I found Moses' tree!

Exodus 15:23-26 [NKJV version]

Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

   The Israelites have just walked across the Red Sea on dry land. They have had a wonderful service of praise and thanksgiving. They really are free! The horse and rider have been thrown into the sea!

   Annnnnd then, three days later, they come to Marah. Here, the waters are too bitter to drink. They complain against Moses. That word translated “complain” is luwn. In luwn, there is a grudge, a harboring, staying in a frame of mind. Moses is up against a lot of thirsty, angry people.

   Moses cries out to the L_RD. The L_RD shows him a tree. When cast into the waters, the waters become sweet. I searched for what scholars think the tree was. [There are a lot of theories, from Moses having a piece of the tree of life, to other spiritual-sounding ideas.] I didn’t find anything convincing. 

   From chemistry class, I learned that adding a something sour [acid] to something bitter [base] creates a salt. That’s why we Yankees [i.e. Vermonters] use vinegar on vegetables. We learned that vinegar on spinach, kale and Brussels sprouts improves the flavor. I also like it on dandelion greens, although Mr. Bove [yes, that Mr. Bove] said no, it should be sauteed in olive oil and garlic. #respect.

   Bitter + sour = salt. But what changes bitter to sweet? An enzyme process is needed. Dry wood wouldn’t have active enzymes. Only a live tree would.

   I looked up Middle East trees with enzyme action. 

   I found Moses’ tree!

   The acacia, or vachellia nilotica, is antiprotozoal, antihelmintic, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory. It supplies all this through its enzyme-related activity. Acacia is used in traditional medicine for treating infection, ulcers and inflammation.

   It wasn’t a surprise to G_d that the waters were bitter. It didn’t surprise Him that the Israelites would be upset. The L_RD already had the tree growing, waiting. Not only is He about to perform another miracle, He uses this opportunity to teach them more about Himself. 

   What? with a new conditional law? how does that teach anything?

   Much of scripture’s promises come in an “if-then-else” format. There at Marah, G_d says, 

“If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

   If they [we] diligently listen to Him, and do what is right, then those plagues that led to Israel’s deliverance from slavery aren’t meant for us. Ok, cool! Is that all, though? No!

   The L_RD goes a step further [as I find He always does]. He doesn’t stop at the plagues. He teaches something about His character, who He IS.

   “I am the Lord who heals you.”

   The Lord is Healer. 

   He isn’t just about laws and obedience. His heart is for our wholeness. That’s what He’s really saying by turning bitterness to sweetness. He wants to change our bitterness to sweetness.

   I can feel His loving Heart saying, “Oh, children, I want to do this in you! I have provided a Tree* for your healing.” 

   Amen, dear L_RD, and thank You. <3 <3 <3

*Tree - Isaiah 11.

Proofreader caveat: I use brackets [ ] because the parentheses don’t work on this keyboard. It relates to an unfortunate coffee incident. I also can’t type zeroes!

Nu 12 part 2: when "Kindled" doesn't refer to an e-device

      I spent a few days on a bible bunny trail. It was intellectually stimulating, but not of much use for this study. I now return you to our regularly scheduled Miriam.

         Numbers 12:1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian [tyvwk Kuwshiyth] woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.

       Looking at a smattering of Bible commentaries, most suggest the Ethiopian/Cushite woman is not Zipporah, who came from Midian rather than Cush.

       Besides, if it were Zipporah, why did Miriam and Aaron wait so long to protest Moses’ marriage to her? So my guess is that she is a different woman.

       Why did Miriam and Aaron start criticizing Moses? Maybe they were close to Zipporah and they didn’t want Moses to remarry or replace her. Maybe they were prejudiced. Maybe they had a big fight with Moses’ wife. Who knows?

       2 And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard [emv shama`] it.

       It appears from what Miriam and Aaron say is that their dispute really had little to do with Moses’ wife, but actually with other issues. That Moses married an Ethiopian/Cushite woman becomes the springboard for their complaint.

       God hears Miriam and Aaron speaking against Moses. Moses doesn’t have anything to do with what happened next. (Verse 3 describes Moses as wne `anav, meek/humble.)

       4 And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out.

       Suddenly. The LORD hears Miriam and Aaron and speaks suddenly. This behavior of theirs must stop. Now.

       None of them were at the tabernacle at the time; the LORD calls them to the tabernacle. What any of them were doing at the time is speculation. (I confess, I have speculated on it already.) Whether the three were apart or together, they all hear from the LORD suddenly.

       Next, the LORD separates Aaron and Miriam from Moses. If you look at the verses, Miriam was mentioned first in verse 1, but then it becomes “Aaron and Miriam.” (Speculation time again.)

       5 And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.

 6 And he said, Hear now my words: If 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. 7 My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. 8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

       The LORD says some amazing things about Moses. He says Moses is faithful [Nma 'aman] in all his (God’s) house. He speaks to Moses apparently [harm mar'eh}, in the sense of appearing or visibly. He doesn’t speak to Moses in dreams or visions but hp peh to hp peh.

       Why then were Miriam and Aaron not afraid [ary yare'] to speak against his servant Moses? Yare means to fear, revere or be afraid.

       The LORD’s anger [Pa 'aph] is kindled [hrx charah] against them. What does He do? He departs [Kly yalak]. Then the cloud departs [rwo cuwr] from the tabernacle.

       Remember yalak? It means “to go, walk, come”; it also has a meaning “to live, manner of life, to die.” I contrast this with the cloud cuwr-ing from the tabernacle. The cloud turns aside, a simple movement, but the LORD yalak-s from Miriam and Aaron. Did the LORD yalak from them as a punishment? Or did He yalak from them to keep from punishing them?

         There is another phrase in scripture, the “fierce anger” of the LORD. It uses a word similar to the anger that is kindled in verse 9. In Hebrew, it is Nwrx charown Pa 'aph. You don’t mess around with the LORD’s charown ‘aph. See Nu 25:4; Nu 32:14; Isaiah 13:9; Jer 4:8, 26; Jer 12:13 and more. Invariably, judgment and desolation follow. That is, unless, people repent.

       To find the LORD’s anger being kindled [charah], look in your concordance for “anger + kindled” or “wrath + kindled.” We’ve already seen what happens when the LORD’s anger is kindled in Nu 11. The LORD’s anger was kindled against Moses in Exodus 4:14. At that time, Moses got off easily compared to the subsequent times His anger is kindled.

       10 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.

        When the cloud departs, Miriam becomes leprous. Aaron sees her state and repents to Moses (to Moses, not to the LORD, who has just left them). It’s all he can do.

             11 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. 12 Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb.

       13 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee.

       Cried is qeu tsa`aq, “to cry, cry out, call, cry for help, clamor, cry out in distress or need” and to call together/gather. The brothers are desperate for their sister’s healing. The LORD responds to Moses.

       14 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.

       This is a tough one for me. The idea of one’s father so humiliating a child seems to hold a kind of rejection that would last more than seven days. Exegetically, was it a typical practice in ancient Palestine? Maybe it was commonplace and doesn’t have my 21^st century horror at the thought of it. See Deuteronomy 25:9.

       The LORD defines the shame [Mlk kalam] as lasting seven days. Hermeneutically, if I were feeling shame about something for more than seven days, maybe I’d better take those feelings to God and get myself whole. Living in shame doesn’t do me (or the people around me) any good. To paraphrase one of my pastors, go to the hardware store, buy a ladder and get over it.

       Numbers 11 doesn’t actually say that Miriam is healed. She is shut out [rgo cagar] of the camp for seven days and is brought in [Poa 'acaph] again, so I infer that she was actually healed.

       The people don’t travel until Miriam is brought in again. They are not going to abandon her. Nor is the LORD.

Nu 12: the other Miriam - Part 1

       At first blush, I rather prefer the references to Miriam in Exodus 15 and Micah 6:4 (the worship leader rather than the leper).

         Ex 15:20-21 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

         Mic 6:4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

       Long ago, my Mom told me that if I were a boy, I was going to be named “Joshua.” (My older brothers were David, Paul and Jonathan.) She said that when I was born, I seemed like a Miriam. (My two older sisters were named Naomi and Elizabeth. Priscilla came after me. Yes, all biblical names. If you count, that makes seven children. I’m the 6^th of 7, or as I call myself, the penultimate. That’s a very fancy word for second to last.)

       I mentioned growing up with a name like Miriam in my blog “Opening the Old Testament.” http://miriamsmindset.blogspot.com/2012/01/opening-old-testament.html

       I once worked as an office nurse in a very French Catholic population. I always introduce myself to my patients. Maybe it was their hearing, maybe it was their language barrier, maybe it was their Catholicism: at the mention of my name, out came this beatific smile and “Oh, Marion.” To their thinking, it was the second most saintly name in the universe.

       My dilemma: to correct the little old lady whose finger I was about to stab with a sharp instrument? [No, my name is Miriam and Mary was actually named after me!] or do I just let her have a moment of joy? I was, after all, about to inflict pain. I chose the saintly route.

       I love that the first Miriam was a worship leader. I love that she was a prophetess. I love that she was a leader. Joshua might be an easier name to say, but this Miriam chick is pretty admirable in her own right.

       We assume that it is Miriam who watched over Moses, the baby in the bulrushes. The bible actually doesn’t say her name in this verse, although no other daughters of Amram and Jochebed are mentioned. Therefore, the assumption is pretty sound. Why didn’t Moses write his sister’s name in this verse when he penned Exodus? Moses himself doesn’t have a Hebrew name. In fact, although we know he is a Levite, Moses’ Hebrew family isn’t named at all until after he is a grown man (Exodus 6).

       As detail oriented as Moses is, he doesn’t bog down the action with lots of names. Pharaoh’s daughter isn’t named, either. Her position is, but not her name. I infer that the point of Exodus 1-2 is to give a quick but poignant look at the situation. Pharaoh orders that every single baby boy is to be slaughtered, but God’s hand is upon Moses so that one day the slaughter will stop and the people will be free. You may want to look at Exodus 1 and the heroic midwives Shiphrah and Puah. (Exodus 1:15-21).

       I just realized something. Although Jochebed hid Moses for 3 months, she in a way did obey Pharaoh.

         Ex 1:22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

       Jochebed protected Moses in the little ark, but did put him in the river. Way to go, Jochebed!

       Maybe I should have been a lawyer.

       I haven’t even gotten to the other Miriam yet. 'Til next time.

       

Leviticus 10: Nadab and Abihu

Nu 26:60-61 And unto Aaron was born Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.

         Strange fire? Who were these men and what happened to them?

Background:

       Nadab and Abihu were two of Aaron’s four sons (Exodus 6:23; Numbers 3:2; I Chronicles 6:3).

       Nadab [bdn] means “generous” in the sense of giving willingly, offering freely. Abihu [awhyba] means “he is my father.” As children of Aaron, they are to minister before God as priests. In Exodus 24, they went with Moses, their father Aaron and 70 elders to see the LORD.

       Ex 24:1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.

            Ex 24:9-11 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

       Nadab and Abihu saw the glory of God and lived. They were to minister alongside their father. What happened to change everything?

       In Leviticus 9, Aaron, his sons and the elders of Israel are about to offer sacrifices. In 9:7, Moses tells them:

            Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, and make an atonement for thyself, and for the people: and offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them; as the LORD commanded.

       After the offering, in verses 22+, God “shows up.”

         And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people.

             And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

Strange [rwz zuwr] fire:

       We don’t know the span of time between the last verse of 9 and the first verse of Leviticus 10. It may have been minutes or weeks. We don’t know the motivation of Nahab and Abihu, either. Were they zealous and a bit too eager? Did they think their fire was good enough? Regardless, two men fell dead:

         Leviticus 10:1-2 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.

Duties in spite of grief:

       Moses warns Aaron he must continue his duties.

         10:3 Then Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.

       Moses directs Aaron’s cousins:

         10:4-5 And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp. So they went near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp; as Moses had said.

       Then Moses directs his brother Aaron one more time.

         10:6-7 And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: for the anointing oil of the LORD is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses.

       What strikes  me most about this account is the heavy requirement of holiness in spite of grief. The anointing oil of the LORD was upon Aaron when all this transpired. Aaron must not, for his own safety, be involved in even touching his sons’ bodies. Let instead, the whole of Israel grieve. Aaron holds his peace [Mmd damam, to be silent, cease, grow dumb].

       Then, in Leviticus 10:12-19, Aaron and his remaining sons haven’t eaten the offering according to the directions. Moses is angry [Puq qatsaph] with Aaron and Eleazar and Ithamar. Aaron answers in 19:

Behold, this day have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD; and such things have befallen me: and if I had eaten the sin offering to day, should it have been accepted in the sight of the LORD?

       Aaron has a good point. In their distress, would they have been in the right heart to comply with their directive?

       In verse 20:

            And when Moses heard that, he was content.

       The word for content [bjy yatab] means to be glad, joyful, pleased. It can even mean “merry.” I infer that Moses sees that Aaron “gets it.” Aaron and his sons are looking not only at the letter of the law but also its intent.

       This hasn't been the easiest of subjects. I know I haven't answered some of the bigger questions. What this passage shows me is the humanity of the people involved in a terrible situation.

       Later on, Moses will face his own grief and test when his sister Miriam dies. (Numbers 20).