Let's turn again tonight, please, to the book of numbers. I think the announcement of my subject tonight has revealed two things. One is that our sisters have very sensitive consciences. And secondly, I think that they, it reveals that they have imagination. I have heard quite a number of remarks that I was going to speak tonight on the wicked tongue of women. Now that's purely imagination. But I think that that reveals something about the conscience. You know, what I announced was I was going to speak on the power of a woman's tongue. And that power can be used in many ways when it has been. One of the very finest and wisest things you'll read in your Bible was spoken by a woman. John chapter 2, we have our Lord's mother saying, whatsoever he sat unto you do it. Now that's a good watchword for your entire life. Mary used her tongue in a very wise way at that time, and many others did. But we are going to read tonight in Numbers chapter 12. Numbers chapter 12, reading from verse what? And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. For he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Have the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Have he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and unto Miriam, come out ye three, unto the tabernacle of the congregation. They three came out. And the Lord came down in the pillar of cloud, and stood at the door, in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words. there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitudes of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were he not afraid to speak against my servant Moses. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, And wherein we have sinned, let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days, let her be shut out from the camp seven days. And after that, let her be received in again. And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days, and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. And afterward, the people removed from Hazaroth and pitched in the wilderness of Perak. Now, had we read the last verse of the previous chapter, we would have been reminded again that the children of Israel had moved on to their next encampment. was in chapter 11, and there they were at the place that was called Kibroff Hattava, the graves of them that lost them. And now they move on from that place to Hazaroth. I've indicated that by adding some more to our red line, which is slowly moving on toward Canaan. I might just say that in our next move, we will go all the way to Kadesh Barnea. So I would suggest that you read the following chapters. There's a tremendous lot to be learned at Kedish Barnea, and we'd like to cover as much of that as possible. I might say that I believe the journeys of the children of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, while we have noticed some very interesting incidents all along the way, of the encampments are not even mentioned in the book of Exodus, nor in these early chapters of Numbers. You get the complete list in number 33. And we'll find that there are quite a number of places they encamp that between where we're studying tonight and Kadesh Barnea. But nothing is said about them, apparently. Nothing unusual happened. The Spirit of God seems have selected these places that are recorded in Exodus and the opening chapters of Numbers because something of real importance occurred at each place. Now, while all along the way, as we've been saying, there were valuable lessons for them to learn and for us to learn through them. The more you look at it, there were four crises in this journey. The first one was, of course, when they were delivered from Egypt, brought through the Red Sea out into the wilderness. That was a real crisis of redemption. Then we saw them lingering at the command of God for one year at Sinai. That was the next crisis. There they were to learn many lessons before they moved on. We didn't have time to look at all of those. The next great crisis is at Kadesh Parnia, and there are some very, very solemn lessons for us to learn through the experiences of Israel at Kadesh Parnia. The fourth and last crisis was at the River Jordan, when they passed from the wilderness to the Jordan into the promised land of Canaan. But now, we are going to look a little tonight from this fourth chapter at this woman, Miriam, Now, she is one of the great women, I believe, of the Old Testament. There isn't too much said about her. We read of her, so far as I know, only on four occasions. Now, there are one or two other references to her. But we read of her down in Egypt at the time when Moses was born. You remember, she must have been just a young girl then. Apparently, she was Moses. older sister, because she was sent by the mother to watch over that little ark in which her baby brother Moses had been placed, and she did that. And when the princess sent for that ark, and when it was opened, Miriam was right there on the spot. She was a very careful baby tender, and she was ready to say the right thing. No doubt the Lord put in her heart, but nevertheless, looking at it from a human standpoint, here's the young girl. Now she later becomes a prophetess, but she wasn't a prophetess when she was down there looking after the baby. And I believe once again we're reminded of the lesson that we can never begin to serve too young. And if we do what we can and what we should when we're young, God will give us something more to do when we get older. But I believe if Miriam had failed in looking after her little brother there at the River Nile, I doubt if she'd ever become the woman that she was. And so she does what she could. Now you young folks, do what you can by the Lord, and do it as unto the Lord, do it faithfully and heartily to the Lord, and the Lord, seeing that faithfulness will enlarge your sphere of service. But if you're unfaithful, if you're careless, if you just get occupied with everything else, you may miss the opportunity later of being an honored servant of the Lord, whether you are at the present time a boy or a girl, a young fellow, or a young girl. Do what you can now. Do it unto the Lord. it faithfully. There she is looking after her little brother. And when the ark is opened, and the princess sees the baby there, Miriam is ready, she seizes the opportunity, and she says, shall I go and get a nurse for him? And you know who she got? Naturally, she got her mother and Moses' mother. Now there was a young girl seizing an opportunity that she had, and think of what came out of us. We know God was overruled, but on the other hand, just think what could have taken place in relation to Moses, what she's faithful there. Now the next time you meet Miriam, it's at the Red Sea, and you remember after God through the Red Sea as we study in Chapter 14, well, the Book of Exodus. In Chapter 15, they are singing the praises of the Lord. And Miriam, who is now spoken of as a prophetess, one of the five prophetesses in the Old Testament, now this one who had been faithful as a young girl, she's a prophetess, and she's leading the praises of the women. Apparently they sang responsibly that day on the banks of the Red Sea, and the leader of the Israelites' women was Miriam the prophetess. If you compare what is said there, they were singing the very same as the man were. So they were singing antiphonally, no doubt. But there she is now. She who had used her tongue wisely in the case of her little brother. Now she's using her tongue in freezing the Lord. Now, if we had gone on to Chapter 20 of the Book of Numbers, we would have read of her death and burial. Now, so far as I know, there are only five women in the New Testament referred to. There was one other, and they were sent out to bury her, and when they got there, there was nothing to bury. You remember about Jezebel. But so far as I know, there were just five women in the Old Testament whose burial is referred to, and Miriam is one of them. But now here, and that's the background for our study, now here is one who is referred to in the little book of Micah, chapter 6 and verse 4, I believe it is. God speaks about having given to Israel Moses and Aaron and Miriam, and so she's one of the three who God gave as leaders in Israel. She's not leading the congregation. She's leading the women. And she's a real sphere of influence. Now, it's instructive and it's warning to us that each one of these, grateful they were, and given by God to Israel, each one of them failed. We don't like to dwell on the failures of these great ones because we're of conscience of our own. But nevertheless, they're recorded in Scripture that we might learn from them and take warning. Moses, great man though he was, one the greatest man that has ever lived, we can say without fear of contradiction, Moses failed in connection with his temper. You remember that? And it cost him the land of Canaan. Now Aaron failed in to his timidity, he seems to have been one of those spineless characters that just couldn't take a stand. One of the things we didn't study at Mount Sinai was the making of the golden calf. Had we done that, we would have seen this man Aaron, instead of standing up boldly as his brother Moses did, he yields to the request. request of the people, and in a timid way, he just gives in to their desire, and he makes the golden cast. But now this woman, these two have failed, one through his temper, the other through his timidity, and Miriam now fails in relation to her talking. She who had taught so well as a little girl, down there by the river Nile, she who had talked so well at the Red Sea, using her tongue to sing the praises of the Lord, now she's using her tongue in speaking against her brother. How they should warn us, if these three great individuals fail, how we need to be in our garden, and we see what caused them to fail, how we should watch those things. As I read this chapter, to me it's a very emotional chapter, and I find varied emotions stirring up in my mind and heart as I read it. The first emotion that I experience as I read this chapter is surprise. I'm surprised at the people involved. Because I see God moving in and dealing with this, I'm solemnized at the punishment that was inflicted because of what took place here. And when I come to the end of the chapter, I'm saddened that the progress of God's people was impeded by one who should have been their leader. We're not surprised back in Chapter 11 when we read of the murmuring there. You remember where it began? The mixed multitude. Now, we're not surprised at that, are we? We're not surprised that the unsaved and that religious professors murmur against God and his dealings. We're not surprised at that. not surprised when they stir up trouble amongst the people of God. It's to be expected. But here the surprise is Moses' own sister and brother speaking against him. And yet the word of God warns us that that will very often be the case. Our Lord, you remember, said, as you But in, I believe it's Matthew chapter 10, remember he said, a man's foe shall be they of his own household. Now some of you know what that means. Some of you, when you got saved, had to take your stand against your own family. My own mother, as a young girl in her teens, reared in a religious Methodist home, had to make her stand all by herself when she got saved and was baptized. And many another one has found that when they were saved and took their stand for God, their own family became almost bitter enemies of them. But even though we're warned against it, it's not easy to take, is it? When you're relatives, your friends, those whom you may have assisted are the ones who criticize and turn against you. It's hard to take, isn't it? The psalmist said in Psalm 41, My known familiar friend, in whom I trusted, that the deed of my bread had lifted up his heel against me. That's what you have here. surely it must have cut Moses to the cliff when Miriam and Aaron spoke against him. Now I would gather, I think I'm safe in this, that because Miriam has spoken of first here and because she's the one who was punished later, that she took the lead here. What a tragedy. That she took the lead in singing the praise of the Lord at the Red Sea is taking the lead now in speaking evil against her brother. She led the Lord's people then, the women, to sing the praises of God. She's leading her own brother now, a poor weakling who goes along with whatever way the tide is running, and she's leading him now in this criticism of Moses. I think in verse 1, we have not so much what they said, but their excuse for doing it. Now I've read this passage over quite a few times, and here's the way it appears to me. You'll notice it said, Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And yet in verse 2, where it tells us what they said, it doesn't say a thing about his wife. That was just the excuse. Now there are those who think that this is the Zipporah, the daughter of the priest. of Midian that Moses married, when you remember, he fled from Egypt and lived in Midian. There are those who believe it so, but I doubt it seriously. That had been a long time before this, and this one is spoken of twice as an Ethiopian woman, a Cushite, actually. Now, I see no way that you can reconcile Midian with Ethiopia. One is on one side of the Dead Sea, and the other is on the other side of the Red Sea. And it does not seem to me that this could be going back some years. Nothing's been said about up until now. And I seriously doubt whether this is the Torah at all. Apparently she had died. And he marries an Ethiopian woman. And the Spirit of God is careful to tell us twice she was an Ethiopian. Now, why a man like Moses married outside of Israel twice? I don't know. I don't know. You can see a little excuse maybe for the first time. Personally, I see no excuse for the second time. But that's between him and the Lord. I'm not going to follow Miriam and use that as an excuse for criticizing him. But on the other hand, did you ever stop think. Moses had two sons by Zephora, and you never read of them as developing into anything in the nation of Israel. Now, wouldn't you expect that the sons of a great man like Moses would have had some notice that would have amounted to something? You never read them after you read of their mother bringing them to the camp out there in the wilderness you never read again so far as I know my Bible of Moses two sons and yet Eliezer I mean Aaron who wasn't half the man that Moses was his son became the high priest after him I believe it's a lesson for us to learn that as I say I don't understand what Why? Having first of all married a Midnight, out here in the desert, he should again marry outside of the nation of Israel. I don't understand that. But I think it just underscores what we're told in the book of Job, great men are not always wise. And just because a great man, just because a leader amongst the people of God does a thing, that doesn't mean it's right. And that doesn't mean we should follow them. Now, there have been, down through the years, there have been a good many Christian men have excused their smoking on the ground that C.H. Spurgeon smoked cigars. Now, whether he did or not, I was never around there. If they smelled anything like the one that was at the table next to us in the restaurant tonight, well, that's enough almost to bring about a separation. But whether Virgin smoked cigars, I don't know. They say he did. I don't remember. But if he did, that's no excuse for me smoking them, you see, because Moses married me the There's no excuse for me marrying the Ethiopian, how much danger of it. But it wouldn't be an excuse for me at all, you see. God has put these things on the pages of His Word that we might learn by them. You can't follow the greatest of man. You've got to keep your eyes on the Lord. But it looks to me as though this is just an excuse for what was really needed. Evelyn, Miriam, and Aaron. And isn't that true to life? So often people who want to criticize, they want to do a little picking. They look around for some excuse. They look at the person they want to criticize, and they find something about them that they think they can use as a smokescreen. They're not interested in that at all. What they want to do is behind that smokescreen, they want to get a dig at the individual, whoever it is. That's what I believe took place here. I don't think Miriam was so much concerned about this Ethiopian woman. What she was concerned about comes out in verse 2, and that is envy and pride. And And so you don't have her saying anything about these young women, but she does say, hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses, hath he not spoken also by us? Is Moses the only one that has the message of God? What about Aaron and me, says Miriam, he is a deadly cancer of envy, that which causes so much trouble amongst the people of God envying someone whom God is using. What a foolish thing that is. Paul rightly says, what have we that we've not received? Now the man's a great evangelist and is using God and winning thousands of souls to Christ. That's not to his credit. gift and God is using them. If a man or a woman is being used of God in an outstanding way, that's no reason whatsoever for you or me to be jealous of them or to be envious of them. God is sovereign. God picks up a man and uses him to his glory to get a job done that he wants done. My wife and I were listening today to the memorial record that we received of the late Charles Fuller and the old-fashioned revival hour, and it's a lovely thing. If you can get one, be sure and get one. It just brought tears to both of our eyes. It recalled many happy memories. You know, people who didn't live back in those days think everything's happening today. Young folks, you don't know half of them. You don't know half of us. Now I said to someone a while ago, I think the young people of my generation were just as good Christians as the ones today. And her eyes flew open like saucers. She said, do you really think so? I said, I certainly do. I said, the only thing is we didn't get half the publicity. a few tracks today, they almost get their name across the banner page of a Christian magazine. I have a brother-in-law who earned his living as a barber. And all day Saturday, a long day, he stood on his feet barbering, and every Sunday morning he got up early before the Lord suffered, and he covered my home city, every house in that city by himself, recon. Every house he went to and put a tract in all by himself. He didn't have to organize a big band and say, now, we'll do it this way and we'll get this printed and we'll have a banner and we'll march down where the tract distributors. He just went and did it. You know the best way to do the work of the Lord is? Do it. Just do it. And we spent half the time that we spend in our planning and publicity and that in doing things when we get something done. And he used to run my brother-in-law away from the front door and he'd slip around the back and put it under the back door. Now I like some backbone like that. That was what made him an outstanding athlete when he was a young fellow. But when God saved him, he used those same tactics for the work of God. And as I listened to Charles to those thousands there in Long Beach, California, as we listen again to the recording, and as we thought of a million, literally millions around the world who heard the gospel. Now Charles E. Fuller's greatest admirer would never call him an orator. He wasn't an orator, and he wasn't a Bible teacher. sincere gospel preacher who just said it and said it the way it should be said. There weren't any frills or fancies about it, and I believe they got saved by the thousands. Now, you don't envy a man like Charles Phillips. You thank God for him. And that was the trouble of Miriam. He had her place, and she should have stayed in it. And therein had his place, stays in there. And Moses at his place, and God put him there. So I'm surprised. I could say much more about that, but I want to move on. I say, Ablish is the leader in this. How tragic. We have not time, but you remember what James said, that does a fountain send for sweet and bitter water at the same opening? That's what was happening here. She who sang so sweetly at the Red Sea is criticizing so wickedly right here, the same tongue. There's nothing wrong with the tongue. It's the way we use it. And how we should see to it that we don't sing the praises of the Lord on Sunday morning and then talk about God's people the rest of the week. Remember, you can't say anything against a child of God without using the same tongue that you use to quote his word or sing his praises. God gave you one tongue. He knew we could use two ears to hear it. But what would have happened if the Lord had given all of us two tongues? The one we've got gets us into a not trouble as said. And with one tongue, he put up behind two barriers. He put an ivory wall in front of us, and then he put another wall of flesh and blood in front of that, and in spite of that, the tongue gets out of it, and does a whole lot of work that it shouldn't do. But it can do an awful lot that's good. What would be without our tongue? Would you like to be able not to sing the praises of God, not to be able to speak of the Lord Jesus? Thank God for our tongues, whether we're brethren and sisters, let's use them in the right way. I'm not only surprised at the people who are involved in this, but I'm also solemnized when I see the punishment inflicted. Now we'd expect an adulterer to be punished, and they should be. We'd expect a murderer to be punished. But now here, it says the Lord heard it I think that's very strange right there the Spirit of God leads Moses to interject this he wrote this verse 3 and by inspiration but he's led to write that he is the meekest man in all the earth why is it put in there because he didn't retaliate at all wouldn't you be expecting a man like Moses. Now, Moses was a real man. We've seen him standing up to Pharaoh, and not very many men could do that. We have seen him manifesting on every occasion necessary a real courage and ability to stand up and rebuke. But he doesn't say a word, doesn't retaliate. Wouldn't have been so easy for him to say, Miriam? Will you keep in your place, please? Aaron, your business is the high priest. You tend to that. But he doesn't say a thing. And as a result, the Lord takes over. I think sometimes in defending ourselves, we just rush ahead of the Lord. The Lord says, all right, if you want to handle it, go ahead and handle it. I was going to do it for you. But if you think you can do it, just go ahead and do it. But if we can just learn from Moses, and let him handle it, how much better the Lord did it here. He calls the three of them out, and he rebukes them. We haven't time to look here, but you'll see what a unique man Moses was. He's one that God didn't speak to him in visions and dreams like the other prophets. He spoke mouth to mouth. That is, there was direct communication from God to Moses. And he said, My similitude shall he see. He couldn't see God himself, but he saw the similitude of God. And we read that solemn word in verse 9, the anger of the Lord was kindled against him, and he departed. And when he left, Aaron turned and looked at his as white as a sheep. She's a leprosy from head to foot. I say, I'm solemnized as I think of this. Speaking against her brother, and she became one of the three individuals of the Old Testament that were stricken with leprosy. There was a man by the name of Gehazai, and he allowed his covetousness to get the better of him and as it were he made merchandise of the things of God and God smote him and he became a leper there was a king by the name of Azaz or Azazah sometimes and he presumed to go in where God had said only the priest could go and to for his presumption he was smitten with leprosy. And this woman is smitten with leprosy because of her evil speaking against the servant of the Lord. What a lesson for us to learn. Brethren and sisters, let's watch our comments. Things that may not seem important to us may seem very much so to the Lord. That's what I learned from this passage, and I say I'm solemnized as I think of what happened this woman. You might say all that she did was just criticize her brother. Well, now you see what the Lord taught her. And Aaron sees her, and immediately he confesses his sins to Moses, and immediately he asks And here you have the greatness of this man, Moses, coming out. The man had been criticized, the man had been slandered, the man had been envied, the man had been evil, spoken of. What does he say? Well, she brought down herself. Let her get better. If God smitten her, that's nothing, that has nothing to do with me. Oh, no. You find, although he doesn't say a word in defense of himself, he does plead with God for her. and God forgives her. God forgives her. But while she is healed of her leprosy, else she would have remained a leopard the day of her death, as does I do. While she's forgiven and healed, yet she's disciplined. You see, we must learn that. God forgives when we confess. mean that we're not going to reach some of the results of our sin. We need to remember that. I used to tell the children when I had children's meaning. I used to tell them about the little boy. His father told him that every time he did something wrong, he was going to drive a nail into a boy. And when he did something right to make up for what he'd done he'd pull the nail out. Well, it wasn't too long until quite a few nails got on that board. And the little fellow went to work real hard. And he really behaved himself, and after, while all the nails were out. And the little fellow was crying. And his daddy said, well, what's the matter, son? All the nails are gone. Yes, he said, but look at the holes. That's it. That's it. Brethren, sisters, sometimes the whole stays there for a long time. God will forgive us, but there may be a price to pay. And this woman has to stay outside the camp, unclean, out of fellowship, shut out from the privileges and fellowship of the camp for seven days. to fail, for letting her tongue run loose. But I'm saddened as I read verse 15. The latter part of the verse says, And the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. Here's a woman's tongue, and it does what Pharaoh and all the chariots of Egypt couldn't do. Remember, Pharaoh and his church, they tried to stop Israel. They couldn't do it. The Amuletites, you remember, came out, fought against Israel to stop them. They couldn't do it. When we go on a little further, we'll find the Midianites trying to stop Israel. They can't do it. When we get to Canaan, we'll find the Canaanites trying to stop Israel. They can't do it. one woman's tongue did what all these armies couldn't do, stopped the progress of God's people for seven days. Now this doesn't apply to just Miriam long ago. It doesn't just apply to women. It applies to every one of us. You and I can hinder the progress of God and God's people if we allow our tongue to get away from it. Let us learn there's so much in that and give the God-given ability of speech to the glory of God. That's why there's so much said in our Bible about this one. So much that we might well think of at this time, but I leave it with you. God help us. Not to hold up the work of God, not to impede the progress of God's people by evil speaking against any of God's people, shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we pray that the solemn blessings of this chapter may be engraved upon the heart of each one of us here tonight. brothers, brothers and sisters, young... you