Numbers 12:5

3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)

4 ^aSuddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!” So the three came out.

5 ^aThen 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.

6 Then He said,
“Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, make Myself known to him ^ain a vision;
I speak to him ^bin a dream.

7 Not so with ^aMy servant Moses;
^bHe is faithful in all ^cMy house.

8 I speak with him ^aface to face,
Even ^bplainly, and not in dark sayings;
And he sees ^cthe form of the Lord.
Why then ^dwere you not afraid
To speak against My servant Moses?”

9 So the anger of the Lord was aroused against them, and He departed.

10 And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, ^asuddenly Miriam became ^bleprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper.

11 So Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord! Please ^ado not lay this sin on us, in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned.

12 Please ^ado not let her be as one dead, whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother’s womb!”

13 So Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “Please ^aheal her, O God, I pray!”

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but ^aspit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be ^bshut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received again.”

15 ^aSo Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was brought in again.

16 And afterward the people moved from ^aHazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.

Commentaries:

Forerunner Commentary
What is the Forerunner Commentary?

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What Does Numbers 12:5 Mean?

Numbers 12:5-9

They were very severely rebuked for challenging the authority or the office of Moses because they were tempting God by doing it. They were in effect saying, "God can't control Moses. He's off doing his own thing." They were really calling God into account for what Moses was doing, which they thought was wrong. Nevertheless, Moses was still the one that God was working through.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Unity (Part 2): God's Pattern of Leadership

Numbers 12:4-9

How would we like to be accused as Moses was, then witness God Himself make a dramatic entrance and hear His voice boom out in poetry in our defense, saying that we are without peer amongst all the people? God says to Moses, "There is no one like you." He was without peer among the holy. That is pretty impressive! It has not happened very often in mankind's history.

But, on the other hand, there has only been one Moses. There were a number of ordinary prophets, who had to be content with visions and dreams, but God spoke to Moses personally. Moses was in a class by himself. Nobody on earth was more intimate with God than Moses, and, as a result, Moses was entrusted with God's estate. And Hebrews 3:2 comments, "Moses also was faithful in all His house."

"All His house" is a figure of speech, indicating that "house" is put for itself (that is, the building) and everything in it. What is normally in a house is a family. Moses, then, was faithful—he was without peer—in all of God's Household, God's Family.

Nobody was faithful like Moses was faithful, therefore he could interpret God's will to Israel with full authority. God backed His prophet up, saying that Miriam and Aaron were completely out of line. This is why He says, "Why were you not afraid to speak against [or, accuse] My servant Moses?"

It is clear what set Moses apart from others: He was faithful. This can be seen when he is contrasted to the rest of Israel, the very people that he was leading, who comprised God's Family at that time. They were anything but faithful! In fact, the reason that the Israelites failed was because of their lack of faith. And without faith, of course, one cannot be faithful.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction and Moses

Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Numbers 12:5:

Matthew 7:1-2

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What Does Numbers 12:5 Mean?

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