From Sinai to Kadesh
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“The Lord smote the people with a very great plague.” Large numbers
were cut down by burning fevers, while the most guilty among them
were smitten as soon as they tasted the food for which they had lusted.
At Hazeroth, the next encampment after leaving Taberah, a still
more bitter trial awaited Moses. Aaron and Miriam had occupied a
position of high honor and leadership in Israel. Both were endowed
with the prophetic gift, and both had been divinely associated with
Moses in the deliverance of the Hebrews. “I sent before thee Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam” (
Micah 6:4
), are the words of the Lord by the
prophet Micah. Miriam’s force of character had been early displayed
when as a child she watched beside the Nile the little basket in which
was hidden the infant Moses. Her self-control and tact God had made
instrumental in preserving the deliverer of His people. Richly endowed
with the gifts of poetry and music, Miriam had led the women of Israel
in song and dance on the shore of the Red Sea. In the affections of the
people and the honor of Heaven she stood second only to Moses and
Aaron. But the same evil that first brought discord in heaven sprang
up in the heart of this woman of Israel, and she did not fail to find a
sympathizer in her dissatisfaction.
In the appointment of the seventy elders Miriam and Aaron had
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not been consulted, and their jealousy was excited against Moses. At
the time of Jethro’s visit, while the Israelites were on the way to Sinai,
the ready acceptance by Moses of the counsel of his father-in-law had
aroused in Aaron and Miriam a fear that his influence with the great
leader exceeded theirs. In the organization of the council of elders they
felt that their position and authority had been ignored. Miriam and
Aaron had never known the weight of care and responsibility which
had rested upon Moses; yet because they had been chosen to aid him
they regarded themselves as sharing equally with him the burden of
leadership, and they regarded the appointment of further assistants as
uncalled for.
Moses felt the importance of the great work committed to him as no
other man had ever felt it. He realized his own weakness, and he made
God his counselor. Aaron esteemed himself more highly, and trusted
less in God. He had failed when entrusted with responsibility, giving
evidence of the weakness of his character by his base compliance in
the matter of the idolatrous worship at Sinai. But Miriam and Aaron,
blinded by jealousy and ambition, lost sight of this. Aaron had been