Word of Encouragement (10/12/2022)

And Moses cried to the LORD, “O God, please heal her—please.” (Num. 12:13)

This prayer of Moses was for her sister, Miriam. We can see the intensity of his prayer through the two occurrences of “please” in this short prayer. But that is not the only remarkable thing about this prayer. The “sickness” she was suffering from was not an ordinary disease: God struck her with leprosy. Why did God do this? We don’t know what got into them but Aaron and Miriam, Moses’ two older siblings, complained one day about Moses’ marriage to a Cushite woman (probably referring to Zipporah, who was a Gentile woman). Why they brought this up at that moment is not mentioned. But this led them to challenge Moses’ authority: “Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also” (Num. 12:2)?

But Moses, being meek, did not react to this challenge with resentment and anger. Instead, we read something encouraging: “And the LORD heard it” (v. 2). The LORD took the initiative to confront Aaron and Miriam. He came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting. There, He affirmed the special favor He bestowed on Moses above all other prophets (including Aaron and Miriam) and their sin of challenging Moses: “With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses” (v. 9)?

How wonderful it is that Moses did not have to get into a petty fight to defend himself, especially against his own siblings! Here we see that God is committed to taking care of His servants. So, Paul says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Rom. 12:19). We should remember that this doesn’t come from someone, who has no idea what it is like to suffer unjustly at the hand of others; it comes from someone, who had been frequently subjected to all kinds of unjust persecution and suffering for his faith. God was saying in effect, “If you mess with My servant, you are messing with Me!” That was what God told Saul of Tarsus when he was on his way to Damascus to arrest the Christians there and bring them to Jerusalem: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me” (Acts 9:4)?

This doesn’t mean that God will intervene in such a way that we won’t have to suffer. God uses our suffering as a refiner’s fire to sanctify us (James 1:2-3, 1 Pet. 1:7). God may allow us to die martyrs as He did with Stephen. But God also allowed Stephen to see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (Standing is not Jesus’ typical posture in the descriptions of His heavenly existence. If is as if Jesus stood up to see who was mistreating Stephen, His servant, and receive him into glory!) And God assures us that the burning coals of God’s wrath are being heaped on all those who persecute His servants (Rom. 12:20). We should not be intimidated by those who oppose us and the gospel of Christ; instead, we should feel pity and pray for them that they should be delivered from God’s coming wrath by trusting in Jesus Christ. That’s what Moses did for Miriam, isn’t it?

Who comes to your mind? Pray for him/her/them.

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