw it in the fire, and this
calf popped out!"
c) He was a good sidekick, but no leader.
B. Miriam was their sister.
1) She is the one who put baby Moses in a papyrus boat in
the Nile.
2) She also saw to it that Moses' mother got to be his nurse
after he was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter.
3) Miriam had a special role as a prophetess. Exod 15:20
a) She received messages from God for the people.
b) She led them in singing and worship at some critical
points during the Exodus.
C. Moses, of course, was the main leader.
1) He was the spokesman for the whole nation, even though
he wished someone else would do it.
a) He was the mediator between God and the people.
b) He consistently followed God with integrity.
2) Moses was the leader, but everyone in the family had
spiritual status and responsibility.
III. Grumbling gets personal.
A. Aaron and Miriam took snipes at Moses' wife.
1) They didn't so much as complain to him, as they did to
everyone else.
2) For some reason they thought she reflected badly on him.
B. It is emphasized that she was a Cushite.
1) Scholars disagree on what to make of this.
2) Cush was a traditional name for Ethiopia.
a) If the wife was from there, she would be black.
b) Perhaps the siblings are motivated by racial prejudice,
although the text doesn't state it.
3) Another Bible passages seems to place Cush in the Sinai.
a) If this is the case, the wife might be Zipporah.
b) Perhaps it was a way to put down these tribes (and
Zipporah) because they were darker-skinned than Jews.
C. Most scholars see this woman as a new wife.
1) Verse one seems to view it as a new marriage.
2) In any case, the wife is not the real issue.
a) The real issue is jealousy.
b) "Aren't we special too?" 12:2
3) Their gripe may have been triggered by the events in ch. 11.
a) Seventy more people had been empowered by the Spirit.
b) Maybe Aaron and Miriam felt their franchise was
being unfairly diluted.
c) Pretty soon they would be nobodies.
IV. Moses shows his true character.
A. He doesn't seem to defend himself.
1) Instead, it is stated that he is a very humble man.
2) For emphasis, it adds that he is more humble than anyone
else - in the world.
B. A rather awkward sentence.
1) Tradition says Moses wrote the first five books of Bible.
a) Would he write this about himself?
b) That would contradict the statement!
2) It is likely that a later editor added this lines, which
is why the NIV puts parentheses around it.
C. The root meaning is someone who puts their trust in God.
1) One commentator says it describes someone who is caught
in a trap and cannot expect help from anyone but God.
a) He trusts God completely and surrenders to him.
b) When Jesus talks about the meek who inherit the
earth, this is the kind of person Moses was.
1> Perhaps this is why Moses never responds to Miriam's
challenge.
2> He leaves it to God.
2) This kind of meekness is not a character trait so much as
a faith commitment.
D. Miriam's challenge shows that she is not meek.
1) When she whines, "Hasn't God also spoken through us?" it is
obvious that he has - she is acknowledged as a prophet.
a) Micah 6:4 lists all three of them as leaders.
2) Miriam really wants more.
a) She wants power. Authority. Attention. The spotlight.
b) Presumably she wants the people to give it to her.
V. God calls a conference.
A. The tiki torches get lit.
1) Whereas "Survivors" ends with a tribal conference, Num. 12
has a theophany - God himself makes a grand entrance.
2) God is described in very human terms.
B. God has special ways to communicate to humans. 12:6
1) Normal prophets receive visions and dreams.
2) Moses gets something better.
a) Face to face, with clear communication.
b) He even sees God's form.
1> This is another controversial statement.
2> The New Testament is clear that humans cannot
see God.
1 Timothy 6:16 - "[God] alone is immortal and ...
lives in unapproachable light, whom no one
has seen or can see."
3> It could be figurative rather than literal.
A> When Moses does see God, he sees only his
"backside."
B> So he sees a form but not the essence.
C. God departs and judgment falls.
1) Miriam is left leprous.
a) Obvious skin condition, but not modern leprosy.
b) Why was she only one to get it?
1> Some say God is a sexist, or at least the Bible
writers are.
2> More likely because she is the instigator of the
revolt.
2) Aaron pleads for mercy and admits guilt.
3) Moses intercedes to God for her healing.
VI. God has a place for all of us.
A. Not everyone is supposed to be a leader.
1) He gives each of us a job, and what we will need to
fulfill it.
2) Lots of people, like Miriam, want to second-guess God.
a) Someone sent me a link to a story about a transgendered
10-year-old.
The family allows him to dress up as a girl, and calls
him "her."
Only the grandfather thinks it is ridiculous to let a
child make a far-reaching decision like this, now.
#63448
b) Many are dissatisfied with what they are, and want
to change it.
1> The key is inner change, by God's Spirit.
B. Don't be blinded by pride and greed.
1) Don't compare yourself to others.
2) Accept what God has given you.
VII. Moses is good but Jesus is better.
A. The New Testament draws a lesson from this passage.
1) In Hebrews 3, Moses is the great servant over God's house.
2) Jesus is better - he is God's son.
a) Moses could see God's form.
b) Jesus IS God's form.
B. Don't “dis” the one God has chosen.
1) Miriam and Aaron were judged for challenging Moses.
2) Many of you are actually challenging Jesus.
a) Will you accept what God says of him?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#63447 “Stabbed In The Back,” David Holwick, adapted from "Woman Stabbed
In The Back Doesn’t Feel It," by Ron Hogan, February 4, 2010,
<http://www.popfi.com/2010/02/04/woman-
stabbed-in-the-back-
doesn’t-feel-it/>
#63448 “Transgender 10-Year-Old, Jackie, Born A Boy, Happier As A Girl,”
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/31/transgender-10-year-
old-j_n_943654.html>, August 31, 2011.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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Expositors
I. Surprise-filled episode.
A. Unusual elements:
1) Stunning that opponent is his own sister.
a) Verbs show she is instigator, not Aaron.
b) Attack on women? No, she is not demeaned.
1> She was important in his life.
A> She put him in a boat in the Nile.
B> She arranged for his mother to care for him.
2> She sang the first psalm in the Bible.
2) No warning of attack on his wife.
a) Seems to be a smoke screen.
b) Same person as Zipporah?
c) Cush is usually identified as Ethiopia.
1> Exaggeration due to Zipporah's darker skin?
2> Racist slander?
d) More likely, a new wife.
1> First verse seems to emphasize marriage.
2> Perhaps Zipporah had died.
B. Real issue: why is Moses God's favorite?
1) Sibling rivalry, but among adults.
2) God only speaks through Moses?
a) Micah 6:4 speaks of all three of them.
b) The prophetic gifting of the elders seems to have
provoked this attack.
1> (They didn't feel as special now)
II. Most humble man.
A. Unlikely he wrote this about himself.
1) Self-contradictory.
a) But Jesus also spoke of himself as humble. Matt 11:29
b) (But he didn't add, more than all the people on earth)
2) Used to attack Mosaic authorship of Pentateuch.
B. Possibilities.
1) He is speaking under inspiration.
2) Someone else wrote it about him.
3) "Meek" should be translated "miserable."
III. God's intervention.
A. "At once" - shows its importance to God.
1) God descends in a cloud.
a) Similar to what Jesus did in incarnation.
2) God comes down for wrath as well as grace.
B. Oracle is in form of poetry.
C. How Moses saw God.
1) His experience is more intimate than regular prophets.
a) Sees God face to face.
b) NT denies this can happen. John 1:18
1> Did he see preincarnate Christ?
2) He is described as God's servant.
a) Abraham was also described like this.
D. Why were you not afraid?
1) A chilling hint of what is to come.
IV. Miriam stricken.
A. Leprosy made her an outcast.
1) Seven days is minimum time of uncleanness.
B. She is shamed, then restored.
Riggans
I. Reason for anger at Cushite not clear.
II. In 11:28 Joshua shows misplaced loyalty, In 12:1, Miriam and Aaron
show misplaced disloyalty.
III. God protects himself by not giving all of himself in his revelations
to the not-holy world.
Wenham
I. Rebellion ties in with previous episodes.
A. Less serious, but represents rebellion by priest and prophet.
B. Moses' vindication is dramatic.
1) His position and office prefigures Jesus in NT.
II. Personal grumble is coupled with challenge of spiritual authority.
A. Cushite wife.
1) Probably second wife, from Ethiopia.
2) Objections to her are not explained.
3) Perhaps not arbitrary - marriage symbolizes God's covenant
with Israel.
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