Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Herod was Troubled...Rev.M.D.Rogers
Troubled, and wicked king that he was, he troubled everyone else when he was troubled.
Although he ruled over the Jews in Israel in the time before Christ, Herod the Great was not completely Jewish. He was born in 73 B.C. to an Idumean man named Antipater and a woman named Cyprus, who was the daughter of an Arab sheik.
During a civil war in the Empire, Herod won the favor of Octavian, who later became the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. Once he was king, Herod launched an ambitious building program, both in Jerusalem and the spectacular port city of Caesarea, named after the emperor. He restored the magnificent Jerusalem temple, which was later destroyed by the Romans following a rebellion in A.D. 70.
After inquiring of the priests and scribes, Herod sent the Wise Men to Bethlehem to see the King and report back. He claimed to want to worship Jesus. He wanted to kill Him. There are people today who still have a problem with Jesus. They want to destroy Him and His followers.
THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS HAD A PROPHECY
This is interesting. The religious leaders knew their Bibles. They know what the Scripture said about the birth of their King, and yet they did nothing to respond. Evidently they either didn't believe it, or were afraid of King Herod. Today there are many ministers who claim to be Christ's servants, who don't believe God's Word concerning the Virgin Birth of Christ and many other key doctrines. Today Wise men still seek him..
THE WISE MEN
They worshiped Him.
They gave Him gifts.
Let us worship Him.
Let us give Him gifts of gold sweet smelling prayers of adoration and requests (frankincense), sacrificial service (myrrh
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Monday, November 13, 2017
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Halloween?-by Rev.M.D. Rogers
My Halloween Rant 2017
So here I go again starting trouble when there is no need to. I always stick my nose into areas that it doesn't belong, or do I. Well, you all know what time of the year it is? Yes, it is that sinfully wicked holiday of Halloween, and I just refuse to let sleeping dogs lie. You are more than welcome to hit the delete button if you need to, but for those of you who are heartier of spirit, stick with me.I have decided not to take the traditional approach to the matter by giving all the historical reasons why believers should not celebrate this day. I already did that last year in another blog.
The point I want to concentrate on is the issue of freedom. Do we have the freedom to celebrate or try and redeem this day as so many "Churches" try and do? Is there a Scriptural mandate that makes it acceptable to participate in days that were once dedicated to satanic activities?
It doesn't take that much discernment to see that the world does have a preoccupation for Horror, especially on this day. All one needs to do is look on the fruit that is produced by the celebration and the string of Hollywood movies about zombies, vampires, witches etc.
The other day I received a email inviting me to a church on October 31st. to enjoy "A fun and safe trick-or-treat experience" or “Holy-Ween” celebration. Now, I know this pastor, and I don't consider him way 'out there'. I am sure he loves the Lord. Yet, I wonder why is it that a church would invest that much time and effort into a day that has clear demonic origins, and yet refuse to celebrate any of the Biblical Holy days that the Lord has established as prophetic displays.
I continue, to this day, to be challenged on my keeping the Biblical feasts by pastors. I am told that I am a Judaizer by trying to put men under the yoke of the law. I am reminded that when the "New Testament" arrived that the law was abolished. (I have yet to find this in Scripture).
It must be wonderful to be set free from the law. It would be so refreshing to be able to live a life of lawlessness. I can't imagine what it would be like to be able to celebrate anything I wanted, no matter what the origin.
Revile me all you want for celebrating the biblical feasts. Call me names like “old fashion holy roller”. Accuse me of enslaving people under the law. Take your liberty to do as you feel. Enjoy your "Halloween alternative" . But I think I will stay right where I am enjoying the appointed times and seasons that have been set up by the Lord. I will revel in the fact that these wonderful days were the appointments kept by the Lord. I will be able to defend my faith through the prophetic displays of these Biblical and historical events. All you will have to show for your holiday is a bucket of candy and some rotten teeth.
Enjoy!
Thursday, October 19, 2017
Maria’s aftermath in Puerto Rico - The Boston Globe
Maria’s aftermath in Puerto Rico - The Boston Globe
OCTOBER BY ROBERT FROST
October;
O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Monday, October 9, 2017
Thursday, October 5, 2017
October
Thursday, September 28, 2017
Where are we as a Church Today? by Rev.M.D.Rogers pt.1
These are all thought-provoking questions that challenge us as Christians to take a good, long look at the church today.Is the church relevant to the world that we live in today? What I mean is; do we all just come together to get a good blessing – or are we concerned about reaching out to the lost?
There is nothing wrong with getting the ‘blessings’ – but if that is your whole focus on why you come to church; you’ve missed something – church is not about us…It’s about HIM! We have it all backwards if we are only concerned about our own needs; what we got out of a service; whether we ‘felt’ the spirit or not – each of these are all signs of maturity.
Even as Samuel was instructed to not judge a book by it’s cover – you and I are also instructed to also allow God to do his work in which He chooses to and not second-guess Him!
1 Sam. 16:7, “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For?the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
At this time it was written of by Josephus that David was probably 10 years old here, others date him as being about 15 years old.
We are in the maturation process that began long before I came as pastor. This is a long-term course that God is taking us through.
Don’t grow weary in well doing – that’s the encouragement that you and I receive from Paul in Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
I believe that God is doing today what He has been trying to do for years.
It can be observed that in a time of transition many will fall away because of discouragement and reluctance to going forward.
Take government for example: in every political transition there are many in positions of authority and prestige that fade out with the new leadership. Sometimes it’s intentional, yet there are others who fade into the shadows because they don’t understand what’s going on or refuse to go that direction.
Bottom Line – we are right in the middle of where God would have us!
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Sunday, September 24, 2017
THE FEAR ENGENDERED BY THE ENEMY’S THREATS by Rev. M.D. Rogers
THE FEAR ENGENDERED BY THE ENEMY’S THREATS
by Rev. M.D. Rogers
Hezekiah was told not to count on the strength of his allies.
Isa.36: 4 “And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
5 I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
6 Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.”
It is interesting to note that twenty-three years earlier, Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, had to make a decision at this same aqueduct mentioned in verse two. Unfortunately, King Ahaz decided to trust the armies of Assyria to fight his battles, rather than God. Now, the ally of Ahaz had become the attacker of Hezekiah. Be careful what you rely on in times of trial. Trusting anything other than God will likely be your undoing. As the old song says, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand/All other ground is sinking sand” (“The Solid Rock,” by Edward Mote).
by Rev. M.D. Rogers
Hezekiah was told not to count on the strength of his allies.
Isa.36: 4 “And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?
5 I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
6 Lo, thou trustest in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all that trust in him.”
It is interesting to note that twenty-three years earlier, Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, had to make a decision at this same aqueduct mentioned in verse two. Unfortunately, King Ahaz decided to trust the armies of Assyria to fight his battles, rather than God. Now, the ally of Ahaz had become the attacker of Hezekiah. Be careful what you rely on in times of trial. Trusting anything other than God will likely be your undoing. As the old song says, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand/All other ground is sinking sand” (“The Solid Rock,” by Edward Mote).
Friday, September 22, 2017
Betsy DeVos Rescinds Obama-Era Campus Sex Assault Guidelines | Time.com
Betsy DeVos Rescinds Obama-Era Campus Sex Assault Guidelines | Time.com
The Trump administration on Friday scrapped Obama-era guidance on investigating campus sexual assault, replacing it with new interim instructions allowing universities to decide which standard of evidence to use when handling complaints.
The Trump administration on Friday scrapped Obama-era guidance on investigating campus sexual assault, replacing it with new interim instructions allowing universities to decide which standard of evidence to use when handling complaints.
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Table of the Lord’s Supper is the sign of our power in the Lord. Rev.M.D.Rogers
In many of Paul’s letters to the churches, the jealousies and strife present in the church is a mark of spiritual immaturity. “Paul forces us to come to terms with a view of ourselves that is consistent with the way that God sees us. He insists that there is no neutral ground. The flesh and the Spirit are contrary. “The powers that would destroy the works of God have no intention of relenting. We need the power of the Spirit every single day and every moment.” God expects us to walk together in Christian love. Walking together leaves no room for old feuds. The needs of our communities and the world are too great; there is no time for petty squabbles over who gets the recognition or whose name gets called the most times. The Table of the Lord that we celebrate every first Sunday defies us to walk any other way. It stands in judgment against a fractured community that would bring some into the inner circle and push others to the fringes. But if we engage by the aid of the Holy Spirit to walk together, the Table of the Lord’s Supper is the sign of our power in the Lord. It is the promise of our victory, the seal of our joy!
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
A Sister like No Other-Rev. M.D. Rogers
Miriam
Let’s get a glimpse of the setting, the backdrop of Miriam’s day. Seven years Moses’ senior, Miriam grew up a slave, the daughter of slaves. Assuming Moses was born around 1520 B.C. (Merrill Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary , Moody Press, Chicago, 1988, p. 886), then Miriam was born around 1527 B.C.
Some 160 years earlier, a Hebrew family had fled drought in their homeland and arrived in Egypt as refugees. The patriarch of the family was Jacob, also named Israel. His estranged son Joseph had become chief assistant to the Pharaoh of that time. Under these circumstances the Hebrews were well treated and prospered as shepherds in the Nile delta. After the death of Israel and subsequently his son Joseph, “there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8).
Recognizing how prolifically the Israelites had multiplied, this ruler began to fear the loss of Egyptian control of his own country. He knew too that the Israelites could ally with an enemy against the Egyptians. In an attempt to curb the Hebrew slaves, he pressed them into labor on major construction projects.
For years the Israelites toiled away in service to the Egyptians. But, in spite of the backbreaking work, the Hebrews continued to multiply—so much so that, by Miriam’s day the Pharaoh took the drastic step of decreeing that all newborn Hebrew boys be thrown into the Nile to drown.
It’s at this juncture that we find Miriam risking her life to save her little brother. Undoubtedly as Miriam lived and worked under this tyrant she learned lessons of faith in preparation for her role in the dramatic events that lay ahead for the children of Israel.
Miriam helped save Moses from a sure death. She courageously defied the Egyptian ruler by placing Moses among the reeds by the river’s edge (Exodus 2:3). Knowing she could face death for her actions, she cautiously watched over him. Waiting for the Egyptian princess, she seized the opportunity when it presented itself.
The princess could easily have rejected Miriam’s offer of Moses’ own mother to nurse the infant. But, in fulfilling God’s plan for Moses, the Egyptian princess welcomed Miriam’s suggestion.
In all this Miriam showed faithfulness, loyalty and poise. Such character would have been commendable if she had been in her 20 or 30s. But she was only 7. Her courage in such trying times, when Hebrew babies were being slaughtered for merely being boys, gives us a glimpse into the kind of woman she was to become. Little wonder she is referred to in Scripture as a faithful servant and prophetess of God!
Accounts of loyalty and faithfulness like Miriam’s were recorded for our sake (Romans 15:4). Her godly characteristics were much in evidence at the moment of Israel’s triumph, on the other shore of the Red Sea. After Israel was delivered from the jaws of death through the parting and closing of the Red Sea, Miriam took her timbrel and, following Moses’ own song, led the women of Israel in musical praise of God for His deliverance (Exodus 15:20-21). It is in the recording of this incident that Moses, the author of the book of Exodus, identified his older sister as a prophetess, the first recorded in the Bible.
Although the Bible shows Miriam did not hold a position equal to that of Moses, she seems to have been viewed as a near equal to Aaron in importance. Exodus 15:20 refers to her as “Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron.” In other scriptures she is mentioned along with Moses, the nation’s leader, and Aaron, its high priest. Although her exact position isn’t known, she was clearly held in high regard by Moses, Aaron and her people.
Scripture gives no indication that Miriam ever lost her attitude of loyalty and faithfulness. However, God in His Word records not only the strengths of His faithful servants, but their flaws, including their errors in judgment. One of Miriam’s actions—specifically her criticism of Moses’ marriage to a woman of whom she disapproved—disclosed what seems to have been hidden resentment. God inspired Moses himself to record the details of her error, which was a serious issue to God.
Envy and excuse
Numbers 12:1 sets the scene for Miriam’s open judgment of Moses: “Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So they said, ‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?’ And the Lord heard it. (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.) Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, ‘Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!’ So the three came out. Then the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward” (Numbers 12:1-5).
“Then He said, ‘Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision, and I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?’ So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them, and He departed” (Numbers 12:5-9, emphasis added throughout).
Miriam and Aaron (who was also older than Moses; Exodus 7:7) apparently chafed at Moses’ preeminent calling and position. Since her name is mentioned first in their speaking against Moses (Numbers 12:1), perhaps Miriam initiated the criticism.
Their indignation over Moses taking a wife outside of Israel provided them the protection and credibility they sought—or so they thought. Miriam was searching for greater credibility; instead, she received the curse of leprosy. She and Aaron failed to acknowledge that it is God who sets up and removes leaders (Daniel 2:21).
God does not take rebellion lightly, especially when it comes from among His people and is directed against His authority. “So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them, and He departed. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow . . .” (Numbers 12:9-10).
Since indications are that she had been the instigator of this criticism leveled at Moses, she apparently was the one singled out for punishment.
Living a lie is bad enough. Teaching wrong ways to God’s people is worse. For example, Jeremiah warned the prophet Hananiah: “This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the Lord’ ” (Jeremiah 28:16). In that case, as with Miriam, God acted decisively against attempts to rebel against Him.
God’s anger and forgiveness
God’s anger was swift but not capricious. Consider this event’s significance against the backdrop of some incredible miracles: God heard Israel’s cries for deliverance. He remembered His promise to Abraham, and He delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 3:7-9). He granted them freedom to worship and obey Him. God performed mighty miracles to free Israel: After the 10 plagues He poured on Egypt, He opened the Red Sea and allowed His people to escape over the dry sea bed. When Pharaoh’s armies attempted to follow Israel, God dramatically buried them under tons of water.
Later, God fed, clothed and protected the Israelites during their wilderness travels for 40 long years, mercifully tolerating their human weaknesses. A careful study of those events can help us better understand Israel’s trying nature and God’s patient mercy for His people.
When Miriam set her hand against Moses, God reacted with justifiable anger. If her rebellious spirit were allowed to spread, rebellious attitudes and actions could affect others among the Israelites, they who were chosen to be a model nation to countries around them (Deuteronomy 4:5-8; 2 Samuel 7:23-24). God immediately inflicted Miriam with the dread disease of leprosy. Miriam was recognized as cursed, rebellious to God. She was exiled for a while from the Israelites’ wilderness camp, a fate worse than death for some.
Aaron immediately cried out for Moses to help Miriam, begging him to ask God for forgiveness and the healing of their sister. All self-importance and presumption quickly vanished when they saw where their unwise actions had led them.
Moses responded quickly to Aaron’s cry. He asked God to heal Miriam; God did. But He would not let the rebellion go unpunished: There was a penalty to be paid, lest others follow in her footsteps.
Even though He healed Miriam, God expressed His displeasure with Miriam’s actions: “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and after that she may be received again” (Numbers 12:14).
The laws of health, hygiene and quarantine God had instituted for the well-being of the people directed that lepers live outside the camp (Leviticus 13:46). God wanted everyone to know that He didn’t take Miriam’s rebellion lightly. Israel remained camped for one week, time enough for this spiritual lesson for Miriam and Israel to sink in (Numbers 12:15). God was as quick to forgive as He was to anger.
The work of a prophetess
Although God inspired Moses to identify Miriam as a prophetess while she lived, she was still highly regarded in Scripture some 700 years after she died. God, speaking through the prophet Micah, reasoned with and chastised a backsliding Israel, reminding them how He had delivered them from Egyptian slavery. The three leaders mentioned who helped in this great deliverance included Miriam.
Micah, knowing how carnal Israel had become, attempted to persuade the Israelites by reminding them of these three courageous national heroes: “And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam” (Micah 6:4). God honored Miriam by acknowledging that He chose her—along with Aaron—to assist Moses in serving His nation Israel. God listed her in such select company because she had set a faithful example for all Israelites in her time and all mankind forever.
Earlier, when Moses identified Miriam as a prophetess, he wrote how she had led the Israelite women in singing that served as a wholehearted answer to Moses’ and Israel’s praise to God. The context of her song (Exodus 15:21) shows that she clearly understood that God and God alone delivered Israel from the Egyptian army.
Miriam led the women in singing and dancing with joy, for God had not just vanquished their enemy, He had done so gloriously! God vindicated Himself (Romans 12:19), delivering His people by drowning their enemies in the Red Sea.
Let’s get a glimpse of the setting, the backdrop of Miriam’s day. Seven years Moses’ senior, Miriam grew up a slave, the daughter of slaves. Assuming Moses was born around 1520 B.C. (Merrill Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary , Moody Press, Chicago, 1988, p. 886), then Miriam was born around 1527 B.C.
Some 160 years earlier, a Hebrew family had fled drought in their homeland and arrived in Egypt as refugees. The patriarch of the family was Jacob, also named Israel. His estranged son Joseph had become chief assistant to the Pharaoh of that time. Under these circumstances the Hebrews were well treated and prospered as shepherds in the Nile delta. After the death of Israel and subsequently his son Joseph, “there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8).
Recognizing how prolifically the Israelites had multiplied, this ruler began to fear the loss of Egyptian control of his own country. He knew too that the Israelites could ally with an enemy against the Egyptians. In an attempt to curb the Hebrew slaves, he pressed them into labor on major construction projects.
For years the Israelites toiled away in service to the Egyptians. But, in spite of the backbreaking work, the Hebrews continued to multiply—so much so that, by Miriam’s day the Pharaoh took the drastic step of decreeing that all newborn Hebrew boys be thrown into the Nile to drown.
It’s at this juncture that we find Miriam risking her life to save her little brother. Undoubtedly as Miriam lived and worked under this tyrant she learned lessons of faith in preparation for her role in the dramatic events that lay ahead for the children of Israel.
Miriam helped save Moses from a sure death. She courageously defied the Egyptian ruler by placing Moses among the reeds by the river’s edge (Exodus 2:3). Knowing she could face death for her actions, she cautiously watched over him. Waiting for the Egyptian princess, she seized the opportunity when it presented itself.
The princess could easily have rejected Miriam’s offer of Moses’ own mother to nurse the infant. But, in fulfilling God’s plan for Moses, the Egyptian princess welcomed Miriam’s suggestion.
In all this Miriam showed faithfulness, loyalty and poise. Such character would have been commendable if she had been in her 20 or 30s. But she was only 7. Her courage in such trying times, when Hebrew babies were being slaughtered for merely being boys, gives us a glimpse into the kind of woman she was to become. Little wonder she is referred to in Scripture as a faithful servant and prophetess of God!
Accounts of loyalty and faithfulness like Miriam’s were recorded for our sake (Romans 15:4). Her godly characteristics were much in evidence at the moment of Israel’s triumph, on the other shore of the Red Sea. After Israel was delivered from the jaws of death through the parting and closing of the Red Sea, Miriam took her timbrel and, following Moses’ own song, led the women of Israel in musical praise of God for His deliverance (Exodus 15:20-21). It is in the recording of this incident that Moses, the author of the book of Exodus, identified his older sister as a prophetess, the first recorded in the Bible.
Although the Bible shows Miriam did not hold a position equal to that of Moses, she seems to have been viewed as a near equal to Aaron in importance. Exodus 15:20 refers to her as “Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron.” In other scriptures she is mentioned along with Moses, the nation’s leader, and Aaron, its high priest. Although her exact position isn’t known, she was clearly held in high regard by Moses, Aaron and her people.
Scripture gives no indication that Miriam ever lost her attitude of loyalty and faithfulness. However, God in His Word records not only the strengths of His faithful servants, but their flaws, including their errors in judgment. One of Miriam’s actions—specifically her criticism of Moses’ marriage to a woman of whom she disapproved—disclosed what seems to have been hidden resentment. God inspired Moses himself to record the details of her error, which was a serious issue to God.
Envy and excuse
Numbers 12:1 sets the scene for Miriam’s open judgment of Moses: “Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So they said, ‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?’ And the Lord heard it. (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.) Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, ‘Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!’ So the three came out. Then the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward” (Numbers 12:1-5).
“Then He said, ‘Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision, and I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?’ So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them, and He departed” (Numbers 12:5-9, emphasis added throughout).
Miriam and Aaron (who was also older than Moses; Exodus 7:7) apparently chafed at Moses’ preeminent calling and position. Since her name is mentioned first in their speaking against Moses (Numbers 12:1), perhaps Miriam initiated the criticism.
Their indignation over Moses taking a wife outside of Israel provided them the protection and credibility they sought—or so they thought. Miriam was searching for greater credibility; instead, she received the curse of leprosy. She and Aaron failed to acknowledge that it is God who sets up and removes leaders (Daniel 2:21).
God does not take rebellion lightly, especially when it comes from among His people and is directed against His authority. “So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them, and He departed. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow . . .” (Numbers 12:9-10).
Since indications are that she had been the instigator of this criticism leveled at Moses, she apparently was the one singled out for punishment.
Living a lie is bad enough. Teaching wrong ways to God’s people is worse. For example, Jeremiah warned the prophet Hananiah: “This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the Lord’ ” (Jeremiah 28:16). In that case, as with Miriam, God acted decisively against attempts to rebel against Him.
God’s anger and forgiveness
God’s anger was swift but not capricious. Consider this event’s significance against the backdrop of some incredible miracles: God heard Israel’s cries for deliverance. He remembered His promise to Abraham, and He delivered the Israelites from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 3:7-9). He granted them freedom to worship and obey Him. God performed mighty miracles to free Israel: After the 10 plagues He poured on Egypt, He opened the Red Sea and allowed His people to escape over the dry sea bed. When Pharaoh’s armies attempted to follow Israel, God dramatically buried them under tons of water.
Later, God fed, clothed and protected the Israelites during their wilderness travels for 40 long years, mercifully tolerating their human weaknesses. A careful study of those events can help us better understand Israel’s trying nature and God’s patient mercy for His people.
When Miriam set her hand against Moses, God reacted with justifiable anger. If her rebellious spirit were allowed to spread, rebellious attitudes and actions could affect others among the Israelites, they who were chosen to be a model nation to countries around them (Deuteronomy 4:5-8; 2 Samuel 7:23-24). God immediately inflicted Miriam with the dread disease of leprosy. Miriam was recognized as cursed, rebellious to God. She was exiled for a while from the Israelites’ wilderness camp, a fate worse than death for some.
Aaron immediately cried out for Moses to help Miriam, begging him to ask God for forgiveness and the healing of their sister. All self-importance and presumption quickly vanished when they saw where their unwise actions had led them.
Moses responded quickly to Aaron’s cry. He asked God to heal Miriam; God did. But He would not let the rebellion go unpunished: There was a penalty to be paid, lest others follow in her footsteps.
Even though He healed Miriam, God expressed His displeasure with Miriam’s actions: “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and after that she may be received again” (Numbers 12:14).
The laws of health, hygiene and quarantine God had instituted for the well-being of the people directed that lepers live outside the camp (Leviticus 13:46). God wanted everyone to know that He didn’t take Miriam’s rebellion lightly. Israel remained camped for one week, time enough for this spiritual lesson for Miriam and Israel to sink in (Numbers 12:15). God was as quick to forgive as He was to anger.
The work of a prophetess
Although God inspired Moses to identify Miriam as a prophetess while she lived, she was still highly regarded in Scripture some 700 years after she died. God, speaking through the prophet Micah, reasoned with and chastised a backsliding Israel, reminding them how He had delivered them from Egyptian slavery. The three leaders mentioned who helped in this great deliverance included Miriam.
Micah, knowing how carnal Israel had become, attempted to persuade the Israelites by reminding them of these three courageous national heroes: “And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam” (Micah 6:4). God honored Miriam by acknowledging that He chose her—along with Aaron—to assist Moses in serving His nation Israel. God listed her in such select company because she had set a faithful example for all Israelites in her time and all mankind forever.
Earlier, when Moses identified Miriam as a prophetess, he wrote how she had led the Israelite women in singing that served as a wholehearted answer to Moses’ and Israel’s praise to God. The context of her song (Exodus 15:21) shows that she clearly understood that God and God alone delivered Israel from the Egyptian army.
Miriam led the women in singing and dancing with joy, for God had not just vanquished their enemy, He had done so gloriously! God vindicated Himself (Romans 12:19), delivering His people by drowning their enemies in the Red Sea.
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Friday, August 18, 2017
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