Remember what the Lord thy God did unto Miriam, by the way as ye came forth out of Egypt.- Deu_24:9.
1. Again the scene changes, and a new act of the drama opens. We find ourselves in a totally different environment from either of the foregoing. We have passed from the Nile river; we have passed from the Red Sea; we have entered into the heart of the wilderness. And we have left behind also the song of triumph. A cloud has settled over the singer-a moral cloud.
That long wilderness experience was a great trial, especially to the leaders of the people. It tried their faith, it tried their temper and enthusiasm. They found it difficult to keep alive those early ideals associated with the birth of the nation and with the great experiences of Sinai. And probably it indicated a lapse on the part of Moses to take to wife a Cushite or Ethiopian woman. It was so regarded at least by his sister Miriam. It was a tremendous blow to her that Moses should bring into the family circle an alien woman. And, clearly enough, to Miriam's mind this was not only a retrograde step on the part of Moses but a lapse from grace, a betrayal of the Divine trust reposed in him as leader of Israel.
2. Miriam's pain is all the greater because she thinks she is shut out from a place in the councils of the nation to which her great gifts entitle her. Under this jealous feeling her love almost turns to hatred. She wins over Aaron to her faction, and threatens to break up the camp unless more regard is paid to her place and position in the councils of the people. Such seems to have been the temptation which made Miriam chide with Moses, saying, “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?”
In one pathetic passage of Henry Varley's autobiographical memoranda, there is mention-though I suppress the name-of a neighbouring pastor at Notting Hill, specially gifted and qualified as an expositor of the Scriptures. His ministry was attracting some members of my father's congregation. He missed them frequently from their seats in the Tabernacle. “Henry Varley did not like this,” he writes. To his intense self-loathing, he found that the “green-eyed monster” of jealousy had its claws upon his soul. “I shall never forget,” he continues, “the sense of guilt and sin that possessed me over that business. I was miserable. Was I practically saying to the Lord Jesus, ‘Unless the prosperity of Thy Church and people comes in this neighbourhood by me, success had better not come'? Was I really showing inability to rejoice in another worker's service? I felt that it was sin of a very hateful character. I never asked the Lord to take away my life either before or since; but I did then, unless His grace gave me victory over this foul image of jealousy.” The suggestion inevitably arises of the possibility of vacant pulpits if preachers jealous of other preachers' success were to pray to die, and their prayers were answered.1 [Note: Henry Varley's Life-Story, 235.]
3. It does not appear that Moses attempted to defend himself against his brother and sister. In his meekness he was unwilling to argue his own case, but it is significantly stated, “the Lord heard it.” From that moment the controversy was between Him and these two, not between them and their brother; he might be ready to let the accusation pass, but the Lord was not. Suddenly the three were called out “unto the tabernacle of the congregation,” and when they came out “the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud,” and Aaron and Miriam had to come forth.
It was true that Aaron and Miriam had both been recognized by the Lord and given a position of authority in connexion with the conduct of affairs in Israel. But although the Lord would make Himself known to any prophet and would “speak unto him in a dream,” He reserved a more intimate fellowship and clearer revelation of Himself for His servant Moses. Moses was not like any ordinary prophet, although in his extreme meekness he would not vindicate his own position. He “was faithful,” or approved, “to him that appointed him,” not merely in any one special matter, but “in all the house,” of Jehovah, that is, in all pertaining to the Kingdom of God. And the Lord now vindicated His servant. Miriam and Aaron were left with the stern challenge, “Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
Make no great account who is for thee or against thee but mind only the present duty and take care that God be with thee in whatsoever thou doest. Have a good conscience and God will defend thee, for he whom God will help no man's perverseness shall be able to hurt. If thou knowest how to hold thy peace and to suffer, without doubt thou shalt see the help of the Lord. He knoweth the time and the way to deliver thee, therefore must thou resign thyself to Him. To God it belongeth to help and to deliver from all confusion.1 [Note: Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Bk. ii. ch. 2 (Of Lowly Submission), p. 89 in Benham's edition.]
4. Miriam and Aaron were both severely rebuked, but the chief punishment fell upon Miriam. “The cloud removed from over the tent; and, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow.” Aaron understood the sin when he saw the result of it, and immediately he appealed to Moses for forgiveness that his sister might “not be as one dead,” because leprosy was simply a living death. It is beautiful to see how quickly the man who was silent under reproach became eloquent on behalf of the one who had wronged him, and made use of his privilege to “speak mouth to mouth” with the Lord in pleading for her recovery. “Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.”
The healing and forgiveness sought for Miriam were not refused. Yet God is represented as resenting the speedy oblivion of the offence on account of which the leprosy had been sent and the Divine displeasure incurred. There was cause to apprehend that the whole matter might be too quickly wiped out and forgotten, and that the sinners, reinstated in their old position, might think too lightly of their offence. This detrimental suddenness God takes measures to prevent. Had an earthly father manifested his displeasure as emphatically as God had now shown His, Miriam could not for a time have held up her head. God desires that the shame which results from a sense of His displeasure should last at least as long. He therefore enjoins something like a penance; He removes His stroke, but provides for the moral effects of it being sufficiently impressed on the spirit to be permanent. Miriam was subjected to a temporary disgrace. She was expelled from the congregation of the Lord for seven days. She was placed during that time in the position of a moral leper who could not be touched without spiritual uncleanness. She had to bear the sorrow of seeing Israel's march to the Promised Land arrested-arrested on her account during the days of her banishment. These were among the things that Miriam could not forget and never did forget; and we may say of her, what is said later of one of the kings of Israel, that she “went softly” all the days of her life.
Miriam came out of her cloud with an unstained reputation. She resumed her leadership by the side of her two brothers. She lost nothing of her respect among the ranks of Israel. She kept an honoured name not only through the marches of the wilderness but through the long march of Jewish history, and men ever spoke of her as Miriam the Prophetess.
“Oh, my Father! keep me humble. Help me to have respect towards my fellow-men-to recognize their several gifts as from Thee. Deliver me from the diabolical sins of malice, envy, or jealousy, and give me hearty joy in my brother's good, in his work, in his gifts and talents; and may I be truly glad in his superiority to myself, if Thou art glorified! Root out all weak vanity, all devilish pride, all that is abhorrent to the mind of Christ. God, hear my prayer! Grant me the wondrous joy of humility, which is seeing Thee as All in All!1 [Note: Memoir of Norman Macleod, ii. 318.]
5. We hear nothing more of Miriam till we come to the twentieth chapter of Numbers. The children of Israel are nearing the end of their wanderings; they have entered upon their last year; they have reached Kadesh, in the upper part of the wilderness of Sin; and all that is told us of the end is in two sentences: “And the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.”
Miriam never reached the Promised Land; she died in the wilderness. She died when the goal was almost won, at the opening of the fortieth year of Israel's wanderings-by only a very short time predeceasing her two brothers. It seems a sad thing to have fainted so near to the crown. Yet a “death in the desert” was a fitting close for such a life as hers. Miriam was a bird of song, and songs are sweetest in the night. Miriam was meant to sing in the wilderness and for the wilderness; and when the wilderness was past her work was done. Her mission was to cheer the desert; and when the end of the desert was reached her task was over.
Sad doom, to know a mighty work in hand,
Which shall from all the ages honour win;
Upon the threshold of this work to stand,
Arrested there, while others enter in.
And this was theirs; they saw their fellows bound
To fields of fame which they might never share;
And all the while within their own hearts found
A strength that was not less, to do and dare:
But knew that never, never with their peers
They should salute some grand day's glorious close,
The shout of triumph ringing in their ears,
The light of battle shining on their brows.
Sad doom:-yet say not Heaven to them assigned
A lot from all of glory quite estranged:
Albeit the laurel which they hoped to bind
About their brows for cypress wreath was changed.
Heaven gave to them a glory stern, austere,
A glory of all earthly glory shorn;
With firm heart to accept fate's gift severe,
Bravely to bear the thing that must be borne;
To see such visions fade and turn to nought,
And in this saddest issue to consent;
If only the great work be duly wrought,
That others should accomplish it, content.1 [Note: R. C. Trench, Poems, 348.]
