“When she
(Jochebed, Moses’ mother) could hide him (Moses) no longer, she took for him a
basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among
the reeds by the river bank. And his
sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.” Exodus 2:3-4.
ESV. “And Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed
gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea’” –Exodus 15:21
(ESV). “And when the cloud removed from
the tent, behold, Miraim was leprous like snow…So Miriam was shut outside the
camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was
brought in again.”(Numbers 12:10, 15 (ESV) “For I brought you up from the land
of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent before you
Moses, Aaron, and Miriam” Micah 6:4. (ESV).
The Bible teaches us much about the role
of Moses in the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and of his leading the
people to the edge of the land promised to them. We also hear of Aaron who was the spokesman
for Moses and on whose leadership rested the spiritual instruction of the people
and the beginning of the Levitical priesthood.
But their sister Miriam does not have as prominent a part in the annals
of the story of the Israelites. She is
mentioned briefly in several places, which helps us to know she survived the
exile and returned with the freed captives as they left Egypt and went to
possess the Promised Land. We see big
sister Miriam first as babysitter for her little brother Moses whom their
mother Jochebed was trying to save from the Egyptian Pharaoh’s edict to kill
all the male children. Miriam was set
the dangerous task of staying down by the reed-ridden waters of the Nile and
watching the bulrush basket in which rested the precious cargo of her baby
brother, Moses. When Pharaoh’s daughter
came to bathe, she found the bulrush basket and the live baby boy. Can’t you imagine how stirred to fear Miriam
was by the discovery? Would her baby
brother be killed immediately according to the edict of the king? But the Egyptian princess took pity on the
crying baby and wanted to save him.
Miriam did some quick thinking, indeed, for a child, and offered to go
find a nursemaid from among the Hewbrew women.
Of course, she found her own mother, Jochebed, who was able to nurse the
baby and then give him safely into the hands of the Pharaoh’s daughter. He was who given the name Moses, meaning “drawn
out of the water.”
We can only imagine the distress of
Miraim and Moses’ parents (if they were still alive at the time) when he killed
an Egyptian overseer because of his cruel treatment to the Hebrews. He had to flee and hide out in Midian, where,
as a tender of his father-in-law Jethro’s flocks, he had the experience of the
burning bush, returned to Egypt, and sounded the persistent message of “Let my
people go!” to the Pharaoh, with the subsequent ten plaques sent upon the
Egyptians at the hand of God. We don’t
hear from Miriam during this period as Moses and Aaron are the major leaders of
the Exodus movement. However, after the
parting of the Red Sea and the safe crossing of the Israelites, Miriam appears
again. She is among those leading out in
the song of victory and is oftentimes termed a prophetess. Her song is one of praise and victory: “Sing
to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has
thrown into the sea.” As they sang
the victory song, they accompanied it with tambourines and danced before the
Lord with the people on the banks of the Red Sea. What a glorious sight that must have been in
that desert wilderness.
Our next glimpse of Miram is as the “big
sister” who seeks to criticize Moses for marrying a Cushite woman (see Exodus
12 for this confrontation as Miram and Aaron questioned the authority of
Moses). It is not clear whether this is
Moses’ second marriage—or if it is in reference to his marriage to Zipporah
(Exodus 2:16-22), his known first wife.
Some scholars believe that Midian and Cush were names for the same area;
others believe the woman from Cush may have been from Ethiopia and hence
African. The controversy was more over
Moses’ authority, which they questioned, than his marriage. God revealed Himself in a pillar of cloud and
verified the authority and leadership of Moses in a statement of his worth
found in Exodus 12:6-8. Following this
encounter, Miriam was afflicted with leprosy.
Was this a punishment for her failure to recognize her brother Moses as
the called and ordained leader of the people?
The Israelites would have considered it so. But Moses, even though having to separate and
quarantine her, nevertheless prayed for her healing. And after the seven days of separation—time
enough for Miriam to consider her mistrust of both God and Moses, she was
readmitted to the camp. Even the march
from Hazeroth in the wilderness of Paran was delayed until Miriam recovered and
could travel with them. This should have
taught Miriam much about the compassion and concern of her younger brother
Moses. As they continued on their
journey, Miriam died in the wilderness of Zin and was buried at Kadesh-barnea
(Numbers 20:1). This sister of the great
leader of the Israelites was lauded in subsequent literature as an example of
one who had leprosy, (Deut. 24:9), but also as a great leader numbered with her
brothers Moses and Aaron (Micah 6:4).
We see Miriam as an example of a caring
sister, a sharing sister, a condemning sister, and a corrected and redirected
sister. Family relationships have always
been important in the plan and purpose of Almighty God. Take time now to thank God for your family
heritage and for your present role as a contributing, loving family member,
whether it be child, sibling, spouse, parent, or other family
relationship. Like with Miriam, may we
be remembered more for our caregiving and our praise and thanksgiving rather
than our fault-finding and blaming relationships.
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