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God’s Anointed

“So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.” Numbers 12:15 NASB

For an entire week the children of Israel stood still. They made no progress in their journey. They didn’t break down their tents and they didn’t set them up. Nobody moved. It wasn’t that they had arrived where they wanted it be, it was they couldn’t move because of the disobedience of a couple of its people.

Aaron was Moses’ right hand man; Miriam was his sister. With Moses out of earshot, they began trashing him because they didn’t approve of his wife—she was a Cushite, and they didn’t like her. I suppose it is a sister’s prerogative not to like her sister-in-law, I mean Miriam wouldn’t be the first person to disapprove of a brother’s choice in a bride. But Miriam and Aaron went too far, they asked a couple of questions they shouldn’t have asked, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” (Numbers 12:2 NASB) As they spoke, they thought they were alone, but they weren’t, God was listening. And God wasn’t happy about them trashing His leader.

He appeared to them in a cloud and told them to come to Him. In no uncertain terms, God lectured them about the special place Moses had in His kingdom work and then asked them why they weren’t afraid to speak against him? God didn’t wait for their answer, when the cloud departed, Miriam was as white as a ghost. Not because of her fear, but because God struck her with leprosy. Aaron appealed to Moses, asking him to intervene on her behalf with God, and Moses did as Aaron asked, pleading with God to heal her. God did, but not for seven days. For seven days the Children of Israel stopped their journey toward the promised land while Miriam lived in shame for asking two questions.

After the week was over they sent spies into the land to bring a report back to Moses about the land God had promised them, but for an entire week they stood still. Nobody moved.

I wonder if Miriam had any more questions she wanted to ask?


Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals
(Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).

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