Leadership and leprosy

Today: Numbers 11-13

Today's passage had a lot of interesting things to read, think and write about. I could choose to write about Joshua and Caleb's excursion to the Promised Land--I've heard lots of sermons on that. I could talk about God's provision of quail to His people--another interesting part of the passage. But I thought I'd write about a strange part of the passage I've never heard anyone teach about before--when Moses' sister was cursed with leprosy.

Let's take another peek at the story:

Miriam and Aaron talked against Moses behind his back

because of his Cushite wife (he had married a Cushite woman).

They said, "Is it only through Moses that God speaks? Doesn't he also speak through us?"

God overheard their talk.
Now the man Moses was a quietly humble man,

more so than anyone living on Earth.

God broke in suddenly on Moses and Aaron and Miriam saying,

"Come out, you three, to the Tent of Meeting." The three went out.

God descended in a Pillar of Cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent.

He called Aaron and Miriam to him.

When they stepped out, he said,

"Listen carefully to what I'm telling you.

If there is a prophet of God among you,

I make myself known to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.

But I don't do it that way with my servant Moses;

he has the run of my entire house;

I speak to him intimately, in person, in plain talk without riddles:

He ponders the very form of God.

So why did you show no reverence or respect

in speaking against my servant, against Moses?

The anger of God blazed out against them. And then he left.
When the Cloud moved off from the Tent, oh! Miriam had turned leprous, her skin like snow.

This is a weird story. First of all, we don't know everything Miriam and Aaron were exactly saying about Moses or his wife. Secondly, I think it was strange that Miriam--only Miriam--was cursed with leprosy. Why not Aaron, too?

Here are a few of the things we do know: God's just. God hears, sees and knows everything. Miriam and Aaron were not only Moses' siblings, they were also leaders. God grants authority to leaders and wants people to respect authority He has established.

Another thing we learn from this story? God doesn't avoid confrontation. In fact, in this passage, God demonstrated the value of straight-up communication--by talking with Miriam and Aaron directly, He addressed His concerns and challenged their thinking.

To some extent, He may have been modeling the behavior He wanted them to follow (see Matthew 18:15-17). Instead of gossipping and griping behind Moses' back, as leaders, Miriam and Aaron should have gone to Moses directly to address their concerns (if they had anything legitimate)--with a spirit of love and a desire to resolve differences and maintain unity (for their sake and for the sake of the people they led together). My gut (and some of the context of this passage) tells me that their backbiting really came out of jealousy--perhaps more Miriam's jealously than Aaron's. Maybe that's why He delivered the mysterious consequence of (temporary) leprosy to Miriam alone.

I don't know if the last few sentences are true--only God knows our motives. Maybe that's one of the key take-aways from today's strange story: God knows our hearts. How we think and speak about people--in this case, leaders--matters to Him.

Tomorrow: Numbers 14-15