Miriam

LIFE LESSONS
MIRIAM
DR. JIM DIXON
NUMBERS 12: 1-15
JANUARY 19, 2003

Knute Rockne was the football coach at Notre Dame, one of the most famous sports figures in the history of America. Knute Rockne was also a brilliant man. He graduated from Notre Dame magna cum laude. He could have been a brilliant professor of chemistry and, in fact, did teach chemistry for two years at Notre Dame. But he became a famous football coach. The year was 1921 when Notre Dame played Iowa in Iowa. They lost this big game of national significance, Knute Rockne and the Notre Dame football team was heading back to South Bend, Indiana in defeat. They felt down, and they felt low, and they felt like losers when they arrived in South Bend at 1 :00 AM in the morning. They were stunned to see that the entire student body had come out at 1:00 AM in the morning. They had just lost, and the entire student body had walked three miles from the campus to the train station because they wanted to show support for the Notre Dame football team and for Knute Rockne, their coach. They lifted him up on their shoulders and they carried him back to the campus, that journey of three miles.

Knute Rockne was so moved by their support in the midst of defeat that Knute Rockne swore he would never leave Notre Dame. He said, “As long as you want me, I will remain here,” and he did. He remained there for the rest of his life until he died in that tragic airplane crash on a Kansas hilltop. He had other offers. Through the subsequent years, there were colleges and universities that offered him twice as much money, but Knute Rockne said, “I want to stay loyal to Notre Dame.” There were corporations that offered him a great deal of additional money because his leadership skills would have transferred well to the corporate world. He turned it all down because he said, “I want to stay loyal to Notre Dame.”

Now, I’m sure that many of you have also heard of John Havlicek. John Havlicek is in the NBA Hall of Fame. He played basketball for the Boston Celtics. John Havlicek never made over $100,000 a year. He never made over $100,000 a year because he played at a time when the salaries of athletes were not so high. When the ABA was formed, when the American Basketball Association was formed, they offered John Havlicek $2.5 million if he would jump from the NBA to the ASA—$2.5 million, an unheard-of sum of money at that time. Incredibly, John Havlicek turned it down. He turned it down with these words: “I’ve worked all my life and I’ve always tried to do what is right. I never thought I would earn more than $25,000 a year. I can’t believe the money we’re talking about, but to tell you the truth, I love Boston. I value my reputation. I value what I think is right, and so, my answer is this: I believe in loyalty, and even if they offered me $2.5 million more, I’m going to stay with the Boston Celtics.”

So, he refused $2.5 million in order to make $100,000, a decision which today would be called stupid. But, you see, in his day it was widely praised because he lived in a different time, a time when loyalty held more value. I don’t know if Knute Rockne and John Havlicek were normal in their time. I’m sure they weren’t. I’m sure even in their time they were unusual, but today, in the world of athletics, such people are non-existent. There’s a crisis in our nation in the realm of loyalty.

The Denver Post, just a few years ago, ran a 5-article series on the subject of loyalty. They claimed that this nation is becoming bankrupt of loyalty. Ted Koppel on ABD’s Nightline recently ran a special on the subject of loyalty where he said that “loyalty in America is going the way of the dodo bird. It’s becoming extinct. From marriage to the marketplace, people are not as loyal as once they were.” How about you? How loyal are you? Are you a loyal person? This morning we come to the subject of loyalty as we look at the life of Miriam, the sister of Moses. From her life we have three life lessons, all relating to loyalty. The first life lesson is this. God demands your supreme loyalty. In the final analysis, all that matters is your loyalty to God. Everything else pales by comparison.

The Bible makes it clear that Miriam had a great capacity for loyalty. When Moses was born, you know the story. We reviewed it last week. His mother, Jochebed, took the baby Moses, put him in a basket made of bulrushes, sealed it with bitumen and pitch and put her baby in the Nile. Why did she do that? Because of the edict of Pharaoh which commanded that all Hebrew male children be executed because there were too many Jews in the land. She hid Moses for three months, and when she could hide him no longer, in one final desperate act to save her child, she placed him in this basket and put him in the Nile River. Who was it that stood at a distance to guard her little brother? Who was it that stood at a distance to see what would happen to Moses? It was Miriam, perhaps twelve years older, his older sister. She’s the one who stood and watched. How long she stood there we don’t know. Whether she had a conversation with her mother and had been asked to stand there, we don’t know. Whether she had to journey along the banks of the Nile as perhaps the current took the basket down the river, we don’t know. Were there crocodiles, we don’t know.

We know this. We know that in the course of time the daughter of Pharaoh came down to the river’s bank, a woman of great power in Egypt. By the providence of God, she came down to that river and she saw the basket. She opened it and she saw Moses. She saw this Hebrew baby, and she knew the decree of Pharaoh, that this child should be executed, but she was also moved with compassion. What did Miriam do? She did a very bold thing. She approached the daughter of Pharaoh and she said, “Do you want me to go and find a Hebrew nurse to nurse this baby for you?” That was a treasonous suggestion in light of the edict of Pharaoh. Miriam could have been executed or incarcerated. She was bold. Pharaoh’s daughter approved, and of course Miriam recruited her mother. She was loyal, loyal to her mother, loyal to her brother. She was loyal to her family. She had this great capacity for loyalty and she had a great love of God.

When we come to Exodus, chapter 15, we see how the children of Israel had crossed the Red Sea “as if upon dry land and now the Egyptians, when they tried to do the same, were drowned. We see this moment as recorded in Exodus 15 where Miriam leads the women of Israel, perhaps a million strong, she leads them in the celebration and praises to God because she wanted to acknowledge that the victory was the Lord’s. God had rescued His people. She wanted all of her people to acknowledge the victory is the Lord’s. She wanted to give Him praise because she loved Him. Surely, she longed to be found loyal to Him, supremely loyal to Him. Certainly, the Bible indicates that Miriam was loyal to her brother Moses who was God’s anointed.

Then we come, to Numbers, chapter 12, our passage of scripture for today, and we have this strange scene where Miriam actually leads a rebellion against Moses. Her brother Aaron joins her, and we know that she’s the instigator because her name is listed first. In the Hebrew language and culture, that means she was preeminent. So, she led this rebellion against her brother. She began to speak openly and publicly against him. Of course, on the surface, the problem was that Moses had married a Cushite woman. Who was this Cushite woman we do not know. She certainly was not Zipporah, the first wife of Moses. Zipporah was from Midian. Moses had married Zipporah many, many year prior. Perhaps Zipporah had died, but in any event, Moses took a second wife and she was a Cushite from the land of Cush, which was the ancient name of Ethiopia.

There was nothing wrong before God with Moses marrying a Cushite, but something about it bugged Miriam, and we don’t know what. Perhaps Miriam was jealous. Maybe she thought this was a woman who, as the wife of Moses, could usurp her, Miriam’s, authority in Israel, take her place. Maybe she felt threatened. We know that she was jealous of her brother Moses for she and Aaron both said, “Has God indeed spoken only through Moses? Has God not also spoken through us? Are we not also great?” She was jealous of Moses and his authority and his place.

God came down in a pillar of cloud, and God called forth Miriam and Aaron. God made it clear that he did not like this disloyalty. He also made it clear that it wasn’t simply disloyalty to Moses, it was disloyalty to God, and God said, “Hear My words. If there is a prophet amongst you, I make myself known to him in a vision. I speak to him in a dream. It is not so with my servant Moses for I have entrusted to him all of My house. I speak to him mouth-to-mouth clearly, not in dark speech, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?” God was not suggesting that Miriam should have been afraid of Moses but rather that Miriam should have been afraid of God. It’s all about God and ultimately loyalty to God. He wants us to understand that today. It’s all about loyalty to God.

If you’re not faithful to your wife, you’re not loyal to God. If you’re not faithful to your husband, you are not loyal to God. If you’re not faithful as a parent to your children, you are not loyal to God. If you are not faithful as children to your parents, you are not being loyal to God. If you’re not faithful to your country, if you do not honor the governing authorities, you are not loyal to God. It says it in Romans, chapter 13. If you are not faithful as an employee of your employer, you are not loyal to God because we are instructed in 1 Peter and in the Book of Ephesians to be loyal to our employers, to those who are in authority over us. It’s all about loyalty to God.

If you’re not loyal to your church, you are not loyal to God. Jesus said, “I will build My Church and the powers of hell will not prevail against it.” For this He was born and for this He came into the world that He might establish His assembly, His congregation, His Bride—the Church. This morning as Steve stood up here, we welcomed new members who also stood up here, and we thank God for each one of you who have felt led to join this church and to make that commitment of loyalty and to pledge your time and your talent and your treasure. As a staff, we join you because we, too, have pledged our time. We’ve pledged our talent. We’ve pledged our treasure. We’re in this together and it’s all about the Church and ultimately loyalty to God.

Our front door is big. We welcome everyone. We welcome the world to come in. The front door is big, and we invite anyone who loves Jesus Christ to join this church. Our back door is also big and there are people leaving as with every church in the United States of America. Big front door. Big back door. Would that everyone who joined this church stayed here unless God took them to another city in another state, but that isn’t the case because we’re a consumer¬ oriented society. People aren’t loyal like they used to be.

When I go to pastors’ conferences, the subjects are always the same. How do we close the back door? How do we keep people from leaving? Of course, there have been many suggestions. We need great music, but the churches of America have discovered that great music will not close the back door. People still shop around. We need faithful preaching, but faithful preaching still won’t close the back door. We need wonderful children’s’ programs, but even wonderful children’s’ programs won’t close the back door. People still shop around.

Of course, for a while, Ecclesiastical authorities thought, “We need small groups.” Of course, we DO need small groups, but the thinking was, “If we can get people into small groups, they’ll stay because they’ll have this sense of intimacy with a few other individuals and they won’t leave,” but it didn’t work. People still leave the church but stay in their small group, so pretty soon there are like five churches represented in one little small group. Now, the understanding is clear that the problem isn’t with the church. The problem is with the culture. It’s a consumer-oriented culture with a lack of loyalty where commitment is not valued. The problem is with the culture.

Churches have never offered more diverse programs and more diverse ministries in the history of our nation. I promise you, pastors have never worked harder, but, you see, the culture has lost its value for loyalty. What was true of my mom and dad who stayed at the same church for 50 years—my mom is still going there; my dad has entered the assembly in heaven. That was a different generation, and they stayed through thick and thin, and they saw pastors come and go. Not so today. But think. Are you being loyal to God? Are you honoring God because He’s called you to make a commitment to His Church, and ultimately, it’s all about loyalty to God. He demands our supreme allegiance. In the final analysis, loyalty to Him is all that matters.

The second life lesson from Miriam is this. Loyalty to people, loyalty to this world, can mean disloyalty to God. That’s the problem sometimes. Loyalty to earthly entities, loyalty to corrupt friends or even corrupt corporations—it can all mean disloyalty to God.

When you come to Exodus, chapter 32, you see the story, the episode, of the Golden Calf. The Bible tells us how Aaron, the brother of Moses and Miriam, built a golden calf for worship. The people worship this golden calf, and we do not know what Aaron’s intent was. Did the golden calf represent Yahweh, the one true God? Was it a graven image of God? Or did it represent a return to their prior polytheism and idolatry? We do not know. We DO know that at that very moment, Moses was up on Mt. Horeb, up on Mt. Sinai, and he was receiving the Ten Commandments. He was delayed, and the people had lost their faith. Even as Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments, the people led by Aaron were violating the first two commandments, “building a graven image” and “participating in idolatry.”

What about Miriam? What was Miriam doing? What was the sister of Aaron doing? She was a leader in Israel, and the people would have looked to her. What did she do? Was she loyal to Aaron? Did she join in with this idolatry and loyalty to her brother? We do not know. The Bible doesn’t tell us, but if she did, you see, her loyalty to her brother would have been disloyalty to God. That’s sometimes the case. We worry as parents when we raise our kids. We worry about peer pressure. We don’t want them to be tempted to do wrong through peer pressure. We know that if they do wrong, it will dishonor God, but we need to understand that peer pressure is lifelong. It doesn’t end when we cease to be a teenager. We are still impacted by peer pressure all the days of our lives, and we need to be careful because we’ve got an audience of One. There’s only One to please and that is God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We live to please Him.

I think some people are almost excessively loyal to their friends. For six years I had the privilege of serving on the national board of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. One person that I got to know on the board was a man named Grant Teff and his wife, Donelle. Barb and I really enjoyed them and liked them and we do today. Grant Teff was the coach at Baylor University and later the Athletic Director at Baylor University. He told a story that I’ve since heard others tell. I don’t think it was intended as a true story, but Grant Teff told this story about Baylor University and their football team. Grant Teff said that they had a particularly bad year, a bad football season, where the team lost most of their games. Frankly that happens quite a bit at Baylor University. I need to be careful, however, because Robert Sloan who is the President of Baylor is going to be here preaching at our church next month and he is an awesome, wonderful Christian and Baylor is a great school. It really is, but they have had some bad football teams, and Grant Teff coached a few of them.

After this one year where it was particularly bad and they’d only won like two games, Grant Teff was depressed. An assistant coach who was a close friend was depressed with him. They felt like failures and they decided to just go off and get away and do a little hunting trip. Grant Teff had arranged with a rancher he knew to go hunting on that rancher’s property. Grant Teff took his assistant coach, they got in a pickup truck, and they drove out to this rancher’s land. It was many acres.

When they drove up to the ranch house, Grant Teff asked the assistant coach to stay in the truck. He said, “I’ll go talk to the rancher,” and so, he did. The rancher was so gracious and so, nice. The rancher said, “Coach, it’s wonderful to have you here. I’m honored that you would be here to hunt on my property. Let me explain how this works. Also, I just want to say what a credit you are to Baylor University. You’re a fine man. Even though I know you were disappointed in the season, we’re proud of you as a leader and we’re going to continue to support you.” Grant said, “Thank you so much. You’ll never know what it means for us to be able to be here.” The rancher said, “Well, I do need to ask you one favor.” The coach said, “What’s that?” The rancher said, “Well, you see that mule over there out in the field?” Grant said, “Yes.” The rancher said, “Well, he’s an old mule and he’s very sick and he’s in pain. I need to put him away but I don’t have the heart to do it. I just can’t bring myself to do it. I’ve known the mule for so long. Would you shoot my mule for me?” Coach Teff said, “Oh, I can’t shoot your mule.” The rancher said, “Oh please. It means so much to me and I just can’t do it.” Coach Teff said, “Okay.”

As he was heading back to the truck, he decided to pull a little joke on the assistant coach. He opened the door to the truck and said, “Boy, am I mad!” The assistant coach’s eyes got real big. Coach Teff said, “I’m so mad. You’re never going to believe what that rancher said to me. He told me that I was a disgrace to the coaching profession.” He said our whole coaching staff is a disgrace. He said that we deserve to be fired and we are literally just a blight and just a negative image for Baylor University. He made me so mad. Do you know what I’m going to do? The assistant coach’s eyes were just huge and he said, “What?” The coach said, “You see that mule over there? I’m going to shoot that rancher’s mule.”

He got his rifle and he lined it up. He steadied it on the doorframe, and he fired and dropped the mule with one shot. He started smirking just a little bit and then suddenly he heard two more shots right next to him. He turned around to see the assistant coach jump back into the truck. The assistant coach said, “Let’s get out of here. I just shot two of his cows!” I don’t think it’s a true story, but isn’t it true that some friends can be faithful to a fault? Isn’t that true? They can be faithful to a fault. Oftentimes when we’re faithful to a fault, we wind up doing something that displeases God. Of course, that’s exactly what we don’t want to do.

It’s really a difficult subject. Time Magazine just recently proclaimed its “Person of the Year.” Time does this every year. Of course, this year, I’m sure many of you know, Time really chose three people, three women. Time Magazine chose these three women because they were whistleblowers. Two of them blew the whistle on corporate corruption in America. One of them blew the whistle on the incompetence of a governmental agency.

The selection by Time of these three women has been controversial. Some people in America view these three women negatively. At best, it is said, they were tattletales and at worst, they were traitors. But, you see, people who say such things really don’t understand the Bible. They don’t understand the biblical concept of loyalty. If you work for a company or corporation and the leaders of your company or corporation are involved in criminal activity, even your silence is displeasing to God because our supreme allegiance is to God and to please Him.

Sometimes when we just become “yes people” and we live to please the world, we wind up grieving God. The Bible says that someday there will come on the stage of history the Antichrist. The Antichrist is coming. Sometimes in the Bible, this concept of Antichrist is in the plural and it refers to a group of nations that have assembled in unity, seeking power over all nations on the earth. Sometimes this word Antichrist refers to the individual who will head this alignment of nations. Sometimes the word Antichrist refers to the malignant, satanic spirit that empowers this individual and these nations. You see, the Bible makes it very clear that in that day when the Antichrist arises, it will be a test of loyalties. It will be a test of loyalties because the Antichrist will require everyone to receive a mark in order to buy or sell. The Antichrist will require everyone to receive a number in the mark of the beast, and it’s a question of loyalty, loyalty to this corrupt Antichrist government or loyalty to God. That will be the question. But it’s an age-old question because in every generation for the people of Christ, this test is given. Where is your loyalty? Where are your loyalties? Are you seeking supremely to please God? Friendship with this world can mean enmity with God.

Finally, we have this life lesson from Miriam and that is this. Disobedience, disloyalty to God, invites divine punishment. It has consequences. We see this in Numbers, chapter 12, where God’s judgement falls on Miriam. Because of her disloyalty, the divine judgement comes. Behold, she is leprous, white as snow, her body filled with leprosy; so grossly afflicted with leprosy that it was like the skin was just decaying from her body itself. Aaron, her brother, cried out to Moses and Moses cried out to God. “Heal her oh God, I beseech Thee.” God said to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face…” and of course in the Hebrew culture a father did that to a son or daughter if they were defiant and in rebellion. God clearly viewed Miriam as in rebellion. …”would she not be shamed for seven days? Let her therefore be shut off outside the camp for seven days. After that, she may be brought in again. I will have mercy.” And so, Miriam was shut up outside the encampment of the nation of the Israel for seven days, and the nation did not proceed on the march until she had been brought in again whole by the mercy of God.

God wants us to understand that judgement is real. Time and again as you go through the Old Testament, you see consequences for sin, consequences for disloyalty to God. I know some of you are thinking, “Well, that’s Old Testament. What about the New Testament?” I’m sure some of you are saying that, “in the New Testament and in the New Covenant, are we not saved by grace? Isn’t the Gospel all about grace and mercy?” And yes, it is. We are saved by grace alone through faith. But, you see, we are called to obedience and there are going to be consequences in this life and in the life to come when we live lives of disloyalty and disobedience to God.

In Acts, chapter 5, you see the story of Ananias and Sapphira, members of the church in Jerusalem who lied to the authorities of the church and ultimately to God. The judgement of God comes upon them and they are executed by God. He strikes them dead. What a strange passage to find in the New Testament and yet, you see, God warns His people. He takes sin seriously. It doesn’t say that they’re bound for hell. It doesn’t say they’ve lost their salvation, but they did lose their earthly life because of their lack of faithfulness. Disloyalty to God is serious.

As we conclude, I want to tell you a story about one country in Africa. There are 51 nations on the continent of Africa. Of course, it’s hard to keep track because the names are seemingly always changing, the border are being redrawn, and even the number of nations are constantly in flux in the African continent.

One of the oldest nations in Africa, certainly the oldest nation, is Egypt, but one of the oldest nations in Africa is Ethiopia. Ethiopia at one time was called Abyssinia. Of course, in biblical times it was called Cush. Historians tell us that the first ruler of Ethiopia, the man who birthed the nation of Ethiopia, was a man named Menelik I. Historians tell us that his life is really shrouded in mystery. We know little about him. We do know that Menelik I claimed to be the offspring of the biblical Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. While historians doubt that this is true, and the Bible gives us no reason to believe that Solomon and the Queen of Sheba had union, still rulers today in Ethiopia claim descendancy from Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

In the year 1896, after 2800 years of existence as a nation, a man came to the throne in Ethiopia who modernized the country. In many encyclopedias today, this man is called the “Father of Modern Ethiopia,” and his name was Menelik II. After 28 years, he took the name of the nation’s founder—Menelik II. You can read about him in your encyclopedias and in history books. He was renowned and truly great. He united the people of Ethiopia. He built hospitals and he built schools. He really ushered Ethiopia into the 20th century, but there’s a strange story about him that I’m sure many of you have heard. I find it difficult to believe. I’ve read the story in four or five history books, but I still find it hard to believe.

Menelik II was a Christian, a professing Christian. He had a strange view of the Bible. He viewed the Bible as not only inspired of God, but he viewed the Bible as a kind of talisman, a supernatural object. He viewed the pages of the Bible as containing divine power. He had a kind of superstitious view of the book. Historians tell us that when Menelik II was sick, whenever he was sick, he would take a page out of the Bible and eat it. Crazy. He would take a page out of a Bible and eat it as though divine power would thereby enter his body for the sake of healing. In 1913 when he died, historians tell us that after having a small stroke, he was so worried he went and consumed in one setting the entire book of 1 Kings and the entire book of 2 Kings. He died for a multiplicity of causes, one of which was intestinal obstruction. I find that story, though I’ve read it in many places, hard to believe, but it does beg this question. How do you view the Bible? How do you view this book? What is your view of scripture?

I met this past week with some leaders from the Colorado Council of Churches and this is what we discussed—how do you view the authority of scripture, an important question. The Bible says of itself, “All scripture is inspired of God.” It’s God-breathed, theos pneustos. It’s profitable for teaching, reproof and correction, for training in righteousness, that the man or woman of God might be complete and equipped for every good work. The Bible says, “All flesh is like grass, all of its glory like the flower of the grass. Grass withers, the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord abides forever. His Word will not return void.

I’ll tell you what I believe. I believe that when I study a passage in this book and I use proper hermeneutics, proper methods of exegesis, the conclusions that are reached in terms of the meaning of the passage are absolutely binding on my life. It has full authority over me and I must submit. I believe that with all of my heart, and on this I base my life. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you’ll keep My commandments.” But what does that mean if you don’t believe that these are His words? How do you know what His commandments are if you don’t believe the book? I hope you understand.

Would you be loyal to God? Be loyal to His Word? Submit your life to His Word? Learn it. Read it. Memorize it. Hide it in your heart and live it out in submission to God. He will bless you. He will honor you. He will anoint you. He’ll use you. He’ll prosper you. But disobey the Book, be disloyal to God, and you’ll invite His judgement on your life, and there will be consequences. So, examine your life and see how it lines up with scripture. If anything doesn’t line up, repent and ask for forgiveness and say, “Lord, help me change. I want to follow You. I want to obey your Word.” So, three life lessons from Miriam. God demands our supreme allegiance. Friendship with the world and loyalty to the world can mean disloyalty to God, and disloyalty to God invites His judgement. Let’s close with a word of prayer.