Chapter 12

Aaron and Miriam get upset with Moses because he marries a Cushite woman.  Cush is south of present day Egypt, and is now called Ethiopia.  How she came to be with Israel in the desert we do not know.  She may have been in Egypt with them, she may have joined them in the desert.  No way to know how she came to be there.  She was probably black.  We have no idea whether skin color was the basis of Aaron and Miriam's complaints.  What we do know is that they began to imply that Moses was not the only one whom God was speaking with as to the leadership of Israel. 

This verse, explaining perhaps why Moses was not disturbed about the two who prophesied in the camp, nor about Aaron and Miriam's complaints:

3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. [Num 12:3 ESV]

2024 - This verse:  And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting." And the three of them came out. (Num 12:4 ESV).  Hadn't thought about it before but this looks like they came to that tent outside the camp where Moses met with God while God was so angry at them.  But...the tabernacle has been dedicated and Aaron and his sons are priests at this time.  Has that term "tent of meeting" transferred from the tent outside  the camp to the tabernacle?  MSB has no note at all about it.  "Come out..." is the wording that got my attention.

God calls the three of them to the tent of meeting, and chastises A and M and reminds them that with most prophets - in fact with all prophets, with every person other than Moses - there are dreams and visions and riddles, but he speaks clearly and plainly to Moses and Moses sees his form.  God tells them how He communicates with His prophets.  Even speaking to prophets, God does not always speak in a way that is easy to understand.  These verses:

6 And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" [Num 12:6-8 ESV].

2024 - God's own definition of how he works with OT prophets.  The "riddles" part is also interesting.  This surely implies that even the true prophets had to put into words what they saw in vision or dream, and they might get that wrong in translation.  Especially if God spoke in a riddle to start with!  And this implies still further that when God was inspiring Scripture, there were no riddles, and the vision or dream was reported properly.  This seems to put Scriptural inspiration in a completely different category than prophecy doesn't it?  And that changes a LOT of what Grudem says in this chapter about prophets.

2024 - Note that Adonai comes down in that pillar of cloud and stands there.  Seems this once at least, Aaron and Miriam have a clouded glimpse of Adonai, and they hear him speak as Moses hears him.  And He is pretty clear about things!

2024 - I note that in the Hebrew text, it is Jehovah that comes down.  Adonai is the name used in the Jewish Study Bible, which I am using this time through the Pentateuch.

So here is a partial explanation of why there would be various interpretations of Biblical passages.  The prophets themselves surely did not always see clearly what they were communicating.  God gives us riddles, not full clarity, in dreams and visions.  He does this on purpose.  We should therefore not be surprised.  I remember that book on end times that said the closer you get to something the clearer it becomes.  Tie this in with what God Himself says right here, and you would expect various parts of Biblical prophecy to be very difficult to understand at some stages, but easier and more clear as the time of fulfillment approaches. 

And since it is the 25th today, I read Proverbs 25, and found still another connection:

2 It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. [Pro 25:2 ESV]

2021 - It would be interesting to understand what this "form" that Moses saw might be.  Moses didn't talk to air, didn't hear a disembodied voice apparently.  There was a visible form there, and the voice came from that form.  Only Moses had this privilege.

Miriam becomes covered with leprosy, and remains outside the camp for 7 days.  Aaron is not punished, so far as the Bible tells.  After the seven days, the camp moves from Hazeroth to Paran.

2025 - We want to call this unfair, that Miriam became leprous and Aaron did not.  That "judgment" of our is based on human understanding and we need to remember that it is God we are judging.  Perhaps it was Miriam who stirred up Aaron about Moses being the one in front, even though it had been Aaron who actually did  the speaking while in Egypt.  Remember t hat Miriam had led the women in dancing perhaps even at that time inciting a little bit of rebellion in the attitude of women toward their husbands.  It could also be that Aaron could be corrected sufficiently and permanently with just a word, but Miriam required a full on spanking.  Only God knows his reasons, and we need to remember that He is God and we are most definitely not!