Moses, a Meek Leader

“Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.  And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, ‘Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.  And the three of them came out.  And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.  And He said, ‘Hear My words.  If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.  Not so with my servant Moses.  He is faithful in all My house.  With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord.’”Exodus 12:3-8 (ESV. Read Exodus 12).

Following the Israelite’s complaints about their life of wandering in the wilderness, although the Lord was protecting them and providing manna for food, and even the quail that came and they gathered up as food, there was still great discontent, even with some asking “Why did we come out of Egypt?” (Exodus 11:20).  Seventy elders were appointed as prophets and the Spirit of the Lord was upon them.  Because of the people’s greed in gathering more of the quail than actually needed for food, a plague hit them and many met their deaths.  We might think in our day that all of these actions and their consequences are harsh punishment for a throng of people trying to weld themselves into a nation and get to the place God had promised for their homeland.  And then a further rift came in the problems with which Moses had to deal.  His sister Miriam and his brother Aaron became angry with Moses.  The reason they gave was that he had married a Cushite woman.  It is not quite clear whether this reference to Moses’ wife is the same as Zipporah, called in another place a Midianite (Exodus 2:16-22).  Some scholars think Midian and Cush were different names for the same place.  Others contend that Cush was in Ethiopia, and that this referred to Moses’ second wife who may have been of a different racial or ethnic descent. But Miriam and Aaron were evidently using their sister-in-law’s non-Jewish ancestry as a reason for complaint, when actually they were jealous of their brother Moses because he was held in higher esteem than Miriam, a prophetess, and Aaron, the high priest. 

It was time for a confrontation, and God called the three to convene before the tent of meeting.  God appeared to them in a pillar of cloud and gave the method in which God speaks to a prophet, in visions and dreams, compared to how He spoke to Moses, directly, mouth-to-mouth.  As punishment for her complaints against God’s chosen leader Moses, Miriam was afflicted with leprosy, a skin disease considered “unclean,” for which she had to stay outside the camp for seven days.  Moses’s prayer for his sister’s healing was effective, and the leprosy left her body.  The people could then leave the camp at Hazeroth and move onward to the wilderness of Paran.  An object lesson is in this action of Miriam and Aaron’s rebellion and Moses’ handling of the situation.  Moses remained meek and dependent on God, despite the complaints against him.  To go to the tent of the Lord for an answer was indicative of Moses’ seeking the wisdom of God and the surety that He would intervene to settle the volatile situation over leadership. 

Prayer and meditation:  What can we learn from this long-ago confrontation about leadership?  God has His purposes and it is well for people to seek out and find what His best intentions are for a people and a nation.  Today, our national election day, some will be pleased with the results of the votes; others will find great disappointment and fault.  But through it all, God has a purpose and an intended outcome.  It is wise if we seek out and find what God intends and what He would have us do to obey, cooperate and follow.  Let us pray that America can follow Him and our elected leaders, praying that we all may have godly wisdom and saintly determination.