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Introduction: Welcome to Expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible.
Our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God as we explore the Word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational.
Skip Heitzig: So would you turn to Numbers, chapter 12, or find it on your phone or pad.
You know, the great thing about having the book rather than the pad, by the way, is you
don't get any incoming texts or calls except from the Holy Spirit when you got this thing.
No interruptions. [laughter] Okay, I'm done, because I'm into technology too. So I'm all
into that. But let's pray.
Father, we open the Book, and as we open the Book we open our hearts to your Spirit, that
the Book, the words, the principles, the truths that we have sung about a moment ago, craving
that we want you to speak your truth, Lord, that it would make its way through our eye
gate into our brains as we process the meaning of it. It would then find its home in our
very lives and the way we live. Lord, we don't want to be church people, we want to be Christian
people formed by the truth, radical disciples of Jesus Christ who love you and share with
others the only hope to leave this world and find hope in the next world; and that is,
in Jesus Christ. Help us to understand and grasp, in Jesus' name, amen.
We don't belong here, do we, in this world? This world is not our home. You've heard the
tunes, the songs, if you've been to camp: "I'm just a passing through." The children
of Israel were on a journey. They were out in the desert. They didn't belong there. They
were moving from Egypt to the Promised Land. They were in the wilderness. It was never
God's goal for them to stay in the wilderness. Right? He wanted to bring them from Egypt
through the wilderness to a land that he had promised all the way back to Abram, who became
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.
You're on a journey. Your journey has reason. It has purpose. Moses will tell them in Deuteronomy,
chapter 6, some great words: "He brought you out from there [Egypt]. He brought you out
from there, that he might bring you in." "He brought you out, that he might bring you in.
He didn't just bring you out that you might be out here in the desert going, 'Whew! I
made it out, man. I'm out of Egypt.' Okay, but you're in the desert. 'He brought you
out from there, that he might bring you in.' "And he has brought us out of our past, our
darkness, and we're on a journey.
You are where you are by the grace of God, but he has more for you. And eventually you're
going to leave this world and, hopefully, because you know Christ personally, you're
going to enjoy heaven with him forever. Well, one of God's characteristics is that whatever
he starts, he finishes. Right? He's the author, the originator, and the finisher of our faith.
So, he brought them out of Egypt, he wants to bring them into the Promised Land, but
something happens that will preclude a clean entry. They won't go directly, and they could
have, they should have.
It only took eleven days to get there; it took them forty years to get there. And we
start to see why as we go through these chapters. Now as we open up chapter 12, and you'll notice
it's short, we'll have no problem getting through chapter 12. I'd like to get through
12 and 13, but, hey, if we can get through 12, that's a chapter at least. But what I
find interesting as we open up chapter 12 is we get a little bit of insight into the
family life of Moses. We don't get much of the background and family life of Moses. We
just don't know much. We know a little bit.
We know his mom was Jochebed. And we know of the whole story of him being put in a basket
and sent down the river and, "See you later." And then Pharaoh, his daughter got him and
raised him in Egypt. We know some of those details. But what was it like to be Moses'
older sister? Well, we find out a little bit, because Miriam is his older sister. What was
it like to be Moses' big brother? Well, we get a little bit insight because Aaron was
his big brother. You know, as I was reading chapter 12, and I see the little tension that
is in Moses' and his siblings, I immediately see something that's encouraging to me.
Moses did not have a perfect home life. It wasn't just perfect at home growing up. There
were difficulties. You can imagine, if you've been displaced from your mother, taken to
the Pharaoh's house. Yes, raised by the Hebrew midwife who happens to be your mom, and she's
getting paid while all that is happening, but still you belong to the Pharaoh's household.
And just that kind of dual citizenship, finding out that you're Hebrew and that's your mom,
but really that's sort of your mom too. But I'm glad it's here. I'm glad it's here because
it just sort of sets us free.
I had two parents who loved each other and loved their children. And there was security
in our home, but our home life was far from perfect. And if you think, "Well, Pastor Skip,
you must have had a wonderfully, peaceful home life to get to where the Lord has taken
you today." Well, you wouldn't have said that on the day that I broke my brother's nose
with a baseball bat; or the day he stabbed me in the arm with a lead pencil; or the night
that I threw him through the plate-glass window in the front of the house and he landed on
the front lawn; or the few weeks later after the window had newly been replaced that we
reversed it and I was pushed through it.
Not perfect, but let's look at Moses. "Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because
of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So
they said, 'Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us
also?' "Now watch this, "and the Lord heard it." Moses didn't hear it. They were talking
among themselves, but the Lord heard it. It's an interesting text, because we go, "Now who
is this chick that he married? And what happened to his first wife?"
His first wife, do you remember her name? Zipporah was her name. The Ethiopian woman
described here probably is not Zipporah, because Zipporah, if you remember your Bible, was
the daughter of a Midianite priest. So she was Midianite. She was Arabian in her background.
We don't know what happened to her, but she's obviously not around any longer. So, 'A',
she's dead and he's remarrying; or, 'B', because Jethro her father brought her to the wilderness
once the children of Israel left Egypt, there was a reuniting of his wife and his father-in-law
out there in desert (Exodus, chapter 18), she comes along with dad.
It could be that she went home with dad. Is this another wife on top of her? Probably
not, but we can't be sure. The Scripture is silent on that. But we know it is his second
wife. I'm guessing Zipporah has died through the wilderness journeyings and he's now on
wife number two. Because she is Ethiopian, one wonders was she part of the mixed multitude
that we have already read. Because evidently the Ethiopians down south of Egypt have migrated
in history back up to Egypt, and she was a part of that company, that group, and now
she's out in the wilderness.
Perhaps, half of one background, half of another. We're just not sure. These are all question
marks we have. But here is Moses with another wife, and it really bugs his older sister
and older brother. And so they start murmuring and they start complaining. Now, being the
big sister---big sisters and big brothers have thoughts all to their own; don't they?
"I remember when he was just a punk kid, a baby. I helped him get put in that little
basket and sailing down the river. In fact, I was the girl who suggested to Pharaoh's
daughter that I should get a Hebrew lady to raise her, and I got my mom.
"So, you know, who is this Moses? He's my little kid brother." I don't know what it
was like for you when you came to Christ and went back and told your family. I can only
tell you my experience. It didn't go over all that well. "Who do you think you are?
Holier than we are? You found the answer now and we haven't? Are you saying the religion
that you've been brought up with---we've been brought up with is now, like, gone and irrelevant,
and you're on to something? God now speaks to you?" Now, it's interesting whatever it
was, whatever reason caused them to say, "We don't like his new wife," which is pretty
typical, I think, when they're used to the previous wife.
If something happens to her and there's a remarriage, there's a hard period of time
where the family has to except this interloper. But there was angst, there was trouble, and
they didn't like his new wife. And then what's funny is that one issue led to another issue.
See the issue was all about relationship, but they make the issue about leadership.
"We don't like this new relationship, but, you know, come to think of it, we don't like
Moses' leadership either. He married this woman. But you know what? He's like the leader.
Maybe God hasn't just spoken through him, but also through us."
Which is also typical, for you see, when you find one issue about somebody that you don't
like, you're going to find a second and a third and a fourth. If you're predisposed
in that direction, the list will be endless. One issue, though completely different from
the other issue, will lead to it. Here's a thought: it could be that this all sort of
was precipitated by what we read in the last chapter. Let me just refresh your memory.
Moses was a bit overwhelmed and God set a group of men around him. How many? Seventy.
Twelve was the disciples. Seventy men, right?
Seventy elders of Israel around him. So the elders of Israel help bear the load with Moses.
Maybe since Aaron and Miriam were in the these leadership positions along with Moses, after
all, their encampment was together, maybe Aaron the older brother started thinking,
"Well, now he's got seventy other elders who are leaders in this nation, maybe my leadership
will be diminished and eclipsed by their leadership." Any time you put new leadership on a church
staff or an environment like these, other leaders get a little bit nervous.
Another possibility: perhaps Miriam was threatened by this new woman. After all, Miriam is called
a prophetess in Exodus, chapter 15. She is a prophetess of the Lord. She speaks out in
the name of the Lord, and she has a leadership position, and she is known among the Israelites
as being a leader among women. Now that he's married this new wife, perhaps she is going
to be seen as the female leader in Israel. In the book of Acts there was a problem in
the women's ministry. The church started growing and there were a group of women, the Bible
tells us (Acts, chapter 6) that felt neglected and they thought another group of women were
getting preferential treatment.
Do you remember the story? The Grecian widows thought that the Hebrew widows, the Jewish
widows were---or the Hebrew-speaking Jewish widows were getting preferential treatment
and they were being left out. So this angst, this tension arose, and we see a tension here.
"'Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?' "Good question. Actually, no. Did
the Lord speak through Aaron the high priest? Yes, in a very particular way with these two
stones that he wore, the Urim and the Thummim. Do you remember that, Urim and Thummim, those
two stones? The Lord would speak his will by him as the high priest using these stones.
Sort of like, if I can just use the analogy, like holy dice. But God was in how they were
spun. Also, God spoke through Miriam. As I mentioned, she is called a prophetess. So
the Lord did speak through them, but not at the same level that he was speaking through
Moses. But now because of the relationship question, they have a leadership question.
It says, "The Lord heard it." Now, here's what's interesting, and it's a great principle,
I don't want you to miss it: Moses didn't need to find out about it, didn't need to
chase the rumor down, and, "Come here, I want to talk to you guys about this. This is really
bothering me."
He didn't need to because God heard it. He didn't need to defend himself because God
heard it. Hey, here's a general rule of thumb: if you want to go around defending yourself,
go ahead, have at it. God will let you. But if you would rather just say, "Whatever. The
Lord hears it all, he knows it all, and he knows my heart. And I'll let him take care
of it." You'll sleep better. And by the way, God's better at defending you than you are
at defending you. God's a better lawyer for you than you are for you. So let him have
it. Let them have it by letting the Lord have it.
"The Lord heard it." Verse 3, "(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who
were on the face of the earth.)" Isn't that a great text? You know what's great about
it? You know who wrote that? Moses wrote it. [laughter] And do you know that those critics
who are looking for reasons to say, "Moses never wrote the Pentateuch. He never wrote
those first five books in the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. He
didn't write that, there's no Mosaic authorship, it was written by somebody else."
Well, point to this verse. Because, after all, nobody would say that about himself.
"Oh, by the way, I just want you to know, I'm more humble then anybody on earth." Because
that just proves you're not. However, I contend that it actually authenticates that Moses
wrote it. Because nobody would say that about himself, unless they were directed to by the
Holy Spirit, because it goes against every natural inclination to make such a statement.
I don't think it even means that somebody else besides Moses later on had to insert
that or write it. It's possible, but it doesn't mean that at all.
Moses could have written it and he probably thought, "Oh, I don't want to have to write
that." But it's true. You know, humility---here's the definition, try this one on for size:
humility is being known for who you are, who you really are. Be known for who you are and
be honest about who you are. If you went up to an Olympic athlete, let's say, a runner
who won the gold medal. And if you were to say, "Hey, are you a good athlete?" And what
if he were to say, "Well, you know, it's not me, it's the Lord," which it is the Lord,
he gave you that gift.
"Well, I'm-I'm-I'm okay." Okay, that sounds humble, right? "I'm just okay." That's a lie.
If he were to say, "Actually, I'm a world-class athlete. I've won the gold medal in the Olympics."
That's not prideful, that's honest. That's being known for who you are. That can be humble
too. In fact, to just say, "I'm okay," is prideful, because you're trying to give people
the impression that you're more humble that you really are by trying to say that you're
not. "Oh, I'm okay." So here's Moses basically saying he didn't sweat it. He was "more humble
than all men who were on the earth."
By the way, one of the marks, one of the characteristics I've discovered about truly great people is
a sense of humility that is sometimes staggering, breathtaking, disarming. When I first met
Billy Graham, what startled me about him, years ago, is just how humble he was. And
he didn't want to talk about himself, he wanted to talk about you. "Tell me about yourself.
Oh, that's interesting. Tell me more." One night after I spoke back in North Carolina,
and Billy was in the audience with his wife Ruth and his family, he came up to me after
the service.
And I'm going, "Oh, no. Oh, no." I mean, here's---this is the greatest evangelist in the history---he's
spoken to more people than anyone on the earth in terms of preaching the gospel to. And he
came up to me afterwards and he said, "That was one best of the messages I ever heard.
I wish I could preach like that." And I'm going, "Okay, this is, like, this is, like,
weird now. It's, like, very awkward. This is over the top." And he said, "When I was
your age, I couldn't speak half as well as that." And he was just genuinely trying to
be encouraging. And I was just, again, disarmed by his humility.
Once when I was with him down in Puerto Rico and he was doing a world-wide crusade that
would be broadcast to countries around the globe, and he had a stadium that would be
filled with people that night; we were with him before, when he was preparing his message,
and he said, "I just hope people come." [laughter] I wanted to say, "You can't be serious about
that? You hope people come? You can't---I mean, you'll have to turn people away." But
he genuinely had this sort of fear in his heart, like, "What if nobody shows up?" I
love that. It spoke more to me than any sermon I could hear on humility.
Just, "Lord, this is your work. I'm humbled that you use me. I hope people show up to
hear it." Humble. Okay, look at this, "Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam,"
all three kids," 'Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!' So the three came
out." That sounds like my dad. [laughter] "Jim, Rick, Bob, Skip, outside. I want to
talk to you." "Uh-oh. Not good." "Then the Lord came down"---I love this, "The Lord came
down." The Lord is going to intervene in the situation. He's going to insert himself in
the life journey of these three people.
He's not just aloof in heaven, he comes down to deal with real life situations. Somehow
in your life, isn't wonderful to know that the Lord is going come down and do what he
wants? "The Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood at the door of the tabernacle,
and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward." Can't you just feel the tension
in the air? You can cut it with a knife. The Lord's voice coming out from that cloud, "Aaron,
Miriam." And they walked forward.
"Then he said, 'Hear now my words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make
myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house. I speak with him face to face.' "In other words, without
a mediator. The Hebrew is mouth-to-mouth, intimately, closely, no enigma, no riddle,
no dream, no vision, no intermediator, just direct. "'Even plainly, and not in dark sayings;
and he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant
Moses?' "Notice a couple of things in that statement of the Lord to these two.
Generally, when the Lord spoke in the older Testament, he spoke through prophets. There
were two offices mainly: the office of the priest, and the office of the prophet. The
priest was a representative representing the people before the Lord. The prophet was also
a representative, but representing the Lord to the people. So when the Lord wanted to
speak to people, he spoke through a prophet. He would often speak, as we know already from
reading Genesis, through dreams and visions. Dreams happen when you're asleep. Visions
happen when you're awake, you're seeing things, you're experiencing things---that's a vision.
That's the difference. But you're wide awake when you see them. There was a time in my
life when I was wide awake and I saw all sorts of things. But it wasn't because of the Lord
speaking to me in that kind of a vision; it was for an altered state of consciousness
brought on by a hallucinogenic. But this, a vision from God, is where you're not dreaming
it in your sleep and God's speaking to you in your subconscious, but you're wide awake.
Dreams and visions. However, there's a vagueness to dreams. Right? There's a darkness to them.
They have to often be interpreted; do they not?
So, for example, the Lord spoke to Joseph through dreams. He spoke to people around
Joseph through dreams, but they didn't know what they meant. So you remember the story
back in Genesis, chapter 40, when Joseph is in jail and he has a couple cellmates. Cellmate
number one is the butler to the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. He's in jail for something
he did wrong. The baker of the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, is also in jail. He did something
wrong. They're locked up. They had a dream one night that troubled them, and they were
really bummed out.
And Joseph saw that they were downcast, and he said, "Oh, so what's up?" He goes, "Oh,
man, we had a---bad dreams last night. Really bad." Joseph said, "Well, do not dreams and
interpretations belong to God? Lay them on me. Tell me. See if I can figure this out."
So the butler said, "Well, last night I had a dream that I saw a vine with three branches,
and the branches grew all these grapes. And, I, in my dream pressed those grapes into a
cup and I gave it to Pharaoh. That was in my dream. I dreamt that. I saw that in my
sleep."
Joseph said, "I know what that means: within three days the Lord is going to restore to
you the position you had before with Pharaoh. You're going to get your job back." "Awesome!"
he thought, "Awesome! Thanks!" He wouldn't have known that unless somebody would have
interpreted that dream that he got. So the baker thought, "Well, that's good news. Let
me tell you my dream. Last night I had a dream that there were three baskets on my head,
and the uppermost basket had bread in it. And there were birds flying around that land
in it and started eating and picking off the bread on top."
Joseph looked at him, but he said, "Well, I got good news and bad news. The good news
is I know what the dream means. The bad news is what the dream means. The three baskets
are three days. Within three days the Pharaoh is going to chop your head off from your body.
He's going to hang your body out, and the birds of the air are going to pick at your
flesh in the open air." Both of those things happened, but the dreams required interpretation.
God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar dreams. Daniel has to interpret the polymetallic image and
the other dreams that he saw, the tree that filled the earth.
So the Lord spoke, but he spoke plainly, directly with no mediation to Moses as he said here.
"'He is faithful,' " verse 7, " 'in all my house.' "Wow! The Lord didn't say, "Let me
tell you about Moses, he's a good preacher," because he really wasn't, he stuttered; "He's
a wonderful leader," because he wasn't. He floundered. He doubted. But he said, "He's
faithful." Aren't you glad that the Lord picks up on your faithfulness more than your talent
or your ability or your capability? It's your faithfulness, your faithfulness. Are you faithful?
Are you loyal?
Proverbs 20 verse 6 asks that haunting question: "Most men will proclaim each his own goodness,
but who can find a faithful man?" Here's a faithful man. God says, "Let me tell you something
about Moses. He's faithful and I speak to him. I speak directly to him. I speak with
him face-to-face." In other words, like friends would speak. "'Plainly, and not in dark sayings,
and he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant
Moses?' "Now wait a minute here. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What do we do with what we just
read?
In the light of what we have already read in Exodus, chapter 33, is there conflict?
Is there a discrepancy? For Exodus 33 Moses cries out, "Lord, Lord, Lord. I want to see
you. Show me your glory." God says, "Moses, no man can see me, and live." Or John, chapter
1, "No man has seen God at any time; but the only begotten Son, who is in the *** of
the Father, he hath revealed him." And, yet, he says, "He has seen the form of the Lord."
So what does that mean? Moses was not able to see God's person. He was not able to see
the fullness of God's glory---too many watts, a sunburn beyond imagination, crispy critters,
fried bacon, [sizzle] you're gone. [laughter]
"You can't see me and live," the Lord said. So what the Lord did, we remember, is pass
by him. And he saw the result, the aftereffect, like the afterburner or the afterglow of a
jet that went by. Whatever experience it was, whatever form he saw, it was not the effulgence
of God's glory, but something that he was able to see that was there. But it wasn't
God in his fullness, couldn't handle it. This is the way I tend to think of it in my little
head. You know on television when they interview people who don't want you to see their face.
So they have a camera set up and you see either the profile or the shadow with light around
them like an aftereffect, kind of a light glow around them. And you hear their voice,
and you're seeing a form of some kind, but you're not seeing all the details. It's sort
of like that. It was an experience afforded to no one but Moses, very unique. "Miriam,
you're a prophetess. Dude, Aaron, you're a high priest. You got the Urim, Thummim thing
going, that's cool. And you're a prophetess, that's cool. But I speak very uniquely to
this man, this servant of mine, Moses."
"'So why then,' " he says, " 'are you not afraid to speak against my servant?' "Doesn't
that make sense? Look, if Moses is God's choice, and he was God's choice, then to speak against
Moses is to speak against God. So, "You're complaining; you don't like Moses leadership?
I'm responsible for Moses leadership. You don't like it? You don't like me and my choice.
You're not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" "So the anger of the Lord was aroused
against them," verse 9, "and he departed." Can you just remind you of something that
you and I have to look forward to in the future? You're going to see him face-to-face.
One day you will see, your eyes will see him. Job said, "My eyes will see him [the Lord]."
First John, chapter 3, one of my favorite little chapters, "Behold what manner of love
the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore the
world does not know us, because it didn't know him." He says, "And we are the children
of God; and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears,
we will be like him, for we will see him as he is." Moses wanted to see his glory. Didn't
get to see it all. Got to see a part of it.
You and I will see all of it. And the only way you can handle it is not now, but later
when you have the equipment, a new body, in a resurrected body, in a resurrected state,
or in spirit state, spirit form. John, chapter 4, "The Lord is Spirit, whoever worships him
will worship him in spirit and in truth." There's a realm of reality beyond the physical
that is spiritual. And besides that, on top of just that you will have a resurrected body
with brand-new capabilities to interact directly, face-to-face with the Lord. You're going to
see him as he is. We can only imagine, like the song says.
You can only imagine, you piece together a few things, but sheer, total delight, or in
surf lingo, stoked to the max. But the anger of the Lord here "was aroused against them,
and he departed." Good thing, but they would have probably just fried right on the spot.
"And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous,
as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a ***." Now look
carefully at the word; there's no 'D' on the end of that. There's no 'O' after the letter
'E'. She didn't turn into a leopard, she became leprous, leprosy. She became a ***.
"So Aaron said to Moses, 'Oh, my lord! Please do not lay this sin on us, in which we have
done foolishly,' " finally he recognized that, " 'in which we have sinned.' "Isn't it fascinating
that the one disease that God struck her with, Miriam with was leprosy? Why? Because of all
the diseases we read about in the Old Testament, the one that symbolizes sin most closely is
leprosy. Leviticus 13 and 14, "This is the law of the *** in the day of his cleansing,"
and he's examined and so forth. You see, leprosy, it begins secretly. It starts out small.
Just a little scab, just a little rash. You think, "Huh? That's weird. I'll get a little
cream for that and I'll be okay." Maybe, maybe not. And if maybe not, it could turn into
full-blown leprosy. So it starts insignificantly; but, number two, it spreads rapidly. Once
it takes root it covers the whole body, it spreads all over. Number three, it effects
deeply. It gets down to the core and the systems of the body begin to shut down, and the nerves,
the impulses are severed from the brain so you could touch flame or get cut and bleed
and not even feel it. And it isolates permanently.
They were isolated outside the camp and they died that way, because that's how a person
with leprosy ended up. It killed them. They were isolated from the rest of the camp, from
their families, from the love of their children, from the community, and they died that way,
unless a miraculous healing happened, which happened in the days of Jesus, a couple of
other exceptions. But it was the exception and not the rule. So it's so much like sin
that she, because of her sin, is experiencing something of a physical metaphor and she comes
down with leprosy, as white skin, "white as snow."
Let me throw out a suggestion, because it's just a suggestion that one scholar comes up
with and it's just interesting. It's an interesting thought. He said, "The reason she turned white
in this leprosy, because that's not necessarily a condition of leprosy, but her skin became
snow white, leprous, but snow white, kind of weird looking, flaky and weird looking,
is that God was punishing her for her prejudice against the dark skin of the Ethiopian wife
of Moses. As if saying, "Really? It's about race? You want to be white? You'll be really,
really, really white."
Now, I don't know if that's true, but it's just an interesting consideration, and it
would bespeak of the fact that the punishment fits the crime. There's a greater lesson to
be learned. Here it is: Moses was chosen by God. You complain against Moses, you're complaining
against God, as I mentioned. Here's the principle: no blow on earth goes unfelt in heaven. If
I hurt you as my brother in the Lord, or my sister in the Lord, God will take it personally.
If one member of the body suffers, we all suffer. If I touch you and hurt you and malign
you, God takes it personally.
Saul of Tarsus is the example. He was killing and persecuting and hurting God's children,
Christians in Damascus, putting them into jail. And the Lord stopped him in the middle
of the road, and he said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting?" "Me? Uh, uh, who are
you? I'm not persecuting you, I'm persecuting them. I'm hurting them, not you." No, no,
no, no. If you hurt them, guess what? You hurt me. You touch them, you touch me, because
they are the body of Christ. And somebody just hit my toe. Somebody just stabbed my
finger. Somebody just poked me in the eye."
We're the body of Christ; no blow on earth goes unfelt in heaven. "So Aaron said to Moses,"
and I find this fascinating that he prayed this. He says, "'Oh, my Lord!' "He's acting
very humble now, and sweet, and, "Yes, sir." "'Please do not lay this sin on us, in which
we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned. Please do not let her be as one who
is dead,' "now, listen, this is such a guy thing to say, "'whose flesh as half consumed
when he comes out of his mother's womb!' "You know, it's like, "Okay, I know she's gnarly
looking, but you don't have to, like, describe it like that."
But it's just---that's how a guy would describe it. It struck me. What I find fascinating
is here Aaron said, "Yeah, you know what? He's not, like, the only leader. God speaks
to us too. We have a connection with the Lord, not just Moses." Now he's saying, "Moses,
please!" Wait, wait, wait, wait. If God uses you and speaks to you, dude, you pray. Right?
It's what he wanted. Okay, so fix this. But he realizes now, it's like, "Okay, I spoke
out of turn. I was wrong. My heart was wrong." And so it proves the point of verse 13, "Moses
cried out the Lord, saying 'Please heal her, O God, I pray!' "
Would you have prayed that? Honestly, you might have said, "Lord, okay, heal her tomorrow."
[laughter] One night of suffering is all they need." I have a question for you: Why Miriam?
Why not Miriam and Aaron? Why does she get struck with leprosy, and it's like the dude
gets off the hook? Wasn't he part of this whole conspiracy? Is this fair? Is God a male
chauvinist here? I mean, where's the love? Where's the fairness? Well, I want to answer
that because I want---if you're asking that question, you need to know the answer.
Notice in verse 1---who is mentioned first? "Miriam and Aaron," which indicates she started
it. And if you say, "Well, you're stretching it." I'm not stretching it. Because when it
says "spoke," it says "spoke"--- you see that? "Miriam and Aaron spoke against"---the Hebrew
verb is in the feminine form. So what it means linguistically and the words set up the way
they are in their order is that she's the one that started it and Aaron went along with
her, which shows me that Aaron, though he is God's high priest, was not a great leader.
He was easily swayed.
And what's going through my mind right now is back in Exodus when Moses is up on the
mount and the children of Israel are getting restless and they come to Aaron. And they
say, "Aaron, make us gods that may go before us; as for this man Moses, we don't know what
has become of him." So Aaron said, "I took their gold and threw it into the fire." Remember
when he told that to Moses? "So, so let me explain this calf, Moses. I took their gold,
I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. It just popped out. It was weird, man."
It shows the weakness of this guy, the lame excuses of this guy. God's anointed high priest,
no doubt, no question.
I'm not maligning him, but it's insight into the imperfection of his character. And I smile
at that because I'm encouraged by that. I'm encouraged by the ones God chooses and uses;
aren't you? So he was swayed. She's the one who started it. She's the one that gets it.
There's a second reason: his role is he's the high priest. The high priest cannot be
struck with leprosy. The nation will not have an intercessor. It was only the high priest
who can diagnose leprosy and deal with the leprous person. So you remove him out of the
picture, you've got a bigger problem. So he remains. He pleads to Moses. Moses pleads
to the Lord.
"And the Lord said to Moses, 'If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be
shamed for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she
may be received again.' So Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days," a whole week,
"and the people did not journey until Miriam was brought in again. And afterward the people
moved from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran," down in that area that we talked
about last week. So, she's put out of the camp. What does that mean? It means the whole
nation can't move, their immobile till the week's up.
So it was public; her sin had to be dealt with publicly. It affected everybody else.
Sin always does, by the way. If you think, "Well, I'm just gonna do this all by myself,
nobody's going to check me out or see. I'm not going to hurt anybody. This is just like
my own private little sin. Dude, leave me alone. I got my little jar of sin here, and
you got your problems too. But I'm gonna sin in this area." Don't think you can do that
and not affect other people eventually. It will affect other people. It might affect
just your wife or your husband or your children, or the whole church.
But sin is never done in isolation. It always affects, to some degree, others around you.
Whether it was Achan the Old Testament in the book of Joshua who took the Babylonian
garment, the whole people, other people got judged for it. And they're several examples,
or here. So she was put outside the camp. Well, we've taken a long time in chapter 12,
but we're not going to make it through chapter 13. What I'm wondering is if we shouldn't
try to do a couple of verses before closing time. And I think we have eight minutes, so
we'll do that. We'll do just a few verses. Can we do that?
So we're getting now into chapter 13 where they're going to go check out this land that
God said is your land. Right? [sings] This land is my land, this land is your---it's
their land. They haven't seen it yet. Abraham has gone through it. They haven't seen it
yet. They've come from Egypt. They've been at Sinai for a year. They're now gonna enter
this land. They want to see what it's like. But things go from bad to really bad in the
next two chapters. C. H. Mackintosh a commentator that I have read over the years said this:
"Ten thousand mercies are forgotten in a single trifling moment."
"Ten thousand mercies are forgotten in a single, trifling moment." It just takes a moment,
one experience, one threshold moment where doubt rises up and all that God has done and
built is shaken to the core. That happens here. It says, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
'Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I'm giving to the children of Israel; from
each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them.' So Moses
sent them from the Wilderness of Paran according to the command of the Lord, all of them men
who were heads of the children of Israel."
"These were their names from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur; from the
tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori; from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of
Jephunneh; from the tribe of Isaachar, Igal the son of Joseph [or Yoseph]; from the tribe
of Ephraim, Hoshea," watch that name, "the son of Nun; from the tribe Benjamin, Palti
the son of Raphu; from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi; from the tribe of
Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi." Not sushi, [laughter]
but Susi."
"From the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli; from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the
son of Michael; from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi; from the tribe of
Gad, Geuel the son of Machi. These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out
the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Joshua." So he's the only one without
any parents. He's the son of none. [laughter] Okay, so if you're not, like, playing with
your iPad or iPhone right now, you caught that. Okay, good. I want to close with this,
I think, very powerful point.
If we don't read the whole Bible like we're doing on Wednesday night, if we don't piece
it all together, if we don't connect the dots, we'll be in danger of seeing myopically, very,
very shortsighted. We won't get the big picture, the full picture, the whole scope. Because
in just reading this, it sounds like it's God's idea that they send spies out into the
land. Right? God said send spies that was God's idea. This is why we need to piece the
puzzle together and get the whole picture. Sort of like reading Matthew, then Mark, then
Luke, then John.
And it's like four cameras from four different angles get the whole picture. You need them
all. It was not God's idea. God didn't need to have them spy out the land. God knew what
the land was like. God said, "I'm gonna give you the land. I'm gonna lead you into the
land." So, here's the real deal. Here's the rest of the story. In Deuteronomy, chapter
1, Moses giving one of his final sermons to the people of Israel says this. Deuteronomy,
chapter 1, I'm beginning in verse 19.
He says, "So we departed from Horeb, went through all that great and terrible wilderness
which you saw on the way to the mountains of the Amorites, as the Lord our God had commanded.
Then we came to Kadesh Barnea," that portal site from down south up to the Negev and up
to the hill country. "And I said to you, 'you have come to this mountain of the Amorites,
which the Lord our God is giving us. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before
you; go up and possesses it, as the Lord God of your fathers has spoken; do not fear or
be discouraged.' "In other words, just get in there.
Now watch this, "And every one of you came near to me and said, 'Let us send men before
us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way in which
we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come.' The plan," Moses said, verse
23 of that chapter. "The plan pleased me well; so I took twelve of your men, one man from
each tribe." The way I see it as I piece it together is first it was their idea, they
told it to Moses, he said, "Sounds good to me." And they made their plan and so God said,
"Okay. Now enact your plan. Now do it."
Sending out spies, I believe, was a demonstration of fear and unbelief. God gave them the land.
He knew what they were going to face. He knew what was in there. He wanted them to walk
by faith, but they were fearful. God had already spied out the land for them and brought them
into the land. He knew the trouble they would face. They were to take it, but they're a
little hesitant. They want to kind of get it scoped out first. And so the Lord said,
"Go ahead. Send them out." And he permitted that to happen.
Be very careful about pushing your plans through without waiting on the Lord, without counsel
from godly people. It could be that the Lord will need to teach you a lesson in his sovereignty
and let you go through with your plan. Even though it's not a great plan, he'll permit
you to do it in his sovereignty, so that you'll learn that lesson. So be careful, look for
the yellow lights. Don't look for everything being a green light. Don't say, "You know,
I'm going to put a green sticker on that red light and just go." And so he sent them and
they spied out the land.
And one thing you'll notice, and I'll pick it up next week, is that the names that I
read are all different from the other lists of the leaders of the tribes that numbered
the people so far. They're different men, and for a good reason, this is a scouting
them. Those first lists of men, those leaders were probably older guys, they were elders,
they were seen in positions of authority. These are the young bucks. They're going to
go on a hike. They're going on reconnaissance. They're the infantry. They're going to scout
out and spy out the land, bring stuff back, the fruit, to show everybody.
What also is amazing is---did you notice that I had to go through these names slowly? You
know why? They're unfamiliar to us. We don't remember these names. We only remember two
names, Caleb and Joshua, for a very important reason. And that reason I'm going to tell
you next week as we pick this up and go through this chapter and, perhaps, chapter 14 together.
Father, thank you. Lord, thank you that we get personal insight into the family of a
great man whom you said was faithful, a man whom you spoke to, a man whom you chose as
a leader; obviously, not a perfect man, had certain leadership skills, but far from being
a strong, capable leader. But he was faithful. And it wasn't his ability, nor his capability,
but it was his dependability. You counted on him. He was faithful. He was loyal.
And so, Lord, all of these things give us great encouragement; encourage because we
know our imperfections. And our family around us certainly knows them very well. And, yet,
you have desired to share with us in the holy things of God and your plan on the earth,
and we fit into your plan in a very unique way. Help us to discover what that is and
to flow with it and to be blessed because of it, in Jesus' name, amen.