THE FRAGRANCE OF BROKENNESS

(Numbers 12:1-16)

1Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman); ²and they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?"

 

I have learned that most Church wars are fought over secondary surface issues. Miriam may have made an issue of the Cushite woman but the real issue was jealousy over Moses' leadership. The fact that Miriam's name is mentioned first and that God disciplined her only implies that she was the leader of this attempted insurrection. Destructive fires are often the result of a small spark and lots of wind, and the three words "did you hear" have started more than one congregational fire. Instead of going to Moses with her grievance, Miriam found a listening ear in Aaron.

 

James the apostle aptly described Miriam when he wrote:

 

"…the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire…and sets on fire the course of nature and is set on fire of hell" (James 3:5,6).

 

"A word out of your mouth may seem so insignificant, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony into chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and that because we've allowed hell to have control of our tongue."  (TMB)

One might expect this kind of thing from Korah, but Miriam was the one who fished Moses out of the water. She and Aaron were Moses' family, but instead of supporting him she sought to undermine him. In her own mind, she believed that she and Aaron had a right to share the mantle that was on Moses. After all, God had spoken through them also.

 

It's a wonderful thing to be used of God, but the used must be on guard against pride. Whispering campaigns are not the product of heaven, but of hell. They serve no godly purpose and should be avoided like the plague.

 

 

THE LORD HEARD IT!

Miriam failed to realize that Moses was God's man and that God was listening to what she was whispering into Aaron's ear. The Psalmist wrote, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable to you, Oh LORD, my strength and my redeemer" (Ps. 19:14). We would do well to remember that God hears what we say and knows what we think, and He will hold us accountable for every word we speak.

 

 

THE MAN KNEW IT!

3(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)

 

At first glance, this statement about Moses' character seems a bit misplaced, but a second glance reveals several important things.

 

Moses knew what was being said and who was saying it, but he chose not to fuel the fire. The writer of Proverbs wrote:

 

Proverbs 26:20-21 (NASB) ²⁰For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down. ²¹Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

 

If Miriam and Aaron had tried this on the Moses of Egypt, they would have met their match. The Moses of the wilderness does not fight back. Why? He had been broken.

 

Musician Steven Curtis Chapman writes:

In brokenness, I have felt tangible expressions of God's grace…. I had stacked some rocks out at this little place in the woods, a place I had gone to pray, desperate for God to do something, to show up, or to have some sort of breakthrough. As I was praying, I remember smelling cedar, so strong it distracted me from my prayer. I looked around to see this little cedar tree that had been snapped in half from my stepping in there. . . . That was where the smell was coming from. It was a tangible sign of grace as I was coming to understand it. I had a little note pad out there with me, and I wrote down these words: "The fragrance of the broken."

Vance Havner wrote:

God uses broken things. Broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.

The cocky forty-year-old who had tried to deliver Israel single-handedly had come to see his weakness and his innate inability. He had tried things on his own before and that with tragic results. He had learned that the battle is the Lord's. Besides, he hadn't applied for this job with a fancy resume, but God had called him. If Miriam and Aaron could talk God into giving them the job, then it was theirs.

 

THE LORD HEARD IT!

2a And the LORD heard it.

 

Miriam failed to realize that Moses was God's man and that God was listening to what she was whispering into Aaron's ear. The Psalmist wrote, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable to you, Oh LORD, my strength and my redeemer" (Ps. 19:14). We would do well to remember that God hears what we say and knows what we think, and He will hold us accountable for every word we speak.

 

THE LORD CALLED A MEETING!

4Suddenly the LORD said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, "You three come out to the tent of meeting." So the three of them came out. ⁵Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, ⁶He said,"Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. ⁷ "Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;

⁸ With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings,

And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid

To speak against My servant, against Moses?"

It may be that Miriam felt vindicated as God began to speak. Yes, God was confirming that she was a prophetess and that in the very presence of Moses. Though Miriam wished she could stop listening, God had not finished talking. He revealed that his relationship with Moses went beyond the prophetic. He spoke to prophets in visions and dreams, but with Moses face to face. God then drops the hammer and asks, "Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?" This implies that to speak against Moses was to speak against God.

 

THE GOSSIPER IS EXPOSED AND MARKED

9So the anger of the LORD burned against them and He departed. ¹⁰But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.

 

The one who had viewed herself as worthy to stand as Moses' equal is now forced to leave the camp and bear the shame of her leprosy. If you let God fight your battles, you can be sure that God will expose those who have sought to malign and undermine you.

 

THE MALIGNED ONE INTERCEDES

11Then Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. ¹²"Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb!" ¹³Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "O God, heal her, I pray!" ¹⁴But the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again." ¹⁵So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again. ¹⁶Afterward, however, the people moved out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

 

Aaron, afraid that the same fate would befall him, begged for Moses help. Instead of ignoring Aaron's plea and the plight of his sister, we are told, "Moses cried out to the LORD." God responds, but demands that Miriam bear the stigma of her judgment for seven days. She is to go through the cleansing process and only then is she to be restored to the camp. This is an unpleasant issue the Church often avoids, but to our hurt. We are called to restore those who have fallen. This means that they must be brought to wholeness in the area where they failed. It is not punishment, but cleansing and restoration. Then and only then are they to be "restored" to the camp and ministry.

 

THE OSTRACIZED ONE IS RESTORED

The other side of that coin is that we must receive them when they are restored. The entire nation was parked in the desert until Miriam could rejoin them. I'm not sure, but I think we may be waiting on some Miriams. I'm confident that they will come home and when they do we need to be waiting with open arms. The Bible doesn't say, but perhaps the people saw Moses taking food and water to a little tent just outside the camp. On the seventh day they saw him bring a fresh change of clothes to the tent and then watched as he waited outside. The woman that emerged has been shaved, washed, anointed and clothed in new garments. The man that led her back to the camp was Moses himself. With Miriam restored to the camp it was time to move from Hazeroth to Paran (the place beauty or glory).

 

CONCLUSION

 

Before some of us can go on with God, we're going to have to deal with our Miriams.

 

1. God will deal with your enemies.

2. You must pray for your enemies.

3. God will heal your enemies.

4. You must receive your enemies.

5. Together we will go on to the place of beauty and glory.

©2000 by Louis Bartet, all rights reserved.