Chapter 25—Miriam
After Moses had told the Lord that he was unable to bear the burden
of the people alone, and God had directed him to choose seventy of
the elders, and he had put the same spirit upon them which was upon
Moses, Aaron and Miriam were jealous because they had not been
consulted in the matter. They had not felt reconciled to the act of
Moses in so readily receiving the counsel of Jethro, his father-in-law.
They feared that he had more influence over Moses than they had. And
now, seventy elders had been chosen without their being consulted, and
as they had never themselves felt the responsibility and burdens which
Moses had borne for the people, they did not see any real necessity for
the help of the seventy elders. “And they said, Hath the Lord indeed
spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord
heard it.”
Aaron and Miriam thought that as they had been chosen to aid
Moses in the work, that they bore the burden of the work as well as
Moses. And as the Lord had spoken by them, as well as by Moses,
why should he complain of such heavy burdens as to need seventy of
the judges and elders appointed to the work of aiding him. Moses felt
his weakness. He felt the great work committed to him, as no other
man had ever felt. Aaron had shown his weakness by yielding to the
people, and making a molten calf in the absence of Moses. God had
ever been Moses’ counselor.
As Miriam became jealous of Moses, she was disposed to find fault
with the events of his life which God had especially over-ruled. She
complained of Moses because he married an Ethiopian woman, instead
of taking a wife from among the Hebrews. The wife of Moses was
not black, but her complexion was some darker than the Hebrews. She
was of a timid disposition, tender-hearted, and was greatly affected to
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witness suffering. This was the reason that Moses consented to have
her return to Midian, while he was in Egypt, that she might not witness
the terrific plagues which the Lord was to bring upon Egypt. After
she met her husband in the wilderness, she saw that his burdens and
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