Miriam and Aaron represented the priests and the prophets which were the two most powerful groups next to Moses. They had grown jealous of Moses and, since they could not find fault with him, they choose to start gossiping about his wife and undermining Moses true value to the people. (Yes, even in biblical times people were catty.) God's method of disciplining them for their backbiting made me smile a little in spite of the seriousness of it.
Wow. Chalk this up to another one of the myriad of reasons why I'm thankful to Jesus for redeeming me! I can just imagine this situation being a lot like me calling over two of my kids for being mean to one of the others, except for the fact that I'm not God (clearly). That puts a whole new flavor into this dish.
God calls Miriam and Aaron aside and chastises them for gossiping about Moses and his wife. Man, does He give them a talking to! Not only is He angry that they would talk badly about Moses in the first place, but also that they had the audacity not to be afraid to do so. As if God wouldn't step up and go to bat for His beloved. People, please.
One thing that puzzles me a little is why didn't Aaron become leprous as well? Why only Miriam? Maybe Aaron was affected more by seeing his sister fall ill than he would have been by falling ill himself? Who knows what he had to face going back into the camp with his tail between his legs while Miriam was left outside for a week. The questions, the stares, the whispers, the blame...I bet they were a heavy weight to carry for some time. Perhaps the Lord knew they needed to be separated from each other in order to truly repent of their sins rather than fall right back into them? If both had been afflicted and sent outside the camp for 7 days, they would have a whole week to commiserate and get themselves even deeper into trouble. I know that would be something my kids would be likely to do.
Truth is, only God knows; I certainly don't. I've often said that if I could understand the reasons behind everything that God does, then He wouldn't really be much of a God, would He? He'd be more like a really good Pastor. Human. Limited by what I'm limited by intellectually. We're not on the same plane and the understanding of that is where true faith begins. We CAN'T understand His ways/reason/methods. We're not capable. What we CAN do is trust that He knows what He's doing and has our best interest at heart. I trust God knew what He was doing then, and that He's knows what He is doing now. Do you?
Absolutely!
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