The book of Numbers in the Old Testament is not likely to be the favourite part of the Bible for many Christians. It focuses on a lot on the day-to-day travels, troubles and complaints of the Israelites wandering through the desert as they slowly made their way to the Promised Land led by their longsuffering leader Moses.
Here were a very large number of people living in a confined space in the desert with not too much to do and certainly outside of the basic tasks of daily living there was very little else to do in an era long before the invention of the internet and social media! However, in Numbers chapter twelve there are two remarkable pieces of information communicated about His views on Moses, the leader of the Jewish nation, together with His views on racism and interracial marriage.
It is not common to hear many sermons preached from the book of Numbers or on the subject of God’s approach to people holding racist views about those who look different to themselves. What does God think on these two topics?
Moses (Numbers 12:6-8)
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.
Moses heard the literal voice of God and had actual audible conversations with Him. There could barely be a higher form of commendation of this man than revealed in this observation. God approved of this man and his conduct and through this choice of the means of communication with him demonstrated to anyone who was interested that Moses was living a God-honouring life.
The problem was that not everyone in the Israelite camp was thrilled at Moses’ leadership or some of the choices he made. The books of Exodus and Numbers see plenty of these complaints listed with grumbling over the food and water supply. Did anyone think it was going to be easy for in excess of one or even two million people to be fed and watered adequately in the midst of a desert?
The first thing we learn about the life of Moses was that no matter what he did someone wasn’t happy and often they were quick to make it a public issue. In this passage two people in his own family take issue with a major decision he made and were not afraid to criticise him openly for doing so. In reflection – how quick I am to criticise someone else for holding a different view to me? How quick am I to post a social media response in the same context?
The answer for the vast majority of us is sometimes yes I can be guilty of that. Let us endeavour to be quick to praise helpful constructive posts, but much slower to respond when we disagree, especially when we strongly disagree. Let us try genuinely to seek to understand where the other person is coming from as this can be quite significant. After all, if someone God greatly honoured goes through these difficulties then I cannot expect to be guaranteed an easy time either.
Interracial marriage (Numbers 12:1-16) 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…The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.(Numbers 12:1-3,9).
If this is Moses’ wife he married in the desert prior to leading the Israelites out of Egypt, then the anger of his siblings Aaron and Miriam is astonishing. It is years later that this racial problem had festered inside his brother and sister before finally coming out.
When you have a serious difference of opinion with someone please don’t pretend it is not real or assume that you have a monopoly of insight and truth on your side and that the other person ‘must’ be wrong.
What did they object to? First, Moses had married a woman who was a black African. She probably had come from one of the countries we today call either Sudan or Ethiopia. By contrast, they were fairer brown skinned people, typical of the majority of people from the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea.
Secondly, they resented the fact that he was in the public eye more than them, leading the nation when they would have liked a turn at doing his job. There was clearly some jealousy of their little brother and his successes. We have no way of knowing which came first, but in public at least the attack on their brother was over his choice of marriage partner on racial grounds.
What did God have to say about their objections to interracial marriage? Numbers 12:9 states: The anger of the Lord burned against them, and He left them.
God viewed their racist attitude as so serious an issue that it led to a suspension of their fellowship with Him. They had to repent of their sin and Moses pray on their behalf for God to lift His judgement on them. As we look within our own hearts, have you or I ever thought less of someone because their racial origins were different to our own?
Have you or I treated someone less well because they have a different racial background in our family circle, workplace, social setting or even in our church? Honesty can be painful, but the good thing is that when we repent of our sins God is willing to forgive us and allow us a fresh start in our relationship with Him. Failing to get this right can have tragic consequences.
At the present time we need to stand with those who have suffered most with racism and discrimination and affirm with them that Black Lives Matter. We cannot and must not forget how seriously God viewed this sin of Aaron and Miriam. Nor must we keep silent because it is costing too many lives today. May we all resolve to treat each other as equals in the sight of God, for Jesus’ sake, Amen
Our song for reflection today is: ‘Purify my heart’
Brian Talbot