24So Moses went out and reported the LORD's words to the people. Then he gathered the seventy leaders and stationed them around the Tabernacle. 25And the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses. He took some of the Spirit that was upon Moses and put it upon the seventy leaders. They prophesied as the Spirit rested upon them, but that was the only time this happened.
26Two men, Eldad and Medad, were still in the camp when the Spirit rested upon them. They were listed among the leaders but had not gone out to the Tabernacle, so they prophesied there in the camp. 27A young man ran and reported to Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!" 28Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses' personal assistant since his youth, protested, "Moses, my master, make them stop!"
29But Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his Spirit upon them all!" 30Then Moses returned to the camp with the leaders of Israel.
1While they were at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because he had married a Cushite woman. 2They said, "Has the LORD spoken only through Moses? Hasn't he spoken through us, too?" But the LORD heard them.
3Now Moses was more humble than any other person on earth. 4So immediately the LORD called to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam and said, "Go out to the Tabernacle, all three of you!" And the three of them went out. 5Then the LORD descended in the pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle. "Aaron and Miriam!" he called, and they stepped forward. 6And the LORD said to them, "Now listen to me! Even with prophets, I the LORD communicate by visions and dreams. 7But that is not how I communicate with my servant Moses. He is entrusted with my entire house. 8I speak to him face to face, directly and not in riddles! He sees the LORD as he is. Should you not be afraid to criticize him?"
9The LORD was furious with them, and he departed. 10As the cloud moved from above the Tabernacle, Miriam suddenly became white as snow with leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened, 11he cried out to Moses, "Oh, my lord! Please don't punish us for this sin we have so foolishly committed. 12Don't let her be like a stillborn baby, already decayed at birth."
13So Moses cried out to the LORD, "Heal her, O God, I beg you!"
14And the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had spit in her face, wouldn't she have been defiled for seven days? Banish her from the camp for seven days, and after that she may return."
15So Miriam was excluded from the camp for seven days, and the people waited until she was brought back before they traveled again. 16Then they left Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.
Points of Interest:
· ‘the LORD's words to the people’—this section is actually in the middle of the last passage, in response to Moses’ request for more help in leading the people
· ‘I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets’—in response to Moses’ need for more help in leading the people, God makes his Holy Spirit fall on 70 elders, giving them the power to do what Moses does: speak the words of the LORD to the people. This spirit of prophecy even falls on the two elders who are running late and haven’t made it to the Tabernacle yet. Joshua is a little shocked by this, perhaps out of jealousy for Moses, perhaps out of an idea that it’s somehow wrong for anyone but Moses to prophesy. But Moses isn’t trying to hoard this experience for himself. His hope would be that the connection he has with God would spread to every Israelite and eventually to every person in the world. That’s what the dream of being the priestly nation (which God talked about during the first attempt at making the covenant) was all about.
· ‘Hasn't he spoken through us, too?’—while Moses is blessing the fact that 70 other people have been filled with the Holy Spirit, Miriam and Aaron are complaining because they feel like Moses is keeping all of the fame and power to himself. Miriam is Moses’ sister. So, here we see Moses’ own family turn against him. Aaron more broadly, and Miriam in this particular circumstance, fill a common role in the life of a hero: the role of ‘Shapeshifter.’ A shapeshifter is someone who appears to be playing one role in the hero’s journey, but is actually playing another; or sometimes the shapeshifter actually moves among more than one role. For example, someone who appears to be a mentor could actually be your enemy, luring you in the wrong direction. Aaron has shown himself to be somewhat shifty in Moses’ journey. You never quite know what you’re going to get from Aaron: will it be faithful companionship under the threat of grave danger, like when they were in the contest with Pharaoh? Extreme negligence and cowardice, like during the golden calf incident? Strength and timely helpfulness, like when he held Moses’ arms up during the battle? Or open rebellion, like here? Because Aaron is constantly shifting shape, it’s probably difficult for Moses to know how to feel about him or what to think of him. He can’t treat him simply as an enemy or as a friend. I imagine that over time it becomes more difficult for Moses to rely on Aaron.
· ‘because he had married a Cushite woman’—we discover that racism is at the ugly little core of Aaron and Miriam’s complaints. They believe Moses is less worthy than them to be the leader of the people because of his bi-ethnic marriage. In all other mentions of Moses’ wife’s family, she is described as a Midianite; so it’s hard to say where this mention of Cush comes from (Cush is roughly modern-day Sudan, whereas the Midianites lived in what is now Jordan and Arabia). It’s possible that ‘Cushite’ was Egyptian slang for ‘foreigner,’ or that it’s a comment on her skin color. In any case, it’s clear that the jealousy of Aaron and Miriam comes out of ugly, petty prejudice.
· ‘Moses was more humble than any other person on earth’—it seems to me as if Moses doesn’t even answer the spite and jealousy of his siblings himself; so God himself defends Moses from the attacks and accusations of Aaron and Miriam.
· ‘Should you not be afraid to criticize him?’—God rationally points out that it is obvious to the entire people that he has a special relationship with Moses. If Moses is such good buddies with God, isn’t it a bit foolish to pick a fight with him?
· ‘Miriam suddenly became white as snow with leprosy’—interestingly, at the burning bush, the LORD gave Moses the ability to use leprosy as a sign along with turning a staff into a snake and turning water into blood. Of course, Moses ends up using the staff-into-snake and the water-into-blood signs in Egypt, but leprosy is never mentioned. It finally comes in handy here.
· ‘he cried out to Moses, "Oh, my lord!’—only Miriam ends up getting leprosy. Maybe she was the instigator, or maybe Aaron repents just in time to avoid getting zapped himself.
· ‘the people waited until she was brought back before they traveled again’—this has to be embarrassing. You make a play to oust Moses and become leader of the people yourself. All you end up with is leprosy, AND the whole nation has to sit around for seven days waiting for you to be healed before they can move on. This is a very public failure.
Taking it home
· For you: Do you have any shapeshifters in your life—people of whom it’s hard to tell if they are friends or enemies, helpers or hindrances in your journey? Ask God to give you wisdom about how to respond to these people.
· For your six: Are any of your six facing false accusations? Ask God to defend them in surprising ways, so that they don’t have to defend themselves.
· For our church: Moses says, ‘I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets.’ After Jesus’ resurrection, we’ve come one step closer to Moses’ wish being true; when Jesus rose from the dead, he poured out the Spirit on all of his followers. Peter, in explaining what had happened, said, ‘This is the time when the prophecy is fulfilled that the Spirit will be poured out on all flesh.’ But the Holy Spirit has still not yet been given out nearly as widely as God wishes it to be. Pray for more of God’s Spirit to be poured out on us and on everyone we know.
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