InPerspective

Harry Reeder: Have you ever noticed in the New Testament there seems to be an abundance of Mary's? There's Mary's. In fact, if I count correctly, there are seven Mary's in the Bible that I know of.

Mary is the derivatived name from Miriam. So we're actually looking at the woman of the Old Testament that many, in the days that Jesus came, that her name became the name that so many chose to give to their daughters.

Narrator: Holding live and biblical perspective with Dr. Harry L. Reeder. This is InPerspective, a radio and internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelical.

Harry Reeder: Biblical biographies honestly record personal flaws and failures, as well as strengths and triumphs, and Miriam is no exception. She was a great example of godly female leadership. A proactive problem solver, always seeking solutions. But Miriam was also a sinner saved by grace. For although she was a prophetess and a leader, she did falter and needed to repent and seek God's grace.

Narrator: Stay with us now as Dr. Reeder takes us to Exodus chapter 15 and verses 19 through 21 for today's teaching, part two of his message, Portrait number eight, Miriam.

Harry Reeder: Go with me to Exodus chapter 15. The Exodus has taken place and even a greater miracle has been seen with the deliverance of the people of God through the Red Sea. And when they get on the other side of the sea, they begin to worship the Lord.

And the Song of Moses is given to us in Exodus chapter 15. But then we find out that when the Song of Moses is being played, that we see that there is a leader among them, a woman who is a leader.

Look with me in Exodus chapter 15. You see the Song of Moses that goes down to verse 18 in giving praise to God and then pick up at verse 19. "For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea."

"Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. And Miriam saying to them." She picks up on the line from the Song of Moses. "Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider, he has thrown or hurled or cast into the sea."

Now stop and think about this just a moment. That's what's said in Exodus 15, horse and rider are cast into the sea. The Lord hurled them into the sea. Later on, in the Psalmist, the same language is going to be used. Hurled or cast into the sea.

In Hebrew cosmology, rivers and springs represent life. River of life, the springs of life. Seas represent evil and its consequences, the roaring, foaming sea with its waves of destruction.

Yes, the waters covered them over, but the language is hurling them because it was by the sovereign hand of God that Pharaoh's heart had been hardened to follow them into the sea. There he was hurling them into the sea, and when the waters come over them, he is bringing judgment upon them. And what is the picture? The picture is the day of judgment.

So what you're seeing is the song is telling you this isn't simply a bad military decision to get caught in the middle of the sea. This is the sovereign hand of God bringing and hurling them into his judgment that they were due.

Now the amazing thing, is that's where we ought to be. But at the cross, the wrath of God was hurled upon Jesus in our place and he drank that cup to the bottom that we could have everlasting life.

But here we have Miriam identified, the sister of Aaron. And Aaron is what? The brother of Moses. Now, why don't they say Miriam the sister of Moses? Well, that'll show up in another text. But they're not doing it here because what is she doing? You remember her leadership back by the Nile River, setting up the foster home? You remember that? She's still leading.

Here she steps up as a leader again. This time, Aaron is leading the worship and the praise of God with the Song of Moses. And now Miriam, the sister, the older sister. Now we know she's older. Let's begin to place this. You got Moses, you got Aaron. Moses is how old?

Guest (Male): 80.

Harry Reeder: Very good. Aaron is how old?

Guest (Male): 83.

Harry Reeder: He's 83. Now if Miriam is old enough to negotiate with Pharaoh's daughter, she's got to be older than Aaron, right? I think we can come to a conclusion that of the three, Miriam is the oldest.

And as Aaron is leading in the worship and praise of God with the Song of Moses, then Miriam steps up as a leader to take the women out and they take up the song as she leads the women into the worship and praise of God at this moment.

With, I know she wasn't Presbyterian, she had a tambourine. And obviously wasn't Presbyterian, she was dancing. But here are the tambourines. Here is the giving praise to God and she leads the women out and the women follow her as she's exercising this leadership, bringing the women to another place of praise in the concert of giving thanks to God for all that he has done.

Can I do one more thing? Would you keep your Bibles right here? Just go back with me to Exodus chapter 6. Go with me to Exodus chapter 6 and we have the genealogy of Moses and Aaron. Go down to verse 16. Now follow this. Remember last week, Samson does riddles? Okay, I'm going to riddles. Got a riddle for you.

If Moses had been born, if Moses had been born after he lived, he would never have been born. Okay, so let me say that again. Ready? If Moses had been born after he lived, he would never have been born.

Now what in the world am I saying? All right? Now go back with me to Exodus chapter 6 and verse 16. "These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The years of the life of Levi being 137 years. The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei by their clans. The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. The years of the life of Kohath being 133 years. The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levites according to their generations."

"Amram took as his wife Jochebed, his" what? "Father's sister." So that means he married who? His aunt. So he married his aunt. Amram married Jochebed, his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses, and then the years of the life of Amram being 137 years.

So now you got the answer to my riddle, don't you? Moses was the first author of scripture through which we get not only the moral law, we also get the ceremonial law that now introduces the law against incest. And this would not have been allowed. So if somehow Moses had been born after he had lived, he would never have been born because when he lived, he gave the law that would have ruled out of bounds his marriage up until that point.

But before the law came, that marriage was not out of bounds. In fact, you go obviously back to the Garden and you've got brothers marrying sisters back in the Garden. You find out the names of Moses and Aaron. Sister is Miriam, and you find out their father and mother, Jochebed and Amram and Jochebed, and you find out they are of the tribe of Levi.

So that's what is established. Now what have we have learned about Miriam in Exodus chapter 15? Here's what you learned. You learned two things about her calling. One, she's a leader. Two, she's a prophetess. In your Bible, that is not a common calling. As far as I can see, there's only three others in the Old Testament and two references in the New Testament.

Not only is Miriam a prophetess, that is one whom God uses to speak forth truth. Now that doesn't mean necessarily one through whom came canonical revelation, but a prophetess can be small P, one who speaks forth truth. So she was a prophetess, what were some other female prophetesses in the Old Testament?

Well, all of you now know, Deborah was one, right? You remember that? When we studied Deborah's life. So you've got Miriam. You've got Deborah. You've got another prophetess named Noadiah. What a name, Noadiah. And then you've got another prophetess that I always remember because my great-great-grandmother had this name, Huldah.

So you've got Huldah, you've got Noadiah, you've got Deborah, you've got Miriam. Those are the ones listed for you in the Old Testament. You go to the New Testament, you have Anna is a prophetess, and then you've got the daughters of Philip were called prophetesses. We don't know how many daughters there were. But they were called prophetesses as well.

So her calling is a leader and a prophetess. Those are the two dynamics of her calling as she would serve the Lord. While we got some great things that we're learning about her, we need to see one more thing.

Miriam, like every other leader we have studied in this series, has feet of clay. And God's work of grace is glorious, but it is a work of grace in a jar of clay with feet of clay. And it makes itself evident in the book of Numbers. Would you go in Numbers chapter 12 with me? Numbers chapter 12.

The book of Numbers contains some challenges against various challenges against Moses' ministry. And one of them came right from his own leadership team, which was also his family. You find in Numbers chapter 12 and verse 1, "Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" And the Lord heard it.

"Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. And suddenly, the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, 'Come out you three to the tent of meeting,' and the three of them came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward and he said, 'Hear my words. Is there a 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, not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?'" And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them. And he departed.

I'm just kind of stop there. I'm not quite through yet. But folks, and I'm not saying this as self-protection because I'm a pastor, but while we are never called to treat any leader as infallible or on the level with God, when God calls someone and their hand is upon them, one ought to always be careful how they speak about them and to them. The Lord's anointed.

And here they have spoken about him and against him. And he said, "Why would you do that?" "Do you not know this is a prophet that I don't send visions to? I talk to him face to face." Mouth to mouth. "I don't give parables and allegories and riddles. I write my word with my finger upon the stone to give it to him." This is my servant Moses.

"And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. And when the cloud was removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous." That's a sign of judgment. Light snow, in other words, already advanced.

"And Aaron turned toward Miriam and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, 'Oh my.'" Repentance has taken place. Repentance has taken place. "Oh my Lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned." Not only is there repentance, but there is confession. And not only confession of sin against Moses, but sin against the Lord. And Aaron has confessed it.

Then he intercedes. "Let her not be as one who is dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb." Moses then cried out to the Lord, "Oh God, please heal her. Please."

"But the Lord said to Moses, 'If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.'" "So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again. And after that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran."

So here he brings judgment upon them because of what they had done. Now do you see the excuse was, Moses has married a Cushite woman. Now who was this woman? We have no idea. Well, we have one possible idea. She's never named. This is the only time she's mentioned.

But this could be his wife. Does anybody remember his wife's name? Zipporah, because Zipporah was a what? She was a Midianite. She was a Midianite, which was cousins that come through the line of Abraham, but not in the covenanted line. And in Habakkuk 3:7, Cushites and Midianites are handled together as one.

So it may be referring to Zipporah, whom we know he married when he was in the wilderness and became a tender of sheep from age 40 to age 80. The one who had gone back from him when he went to deliver the people from bondage because he had in obedience to God circumcised his son. So it may have been Zipporah, it may have been a second wife or a wife after Zipporah and Zipporah may not be on the scene any longer.

But we find out pretty quickly that was just the excuse. The real issue was jealousy and envy. That was the real issue. "Why is everybody giving Moses such favor? Didn't God speak to us? Didn't God use us? Why aren't we getting credit like Moses is getting credit?"

So they manufactured, and that so often happens, they manufactured a reason in order to rebel against Moses. But God will not be fooled by our nuances and our word smiths. And so he immediately brings them before him and he brings judgment upon them. Aaron confesses. You can see him with the word Lord. He calls Moses now Lord. No question as to who is to be in authority by God's appointment. He confesses that he has sinned and he pleads for mercy, not only for himself but also for his sister.

And Moses requires no cajoling at all. He is ready to intercede. In fact, two times he calls upon the Lord, "Heal her, please. Please heal her." And the Lord says, "Yes, I will, but not without some consequences. The people need to know, I will not tolerate this rebellion against me by rebellion against the one who I call to lead them."

God can deal with him, but you may not. And therefore he says, "We will at least do what would have been done if the father had disciplined her. She would have been shut away for seven days." Then lepers are shut away for life until they die, but she will only be shut away for seven days and then she would be healed.

So what is the legacy? Let me just give you a couple of thoughts about Miriam. Now I'll give you three thoughts in conclusion here. Number one is this: Miriam is a great example of godly female leadership. She is a great example of godly female leadership. Now understand her faltering, and I'll deal with that.

But in the course of what you see in Exodus 2, in Exodus 5, in Exodus 15, in that course of life, you see her exercising what we call complementary leadership. As she comes alongside Moses and Aaron. She comes alongside them to provide the leadership that God has gifted her to do as a prophetess and as a leader as she takes the women out.

Now folks, we need that today. We need female leadership. You not only need fathers of the faith, you need mothers of the faith. We need both. But what we don't need is the competition of female and male leadership, where males attempt to do female leadership and females attempt to do male leadership. Not only are we created different, we are gifted differently, and certainly leadership always has overlap.

But there is something distinctive about the female leadership that God calls forth, and you see it with Miriam that takes the worship to another level when she leads the women out with the tambourine and the dance in the worship service and begins to speak forth God's word to them as a prophetess.

But then you not only see her as a leader, you see her as a prophetess, but a second thing that I want you to see is she is always laboring to find solutions in her leadership. What's the solution for Moses as a child? For her mother, for her father? What's the solution? She's constantly trying to find the solution.

Some people, when they're in positions of leadership and teaching as she was, many times they just create problems instead of solve problems. She solved problems. She came up with solutions.

Thirdly and finally, she's a sinner, saved by grace. She had at least one moment we know where she wanted Moses' position. Not the position God had called her to, but she wanted Moses' position. And if that meant exposing her brother Moses along with the conspiracy of Aaron, she was willing to do it. But thankfully, in God's grace, she and Aaron came to repentance.