Renouncing The Spirit Of Miriam.

“Do we think that we would really let ourselves be taken captive a second time by this 'In the name of God, Amen?' That we would let it really determine all our actions, that we, you and I, rich and poor, German and French, would let ourselves be bound together by this name of God? Or is there not really, hidden behind our religious tendencies, our irrepressible craving for freedom and our own will—to do in the name of God what we want, in the name of the Christian worldview to play off one nationality against another and stir them up to conflict with one another? And only now does it fall like scales from our eyes; only now are we overcome by the certainty of the monstrous fact—that we are fleeing from God.” (from the sermon Risen with Christ, 1932, Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Miriam.

As Pastor Sam shared with us this past Sunday (Lessons for a Holy People: Miriam), Miriam was the beneficiary of profound blessings and insights from God. When she asked, “Has God spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t He spoken through us too?” (Numbers 12:2), she made a valid point. God had spoken through her.

It was the child Miriam who, after Moses’s ‘baby rescue’ basket was pulled from the Nile, took the rescue a step further and spoke with Pharaoh’s daughter—the dialogue that returned Moses back to his biological mother, with a stipend attached.

It was the adult Miriam who, some eighty years later, added a rousing chorus to Moses’s great hymn of deliverance—the chorus that moved the people of ancient Israel to dance and sing the praises of God.

There is no doubt that Miriam spoke (and sang) some words that were prompted by the Spirit of God.

But, our Lord found some things planted in Miriam’s heart that wiped out her earlier commendations. Prejudice. Slander. Gossip. Jealousy. And our dear sister in the faith, even Moses’s biological sister, with her accurate prophetic words and awesome spiritual songs, suffered in her body for her sin. There is the possibility that holy people can, as Bonhoeffer said some eighty years ago (and as our pastor has said for the past two Sundays), “flee from God.” We have been warned, again.

God was gracious: Miriam’s suffering was only for seven days. And His grace extends to us now: we have the chance to simply be readers of this story. We don’t have to re-live it ourselves.

Lord, our public and private life has always been one and the same to You. Lord, show us and show the community what You see! Purge us! Forgive us! Restore us, that we might move forward! In the name of God, Amen.

Miriam. And me. And you.