Numbers 12 – Study
For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.
Passage: Numbers 12:1-16
1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 ‘Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?’ they asked. ‘Hasn’t he also spoken through us?’ And the Lord heard this.
3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
4 At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, ‘Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.’ So the three of them went out. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward, 6 he said, ‘Listen to my words:
‘When there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions,
I speak to them in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?’
9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.
10 When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous – it became as white as snow. Aaron turned towards her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease, 11 and he said to Moses, ‘Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.’
13 So Moses cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, God, heal her!’
14 The Lord replied to Moses, ‘If her father had spat in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.’ 15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.
16 After that, the people left Hazeroth and camped in the Desert of Paran.
A. Find Out:
- Who started saying what about Moses? v.1,2
- How is Moses described? v,3
- Who did the Lord tell to do what? v.4,5
- How did the Lord say Moses differed from God’s prophets? v.6-8
- What happened to whom and what did Aaron plead? v.9-12
- What did Moses ask and what did the Lord instruct? v.13-15
B. Think:
- Why do you think Miriam & Aaron grumbled about Moses?
- What do you think is the significance of verse 3?
- What does this all tell us about Moses’ relationship with the Lord?
C. Comment:
A wilderness is a place that brings the worst out in people. Perhaps it is why the Lord allows us to go into such dry times sometimes, so that the bad in us can be revealed and dealt with. For some reason that is not explained, Moses’ brother and sister now fall to the temptation of criticism. There is an air of jealousy in this, an acknowledgement that Moses has a status that they don’t have. They first focus on his foreign wife as if to imply she made him less than them and then they try to put themselves on Moses’ level in terms of revelation.
Verse 3 implies that because Moses was so humble he made no reply. Humility is about knowing exactly who you are. Because Moses knew the Lord, he knew his own smallness and weakness. He says nothing and leaves it to the Lord. The Lord calls them all to the Tent and points out to the erring couple that He has a particularly close and intimate relationship with Moses, and it is that which they are challenging. They are thus challenging the Lord Himself. Somewhat foolish! The consequence is that Miriam is left with leprosy, which would rather suggest she is the instigator of the complaining. Aaron’s pleas go unheeded, as if to prove a point, while Moses’ plea received a response from the Lord.
D. Application:
- Recognize who you are before the Lord. Be humble.
- Never challenge those in close relationship with the Lord.