Why Not Afraid?
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Numbers 12:08 The Context: Refusing to follow God into the promised land, the wandering Israelites were prone to complaining and disagreements. They grumbled about God, Moses, and each other. Like us, they looked for things in each others lives to criticize. Moses was familiar with criticism. Even God had criticized him for things. Amid all the questions about the direction and purposes of the wandering, "Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite (non-Hebrew) woman whom he had married." We do not know the whole context of this criticism, except that it must not have been Moses' marriage that was the fundamental issue because God did not address it. If Moses' marriage were indeed against God's will, it would have been open to legitimate criticism. But this was something different, and that difference was Moses himself and how God was using him. Evidently this was the basic criticism of Miriam and Aaron for they asked: "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses?"
God Asks Us: "… Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
jne: Their criticism of Moses and how God was uniquely using him was why "the anger of the LORD was kindled against them." God had spoken to and through other people like Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, etc, but Moses was unique. God said: "If there is prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" Moses was not just "a prophet of God," he was a very unique "servant of God." Moses was meek, not needing to defend himself against criticism; God was defending him. There have been, and are today, many people who claim to be "prophets of God." But none of them have been in the category of Moses whom God spoke to and through. God's question to Miriam and Aaron ought to be a caution to us to be very careful to make certain that our questions of other "prophets" are very carefully and Biblically based. God's warning is not a categorical prohibition of questioning people who claim to be "prophets of God." There are several instances in the Bible where God Himself criticized and judged false prophets. We ought to learn to recognize the difference between true and false prophets. And, we ought to begin with evaluating how we ourselves communicate what we believe God says to and through us. As an additional thought: If people should have been afraid to speak against Moses, how much more should someone be afraid of being a false prophet who only pretends to speak for God?
Numbers 12:08 The Context: Refusing to follow God into the promised land, the wandering Israelites were prone to complaining and disagreements. They grumbled about God, Moses, and each other. Like us, they looked for things in each others lives to criticize. Moses was familiar with criticism. Even God had criticized him for things. Amid all the questions about the direction and purposes of the wandering, "Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite (non-Hebrew) woman whom he had married." We do not know the whole context of this criticism, except that it must not have been Moses' marriage that was the fundamental issue because God did not address it. If Moses' marriage were indeed against God's will, it would have been open to legitimate criticism. But this was something different, and that difference was Moses himself and how God was using him. Evidently this was the basic criticism of Miriam and Aaron for they asked: "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses?"
God Asks Us: "… Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
jne: Their criticism of Moses and how God was uniquely using him was why "the anger of the LORD was kindled against them." God had spoken to and through other people like Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, etc, but Moses was unique. God said: "If there is prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" Moses was not just "a prophet of God," he was a very unique "servant of God." Moses was meek, not needing to defend himself against criticism; God was defending him. There have been, and are today, many people who claim to be "prophets of God." But none of them have been in the category of Moses whom God spoke to and through. God's question to Miriam and Aaron ought to be a caution to us to be very careful to make certain that our questions of other "prophets" are very carefully and Biblically based. God's warning is not a categorical prohibition of questioning people who claim to be "prophets of God." There are several instances in the Bible where God Himself criticized and judged false prophets. We ought to learn to recognize the difference between true and false prophets. And, we ought to begin with evaluating how we ourselves communicate what we believe God says to and through us. As an additional thought: If people should have been afraid to speak against Moses, how much more should someone be afraid of being a false prophet who only pretends to speak for God?