And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had taken; for he had taken a Cushite as wife.
A family quarrel here turns into something far more serious: Israel's prophetess and priest speak against their own brother over the woman he married. Was the marriage the real issue, and why does God take the complaint so seriously?
Miriam's name comes first, before Aaron's, and writers see meaning in that. One writer also finds Aaron repeating an old failure here.
Open rebellion against Moses by his own brother and sister is the next step in the story of failure. Envy was at the bottom of it... Miriam was the leader in this rebellion, for her name stands first and the judgment falls upon her... And Aaron reveals the weakness of the flesh. It is the second time he failed in this manner. He could not resist the people when they demanded the golden calf. Now he cannot resist his sister.
The marriage is what they say aloud. It is not what really troubles them.
Miriam and Aaron soon show what they really think. They present themselves as equal in importance to Moses. Not his marriage but his position offends them... Whatever the pretext envy may use, how soon it unmasks itself and shows its naked ugliness!... They were not thinking of Jehovah, but of themselves. Pride and jealousy swayed them. A heart under such feelings has no trouble finding an excuse for speaking against God's servants.
Older translations call her an Ethiopian; the ESV calls her a Cushite. Writers date this marriage to Moses' years in exile, when his own people had rejected him. Seen that way, the thing they objected to pictured God's kindness reaching outside Israel.
The occasion, or the apparent occasion, was that Moses had married an Ethiopian woman. He had indeed done this. But it was long before God appointed him ruler and deliverer of his people. It happened when Israel had rejected him in Egypt, and the king's anger had driven him into exile. In that position, then, the very marriage they complained about pictured the sovereign grace of God. When Israel rejected His beloved Son, God would give Him a bride from among the Gentiles.
Their two offices make the complaint worse, not better.
It is the prophetess and the priest who rise up against the one who is king in Jeshurun — that is, king in Israel. God speaks with him as with His friend. One of the two has the word from God, the other has access to God. Together they are the twofold character of the people of God... The people of God, whatever their privileges, ought to have recognised the sovereignty of grace, which has brought into the blessing of Christ those who had no right or title to it.
Commentators differ. One writer reads the repeated phrase at the end of the verse as Moses admitting what he did. Even so, he will not join the accusers.
We know the stern rebuke the Lord gave to Aaron and Miriam for speaking against Moses. But that did not justify Moses in what he had done. God used Moses to write these books. So in the words "for he had married a Cushite woman" we may read his own admission and confession of what he did. We are not told whether Zipporah was dead, or whether Moses had taken this woman as well as his own wife... We would not join with Aaron and Miriam in speaking against God's honoured servant. It is good to remember that it is no delight to the Spirit of God to expose the failings of the Lord's people. Love covers sin when it can rightly do so, and so our God mercifully acts towards us.
Another writer says Scripture nowhere forbids marriage across races. The wrong lay elsewhere.
Scripture does not forbid marriages between whites and blacks. It does forbid a believer to marry an unbeliever, in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. But using an occasion like this to pull the Lord's servant down, and so all but take his place, is wickedness in the sight of the Lord.
The verse records the accusation. Moses makes no reply.
Had Moses defended his own cause, I am persuaded God would not have dealt so with Aaron and Miriam. Even if a person is completely in the right, the lack of faith that fights for self always hinders the working of grace.
One writer turns this verse on our own everyday speech.
Is one not allowed to talk about the marriage of one's own brother? Of course this is allowed, but what matters is the way you talk about it! Miriam did so in a negative way and so became guilty of slander. She disapproved of Moses' marriage and so damaged his position and good name.
- Pretext — The wife is the stated reason. His position is the real one, and envy borrows a respectable excuse.
- Pride — Miriam leads and Aaron follows. Prophetess and priest turn their own privileges against the man God set over them.
- Grace — The marriage they resented pictured a rejected leader taking a bride from outside Israel. Mercy reaches those with no claim to it.
- Silence — Moses does not answer. Self-defence, even when justified, gets in the way of what God would do.
- Speech — Talking about a brother's marriage is not the sin. Miriam talked it down and damaged his good name, and that is slander.
And they said, Has Jehovah indeed spoken only to Moses? has he not spoken also to us? And Jehovah heard it.
The trouble starts inside Moses' own family: his sister and brother resent the woman he married, then ask whether God speaks only through him. Their question sounds like a plea for fairness, but the closing line — the LORD heard it — turns the scene around.
The marriage was the stated reason. The second half of the verse shows what drove the pair.
In truth, jealousy was the source of these bitter waters, as verse 2 reveals. The marriage of Moses was only used as a screen to hide what was working in their hearts. What they wanted was equality with Moses... To careless readers it might look as if Miriam and Aaron were only guarding the rights of the Lord's people. They seemed to say that, since the Lord was Lord of them all, they were all brothers alike... Miriam and Aaron were blind to the working of God's sovereign grace. They also forgot that they owed their own places to it: the God who called Moses to be the mediator had assigned their places too. The same sovereign will that put Moses into his place decides the places of His servants.
The claim they make is true in itself — God had spoken through both of them. That is what made it useful to them.
Miriam and Aaron attack the human leader of Israel from another side, at the point where he is most open to it. The charge concerns a Cushite wife that he has taken, but the spirit of self-exaltation shows in their murmuring... Who had denied it? But their clear aim is to put themselves on the same level as Moses, and so remove him from the leading place God had given him... The effect is to excuse themselves from obedience.
They say God has spoken "through" them. That small word is worth weighing.
The exact force of the prepositions here gives a much deeper sense. In verse 2 it is "through" Moses and "through" us, not exactly "to," though this was also true. But Jehovah, in making Himself known to a prophet, says, I will speak "in" him in a dream. Of Moses, whom He met and spoke with visibly, He says, Mouth to mouth do I speak "in" him.
The two who complain are not outsiders. Each held a real position given by God.
It is the prophetess and the priest who rise up against the man who is king in Jeshurun, that is, in Israel. One has the word from God, the other has access to God — the two marks of the people of God. And God speaks with Moses as with His friend. In this Moses pictures Christ in every way, for Christ Himself stands outside the rights which grace has given to the people... Miriam and Aaron ought to have been afraid.
The verse ends by naming a listener they had left out of the conversation.
Miriam and Aaron, blinded by their self-importance, refuse to acknowledge the place given by God to Moses. "And the LORD heard it." Someone may think he has whispered a critical word to one brother or sister alone, telling them not to pass it on. Let us remember that the Lord has heard it and will hold us accountable.
Writers take the marriage itself as a picture of something larger.
While Israel was rejecting Moses, he formed that mysterious, picture-like union with a Gentile bride — a wife from outside Israel. Against this union Miriam and Aaron speak in the chapter before us, and their opposition brings down the judgement of God. Miriam becomes leprous — a poor defiled thing, and now a fit subject of mercy. That mercy reaches her through the prayer of the very one she had spoken against.
The application is not limited to leaders of Moses' stature.
In any case, it is a fatal mistake to speak against the very weakest and humblest of God's servants. If the servant does wrong — if he is in error, if he has failed in anything — the Lord Himself will deal with him. But let fellow servants beware of taking the matter into their own hands. They may be found like Miriam, meddling to their own hurt.
- Pretext — The wife was the stated grievance. Verse 2 shows jealousy was the real driver, hiding behind a true statement.
- Position — They wanted equality with Moses. That meant unseating the place God gave him, and excusing themselves from obeying.
- Privilege — A prophetess and a priest already held places God had given them. The same will had placed Moses, so their complaint was rebellion against it.
- Heard — The whisper had a listener they never counted on. Nothing said about a servant of God escapes Him.
- Reversed — The marriage they resented pictured grace reaching an outsider. Miriam then needed that same mercy, and it came through the prayer of the man she attacked.