Clear Vision

"Listen to my words:
"When a prophet of the LORD is among you,
I reveal myself to him in visions,
I speak to him in dreams.

But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.

With him I speak face to face,
clearly and not in riddles;
he sees the form of the LORD.
Why then were you not afraid
to speak against my servant Moses?" – Numbers 12: 6-8

This story starts off with Moses’ brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, talking smack about Moses because he married a Cushite (Ethiopian) woman. God hears it and then calls the three of them to him and says what is quoted above.

Then ZAP! He put that leprosy on Miriam.

Rough game.

Then Aaron begs Moses to pray to God so that God would forgive her. He does, and after seven days outside the camp she is healed. During that time Israel could not move forward. That is some serious public shame.

There are several interesting things about this story to me.

First of all… score one for interracial marriage! God wasn’t having any smack talking about Moses and his choice of wife. I think this says a lot about how important marriage is to God. It’s a permanent spiritual bond. When it is attacked, God is not pleased.

The next thing is the mention of how special Moses was. He wasn’t merely a prophet. He was the most humble man on earth! And as a result of his humility and faithfulness God spoke directly to Moses and revealed his form to him.

When we look back at all of the preparations that the high priest must perform before going into the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement, this says a lot.

The priest had to be ritually cleansed so that he could be in the presence of God and live to tell about it.

That’s just a Tuesday afternoon for Moses.

Here again are the recurring themes of faith and humility. The more faithful and humbly we live our lives, the more God reveals himself to us.

But also there is a flip side to this. God is always with us. But when we are blinded by selfishness and arrogance we cannot see outside the prism of our own interests.

Faith and humility allow us to see life much more clearly. The longer one walks that path, the clearer the image of God becomes.

Today’s Reading: Numbers 12-14; Mark 5: 21-43