Proudly Humble?
Opening Prayer
Pray for your leaders: in your nation, at work, in your church. Ask God to help you to support them.
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 Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.
Reflect
How did Moses react to this rebellion and why?Leaders can be very lonely. Moses had already felt the pressure of being the middle man between the Israelites and God (11:2). When “the rabble” (11:4) started grumbling about food, it was just too much (11:11). Fortunately, God’s answer was to provide elders to relieve the pressure (11:17). Now Aaron and Miriam, Moses’s brother and sister, started grumbling because he had married a Cushite woman (1). Opposition rarely has simple reasons, however, and here the real issue seems to have been jealousy (2). What makes the difference when we face opposition is knowing who is on our side. In Moses’ case it couldn’t have been better: it was God (4)! The key issue in leadership is character (3). God knew what Moses was like and he knows what we are like! Aaron and Miriam, however, were no different than the rest of the Israelites. Just as the people rejected God’s provision of food (the manna), so they were rejecting God’s provision of Moses as a leader. Yet, Moses still asked God to heal Miriam (13). Humility is a core quality for godly leaders.
Apply
Identify Moses’s qualities of character. Ask God to help you grow in those aspects of your character.
Closing prayer
Gracious Lord. You know what areas of my character I most need to grow in. I pray You’ll show me and help me grow.
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