We've been seeing many dimensions of our awesome God in this series on Women of Faith, and we're going to be going into our 11th one. I'm going to read from Exodus chapter 2, beginning at verse 1. Here are the word of God. And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank. And his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the riverside. And when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. So the maiden went and called the child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed him. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. So she called his name Moses, saying, because I drew him out of the water. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word. And I pray that as we dig into your word, that it would become precious to us, more precious than gold, that you would open the eyes of our understanding and open our hearts to receive it and be sanctified by it. And I pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Well, Miriam was the older sister of Aaron and Moses, and even though she was overshadowed by both of her brothers, she plays a very significant role in three events in the book of Exodus and of Numbers. In Exodus chapter 2, she's a protective sister who saves his life. In Exodus chapter 15, she is the prophetess who helps Moses to sing an inspired oracle, a song of praise to God. And then some years later, she is pictured as an unhappy older woman who had the temerity to challenge Moses' leadership in Numbers chapter 12. But you know what? Despite that third sad incident, Micah 6 verse 4 still remembers her very positively on a level with Aaron and Moses as a woman of faith. Here's what it says. For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam." Now, in the context of that passage, he is outlining for these people who did not appreciate all of the blessings that God was strewing in their lives, he said, I've blessed you in many ways, and then he gives this verse as one of his blessings. So he's saying Miriam Even this many hundreds of years later, Miriam was seen as being a blessing sent from God to them, and I believe she was an incredible blessing to Israel. She obviously had a great deal of influence, and we'll look at her prophetic role, because it was especially in her prophetic role that God had sent her to bring some of His messages to His people. Now Numbers 26 verse 59 tells us a little bit more about her family. It says, the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi And to Amram she bore Aaron and Moses and their sister Miriam. Now you get the impression from that verse that Miriam was the younger sister, but when you look at all of the scriptures, everybody says, no, she's actually the firstborn. She's the oldest one. So it's just listing the brothers and then it mentions Miriam as well there. But here in that verse, we've got the names of all of the members of that five-member family. So you've got The parents, Amram and Jochebed, you got Miriam, and then you got Aaron, and then Moses. Moses was the baby of the family. But if we go back to Exodus 2, what I just read, we'll discover a third important fact about her. She was born into a pastor's home. Verse 1 simply says that her dad was from the house of Levi, and her mom was as well. But from the other passages in your outline, it's clear to me that her dad was a pastor, and he was actually the son of a pastor, and her mom came from a pastor's family as well. And from the stellar characteristics that we see in Aaron, Moses, and in Miriam, Even from an early age, it's clear that the parents have been teaching their children quite well. And so there was a rich heritage that God used to pass on the faith. Moses did not appear as a man of faith out of nowhere, right? He was the beneficiary of sacrificial and godly labors to ensure that covenant succession happened. Now here's the thing. That didn't happen because she was born in a pastor's home. Covenant succession does not happen automatically anywhere in anyone's home. In fact, I know quite a number of pastors who do not have covenant succession, who did not pass on the faith to their children. In fact, when I was growing up, it was almost proverbial that the pastor's kids were the most rotten kids. They were the bad ones in the bunch in the church. And somehow their preaching in the church did not transfer over into the home. So my point is not that it's a blessing that she was brought up in a pastor's home. The point is any home that saturates that home in the Word of God is set apart from other homes. And so the key is, does God's Word saturate your home in a way where you're passing on the faith to your children and in a way that will pass it on to their children after that? This had clearly happened for at least one family in Israel. And given the apostate status of the rest of Israel, this is, I think, pretty cool. And we'll come back to that in a little bit. But let's move on to the next point. Exodus 2, verse 2, gives us more insight into the home that she grew up in. It says, So the woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. Now that is not saying that if he had been ugly she would have tossed him. You know, on the surface it kind of looks that way, but the Hebrew is actually a lot richer than what the English gets across. The phrase that is rendered, saw that he was a beautiful child, actually shows an awareness of God's approval of this baby. Now, it's a little harder to get it across in the English, but here is how Stephen interprets it in Acts chapter 7, and I believe this was a prophetic-inspired interpretation. I'm reading from Acts 7 verse 20, which is an interpretation of Exodus 2 verse 2. He says, at this time, Moses was born and was well-pleasing to God. Literally, it was beautiful to God. And, and the word and is literally, with the result that he was brought up in his father's house for three months. So, here it doesn't just say that he was beautiful, it says he was beautiful to God. Now, every parent thinks their child is beautiful, right? Great-looking kid, even if he's not. But that's not the point here. That's not the point. Acts 7 interprets the Hebrew of Exodus 2-2 as if the parents knew something about God's good purpose in that child's life with the result that they hid him as long as they could. Now we don't base things on Hebrew tradition, but Hebrew tradition is 100% consistent in this case with the interpretation that Stephen gives of Exodus 2 verse 2. Hebrew tradition, external extra-biblical history, tells us that the parents received a revelation about Moses that Moses would be the deliverer of Israel in the future. Now whether that is, you know, entirely true or the specificity of the revelation, the inspired commentary in Acts 7 is sufficient to tell us they knew something. They knew something was going to be very significant about this child in God's eyes. Hebrews 11, 17 adds that they didn't just hide him out of parental instincts. Instead, it says, by faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of God's command. So it puts it all in the context of faith. Since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, it implies that they had indeed received some revelation prior to that. And this revelation from God not only gave them a faith to hide Moses, but it gave them a faith to not fear Pharaoh, and it gave them a faith to disobey Pharaoh. Yes, that disobedience of Pharaoh flowed from their faith according to Hebrews chapter 11. They were not doing this out of fear. They were doing this out of faith. So back to Exodus 2, let me read you a small portion from Eugene Carpenter's exegesis of Hebrew, the Hebrew of verse 2. He says it is not sufficient to merely translate the term by saying he was a good baby or he was a beautiful baby. The tendence of the word is theological. Of course, as his mother, she would have striven to save him, but her reaction is reinforced because she knew he was a special child. Her response was to risk Pharaoh's wrath at all costs and to hide him for three months because of the impression the infant made on her. The implications of Moses' appearance are oracular. By oracular he means they're prophetic. They are oracular in nature and theological to the core in its current canonical location. So basically what he's saying is that the Hebrew, if you understand the Hebrew, it is perfectly consistent with the interpretation that Stephen gives of it in Acts chapter 7. Now let's just stop there and consider this for a bit. This was not presumption. God's revelation gave the parents faith to know that Moses was tov, was special, however you want to translate that. God's revelation also gave them the backbone needed to resist Pharaoh and to fear God more than they feared the king. And here's the thing, we have revelation. When we immerse ourselves in the inscriptured revelation that God has given to us in the Bible, we have something that enables us to stand strong when others refuse to do so, that enables us to have courage when others refuse to make a difference. It is the scriptures that stir up our faith to attempt great things. Now, why did she hide Moses in the first place? Chapter one tells us, Pharaoh had commanded the midwives to kill the baby boys. And when they refused, Pharaoh made an edict. And he said, every Egyptian is responsible to make sure that no baby boy survives amongst the Israelite slaves. Everyone was mandated to be a whistleblower on the babies that had not been killed. So take a look at the last verse of chapter one. So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, every son who was born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive. Now child sacrifice to the god of the Nile was commonplace in Egypt. And yet this was something unusual. This was commanding a universal sacrificing of all child, male children of the Jews there. And it's amazing to me that this did not create an uprising amongst the Jews. But as we'll see in the next point, they had been reduced to slavery and they had a slave mentality. They were not fit to have an uprising. They did not have the moral courage or the worldview to be able to have the kind of uprising. Now Moses does, Acts 7 talks about that. Moses had this. He tried to rescue them by faith at the age of 40. A lot of people misinterpret that and they say that he was not acting in faith. No, Hebrews says he was. But they were, the rest of the Israelites were not ready to take risks. Now here's the point. Amram and Jochebed were. Okay? However, it's interesting that though they had faith and they didn't fear the king's commands at all, they took precautions. Right? And we can learn from that. Trust in God does not mean presumption. It does not mean laziness. It does not mean lack of preparedness. You can prepare for catastrophe in the future, not out of fear, but totally out of faith. when you're preparing for a rainy day. Now, there are two other ways that Amram, Jochebed, and the whole family stood out from most of the other Israelites and were different. The first way that they stand out is that they did not worship the gods of the Egyptians as the rest of the Hebrews did. Slaves were expected to adopt the gods of their masters, and many did. Here's what Joshua 24, verse 14, says about the majority of those Israelites. Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the river in Egypt. Serve the Lord." So that explicitly says that Israel as a whole worshiped the gods of Egypt when they were in Egypt. For Amram and Jochebed to refuse to do so was an act of treason against Pharaoh and was considered by the Pharaoh was considered by the Egyptians to be the mediating god. He was a god himself, mediating between the people and all of the other gods. And so this shows something special about the whole family, including Miriam. They were willing to be treated as rebels in order to worship the one and only true God of Israel. And Hebrews 11 is quite clear. They had faith in God even at this early juncture. They were different than the rest of the Hebrews. Now this second act of disobedience was also an act of rebellion against the king, and Hebrews 11 is explicit that it was a rebellion that flowed from faith in God. Too many modern Christians lack the faith of Amram and Jochebed. If the government says obey, they've misinterpreted Romans 13 to say, well, we've always got to have a blind obedience to anything that the civil government tells us to do. They don't realize that Romans 13 is describing an ideal government and the limits of government. And so these naive Christians don't ask whether the civil government even has the jurisdiction to be making the demands that the civil government is making. That's an important question to ask. They just passively obey. They don't have an ounce of resistance in their bones, which means they do not have the faith of this family in Egypt. Okay? If the government tells modern Christians that they must get a COVID-19 vaccine, they will just gladly submit. Well, they might grumble, but they will submit. If the government mandates that they send their children to government schools, they will gladly submit. Some might grumble a bit about how good the education is, but they will send. And they have sent in the past, right? They love being slaves. They might complain about their slavery from time to time, but they love the benefits of the leeks and the garlics too much. Amram, Jochebed, and their children were made of better stuff. This whole family stood out from the rest of the population. There is no way There is no way that the baby Moses could have been hidden for three months from their slave owners and from the other police that were around unless the whole family was a part of this resistance. Okay, so they were operating together as a team in this interposition. Now the point is, this family of faith exhibited their faith through resistance to tyrannical decrees. Many pastors during the War of Independence, if you read some of their sermons, and there are some fabulous political sermons that they've preached, said that resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. It is. But it's more than that. It is something that is an expression of faith, and Miriam was in on that as a child, at least to some degree. Now this would have been very hard for them to engage in because it would have required them to navigate some pretty significant subterfuge to hide this fact from their masters. Keep in mind that chapter 1 verses 10 through 22 makes it clear that all the Israelites were slaves. And when Pharaoh mandated the killing of all of the baby boys, it wasn't just the boys that were slaves. He wasn't getting rid of all of his slaves. No, the women, the children and all of the rest of the people were still slaves of Israel. They did not own their house, their food or anything else. And by the way, we speak of, you know, ourselves as being in slavery. And there's a sense in which that is true in America, because if the government taxes everything, it's declared as ownership of everything. It's a very ungodly thing. But hey, our slavery is very comfortable compared to theirs. Very, very comfortable. And theirs was not. If you glance at chapter 1, verse 14, you will notice that it says that their lives were bitter. Bitter. And interestingly, this is what Amram and Jochebed named Miriam. Bitterness. Miriam means bitterness. She was named after the bitterness of their bondage. And take a wild guess in your minds what the Greek form of Miriam is. It's Mary, which also means bitterness, you know, the mother of our Lord. may have been named after Miriam. She was the first one in the Bible anyway that had this name. I don't think it's a very popular name to name your kid Bitterness unless a heroine has owned that name before and she was definitely a hero even when she was in her youth. And so I think providentially this is great. It's a reminder to us that God calls us to live by faith no matter how bad our circumstances might be. Even in the midst of bitterness, we can live by faith. Now verses 3 through 4 show that Miriam was also protective of her younger brother. based on a couple of later Scriptures, I believe she probably was already receiving revelations from the Lord by this time. But whether that's true or not, Hebrews and Acts, and we'll look at a couple of other Scriptures, seem to indicate that the parents had already received some kind of a revelation by some means. And they knew that Moses was to be the deliverer, and Moses knew that he was to be the deliverer. Acts 7 is quite clear on that, and he supposed that his brethren would know that he would be their deliverer, but they were not ready for that. And Miriam was a big part of protecting this future deliverer of Israel. It says of Jochebed, verse 3, But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank, and his sister stood afar off to know what would be done to him. Now, while Josephus claims traditions of a special relationship between Miriam and the princess, we can't really know for sure. But it does seem very, very odd that all of this would work out so well, so smoothly, That is, it's odd if you don't believe in supernaturalism and the God of Providence like we do, right? This family actually did technically fulfill the letter of the law. You know, Pharaoh told them to throw their babies into the river. They threw the baby into the river, but kind of in a protective arc. So, letter of the law, not the spirit of the law that they did. But anyway, why did they pick a spot so near to where Pharaoh's daughter bathed? I mean, would this not be a breach of her privacy? And why was Miriam even allowed to be this close? Why wasn't she at work? There is a whole bunch of questions actually we could ask that we probably never will have the answers to. But the central idea is that Miriam is a protective oldest sibling who is trying to watch over her baby brother to the best of her ability. Did she carry over her protective habits into adulthood like some people claim? It's possible. It may explain some of her behaviors in Numbers chapter 12. But here, it's definitely a virtue. But the next verses of Exodus 2 show more cool character traits in Miriam, verses 5 through 9. Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river." Now, to even be within sight of where Pharaoh's daughter is bathing takes courage, enormous courage. But Miriam wanted to be available for whatever the Lord might providentially do. I see her as waiting to see what God will do, being ready to jump into action if there's anything dangerous that might happen. Verse 5 goes on. And her maidens walked along the riverside, and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. And when she opened it, she saw the child and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children. Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you? I mean, whoa, where did this child all of a sudden come from? I mean, keep in mind, verse four says she's a far off. watching from afar off, right? So to suddenly be right there at the right moment means that Miriam is ready at a moment's notice to seize any opportunity that might be there. God providentially made the baby cry and it touched the heart of this princess and boom, out of nowhere, Miriam appears and makes a fantastic suggestion, a very helpful suggestion to a princess who's like, I don't know what to do with a crying baby. How do I make a crying baby stop crying? And so she's just there ready to help. And verse 8, Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. So the maiden went and called the child's mother. Then Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. And so the woman took the child and nursed him. To me, this is such a cool story. It just warms my heart. I wouldn't be surprised if Miriam reminded Moses of this story from time to time. Moses, you wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me, you know, type of thing. But not only does the real mom, Jochebed, get to keep her son for another three to five years, some people say maybe even longer, she will have royal protection and royal wages during that whole time. What a cool, cool providence. You know, we talk about our God is an awesome God. This story just makes shivers go down your spine when you see how intricately and beautifully his providences work together. But think about Miriam, too. Her quick-wittedness, her resourcefulness, and her faithfulness played into Moses even being alive. There is a sense in which Moses owed her his life and lifestyle, and it may possibly, some people think, it may factor into the envy that Miriam feels of Moses in Numbers chapter 12. Moses, you wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me. Why am I neglected? Many people have written about the courage of Jochebed, but consider the courage and the care that Miriam exhibited. She had a servant's heart and a protective heart for her baby brother. She doesn't act shy in the least. She's just right there. Like many firstborns, she shows leadership and initiative, but she is also, I think, a wonderful model to boys and girls in our congregation to guard and to help and to protect and nurture the new babies as they come into the home. I think this is a fantastic training ground for parenthood. And Miriam is a great model of older sisters caring for younger children. She also positioned herself to be able to take advantage of whatever providence the Lord might bring her way and then instantly act upon it. Do you position yourselves to act on God's providences, what some books call divine appointments? You know, your divine appointment might be you know, a neighbor who comes by and wants to talk to you. Or it might be an inquisitive, you know, seat mate in an airplane like happened to Rodney earlier and you're wanting to read. Or it might be somebody's misdialed your number. There is nothing random in life, and we ought not to treat anything God brings our way as random, and we need to be prepared, I think, to seize those opportunities and see what God wants us to do with them. Also, don't discredit the small things that you do. Her simple willingness to serve ended up saving the life of Moses, but that in turn saved and delivered an entire nation. You never know what the small, faithful steps of obedience that you take will have upon the world. Also, don't discredit your small role in life. Miriam wasn't Aaron. She certainly wasn't Moses. But she was God's servant and Micah says that God sent her and Aaron and Moses before the children of Israel. He sent her. Comparing ourselves to others is a useless exercise. It just stirs up envy and strife. We ought not to do that. Be faithful where you are planted and believe that God is going to use you in exactly the ways that he desires. God has sent each of you with a special purpose. Each of you. And you need to believe that. Well, let's turn now to Exodus chapter 15 for the second major event. Miriam factors into the story of the exodus out of Egypt, which takes place all the way from Exodus 12 through 15. And we know that she would have been at home with Aaron during that Passover, you know, when the angel of death passed over them. and that they would have put the blood over the lintel. The story doesn't tell us, but simple logic tells you, Erin didn't die, ergo, they must have put that blood over their household doorpost. We know she saw all the miracles, and as a prophetess, the significance of those things wasn't lost on her. But we're just going to focus here on what is explicitly said in Exodus 15. I love the fact that Exodus 15 illustrates part singing. In this case, all of the main verses found in verses 1 through 9 were sung by the whole congregation, and at the end of each verse, it's just Miriam and the women who are singing using their musical instruments. They are singing the refrain that's found in verses 20 through 21. Let me go ahead and read that. Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea. Notice the dancing in worship. OK? Now, it wasn't ballerina dancing or swing dancing or country dancing. You know, the movements would not have been very extensive, because how many? Is it six million? Anyway, there was a lot of people packed into this area. So they're not going to be doing whirling dances and things like that. But the point is that the use of the body in worship is not neglected. We are not Gnostics who think that the body is unimportant. 1 Thessalonians 5.23 speaks of the importance of even our bodies being sanctified or set apart to the Lord. What does that mean? Our bodies being sanctified or set apart to the Lord? Well, one application you could give is consider your posture in worship. Is it a posture that glorifies God or not. Don't just consider, I'm worshiping the Lord in my spirit. Do you worship appropriately with your body? And I think it's worthwhile for each of us to examine ourselves on this point. Note also the use of musical instruments. I've written an entire book on the use of instruments in worship because there is a Gnostic tendency in even Reformed circles to spiritualize away all references to instruments and make it the instruments of our heart. Okay, there's nothing external, it's all within the heart. But these are real instruments and God loves quality instrumental music. And notice, too, that there were female players on instruments as well. Contrary to the non-instrumental viewpoint, it wasn't just Levite priests who played only at the sacrifices. And it wasn't just in temple services that it happened. In Psalm 68, verse 24, it says, the singers went before, the players on instruments followed after. Among them were the maidens playing timbrels. Bless God and the congregations. Congregations, plural, would be a reference to the synagogues. In other words, there was musical instruments accompanying singing in the temple. There was musical instruments accompanying singing in the synagogues, or the congregations, plural. And women contributed to the instrumental music. And note the fact that Miriam wasn't a worship leader of the whole congregation. I think that's significant. She wasn't talking. She wasn't preaching. She wasn't leading the whole congregation in prayer, something that 1 Timothy 2 verse 8 restricts to the males, to the men. She was the lead female singer who led the women in singing, not the men. Moses led the men. It was kind of an answer and an antiphonal response. In our music team, we try to have the male voice lead the whole congregation and the female voice lead the women's parts. That seems to be the pattern throughout the Bible. And note, too, that the women here, they're not in the least bit squeamish about God's violent victory and the floating bodies that are washing up onto the shore of all of these Egyptians. They rejoiced in God's judgments. They said amen to God's judgments. These were not Victorian women who fainted at the sight of blood. They rejoiced as they sang, sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea. So their attitude is hallelujah, praise God for his judgment. So they probably sang that same chorus at the end of each verse that Moses was leading. And again, it shows creativity in music. But this passage not only shows Miriam's prophetic gifts, her musical talents, it also shows her leadership of women. She was a woman of faith that had some very, very helpful talents. But we're moving on. Even faithful men and women can become proud, proud of what God has given them, and that can ruin the good reputation that they've already had. I've seen this over and over again, where even pastors foolishly ruin their reputations. If you turn to Numbers 12, You'll see that this heroine had her flaws. This is the third major mention of her in the scripture. As a result of her gossip and subordination and spread of discontent, she endangered the whole nation. She thought that what she was doing was good. But this was not a prophetic word. This was just her flesh showing up. Somehow Miriam talked Aaron into believing that Moses needed intervention, that he was taking too much upon himself, and it illustrates how easy it is for bitterness, envy, discontent, gossip, rebellion, and divisiveness to spread. Here Aaron took sides with her. And Moses, you just feel sorry for him. He's getting hammered from every direction. But he just constantly go to the Lord in prayer. Let's take a little bit closer look at this particular problem in Numbers 12. I see Miriam as the instigator here and Aaron as the passive leader who followed a critical spirit without realizing the sinful and destructive implications, that was his first fault, and without correcting it, that was his second fault. Given how easily Aaron is swayed by the people at the Golden Calf incident, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Miriam was kind of a leader in his life and influenced him throughout his whole life. But there are three distinct character problems that appear to have driven Miriam. First character problem was ethno-prejudice. Verse 1, then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman." Now there are some people who claim that the Ethiopian woman here was just a Midianite and therefore a Zipporah, that Ethiopia reigned over that area. There's actually no evidence of that. I find that extremely unlikely. Of the 20 times that the Bible uses the Hebrew word kush, or Ethiopian, same word here, they show a region that covers Ethiopia, Nubia, and Sudan, all three of which Scripture identifies as having dark skin. Jeremiah 13 verse 23 makes clear that the people of Cush have a different skin color than most of the Israelites did when it says, can the Ethiopian, that's Cush, Cushite, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Anyway, it appears to me that Zipporah had died and that Moses had married this Ethiopian, and so God identifies the sin as being ethnic prejudice against this woman. And this whole passage speaks very strongly against ethnic prejudice, whether it's coming from skinheads or whether it's coming from the BLM. I mean, it is a sin to speak against people just because of the color of their skin. And so the critical race theory, modern critical race theory, is sinful to its core because it claims that all whites, without even examining their behavior, are racist, which would itself then be a racist concept. Her second sin was gossip. Miriam and Aaron have obviously been talking about the woman behind the back of Moses, strategizing. In fact, they probably are thinking, we can't bring up the racist thing, so what do we bring up? And they bring up something different. Third issue is rebellion against authority. And interestingly, even though their first offense with Moses was the ethnic origin of this wife of Moses, they don't raise that at all with him. Instead, they act as if Moses is being tyrannical. They attack his authority. So why does God say that their opposition was because of the Ethiopian woman, and yet their words only had to do with his position? Well, it's to illustrate that sin has a way of masquerading itself into something different, usually something much more spiritual, you know, that they can defend. It would have been very easy for Moses to say, if they had said, you shouldn't marry an Ethiopian, say, where is that in the law of God? And they wouldn't be able to show it, really. And so they didn't talk about the ethnic issue, even though that was the underlying thing that drove them to their rebellion. And rebellion frequently has other hidden sins that drive it and that motivate it. In any case, they pointed to Moses' leadership. They claimed that he was prideful, that his refusal to share authority meant that he should step down from office. Super hard for leaders across America to defend themselves against attacks like that. Because if you do not defend yourself, well, that rebellion is going to just spread. It's going to get worse. If you do defend yourself, you're going to appear to be prideful. I mean, you just can't win with a scenario like that. In verse 3, God says clearly that Moses was not prideful. This is probably one of the editorial remarks of Ezra, who put together the whole canon by prophetic inspiration. But it's clear here, it's a false accusation, beginning at verse 2. So they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. Now the man, Moses, was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth. Yet how many times do humble people get accused of pride and abusive leadership? It's a very hard accusation to defend yourself against. There is such a thing. We've talked about it before. There is such a thing as abusive leadership, but Moses should not have been accused of it. And verses 4 and following, God commands them to come to the tabernacle of meeting. They know they're in trouble. They're being summoned here. God tells them that their attack on Moses' authority was an attack on God. I think that's an interesting principle that we need to keep in mind. When you undermine God's representatives, you are undermining God Himself. And so when a child rebels against a mom, she's rebelling against the dad—unless, of course, she's contradicting the dad—but she's rebelling against the dad and rebelling against God. When a wife rebels against the husband, she's rebelling against God. When members of a church rebel against the elders, they are rebelling against God, unless, of course, there is clear-cut, unscriptural, you know, the only things we should be commanding are Scripture, right? But unless there is a clear-cut tyranny on the part of the church. And so the life, I don't know, I probably should just mention again, we live in an egalitarian age, and we've got to be on guard against it. And in this age, people take rebellion against authority way, way, way too lightly. Anyway, both extremes must be avoided. On the one hand, Miriam illustrates that God is opposed to tyranny. Abusive tyranny, that's using Pharaoh. And he's also opposed to insubordination to true authority. Both extremes need to be avoided. Anyway, Miriam and Aaron don't seem to see their insubordination as being serious at all. And if you read through the whole chapter, you see that Aaron's main problem was that he had allowed himself to be manipulated by his sister, and he had failed to lead by failing to correct her. He should have been involved in putting out the fire rather than adding fuel to the fire. She complained about authority. She arrogated authority to herself and to her brother that God had not given. The very pride she falsely accuses Moses of having, she herself had. And I think it's worth asking, when did her attitudes toward Moses change? The text seems to imply that they changed at the time that he married this Ethiopian. And once the negative thinking about her crept in, it began to poison her attitudes toward Moses as a person, and then over time began to poison their attitudes toward him as an authority, as a position. And then she begins to reverse Philippians and think more highly of herself than she does of her brother. Here's the point. Negative thinking, if it is not nipped in the bud right away, it tends to go in this downward spiral and get worse and worse over time. And all of us can be subject to negative thinking. I used to be a Murphy's Law guy, always thinking of the negative possibility. And I was so disgusted with my negative thinking that I gave myself extensive homework to discipline my thinking in a faith direction. And if you want a copy of that homework, I can certainly share it with you. Negative thinking must be put off. And the reason I say that the primary issue was with Miriam was because she was the only one that got leprosy. And people wonder why both of them were in on it. Yes, Aaron got a severe rebuke, but only Miriam gets leprosy. And look at the nature of the discipline in verse 10. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper. It was ethno-prejudice that was driving Miriam, and since Miriam prided herself in her lighter-colored skin, God made her skin absolutely white, leprous white. Okay, horrifyingly white, dead fish white. The discipline fit the sin and the whole section is a rebuke against kinism and even milder forms that just say it is automatically a sin for you to marry somebody that's a different color than you. That is wrong. Now, in all of this, I want to emphasize that God didn't avoid situations that would have been stressful. That's our tendency. Let's just avoid the stress. Let's not address the problem. It's easier to ignore the problem. In contrast, God planned for stressful situations to arise in order to cause those in leadership to grow and in order to cause those under leadership to learn. Don't shield your children and your family from difficult work, difficult stress, or difficult people. That's counterproductive. Now granted, there are some people that the Bible itself commands us not to associate with, don't eat with a divisive person, right? But difficult people, that's different. Just because they're difficult does not mean that we should avoid them. Difficult people can actually help our children to grow spiritually and to learn how not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good. I think the stresses can be tools of our growth. Now in verses six through eight, shows that she had allowed her God-given gifts to get to her head. She was a prophetess, and she thought, I mean, what makes Moses think he's any better than me? Then he said, hear now my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings. And he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? Very, very interesting words. Why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? We should fear and tremble before God and not think of attacking leadership without just cause and without just methods. Now, in these words, God is not denying that Miriam and Aaron were prophets. He's just saying that the revelation he gave through Moses was far more foundational. By the way, even prophets could sin. They couldn't sin while they're prophesying. The whole act, the Spirit comes upon them and keeps them from having any mistake in receiving the prophecy or delivering the prophecy. They're seized by the Spirit. But when they're not prophesying, they can make mistakes just like Peter did in Galatians 2, you know? When he wrote Scripture, kept from all error. But in Galatians 2, man, he made some major errors. And that's what's going on here as well. Anyway, he's saying, look, Moses's revelation is far more foundational. And from hindsight, we know that because every ethical principle is contained in the Pentateuch. The seed of every doctrine is contained in the Pentateuch. And the Pentateuch was written for all time, whereas her prophecies, even though they're inspired and inerrant, were for a specific people or a specific period of time. And we don't even have any of her prophecies unless the one that we just read. of what the women respond was written by her. But otherwise, her prophecies were for Israel of that day. But she's comparing herself to Moses, saying that she hears from God just as clearly as Moses does, so it's envy. And then in verse 9, God gets angry. Verse 9 corrects a huge misconception that many in the gospel coalition have spouted, and that is that God never gets angry with a justified believer. Now, here is their logic. If you're a justified believer, God treats you as being perfectly righteous. All he sees is Christ's righteousness, and he can't ever get mad at Christ's righteousness. And so to quote one of them, Steve Brown, Steve Brown said, quote, if I am truly free, then I'm free to spit or cuss in God's presence, unquote. In his books, he claims it's absolutely impossible for God to ever get angry with a justified believer. Well, he's just flat out wrong. That's all I can say about that. It's true that we will never stand before the God of the universe when he condemns them as enemies. We're no longer enemies. We've been adopted into his family, but does a father ever not discipline, never get angry with his children? In fact, he likens himself to a father here who's gotten angry at the daughter for having disgraced him, perhaps with fornication or in some other way she has ruined the family name. So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them and he departed. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam and there she was a leper. So Aaron said to Moses, oh my Lord, please do not lay this sin on us in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned. Please do not let her be as one dead whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb. There's a lot of controversy on leprosy, but you look at that definition, wow, it sure looks like real leprosy. And in verse 13, we see the incredible forgiveness, humility, and patience of Moses. So Moses cried out to the Lord saying, please heal her, oh God, I pray. But God's not quite ready to treat this lightly. He thinks Moses is being too soft. There are some sins that require more severe discipline even after forgiveness has been granted. You know, when our kids would receive discipline, they were quick to repent, hoping to get less discipline. And if it was a genuine repentance, yeah, there would be a lesser discipline that would come. But discipline is an act of love, and it's a part of training process, so it doesn't automatically disappear. But there were two sins in our household that always received exceedingly heightened discipline, lying and outright rebellion. And so what we would do is, here is the discipline that you would have gotten if you were honest about this and confessed your sin. And they would get the discipline. And then I would say, but now here's the additional discipline that you're going to get because you lied about this. And wow. How did they realize this is like 10 times worse than the previous sin? So it really reinforced this. That's what God is doing when He disciplines like this. He's saying, it is not worth it. Even as justified believers, it is not worth it. By the way, this is truer than in the church. If you look at the history of the church over the last 2,000 years, you will see that there are some sins that can't just be, they can be forgiven, but you can't just go back to life as normal. There is a period of time in which you will be barred from the table because of the seriousness and the reputation that the church has had slander come against it because of your sin. This is part of scripture. Okay? So people have misunderstood this thinking forgiveness means there's no repercussions. That is a false concept. And I think this illustrates that here. Let's start reading at verse 14. Then the Lord said to Moses, if her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days and afterwards she may be received again. So Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days and the people did not journey. till Miriam was brought in again, and afterward the people moved from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Perun." Now, several things we can see here. First is obvious. God gets angry with believers, even with heroes of the faith. In Psalm 6, David spoke of God's anger and hot displeasure flaring out against him. In Exodus 4.14, God got angry with Moses. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. In 1 Kings 11.9, it says that God got angry with Solomon. So Steve Brown and other antinomians are absolutely wrong. God does get mad at justified believers. And I think we need to see that God is a person. He's not just, you know, an unmoved stone, an unemotional stone. He is a person. As a person, he can be aroused to anger. And it was knowing that God does get angry that motivated David to, what, forsake his sin. and his rebellion in Psalm 6. In other words, the anger of God is a practical doctrine. I think meditating upon the anger of the Lord is a great motivator to holiness, and yet it is a doctrine that is almost completely lacking in the evangelical church of today. A second thing that we see here is that God often disciplines with a comparable pain. And I've seen this in modern history. It is pretty remarkable. When I start counseling people, we see the things that are coming into their lives and we trace back to sin. It's like a comparable discipline that the Lord is bringing. So what's going on here? She wanted honor, she gets shame. She envied Moses' position, and no one will envy her position. She had pride, God humbles her. She was prejudiced against the Ethiopians' dark skin, and God says, you don't like dark skin? Well, how about ultra-white skin? dead fish white. And by the way, this is a proof, one of several proof texts that I use to show that Leviticus 13.13 does not mean that a completely leprous person is now clean suddenly. That's the viewpoint that some people have. No, many commentators, I can give you about 35 commentators that I've read on this that say, no, what's happened there is the person is either healed In which case, all of the bad skin has come off, and now it's like a baby's skin, like Naaman's skin became like a baby's, which is not tanned, right? It's white. Even on a darker person, it's light. And so there is uncleanness. Gehazi was head to toe, completely 100% leprous, but he had to leave God's people, go out of their presence, because he was unclean. Anyway, Miriam was unclean, even though every square inch of her body was white as snow. And even though God healed her, she still had to go through the seven days that comes after uncleanness. Now, I'm not entirely sure why God says, if her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? I have looked and looked, and I've not found anything in the law of God that helps to explain this to me. It could be he's just saying, hey, this is what Ammaron would have done with Miriam if she had shamed him the way that you've just shamed. Whether rightly or wrongly, I don't know. I'm just not going to explain that phrase to you. It's a puzzle to me. In any case, in verse 11, there is immediate repentance on the part of Aaron in asking that Miriam's leprosy be lifted. Both were in sin, but only Miriam received the severe discipline. And to me, this shows that she was the ringleader. Maybe that she is because she was older than Moses, may have been jealousy over his prophecies, could have been other issues of conflict, but ultimately she was the primary cause of this rebellion. And if that can happen to a Miriam, it can happen to any of us. So be ultra careful that you do not buy into the rebellious and divisive attitudes of other people. By the way, she would have been, she would probably been around 90, or more years old at this point. I didn't look it up. Numbers 20 verse 1, you know, talks about her being buried a few years later. So I should have looked it up to tell you how old she was when she died. But the ages of all of them, all three of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses are remarkable. Anyway, this passage also shows mercy. God healed her, or she would have been excluded from the camp indefinitely. But even after healing, Leviticus 14.8 requires seven days more of exclusion. So it's almost like God is giving her plenty of time to think about what she has done. And the whole camp had to wait for her. So her discipline was also a lesson to them. And their waiting for her shows that this discipline was an act of love. It was not an act of rejection. Okay, last thing that I will mention is that there are two later scriptures where God calls us to remember Miriam. Deuteronomy 24, 9 tells us, remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt. how humiliating that would be to have this command, remember what Miriam did for all time to be, unless, of course, she had learned the lessons of grace. For all time people are commanded, learn from this rebellion and its discipline. But you know what? I like to think of Miriam as having learned her lesson of grace so well, she'd be the first one to say exactly the same thing. If people were trying to engage in rebellion, she'd tell them, hey, don't go down that way. Remember what happened to me. Learn from my lesson. Okay, you know that God has done a good work in our lives when our past shame becomes a teaching tool for the next generation. We don't hide it. We use it to teach others. I think over time, our interns have learned almost as much or maybe even more from my failures in the past than they have from my successes in the past. I try to be transparent and open book. Grace gives us the security to be able to obey such a command, to remember Miriam, and if we are Miriam, to not be embarrassed by that, but to magnify God's grace. The second command is to not forget that God raised up Miriam, valued her, and used her. Micah 6, 4 again. For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Now this was said hundreds of years later. People were not appreciating all that God had done, and in the list of great benefits he's bestowed upon Israel, he says, hey guys, I gave you three great people, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Those three figures continue to remind us of all of God's blessings in the Pentateuch. Pussy says on that verse from Micah, the use of the familiar language of the Pentateuch is like the touching of so many key notes, piano notes, right? recalling the whole harmony of his love. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam together are lawgiver to deliver and instruct, priest to atone, and prophetess to praise God. And the name of Miriam at once recalled the mighty works at the Red Sea and how they then thanked God." And I think it's cool that Micah is reminded mainly of the neat things that Miriam did. We have a tendency to remember the negative things about other people and to let those circulate in our brain so much that we can't see any good in them. OK, don't do that. Think by grace. Use my homework to put off negative thinking. Be like Micah and appreciate the good in the Miriam's in your life. Micah uses her as an example of how God had richly blessed Israel. In fact, you might even write down a list of 50 things that you appreciate about that person that you're so disgusted with. Write down 50 things. God was having them count their blessings, and none of the three of them were perfect, but God used all three. Now, if you have had a major failure like Miriam did, don't let that make you stay outside the camp in shame forever. God still loves you. And God can still use you. Stay the course, learn from grace, put on humility, determined to cling the more tightly to Jesus, and become a blessing to others as Miriam did. And may God be glorified in our responses to her life. Amen.