“When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal my self 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.” (Numbers 12:6-8)
Moses had overcome all of his fears and stood in the presence of Pharoah leading his people out of Egypt. God forged him into a leader in his eighty year life. Often paitenance and humility are not characteristics I hear associated with Moses. However, in Numbers 11 -12 those exact qualities shine bright.
The scene begins with the a contingent of the Israelites causing an uproar about all the lovely things they had to eat in Egypt, but no longer had. Moses comes to the LORD who provides quail. Up until this point Moses has had to deal with several situations of his people complaining againist him or God. This continues to be a pattern.
Kick him while he is down. Immediately following in Numbers 12 two people begin to talk bad about Moses’ wife. Really these two are wanting to call into question Moses’ authority to be the mouthpiece of the LORD to the people. Who were these backstabbers? Aaron and Miriam the brother and sister of Moses. The LORD descends on the tent of meeting and calls these three to a meeting. Miriam was struck with leporsy for her actions.
Throughout this ordeal Moses remained humble. He did not try to prove himself but rather the LORD defended Moses. This scene wraps up with Moses pleading with the LORD to heal Miriam. The way Moses handled this situation becomes a pattern.
The complaints of Moses people grow into all out rebellion. There is even talk around camp of stoning Moses, Aaron, Caleb, and Joshua. Once again Moses does not retatliate instead he goes before the LORD. Once again the LORD promises to bring punishment for their rebellion. Moses requests the LORD to pardon the Israelites again for their sins.
I have always found Moses to be a hard Biblical person to emulate. I do not visit with God in a cloud or been gifted with miraculous signs. Moses is in charges of many people and has an amazing relationship with God. In some ways he is a superman like character. In reading Numbers this time I have been able to see him as a man.
So what do I take away it is a humility that forces Moses to the LORD for everything. A humility that waits on the LORD. Moses humility could easily err on the side of lack of confidence especially in his earlier years. This proved to be one of his greatest strengths as he was able to walk with the LORD through out his entire term of leadership.