Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long with Lessons in the Ladder Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times we're living in. Today's episode is one I have wanted to write for a long time. It's called Last Minute Instructions, Part 2: Miriam, the Unsung Prophet.

Since we're reading about Miriam in our Torah study in the book of Numbers, I felt led to write a tribute thanking God for the important role that she played in the life of God's people and in ours. The Torah doesn't provide us with a detailed backstory, so this required a little bit of digging. You may be interested to learn that Miriam was married to Caleb, the prominent leader chosen to represent the tribe of Judah during their 40 years in the wilderness and the only one other than Joshua to actually make it through the journey to enter the Promised Land alive.

Miriam and Caleb had a son named Hur, who is remembered for holding up Moses's arms along with Aaron during Israel's battle against Amalek immediately following the Exodus. Hur had a son whose name you may recall, Bezalel, whom God chose to create almost everything associated with the tabernacle when he was just 13 years old. He was extremely righteous and incredibly artistically gifted. Miriam was his grandmother.

Within Jewish history, Miriam was the one who led the women in praise and worship. In fact, after the crossing of the Red Sea, Moses is recorded as writing the poem which he and the men sang. But Miriam is recorded in Exodus 15 leading the women in singing the antiphonal response to the song, accompanied by timbrels and dancing. But over and above her musical gifts and raising a godly heritage, Miriam was a prophet, and it's that gift that I pay tribute to today.

I'm going to pull from parts of a couple of other episodes which contain important parts of her story and add to it revelation that I have received more recently. Insight number one: Miriam's prophetic gift began to manifest when she was just a young girl during the oppressive time when Pharaoh ordered all of the Hebrew boy babies to be killed. Miriam's parents, Amram and Jochebed, both of them descendants of Levi, were godly Levites who decided to live apart during that time so they would not have marital relations and risk Jochebed getting pregnant.

During this separation, however, young Miriam could not contain the word of God building up inside her spirit. She prophesied that her parents would birth a son who would one day be the nation's long-awaited deliverer. And that prophetic word was so strong that her parents came back together, and sure enough, Jochebed got pregnant and gave birth to Moses.

Insight number two: Miriam was given the ability to see the rock from which sprang living water that sustained the Jews throughout their entire time in the wilderness. The Jewish commentaries explain that God gave three gifts to sustain the Jewish people during this 40-year journey. He gave them Moses, Aaron, and Miriam as gifts, each one representing three separate blessings from God. Miriam represented the well of water. Aaron represented the pillar of cloud, which was a picture of God's physical presence and divine protection for the people. And Moses represented the manna, the heavenly food that sustained them.

In the Jewish oral traditions, it is written that Miriam's well actually accompanied the people throughout their time, moving around in the desert. This well, also known as the rock, was a spring that was portable. It literally moved from place to place and was always ritually pure. The sages record that this was a known rock, and only Miriam had eyes to see it.

This was the rock the angel revealed to Hagar when Ishmael was dying of thirst, and the same rock from which Moses was commanded to draw water nearly 40 years earlier. We read about this same rock in 1 Corinthians 10 when the Apostle Paul wrote, "Our fathers all drank from the supernatural rock which followed them, and the rock was Messiah." So metaphorically, this is saying that Miriam had supernatural eyes to see the true source of water, the Messiah, who followed them throughout their wanderings and gave them pure water to keep them alive.

Insight number three is found in Numbers 12 when we read that Miriam gossiped to Aaron about Moses, and God struck her with a condition known as Tzaraat that is translated as leprosy, requiring her to live outside the camp for seven days while she dealt with a specific sin known as Lashon Hara, or evil speech, which led to the punishment. Miriam was not a gossip; she was a righteous woman of God.

Apparently, according to the oral tradition, she had learned from Zipporah, Moses's wife, that the two of them, Zipporah and Moses, no longer had marital relations because Moses felt the need to remain ritually pure and be available to the Lord at all times, 24/7, whenever Hashem needed to speak with him. Now, this was a private matter between Moses and his wife, and from what I read, Zipporah honored his wishes.

Miriam, on the other hand, felt sorry for Zipporah and chose to discuss the matter with her brother Aaron, criticizing Moses for his insensitivity to his wife. She wanted to put her two cents out there, meaning that she knew better than Moses did on how to treat his wife. When the Lord overheard Miriam's disparaging comments about Moses, he became angry and called all three of them—Miriam, Aaron, and Moses—to meet him right away at the tent of meeting.

Now, ironically, the sages say that both Miriam and Aaron had to scramble to make it to this meeting because they each had been having marital relations with their spouses and thus had to take time to go into the mikvah to purify themselves before they could approach the Lord. Now, we read in Numbers 12:6, "Hear my words: If there is 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 entrusted with all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly and not in dark speech, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

It's insightful to me that the Lord specifically addressed Miriam the prophet, because in this passage he was raising Moses's level of hearing from God significantly higher than her gift. He laid bare her true motives, which were that she considered herself more highly than she ought to think, to bring in the Apostle Paul's admonition from Romans 12:3. Numbers 12:9 says, "The anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. And when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow."

Not Aaron; Miriam was the one seen as leprous. God hit her the hardest because she was the one who started the gossip. In a split second, God spanked, and this acclaimed prophet became 100 percent leprous. I want us to spend some time breaking out the meanings of things so that we can see what God is really saying here. Let's address five questions so we can go deeper.

Question number one: What was this leprosy all about? The Hebrew word for leprosy is not what is depicted in the movies. This biblical leprosy is referred to as Tzaraat and is reserved for only the most righteous people. The sages explain it as a touch from God given to righteous men and women who have stepped out of line with their tongues and need to be isolated from the congregation to give them time to reflect on what they've done. It's kind of like God's parental form of time out.

Question number two: What did she do that was so wrong? Miriam made several missteps. There is an entire double portion in Leviticus 12 through 15 called Tazria and Metzora, which explain the dangers and consequences of engaging in the sin of Lashon Hara, or evil speech. This is a sin that God particularly hates, equating it on the same level with murder and idolatry. That's how serious it is in God's eyes.

In Leviticus 12 through 15, we learn the consequences of this sin is biblical leprosy, or Tzaraat. We learn how to avoid it, what happens if we are stricken with it, what the discipline entails, and how to cleanse ourselves from it. Question number three: What does it mean to be put outside the camp? Rabbi Michael Washer explained recently during the three-hour radio program Shabbat Shalom that a lot of people live outside the camp on a regular basis, simply because they are not ritually clean for one reason or another.

Being outside the camp was not a gross place; it was actually part of the camp, only it was some distance away from the main congregation who were living in a state of ritual purity. So don't picture a slum or a desolate wasteland. Remember, God is a holy God; it was simply a segregated place for those in a state of uncleanness.

Now, after spending time outside the camp, the priest would examine you to see if you can be pronounced clean. The only remedy for Tzaraat is teshuvah, or genuine repentance. The good news is that when you repent, God removes the condition immediately. The leprosy disappears, the priest pronounces you clean, and you are welcomed back into the camp.

Question number four: Is it significant how long Miriam had to be outside the camp? Yes. The Lord said in verse 14, "Let her be shut up outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again." The sages say always pay attention when you're reading scripture and come upon the phrase "for seven days" because this phrase is considered to represent the seven-year birth pangs.

Now, this is a huge clue that this incident in Numbers 12 not only happened in the natural during that time period when Israel was journeying to the land of promise, but the Lord is saying that it foreshadows what will happen to the generation about to enter the kingdom, which is us. You see, when breaking out a tavnit, you have to break out each part of the picture and see it first in the natural. And then you let that picture teach you what to look out for in our day.

That's what tavniyot are: they are multi-layered pictures scattered throughout the Bible with multiple meanings applicable to the historical times then, as well as right before the Day of the Lord. This is the way God speaks. And finally, question five: What are the implications and takeaways for today? Let me offer five observations in the time we have remaining.

Observation one: Miriam's sin of Lashon Hara and subsequent leprosy happened toward the beginning of the wilderness journey shortly after leaving Mount Sinai. God's original plan did not include 40 years of wandering. You see, after they had been spiritually grounded with a year's worth of Torah study and received atonement for worshipping the golden calf, God intended to lead them into the promised land right away.

Remember, everything in the Torah is there for a reason, so the placement of this incident is significant. The sages see the significance of God warning about the misuse of the tongue to prepare them for the very next chapter, Numbers 13, when Moses appointed the 12 leaders of the tribes to spy out the promised land for 40 days and bring back a report. God couldn't wait to hear his leaders tell everybody how wonderful the place is that the Lord had prepared for them. But what happened? Lashon Hara.

Ten out of the 12 leaders brought back such negative reports that undermined every ounce of faith the people had, believing they could go in and actually take the land. This Lashon Hara against God's land so angered him that they were forbidden from ever entering Eretz Yisrael at all. Instead, they had to wander outside the land until every last one of them died, except for Joshua and Caleb, who did not do Lashon Hara. The people failed to learn the lesson Miriam was given to teach them.

I am about to show you that Miriam's leprosy and being put outside the camp was a prophetic foreshadowing that something just like this will happen to the generation about to enter the kingdom that threatens their being able to enter at all. Observation number two: Miriam's sin of presumption relates very much to us today. As a prophet, her mouth and tongue were anointed by God. They were used to praise him, sing to him, and prophesy in his name.

When she spoke badly about Moses, she lifted herself up on a pedestal and put her prophetic gifting on the same level with Moses's singular anointing. In Deuteronomy 34, the very last chapter of the Torah, it is written, "There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. None like him for all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do and for all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel."

How could this apply today? The majority of today's churches have lifted up their prophetic voices and other ministry gifts as more important than studying the Torah. In other words, their gifts exceed the words of Moses. This, my friends, is replacement theology, whereby Hellenized Christianity has replaced Moses's voice with today's prophetic movement, anointed teachers, and church traditions.

Observation number three: Miriam's negativity was directed toward Moses. What is the name Moses a picture of? In both the Old and New Testaments, the name Moses is synonymous with the word Torah. An example is found in Acts 15 when James gave his ruling concerning the number of Gentiles coming to Jesus as the Messiah. Namely, he recommended the new converts to Yeshua concern themselves with fewer mitzvot than the Jews. But in verse 21, James adds, "For from early generations, Moses has had in every city those who preach him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues."

Now, the people were not reading Moses; they were studying the Torah every Sabbath. So the words Moses and Torah have always been interchangeable. Observation number four: During several programs with Rabbi Michael Washer on our Shabbat Shalom segment Ask the Rabbi, Rabbi Michael has been explaining that the sages equate biblical leprosy with Hellenized Christianity, saying that they mean the same thing. He referenced a passage in the Talmud, Sanhedrin 97A. Now you might ask, how can this be?

You see, one of the core beliefs of Hellenism is referred to as antinomianism. And this word, antinomianism, comes from two Greek words: anti, which means against, and nomos, which means law. Now to put this more simply, most Christians assert that Jesus established a dispensation of grace and did away with the law. This is the heart of Hellenism. It is against the Torah, against the law, against Moses. So what do you do about it?

The admonition is that each of us must examine carefully what we believe and separate ourselves from these beliefs which open ourselves up to Tzaraat and its consequences. When Miriam was speaking against Moses, metaphorically she was speaking against Torah, and God struck her completely white with Tzaraat fully in keeping with Leviticus 12 through 15.

The final observation, number five, is to take heed to what Miriam is prophesying. The reason Miriam was removed from the congregation of Israel for seven days was because she had become completely white with leprosy. Metaphorically, she was plagued by what this Hellenistic generation is plagued with: antinomianism. She was against Moses, against Torah. And she is telling us this same thing will happen to God's people at the end of the age, whereby presumption and pride in our anointed prophetic voices will be lifted up over Moses and Torah study.

Now, when the full measure of this infection runs its course, suddenly in an instant, those anointed prophets and spirit-filled worshippers who dismissed the Torah and keep on celebrating Easter and Christmas and all the other Hellenistic traditions will be suddenly struck down and not be taken when Jesus comes at the first resurrection. Their place will be outside the camp for seven years to reflect on the decisions that they made.

What I am seeing is that the turning point for many Christians may not come until they are struck down as Miriam was and find themselves outside the camp. Many in the church may have to experience this shock. It will be the most grievous experience of their lives because they were so comfortable flowing in their anointed gifting. If Jesus comes and you are not taken, it does not mean that he does not love you. It means that he did not find you in the right condition to be able to enter his kingdom. But he has given you seven years to be cleansed.

Now, the harshness of what I'm saying must be balanced with the overarching mercy of God found in 2 Peter 3:9, where we read that God is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but for all to come to repentance. My friends, I need you to hear me. The Father cannot allow leprous conditions like Hellenism and antinomianism to enter the kingdom. It must remain outside.

Do teshuvah while there is still time. Renounce the Hellenistic traditions that may be all you've ever known. Ask God to teach you his ways and take the first step toward reconnecting with the ways of our Jewish forefathers. I invite you to join us every Saturday morning for Shabbat Shalom, where we study the Torah together each week. To learn more, you can go to our main page at ShabbatShalomRadio.com. You'll find links to download our Torah schedule and more information on who our teachers are.

To forward this episode to others, go to CandaceLong.com/Podcast and look for Last Minute Instructions, Part 2: Miriam, the Unsung Prophet. I will include links to helpful resources in the description notes to this episode. I'm Candace Long, and you've been listening to Lessons in the Ladder Days. God bless.