CHAPTER III.Womanhood During the Egyptian Bondage and in the Desert of Sinai.
Jochebed—Her Remarkable Courage—Thonoris—Her Compassion—Heroic Labors Seemingly Unrewarded—Zipporah, the Midianite Shepherdess—Glorifying Daily Labor—At a Wayside Inn—Miriam—Her Song of Triumph at the Red Sea—Her Affliction at Hazeroth—An Eventful Life.
Jochebed—Her Remarkable Courage—Thonoris—Her Compassion—Heroic Labors Seemingly Unrewarded—Zipporah, the Midianite Shepherdess—Glorifying Daily Labor—At a Wayside Inn—Miriam—Her Song of Triumph at the Red Sea—Her Affliction at Hazeroth—An Eventful Life.
Jochebed—Her Remarkable Courage—Thonoris—Her Compassion—Heroic Labors Seemingly Unrewarded—Zipporah, the Midianite Shepherdess—Glorifying Daily Labor—At a Wayside Inn—Miriam—Her Song of Triumph at the Red Sea—Her Affliction at Hazeroth—An Eventful Life.
Thehistory of the human race runs on from the tomb of Rachel for over four hundred years without bringing to our notice any woman in White Raiment until Jochebed, the mother of Moses, is reached. In the meantime, the dreams of Joseph are told, his wandering in the fields of Shechem, and the finding of his brethren in Dothan, the heartless transaction with the Midianites, who, in turn, sold Joseph into Egypt, his prison life followed by his elevation next to the throne and a seven years’ famine, when Jacob and his sons, as Abraham had done before them, went down into Egypt, the years of favor in the house of Pharaoh, and the bondage, bitter and hard, all are told. But, in spite of all, the suffering Israelites, because blessed of God, prospered and “increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.”
The reigning Pharaoh became alarmed at this state of affairs, and, to repress the Israelites, “made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field.” But, as a stream in a spring freshet bursts through every obstruction, so the Israelites overleaped every barrier thrown in their way by the Egyptian taskmasters. At length a decree was issued that every son born to the Israelites should be cast into the Nile.
But there was at least one woman in the house of bondage who feared the Lord more than she feared Pharaoh. Her name was Jochebed, which means, whose glory is Jehovah. If ever a name had attached with it the characteristic of the person bearing it, it was Jochebed, the wife of Amram, and daughter of Levi. That the glory of this woman in White Raiment was Jehovah, is evident from the fact the hard circumstances in which she was placed by the command of Pharaoh could not make her lose faith in God. Others might obey the unwarranted and heartless, as well as wicked decree, she would not, for she believed it was better to obey God rather than man, and to this belief her faith was anchored, and held steady amid the awful wail of bereaved motherhood as it ascended into the ear of God from the fields of Goshen.
Jochebed was already the mother of Miriam and Aaron, and, since Aaron was three years older than Moses, the decree that all Hebrew male children should be cast into the Nile could not have been in force at Aaron’s birth, or at least had not reached its dangerous climax. As a member of the house of Levi, Jochebed shows the daring and energetic boldness for which her tribe had become distinguished, and indicated the qualities needful for the future priesthood. That the child was so fair, she recognized in it as a good omen. Josephus traces this intuition of faith, which harmonized with the maternal feeling of complacency and desire to preserve his life, to a special revelation. The means of preservation chosen by Jochebed is especially attributed to her genius and courage. It was all the more daring, since in the use of it she seemed to have, from the outset, the daughter of Pharaoh in mind.
Prompted by an heroic faith, this poor Hebrew slave woman, in the house of a cruel and heartless bondage, dared to disobey the royal decree, trusting in God to carry her through the perilous enterprise of saving the life of her well-favored child. The chrism of hot tears which fell on the babe’s forehead, set him apart to the tremendous task ofleading up to nationhood a race of degraded slaves whose hands were horny with unpaid toil, whose faces had grown scowling and knotted under the overseer’s lash.
THE ISRAELITES IN BONDAGE.
Jochebed held the boy hard against her heart when she found she could no longer hide him, and said, more to herself and God than to any human helper, “My baby shall not die.” The resolution once formed in the mother’s heart, the next task was to carry it into effect. Then came the gathering of the papyrus leaves, the getting of the bitumen, the building of the little ark, and the finding of the best place for it among the flags of the Nile.
At length the little craft, with many a scalding tear mingled with the bitumen, was found waterworthy. Then, with many a prayer and heartache, and no small faith in the righteousness of her act, the dear child of promise, with many a passionate kiss, such as mothers only can give, was laid asleep in as soft a nest as the loving hands of mother could devise. Then the little craft, baby and all, was carried to the great river of Egypt, “and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.” Quickly the mother walked away, though her heart was crushed and bleeding, for how could she look upon her child if any disaster should overtake his small boat on the bosom of the mighty Nile? But her faith in God was sure. Her good sense had done its best. Her courage made her equal to facing the anger of the king; and she would leave the care of her little darling to the God of her fathers.
But the mother-love could not wholly abandon the little craft to its fate, without at least knowing how it fared with the child. So, back a little from the river, where the tall flags formed a gracious shade over the little brother, and her body concealed in the rank grass, the large, bright eyes of Miriam were fixed on the babe’s hiding-place, and the swift feet of the sister were ready to run to tell the mother whatever might happen.
Pretty soon the watchful eyes of Miriam saw a royal retinue issue from the palace gate, and as it drew near the river’s brink she discerned that it was Thonoris, the daughter of Pharaoh, and her maidens, come down to the Nile to bathe in the open stream, as was the custom of ancient Egyptians. As the princess and her maidens walked along the river’s side, she saw the little ark among the flags, and sent one of the maids to fetch it. And when she saw the child she had compassion on it, and said, “This is one of the Hebrew’s children.” But the eyes of Miriam, the faithful sister, closely watched the scene, and when the little ark was safely drawn to shore by the maids of Thonoris, she ran up to the Egyptian princess and said, “Shall I go and call tothee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother.”
MOSES RESCUED FROM THE NILE.
The compassion of the princess towards the beautiful child led her to adopt him; and when she did so, making him, therefore, prospectively an Egyptian, she did not need, we may well believe, to educate him secretly. The taking of the child into the royal household, doubtless rendered the cruel edict less severe, if not wholly inoperative.
All this reads like a fairy tale, but there is no end of the wonders wrought by our God on behalf of those who trust His love and power.
“And the child grew.” Of course it would under the watchful care of such a nurse. One can easily see how during those years in which Jochebed was nursing her boy as the adopted son of the Egyptian princess, she made the most of her opportunity. In a tongue not understood in the palace she taught the child of Him who should redeem the race. She held him loyal to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Her instruction had been careful, thorough, and direct from her father, Levi, the son of Jacob; and she was true to her faith from her very heart’s core. So that, with the very life of his mother, the growing boy had drank in the Hebrew spirit.
At first it must have been a surprise to the young heir to the Egyptian throne when his Hebrew nurse unfolded to him the secret of his descent. That while legally and formally he was the son of the Princess Thonoris, inwardly he was the son of another mother, and belonged to another race, not of the dominant, but of the servile, race; not a worldly, but a spiritual prince. Probably he had the usual struggle with self. It was no easy matter to lay aside the flattering prospect of one day sitting on the throne of Egypt, to forever renounce the glory and glitter of an earthly court, and to identify himself with the slave people whose lives were made bitter in all manner of service. Surely, Jochebed must not only have been a loving mother, but a wise spiritual teacher to thus gain the surrender of all that was dear to her child of the earthly life, that he might gain the heavenly. He must have been completely regenerated when he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, but chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Only a personal knowledge of the Redeemer could have brought him to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.
No better compliment could have been paid Jochebed than the fact that in that corrupt, magnificent, heathen court she was able to do her work so well. Her son’s flawless choice of the Divine will made him the greatest man, the Son of God excepted, ever veiled in human flesh. That was thebest possible sign and seal of her capability and faithfulness.
When her child had passed beyond the years of childhood, and, as a nurse, could no longer retain him, “she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter,” and Thonoris, with almost infinite care, completed the boy’s education by instructing him in all the wisdom of Egypt; hence Moses was prepared both negatively and positively for his life work. Positively by his great-hearted mother, Jochebed; negatively by the Egyptian princess Thonoris, thereby, by her own hand, brought up the deliverer and avenger of the oppressed Israelites.
At this point Jochebed is lost to view. She drops out of history, and nothing more is known of her. Hers emphatically was a work of faith, for in all probability she died while Moses was under discipline in the land of Midian. Her people, for whom she had wrought so heroically, were still serving “with rigor” in building for Pharaoh the “treasure cities Pithom and Raamses.” The son from whom she had hoped so much as the crown prince of the land was in exile in the back side of the desert; yet her faith held steady as she said with her parting breath, “God will deliver His people. He saved Moses from the wrath of Pharaoh and from the reptiles of the Nile; He will yet bring him back to lead Israel out of this cruel bondage.”
How many a mother has gone down to her grave in sorrow without realizing the fruit of her toil, perhaps broken-hearted, as Jochebed may have done, when she saw her son hastening into the desert to escape the vengeance which would surely have overtaken him for smiting the Egyptian. Doubtless she never again saw his face, and may have wondered to what purpose was all her labor. It is difficult to conceive of a grander purpose in motherhood than that of sending out into the world young men spiritually, morally and physically healthy, with correct principles and holy purposes; and it is one of the saddest spectacles in life when these preparations are cast aside by ungrateful or wayward acts. All human help is vain, her sorrow and her anguishare too deep to be reached by sympathy. God alone is her refuge. She is often at the throne of grace with strong cries and tears, and with a faith that will not shrink. Doubtless such were the last days of the brave, the courageous, the heroic Jochebed, as she saw the form of her beloved Moses disappear in the desert of Midian. But God honored her faith as no woman’s faith had ever been honored in the life and works of Moses, the great law-giver, and leader of Israel’s hosts out of the land of bondage.
“Faithful, O Lord, Thy mercies are,A rock that can not move:A thousand promises declareThy constancy of love.”
“Faithful, O Lord, Thy mercies are,A rock that can not move:A thousand promises declareThy constancy of love.”
“Faithful, O Lord, Thy mercies are,
A rock that can not move:
A thousand promises declare
Thy constancy of love.”
But though Moses had fled from the face of Pharaoh because, in his effort to defend a Hebrew who was being smitten by an Egyptian, slew the oppressor, he had not gone into the land of Midian so far but His eye followed the young refugee.
Away in the south-eastern part of Arabia, toward the close of what we may well believe to have been a long day’s travel through the burning sand of that arid country, the young refugee sat down under the grateful shade of a cluster of palm trees that flourished by the side of a well. As he sat there resting, possibly quite homesick, the daughters of Jethro, a Midianite sheik and priest, came with their father’s flock to the well to water them. The fact that it took seven of these daughters to lead the flock to the well, shows that the Midianite was wealthy. These maidens lowered their buckets into the well and then drew them up brimming full of water, and poured it out into the stone troughs. They did this again and again, while Moses was a silent observer. It does not appear that he in any way interrupted the work.
But scarcely had the panting nostrils of the flocks begun to cool a little in the brimming troughs than some rough Bedouin shepherds came with their flocks and drove the maidens and their flock from the well. This was too muchfor Moses. His face began to color up, and his eyes flash with indignation, and all the gallantry of his nature was aroused. He naturally had a quick temper, as he demonstrated in the case of the Egyptian oppressing an Israelite, and as he showed afterward when he broke all the Ten Commandments at once by shattering the two granite slabs on which the law was written. Hence the harsh treatment of the girls sets him on fire. The injustice of these Bedouin shepherds was more than he could bear, and he came to the rescue of the maidens of the Midianite sheik. Driving the shepherds away, he told the daughters of Jethro to gather their flock once more and bring them again to the watering troughs. Here the beautiful character of Moses comes out, and shows that the careful training of his faithful mother had not been in vain. Though brought up as a prince in the court of Egypt, he takes hold of the water buckets and draws water from the well, and waters the immense flock which had taken seven maidens to drive to the well! What a sight it must have been to these daughters of the priest of Midian as they stood by and saw this brave, unselfish act. What wonder that Zipporah fell in love with such a young man?
Hard as the task must have been, it was quickly finished and the flock early sheltered in the fold. So much so that Jethro asked of his daughters, “How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?” They answered, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.” Jethro further inquired, “Where is he? Why is it that ye have left the man?”
We confess it was a somewhat ungrateful act on the part of these girls not to invite the young man to their father’s home, but it only shows that they were so modest as to be too bashful to make such an advance.
So Moses was invited to the home of the Midianite sheik, and in due time Zipporah was given to him in marriage, and she became the mother of his two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.
The Bible does not record much of Zipporah’s life, but, evidently from the fact that she was a shepherdess, she was industrious, notwithstanding the great wealth and influence of her father. What was the use of Zipporah’s bemeaning herself with work when she might have reclined on the hillside near her father’s tent, and plucked buttercups, and dreamed out romances, and sighed idly to the winds, and wept over imaginary songs to the brooks. But no. She knew that work was honorable, and that every girl ought to have something to do, and so she led her father’s flock to the fields, to the watering troughs, and to the safe shelter of the fold. In how many households are there young women without practical and useful employments? Many of them are waiting for fortunate and prosperous matrimonial alliance, but some lounger like themselves will come along, and after counting the large number of father Jethro’s sheep and camels will make proposal that will be accepted; and neither of them having done anything more practical than to chew chocolate caramels, the two nothings will start on the road of life together, every step more and more a failure. Not so with the daughter of the Midianite sheik. Moses found her at the well drawing water. And Zipporah soon learned that Moses could also draw water. Ye daughters of idleness, imitate Zipporah. Do something helpful. The reason that so many men now condemn themselves to unaffianced and solitary life is because they can not support the modern young woman—a thousand of them not worth one Zipporah. There needs to be a radical revolution among most of the prosperous homes of America, by which the elegant do-nothings may be transformed into practical do-somethings. Let useless women go to work and gather the flocks. The stranger at the well may prove to be as good a man as was Moses to Zipporah.
Still further, watch this spectacle of genuine courage. No wonder when Moses scattered the rude shepherds he won Zipporah’s heart. Sense of justice fired his courage; and the world wants more of the spirit that will dare almost anythingto see others righted. There are many wells where outrages are practiced, the wrong herd getting the first water. Those who have the previous right come in last, if they come it at all. Thank God we have here and there a strong man to set things right!
This child of the desert, full of industry and energy, very naturally had a quick temper, and, for once at least, it came out in her life. Moses was on his way to Egypt, as the deliverer of Israel. Zipporah and sons set off to accompany him, and went part of the way. While stopping for the night at a wayside inn the Lord suddenly withstood Moses. It appears, for some reason, possibly because Zipporah opposed it, their sons, Gershom and Eliezer, had not been circumcised. And, since the neglect of this rite would cut them off from God’s covenanted people, the Lord suddenly afflicted Moses so that his life must have been despaired of by the wife and mother. In her distress, to save the life of her husband, she herself performs this rite. The expression, “took a sharp stone,” means a sharp stone-knife (more sacred than a metallic knife, on account of the tradition). Under the trying ordeal, and notwithstanding the life of her husband was still in the balance between life and death, she was unable to conceal her ill-humor, and charged him with being “a bloody husband.” Which may mean that the rite of his people was distasteful to her, and doubly so since she had to perform it with her own hand to save the life of Moses.
It appears, probably on account of the performance of this rite upon their two sons, she had to return to her father’s house, as the children would not be in a condition to continue the journey into Egypt, and Moses had to perform the remainder of the way alone.
The only other incident recorded in Zipporah’s life is the bringing of herself and her two sons to Moses by her father, when the host of Israel had reached the Peninsula of Sinai, after they had departed out of the land of Egypt.
It has been suggested that Zipporah was the Cushite (A. V. Ethiopian) wife who furnished Miriam and Aaronwith the pretext for their attack on Moses. (Num. xii, 1). The death of Zipporah is not mentioned, but undoubtedly it occurred before Moses took the Cushite to be his wife.
It has also been thought that Jethro and his house, before his acquaintance with Moses, was not a worshipper of the true God. Traces of this appear in the delay which Moses had suffered to take place in respect to the circumcision of his sons. But the fact that Zipporah started from her home in Midian to accompany her husband upon his mission in Egypt, and of her joining him when he had reached the wilderness, upon his return, shows that she was in sympathy with his work, and, doubtless, if up to the time the Lord suddenly withstood Moses at the wayside inn, she was not fully in accord with him in her faith, that this incident fully established her in the true faith. There is a legend which, if not true, is characteristic of the priest of Midian. This Midrash tale relates that Jethro was a counselor of Pharaoh, who tried to dissuade him from slaughtering the Israelitish children, and consequently, on account of his clemency, was forced to flee into Midian, but was rewarded by becoming the father-in-law of Moses.
The wife of so excellent and remarkable a man as Moses, and one who possessed so many womanly qualities as did this shepherdess whom Moses found by the well in Arabia, in the faithful discharge of her duties, deserves a place in the galaxy of Women in White Raiment.
The hospitality, freehearted and unsought which Jethro at once extended to the unknown, homeless wanderer, on the relation of his daughters that he had watered their flock, is a picture of Eastern manners no less true than lovely, and gives us a fine view of the quaint habits and honest simplicity of the Oriental people.
We now pass to the daughter of Jochebed, namely, Miriam. She first came to our notice when the little ark of Moses was placed among the flags of the Nile. Her mother set her to watch the little craft as it floated on the bosom of the great river. When the princess Thonoris, Pharaoh’s daughter, discoveredthe child and sent her maid to rescue him from his perilous surroundings, Miriam, then probably a young girl, appeared before the Egyptian princess, and asked if she should call a nurse for the child. In reply to this question, Thonoris said to her she might find for her a nurse. And Miriam hastened to the home of her parents, “and called the child’s mother.”
This act shows that Miriam was not only quick-witted, but had the courage to carry her convictions into effect. Though very human, as fully demonstrated in after years, she was faithful to her mother when she watched the boat woven of river plants and made water-tight with asphaltum, carrying its one passenger. And was she not very courageous and did she not put all the ages of time and of a coming eternity under obligation when she defended her helpless brother from the perils of the Nile? She it was that brought that wonderful babe and its mother together, so that he was reared to be the deliverer of his nation. What a garland for faithful sisterhood!
What part Miriam took in the care of her illustrious brother while in the arms of his mother-nurse, we are not told, but we may well believe her sisterly love was strong and unwavering during the years while the precious charge was in the care of the mother.
But there was a long period of eighty years between the infancy of Moses and his return from the desert of Midian, so that the clear-eyed and sprightly girl had grown away from the buoyancy of youth during the years of his exile, and must have been nearly, if not quite, a hundred years old, when God’s chosen people were led out of the iron furnace of bondage, a fact we must not lose sight of in the brief narrative of this noble woman in White Raiment. Her age may, in part at least, account for the high position given her. “The sister of Aaron,” is her biblical distinction which she never lost. In Numbers xii, 1, she is placed before Aaron, and in Micah vi, 4, reckoned as one of the three deliverers of God’s chosen people, “I sent before thee Mosesand Aaron and Miriam.” Hence it is quite evident that she had no small part in the redemption of the house of Israel from the land of oppression. Whether or not the prejudices of that day gave her full honor, the Lord admitted her to the triumvirate of deliverance, the three children of the brave, faithful Jochebed.
She was also the first person in her father’s house, and the first woman in the history of God’s people to whom the prophetic gifts are directly ascribed. “Miriam the prophetess,” is her acknowledged title in Exodus xv, 20. She stood, as the leader of Hebrew women, appropriately by the side of the future conductor of the religious service.
MIRIAM’S SONG OF TRIUMPH.
In the song of triumph which the children of Israel sang after their passage of the Red Sea, Miriam, with cymbal in hand, led the women in their part of the glad song of deliverance. It does not appear how far the Hebrew women joined in the song, that is, the part led by Moses, but in the antiphony, Miriam repeats the opening words, in the form of a command to the women, saying, “Sing ye to Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.”
“Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!Sing, for the pride of the tyrant is broken;His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave;How vain was their boasting! the Lord hath but spoken,And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave.“Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!Praise to the Conqueror, praise to the Lord!His word was our arrow, His breath was our sword.Who shall return to tell Egypt the storyOf those she sent forth in the hour of her pride?For the Lord hath looked out from His pillar of glory,And all her brave thousands are dashed in the tide.Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!”
“Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!Sing, for the pride of the tyrant is broken;His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave;How vain was their boasting! the Lord hath but spoken,And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave.“Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!Praise to the Conqueror, praise to the Lord!His word was our arrow, His breath was our sword.Who shall return to tell Egypt the storyOf those she sent forth in the hour of her pride?For the Lord hath looked out from His pillar of glory,And all her brave thousands are dashed in the tide.Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!”
“Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!Sing, for the pride of the tyrant is broken;His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave;How vain was their boasting! the Lord hath but spoken,And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave.
“Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!
Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!
Sing, for the pride of the tyrant is broken;
His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave;
How vain was their boasting! the Lord hath but spoken,
And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave.
“Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!Praise to the Conqueror, praise to the Lord!His word was our arrow, His breath was our sword.Who shall return to tell Egypt the storyOf those she sent forth in the hour of her pride?For the Lord hath looked out from His pillar of glory,And all her brave thousands are dashed in the tide.Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!”
“Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!
Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!
Praise to the Conqueror, praise to the Lord!
His word was our arrow, His breath was our sword.
Who shall return to tell Egypt the story
Of those she sent forth in the hour of her pride?
For the Lord hath looked out from His pillar of glory,
And all her brave thousands are dashed in the tide.
Sound the loud timbrel o’er Egypt’s dark sea!
Jehovah has triumphed, His people are free!”
Miriam must have been exempt from the infirmities of age to a remarkable degree, to be able at her advanced years to lead the host of Hebrew women and maidens in the music and songs of triumph and general rejoicings over the mighty deliverance out of the hand of Pharaoh on the farther shores of the Red Sea. The victory, however, was such a marked one, and the deliverance so great as to cause old age, for the time being, to be swallowed up in the youth of praise and thanksgiving.
Taking up their line of march from the shores of the Red Sea, we do not learn anything farther concerning Miriam until Hazeroth is reached. Here she seems to have beenthe instigator of an insurrection against Moses. In some respects it must have been grievous to him, all the more so, from the fact that Aaron had also suffered himself to be carried away by his sister’s fanaticism. By virtue of their office as prophet and prophetess, in the minds of the people, they held almost equal rank with Moses.
The occasion of this insurrection was a marriage which Miriam regarded as objectionable, though, notwithstanding, she had the example of Joseph, who married an Egyptian woman, before her, and which marriage did not prove to be antitheocratic. Moses had married a Cushite. It is true the prohibition to marry with the daughters of other than their own people had special reasons of religious self-preservation, and for that reason the High Priest was allowed to marry only a Hebrew virgin, but that was a limitation belonging to his symbolic position. The prophetic class, on the other hand, had the task of illustrating the greatest possible letting down of legal restraint. The union of Moses with this Cushite may have symbolized the future calling of the Gentile nations, a sort of first fruit, as Rahab and Ruth later on proved to be, and it offers a remarkable parallel that the next greatest man of the law, Elijah, lived for a considerable time as the table companion of a heathen widow of Zarephath.
It is manifest that Moses endured in silence the domestic obliquity which his sister drew down upon him, patiently committing his justification to God, until her would-be pious zeal assumed a more alarming aspect. Since Aaron had made common cause with Miriam, Aaron, who wore the breast-plate, Urim and Thummim, and Miriam, who, as a prophetess, had already led the chorus of the women of Israel, must have held high places in the minds of the people; hence, when they raised the question, “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?” there is no telling where this sedition of Miriam and Aaron might have ended, had not the Lord Himself taken it promptly in hand.
But the Lord heard that complaint, which implied that the prophetic gift was exercised by them also, that they were prophets, vested with authority, and if they even suffered Moses, since his objectionable marriage, to remain in the prophetic college, they could at least outvote him. So Moses, Aaron and Miriam were suddenly cited to the tabernacle of the congregation. When the three presented themselves at the place appointed, the Lord came down in a cloud at the door of the tabernacle, and “called Aaron and Miriam” apart from Moses, and there, at the door of the tabernacle, administered a stern rebuke to both of them. They had lived with Moses so long, and yet knew so little of his exalted position. As a brother he stood too near to them, and they themselves, with their self-consciousness, stood too much in their own light.
“And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle.” As Aaron saw the cloud lifting up and moving off, he must have been inwardly crushed at this punishment. The fires on his altar went out, the pillar of smoke no longer mounted up as a token of grace, the divine presence was withdrawn, and it was as if an interdict of Jehovah lay on the services of the Sanctuary. But this was not all. “Miriam became leprous, white as snow.” There seems to be a singular connection between the punishment of Aaron as the representative of the Church, and Miriam, who had thought herself and Aaron above Moses, snow-white in righteousness, while she looked down on him as unclean. She would dominate the Church, for she dominated Aaron, and now, as a leper, she must be excluded from the Church.
When Aaron looked upon his afflicted sister, though High Priest, the Lord having withdrawn the symbol of his favor from the altar of sacrifice, was as helpless as Miriam, and he now implores Moses, as his superior, to intercede. Here only the spiritual high priesthood of a divine compassion can deliver the helpless High Priest himself and his unfortunate associate in the prophetic office. In his appeal, Aaron almost speaks as if Moses could heal the leprosy. Moses,however, understood it as an indirect request to intercede for Miriam.
“And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying: Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.” The Lord granted the request, accompanied with a sharp reproof, “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be unclean seven days?” The figurative expression compares her, who desired to be the prophetic regent of the nation, to a dependent maiden in whose face her father had spit on account of unseemly behavior. Such a one must conceal herself seven days on account of her shame. The same treatment was dictated for Miriam, and she was “shut out from the camp seven days.” The silent grief of the nation must have been profound, for the people remained encamped at Hazeroth during the seclusion of Miriam, and not until she was pronounced clean, and the prescribed sacrifices required on her reception back again, were made, did the Lord’s host depart from their encampment. All these are proofs of the high place she held in the affections of the people.
This sad stroke, and its most gracious removal, is the last public event of Miriam’s life. She died toward the close of the wilderness wanderings at Kadesh, and was buried there. According to Jewish tradition, the burial took place with great pomp on a mountain in the edge of the wilderness of Zin, and the mourning of the whole camp of Israel lasted for thirty days, Jerome tells us that her tomb was shown near Petra.
According to Josephus she was the wife of Hur and the grandmother of Bezaleel, the inspired artisan of the Tabernacle. According to the Targum, the miraculous supply of water at Rephidim was given in her honor. It failed when she died at Kadesh, and was restored only at the second stroke of Moses’ rod, and later, by the digging of the princes with their staves of office, while the people sang a hymn of praise and faith.
These traditions are of but little value except to show in what high esteem she was held.
A long, beautiful, eventful, inspired life—one of patient waiting, intense activity, deep enthusiasm and triumphant faith—transformed the brave little slave girl into the mighty princess and leader of the Lord’s hosts. But for the one assumption of unwarranted authority at Hazeroth, her record would have come down to us untarnished.