Devotional Numbers 12:1

Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Numbers 12:1: “And Miriam and Moses spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman.”
The word for Ethiopia in Hebrew is “Cushite.”   This word could come from one of two root words.  The first is, of course, Cush which is rendered as the land of Cush which is all fine and dandy except, search as you might, you will find no lexicon venturing so far as to give a verbal form of the word Cush.  All Hebrew words stem from verbs, and you need to trace the meaning of a word from its root form.  Only Davidson comes close to suggesting that the verbal form would be Kish.   This means to be fat.  So apparently Miriam and Moses spoke against Moses for marrying a fat woman.   Ok, there you go again, thinking like a twenty first century Western cultural person and not like a Hebrew.   But don’t abandon your entire Western thought; think in terms of “fat cat” capitalism rather than physical features.   Kish does not really mean to be fat in a physical sense, but to be rich and prosperous.  It also means to be rich in influence and connections.
The Cush or Ethiopian empire was once a very powerful empire and actually challenged the Egyptian empire.  The historian Josephus gives the account that when the Ethiopian empire threatened the Egyptian empire, Moses was given command of an army of Egyptians and Hebrews and conquered the Ethiopians.  As customary in formulation of a treaty in those days the King of the conquering army was to marry the daughter of the king of the defeated army.  Since Pharaoh was considered a god he could not marry a mortal so he gave the Princess Tharbis to Moses after she declared her love for Moses.  Really great romantic stuff, surprised Hollywood hasn’t picked up on it.   Actually, the Targum of Jonathan puts a different spin on the story.  In this story, when Moses fled from the Pharaoh in Egypt he was welcomed by King Kikanos who was the king of the Cushites or Ethiopia.  With his knowledge and skills from having served in Pharaoh’s court he was quickly promoted to the commander of the Cushite army to lead it against Egypt.  But King Kikanos died before he could do this and Moses married his widow Adoniah as an arrangement so he could assume the role of the king.  However, when Moses refused to worship the pagan gods and to lead an army against the Egyptians he was forced to flee from the land of the Cushites and ended up at his future Father in law’s estate where he married Zipporah.   Apparently while on the Exodus Moses reconciled with the Cushites and either divorced Zipporah or she died so that Moses re-ignited his romance with Adoniah.
Whether these stories are true or not is highly disputed.  However, one thing is clear; to form an alliance with the Cushites was to invite the influence of pagan religion into the Hebrew camp.  Miriam was a prophetess and probably really spoke what she felt was a prophetic word that Moses taking up with this Cushite, who could have been of royal blood, had very serious negative implications.
It is curious that the word for “spake” in Hebrew is “debar” which indicates prophetic speaking.  It is also in a participial form which means that she was continually speaking against this marriage and it is also in a feminine form which would suggest that Aaron was not actually doing any of the speaking but was taking Miriam’s side.   Miriam as a prophetess and Aaron as a high priest were right to say they did hear from God.  However, God seems to focus on the prophetic nature of this matter and not the high priest side of the matter.  In other words Miriam was the prosecutor and Aaron was the judge.  Aaron listened to Miriam and as a high priest passed judgment on Moses.  In other words, like President Clinton, Moses got himself impeached and the next step was removal from office.  Like President Clinton, there were not enough votes to remove him from office and in Moses’s case he had one descending vote from an unexpected source, God.
In verse 14 God tells Moses in regard to Miriam’s punishment: “If her father had but spit in her face…”   This rather crude statement is based in ancient culture where the father’s word was law and every act of the child reflected his father’s wishes.  If a child ever exceeds his father’s authority, to influence others, the father would spit in the face of the child and banish him from his presence for seven days to demonstrate that the child was not speaking for him.
As Miriam was a prophetess who did speak for God, but in this case spoke from the flesh and not from a dream or vision, she influenced not only the people but the high priest Aaron as well; God had to banish her for seven days so the people would know she did not speak her criticism of Moses prophetically.
We don’t know why God sanctioned the marriage between Moses and the Cushite woman.  Perhaps her conversion to the Hebrew faith was genuine even if Miriam held her in suspect.  Perhaps this alliance kept the Cushites, who were known for their wondering armies, at bay and prevented them from attacking the Hebrews, or maybe it was Messianic to show that one day all people, Gentiles and Jews regardless of race, would share in the blessings of the Messiah.   We can never be sure but of this we can be sure, Miriam prophesied from her head and heart.  It may have been a good, sound, theologically correct prophecy, but it was not from the heart of God.
Christians are very good at saying: “God led me to tell you this” or “I feel God wants you to know…”   Beware, no matter how good and sound it may be, make sure when you associate God’s name with some bit of spiritual insight it comes from His heart and not yours, lest, like Miriam, you skin turns the opposite color of Moses’s wife.
Your Friends
Clyde and Laura