Who is the Cushite (northeastern African) woman Moses has
married? We don't see where Moses has
married two wives but there has been much rabbinic debate as to whether or not
Zipporah, his wife, the mother of his children, was not a Cushite as Midianites
tended to be darker skinned. Recall that
there was some period of time when she was not with Moses and the rest of the
Israelites, her father brought her and the two boys to the mountain in Exodus
18, the same mountain where Moses had his experience with the burning bush
while tending Jethro's flocks. Moses'
brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, now bring a grievance against him for his
marriage to this foreign woman. In addition,
they challenge his leadership in that God has spoken to them as well. They are both older than he. Boys were ordered to be murdered by Pharaoh
and Moses was saved, as we know. Aaron
must then have been already living by the time of the edict and Miriam makes an
appearance, though not named, in Exodus 2.4 watching on the river bank to see
what would become of Moses after his mother put him in the basket in the
river. The Lord says that He has spoken
to them but not as He speaks to Moses, face to face, not in dreams and visions,
he is the chosen leader of the people. For
their actions this day, Miriam becomes leprous as a sign of God's choosing
Moses not her. Perhaps she had been the
instigator in this rebellion rather than Aaron. Coming against God's anointed is never a good
idea.
Jesus' mission is to go and find the lost sheep, and
describes the Father's joy over finding the lost one. Do we not do the same with lost
valuables? How do we then transfer that
idea to those who we know and love who are lost sheep? The teaching on sins against brothers
contrasts with the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 when Jesus
says that when a wicked man strikes you or when outsiders treat you wrongly you
are to allow yourself to suffer such indignities and sins against you without
complaining but by going above and beyond their demands. In the case of sin in the body, a different
approach is counseled. Confronting the
sin is important for the growth of the one who sins, they are held accountable
to the demands of the Gospel, the demand to love one another. No excuses are made, all are held to the same
standard of love. The confrontation,
then, must also be in love. We need that
accountability in order to grow in Christ-likeness and out of hypocrisy.
Who is the one justified?
The doers of the law. We must not
be two-faced people, holding ourselves out to be Christians while living as
pagans. Paul seems to argue that even those
who do not know the law have some measure of the Spirit via the conscience that
either accuses or excuses their conduct, all are accountable to conscience and
all are then equally guilty of transgressing the law of God whether they know
it by conscience or by teaching, there are none whose consciences are
completely clear. Paul's harshest words
are for the Jews, particularly those who hold themselves out as expert in the
law who themselves transgress. No one
can stand blameless before the judgment seat, all are guilty, Jew and Gentile
alike. We who know the Lord and know His
commandments to love God and neighbor as self, know more acutely our guilt because
we have no doubt what constitutes sin. Repentance
is necessary and fruitful because it is the occasion for grace in our lives.
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