During the wilderness wanderings, Moses’ sister Miriam grew old watching her baby brother lead a great nation and her other brother, Aaron, work as the highest spiritual leader of the new nation of Israel. At some point, when Miriam should have been displaying the wisdom of age, she made a bad decision. Maybe she became jealous of her brothers. After all, she did help save Moses when he was just a baby. She did lead the women, and people called her a prophetess. Or, maybe she felt unhappy about Moses marrying again, to a woman from Cush, more than likely with dark skin! Of all the nerve! Now, this new woman would get all the attention! Whatever the reason, Miriam managed to convince Aaron to go along with causing trouble in the camp. Aaron could serve as the great leader! Moses was just the baby of the family! Miriam and Aaron, each well over a 100-years-old, began chirping louder and louder, when unexpectedly—God came for a visit.
The Lord moved near with His cloud and scolded the two badly-behaved senior citizens for their terrible sins of jealousy, backbiting and treason (Numbers 12:1-15). Since Miriam was the ringleader (remember the golden calf incident, Aaron had no backbone), God righteously punished only her with full-body leprosy—a white blob of oatmeal-with-clothes-on! Miriam’s brothers immediately begged God’s mercy for her. The Lord said she must be punished for seven days! What an ego-buster! God visually displayed the disgust He has for envy and spiritual treason.
Miriam’s age and position in life did not matter to God. Sin and punishment have no age limit. Moses wrote about this as an example of what God does to sinful people. “Remember what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way as you came out of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 24:9). Folks, we don’t want God to visit us and find us in the middle of sin, no matter how old we are!
