Mouth to Mouth
Opening Prayer
Father of lights, You are the source of my life, and every good thing comes from You.
Read 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 toward 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 spit 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 encamped in the Desert of Paran. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Why was Miriam upset?A leadership feud that is also a family feud: Miriam and Aaron are put out about Moses’ wife–she is from Cush (Ethiopia) and seems not to be the same person as Zipporah the Midianite, his first wife (Exod. 2:21). They also don’t like his apparent sense of being the only one God speaks through. After all, God speaks to them too, surely? God’s response is blunt: no one else receives God’s word like Moses does. God speaks “face to face” with Moses (8). Although almost all English translations say that, the phrase is actually “mouth to mouth,” as if God were putting God’s own words into Moses’ mouth. Tough for Miriam and Aaron: they do indeed need to listen to their brother. Oddly, verse 3 mentions that Moses is the most humble man on the earth. Maybe true humility is found in receiving one’s words from God–in depending on God for all we say. The story does not end well for Miriam, though note that Moses himself prays for her in the midst of her trouble (13). How many other siblings would have done that?
Apply
Tell the Lord of your desire to share such intimacy that it could be said that you share breath with him.
Closing prayer
Precious Lord, may my words be Your words and my heart beat in rhythm with Your own.
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