Numbers 12 holds some very fascinating truths about how God views honor.

It’s so interesting to me how we can read whole chapters and stories multiple times and miss so many gems within.

A recent reading on a few verses have opened up this whole chapter to me and I have decided to share what I learn here in this bible study.

Now, by way of a quick disclaimer, I think it important to just let you know that I am no bible scholar.

I am no theologian but I have the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit as guide.

I also have Google and YouTube and everything else you have access to online; as well as physical bibles and Youversion.

So, with that out of the way, I’ll dive into the awesomeness.

Numbers 12 is a fairly short chapter.

It begins right after quite a bit of complaining about food in the previous chapter by the Israelites.

They were still at Mt. Sinai and had not yet moved off to explore the land of Canaan.

Right from the jump, in verse one, we see Miriam and Aaron complaining.

The order of these names immediately gives us a clue.

Even though we would have been introduced to Aaron much earlier in the story, his name doesn’t precede Miriam.

I believe this a tell-tale sign that Miriam was the instigator in this scenario.

The next thing we gather from this first verse is that they oppose Moses because he has wed a foreigner.

The King James Version refers to her as an Ethiopian while several other translations refer to her as a Cushite.

So, Moses married a black woman. An African.

The logical question from this first verse then is why were they opposing Moses because of this woman?

Is this evidence of a racial divide or were they in opposition simply because she was a foreigner?

Exegetically, we can only determine that the woman indeed was the trigger here but the Bible does not specify beyond that.

In verse two, we see what Miriam and Aaron’s gripe was. Their utterance is without a doubt, a clear display of gossip.

And as the verse indicates, God heard this.

Addressing the Sin of Gossip

Now gossip is this really uncomfortable truth that most of us have to accept, even if secretly.

We all have pretty much been guilty of this sin.

This bit of scripture is such an important warning for us. It is needful for us to squeeze as much wisdom out of it.

Just as in this scenario, it is so prudent for us to remember that God sees ALL and He hears ALL.

Yes, He presented Himself to them in physical form as verse 4, makes clear, but even though we do not experience Him in such a form, He is no less able to capture every single moment of our lives.

He sees and hears not only what we expose in word and action, but He sees our very thoughts.

Gossip, we have to admit, is simply not worth it.

It repulses our Father and we will have to give an account for everything we say one day.

Observation and Application

Miriam and Aaron’s complaint seems to expose that they were jealous of their leader.

Jealousy we know, is that ugly sin that causes rather unwholesome talk.

Though humans rarely want to admit being jealous, it is their speech that usually betrays and exposes the heart.

Another thing that strikes me about verse two, is how flippantly the accusations roll out.

Only two sentences.

In this brief moment, these questions of misplaced entitlement showed gross disrespect for Moses.

There is indubitable cynicism laced in their indictment of him here.

We can linger at this verse awhile to get the full lesson of how to transform our own ways of doing things.

In all honesty, these two sentences sound eerily like something I would have said in the past.

Embarrassing truth though it may be.

We need to pray for our speech to truly be transformed past this baseless level.

The relatability of it though, convicts me to intentionally speak words of honor.

The next point to observe is that Miriam and Aaron were criticizing Moses’ leadership.

This seems to be the real crux of the matter.

For our application, we need to realize that criticizing our leaders no es bueno.

Note how they used a baseless fact (his wife’s nationality/race) as justification?

For us, there isn’t much difference.

When we criticize our leaders, we never have all the facts.

Even in instances when we feel their actions speak for themselves, we cannot see their motives.

God alone sees all.

Failing a direct question or conversation, we simply cannot determine the reason behind a leader’s actions.

The reality is though, we do not always have the privilege to conduct such thorough discourse.

Summing Up..

Summing up so far, we observe jealousy, cynicism and disrespect.

These can be prayer points for ourselves.

We can ask the Holy Spirit to teach us not to speak flippantly.

He can free us of the spirit of cynicism.

And, the Holy Spirit can surely cure us of the horrible affliction of jealousy.

Numbers 12:3

In the past, I skimmed past this verse.

Now it fascinates me.

This Moses, is the meekest man ‘on the face of the earth’.

This is a huge transformation!

Moses has gone from being rather rash and impulsive to now actually being meek.

Look at God though!

Look at how much God can transform a person.

This is no small thing.

It ought to give us immense hope that our Father is so generous, loving and all together powerful.

And wonderful.

And awesome.

He is mighty.

He loves us unconditionally.

Does this not show that He is willing to transform every single one of us?

That, should we let Him, He will lead us to great fulfilment?

God gives us more purpose than we can imagine.

He has a perfect plan for us all that we cannot fulfill outside of His will.

Numbers 12:4-9

I cannot imagine the level of trepidation that had to have overtaken Miriam and Aaron as God Himself, called them out.

Oh boy!

God didn’t send a messenger. He didn’t speak to Moses as was customary and have him relay a warning.

Nope.

So incensed was our God, that He decided to deal with this matter directly.

Can I tell ya… the shame and fear in me probably would have given me a heart attack!

How Miriam and Aaron managed to lift one foot in front of the other is beyond me.

Kudos to them.

Now verse 4, God is choosing to address them all together. The gravity of this impending reprimand has to weigh really heavily.

Miriam and Aaron will not get to ‘enjoy’ a private rebuke.

In verse 5 now, we see the majestic and undeniably holy entrance of God on a pillar of cloud. I still can’t fully picture that, It just seems really awe-inspiring.

I am too distracted by my imaginings of the turbulent storm in the stomachs of the guilty parties.

And here we see God call them both forward, not away.

This emphasizes the point that Moses was to witness the rebuke.

Verses 6-9

God’s reprimand is direct.

He shows the distinction He has made with Moses.

God is the one who elevates. He, it is, who puts leaders in position.

We see that others have been granted the privilege of hearing from God as a prophet.

These chosen ones however have to rely on indirect communication from God.

So highly does God esteem Moses, that he alone gets the privilege of ‘mouth to mouth'(face to face) communication.

God further clarifies that He speaks to Moses clearly.

And Moses gets to speak to Him clearly in return.

God’s rhetorical question in verse 8 shows the level of respect He expects from them – a type of reverential fear.

Verse 9 shows us that when God is repulsed by our actions, He cannot be with us.

Never, do we want that to be the case.

God cannot dwell where sin dwells.

So, it makes perfect sense that He had such a short ‘exchange’ with them and immediately left.

Numbers 12 – Consequences For Sin

Verse 10 shows us that there is always a consequence for sin.

Even for those of us who focus more on the New Testament and the saving grace of our Lord, we do not escape consequences.

God’s grace, though far and wide and inexhaustible, does not cancel consequences.

For us, more often than not, consequences do not materialize immediately.

Hence, we do not always see the correlation.

Now for Miriam, the consequence was rather instant.

Miriam was afflicted with leprosy.

Aaron aptly reacted in horror and surprise.

Note too though, as pointed out earlier, that Miriam is the one chosen to bear the affliction.

Miriam, whose name appeared first in verse one, had to have been the main culprit.

She was punished because she was the one who was sowing division.

She instigated the gossip.

Note too, the mercy of our Lord. Aaron was wrong for gossiping.

In verses 11-12 though, we see God’s fairness in making Aaron have to be the one to now beg for mercy.

Aaron had to humble himself and rely on the very person he sinned against.

We observe in his pleas a commendable ownership of his folly.

This is applicable for us in that we must, in apologizing properly, accept full responsibility for our wrongs.

We must accept accountability.

Humility must lead us to apologize.

We must relinquish any temptation to intermingle our response with arrogance.

Verse 12 shows us the severity of Miriam’s sickness.

The appearance had to have been quite unsightly.

Lesson on Forgiveness

Verse 13 is profound for several reasons.

Note how willing Moses is to forgive.

Moses here, one could argue, would have been justified in agreeing that punishment was warranted.

He could have at the very least, decided to accept an apology and say that Miriam should continue to bear the consequences.

After all, she brought this on to herself no?

Moses displayed admirable instant forgiveness here.

This is something we too should model.

We often fail horribly at this. We ‘forgive’ with caveats. And, we allow hurts to linger.

We focus entirely too long on what the offender did rather than on the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Moses however had shed his former self.

He recognized his new identity and fully accepted the transformation God had taken him through.

How awesome would it be for us to fully embrace God’s forgiveness for ourselves?

And, how awesome too to let that awareness influence us to, like Moses, forgive quickly?

I tell you friends, Numbers 12, is really eye-opening for me.

Another thing that struck me with this verse, is the simplicity in Moses’ prayer.

We might not all agree on this but it surely struck me that Moses’ plea was direct and succinct.

Could it be that we really don’t need to fluff our prayers up?

We don’t need to wax off with verbosity when bringing our requests to the Lord.

When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.

Matthew 6:7 NLT

But, I digress.

Moses did not harbor ill will towards Aaron and Miriam.

He cried in earnest. He pleaded for God’s mercy.

God’s Justice

God is righteous.

He cannot, in fairness and justice, ignore and excuse sin.

He demonstrates that perfectly in His response to Moses in verse 14.

One thing I observe here is God’s choice in the number 7.

It is significant that in His mercy, He still required 7 days for her to complete her punishment.

Miriam had to be isolated for 7 days. She needed to not mingle with the others.

Perhaps we could say here that not only was her sickness contagious, but, sin can be contagious too.

Allow me to conject that when we gossip, we influence others to sin.

How Our Sin Affects Others

Verses 15-16 demonstrates how our sin can affect others.

Miriam was indeed shut away for the stipulated period. The people had to be delayed for that period. Her sin therefore was an inconvenience to the entire camp.

Likewise, what we say in gossip, as innocent as we might fool ourselves to believe, has consequences beyond us.

We can greatly affect the mental health, reputation and overall well-being of another with our untamed tongue.

Numbers 12 Takeaway

Honor is the main theme in Numbers 12.

Speaking in and with honor.

Showing our leaders honor.

Honoring our God in reverence and in obedience to Him and to those He puts in place to lead us.

Honoring ourselves, God and others in swift forgiveness.

Song Share For This Post

When I write for Stating Faith, I often find a song will come into my spirit.

Today, as I hummed this song, it took me a little while to realize the intentionality behind this Holy Spirit download.

Take a listen and see if you can see how this song applies to Moses’s story in this chapter.

Let me just add that this song has done so much for my mental health.

It has helped me to get to forgiveness.

Now, I just need the Holy Spirit to help me to forgive swiftly like Moses.

I pray it blesses you too.

Final Word on Numbers 12

Numbers 12 has been a wonderful eye-opener indeed.

Having done this in-depth study, I am curious and excited to uncover so much more.

It thrills me to think there still is likely quite a bit that has escaped me.

Even in this study.That being said, what did you notice?

Is there any awesomeness you caught that I glossed over?

Also, if any of my conjectures were off to you, don’t hesitate to point the out in the comments.

Discussion is welcomed and encouraged.

Disagreements too.

And on this platform, I will allow myself the luxury of thinking we all will communicate in love.

To help us to speak in honor, check out my other post here. You will find my bold prayer on taming my tongue.

Til my post..

Be Blessed