Title: Miriam’s Punishment

Read: Numbers 12:1-16

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 24:9

“Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way when you came out of Egypt!.”

Main idea: God can be trusted to judge everyone fairly, and he may in response to prayer and repentance show mercy and commute punishments that we deserve.

Numbers 11 begins a series of three locations where the people grumble and complain. At Taberah they complain because of the hardships of the journey (Num. 11:1-3), and at Kibroth Hattaavah they complain because they are tired of manna and want the meat and vegetables (Num. 11:4-35). Now at Hazeroth (Num. 11:35, 12:1) two members of Moses’s own family, his sister and brother, complain against him and challenge his authority.

Israel was told to remember what God did to Miriam. Our verse focuses on the exhortation to remember Miriam’s punishment. She was punished by God when the Israelites were traveling through the desert. There is several lessons of her punishment.

Miriam and Aaron.
Miriam is the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the sister of Aaron and Moses (Num. 26:59). Her name, the Hebrew form of “Mary,” meaning “beloved.” Miriam is mentioned first, and the punishment falls mostly on her, evidently because she has instigated this challenge to Moses’s authority.

According to the Midrash, just as Moses led the men out of Egypt and taught them Torah, so too Miriam led the women and taught them Torah (Targum Micha 6:4). Regarding the death of Miriam, Numbers 20:1 states, “Then the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the Wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh; and Miriam died there and was buried there.”

Envy is destructive.
Miriam and Aaron are guilty of envy. Miriam and Aaron have leadership roles already. Micah 6:4 lists Aaron and Miriam as the leaders who along with Moses lead Israel from Egypt. Miriam becomes a prophet and uses her musical abilities to lead women in singing and worship to celebrate God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt (Exod. 15:19-21).

Miriam is the most important female spiritual leader among all the Israelites of her day.  Their words addressed more to fellow Israelites than to Moses show their envy: “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” (Numbers 12:2). We today are not immune from the kind of envy that can destroy families and ministries. Here we can learn from Miriam’s and Aaron’s bad example.

The reason of her punishment.
Miriam was punished because she had a bad attitude (pride) and mouth (spoke against Moses). A lesson for us, think before you speak. James tells tongue is a fire James 3:5-6 “Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.”

Numbers 12 relates the incident. She, along with her brother Aaron, spoke against Moses. It started by criticizing Moses’ marriage. But the real reason for their criticism was their questioning whether God had spoken only through Moses. There was a lot of sibling pride and fighting involved here. Miriam, who was Moses’ sister, was older than Moses. And it was her actions that helped save Moses as a baby when she got their mother to care for Moses for Pharaoh’s daughter. She was called a “prophetess” (Exodus 15:20).

God appears in this passage as judge in a dispute between Moses and his siblings. The New Testament also portrays God as humanity’s judge (Heb. 10:30; 12:23; 1 Pet. 1:17; Rev. 20:12-13). As judge, God decides in favor of Moses and punished Miriam.

Character of her punishment.
Her punishment was severe. Miriam was made leprous instantly (Numbers 12:10); and even though God healed her, she had to be “shut out from the camp” (Numbers 12:15) for a week. All of this would be so embarrassing and humbling for her. But pride does that to people.

Consequences of her punishment.
Miriam’s punishment came when Israel was journeying through the wilderness after their deliverance from Egypt. The punishment caused the Israelites to delay their journey (Numbers 12:15). Our sin adversely affects others a lot more than we often think it will.

Application
Handling disagreement Moses is an example here. Moses learnt the importance of silence. Aaron and Miriam complained, but Moses said nothing. When people say cruel things about us or about others, why do we find it necessary to answer? It would be better by far to say nothing. Moses kept a still tongue and let the Lord do the talking.

Aaron learnt the value of prayer and confession. 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” (Numbers 12:11). As he heard Moses pray, he realized afresh how crucial it is to pray for others as well as for ourselves.

Miriam learnt the generosity of grace. She had offended but was mercifully forgiven. Once resentful of her younger brother’s role, now she treasured healthier priorities. Pardoned, cleansed and healed, there was nothing greater she desired.

The people learnt the seriousness of sin. Eager to press on with their desert journey, they were compelled to wait until everybody had recognized that sin not only grieves God and destroys us; it damages others as well. Whenever we sin, others are always affected in one way or another.

I leave you today with these words taken from James 5:13-15 “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

Let’s pray together
Heavenly Father, I thank you, Lord, You are merciful and gracious. Sinful can come to you and receive forgiveness when they confess their sins to You. In Jesus Name Amen.