At the
church where I serve, we have been spending our time together in a sermon
series entitled mosaic: the gospel and race. During this series, we are going
to examine the issue of racism from the prism and lens of the claims of Christ
and the message of the gospel. During this series, our hope and our prayer as a
church is to demonstrate that the claims of Christ and the message of the
gospel provides both the explanation as to why racism exists and the solution
to the problem of racism.
This
week, I would like for us to spend
our time together addressing the issue of the gospel and interracial marriage.
Specifically, what does the message and teachings of Jesus say when it comes to
interracial marriage. There have been followers of Jesus throughout history who
have maintained that interracial marriage violates the message and teachings of
Jesus. In the past, Bob Jones University, along with other Christian colleges
and churches, maintained that interracial marriage violated the message and
teachings of Jesus.
And today, there are many followers of Jesus who would still
argue that interracial marriage violates the message and teachings of Jesus.
But is that the case? To answer this question, I would like for us to look at
an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of a letter in the
Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Numbers.
The book of
Numbers is the fourth of the first five letters that are recorded for us in the
Bible, which the Jewish people referred to as the Torah, or the Law. These
letters contained a list of commands that revealed God’s nature and character
and the nature and character that the Jewish people would need to display and
possess in order to live in a right relationship with God. The book of Numbers
records the travels of the Jewish people after God had delivered them from
slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt prior to entering into the land
that God had promised them.
At this time
in history, the Jewish people were led by a man named Moses, whom God used to
perform the miraculous and lead the Jewish people from Egypt and towards the
land the He had promised them. However, the further from Egypt that they
traveled, the more that the Jewish people seemed to yearn to go back to Egypt
and to the good old days. The closer the Jewish people came towards the
Promised Land, the more the Jewish people began to grumble, complain, and rebel
against God and against Moses. And it is in this context that we jump into this
event from history beginning in Numbers 12:1-2a:
Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom
he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman); and they said, "Has the LORD indeed
spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?"
Moses, the
author of the book of Numbers, brings us into this event from history by
revealing for us a conflict that occurred between himself and Miriam and Aaron.
Now Miriam and Aaron were Moses sister and brother. Miriam had been used by God
to bring Moses into the household of Pharaoh after he had been placed into the
Nile River by his mother. Aaron was Moses spokesperson who would eventually
become the first High Priest of the Jewish people.
However,
Miriam and Aaron became angry and envious of Moses and decided that it was time
to speak out against Moses. Moses reveals that the reason that Miriam and Aaron
spoke against him was because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. Because
of the marriage that Moses entered into with this Cushite woman, Miriam and
Aaron proclaimed to the Jewish people "Has the LORD indeed spoken only
through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?"
In other
words, Miriam and Aaron decided to challenge Moses leadership and authority in
front of the entire nation and attempted to overthrow Moses from his position
of leadership and authority so that they could instead be in the position of
leadership and authority over the Jewish people. Now a natural question that
arises here is “why would Moses sister and brother attempt to overthrow Moses
from his position of leadership and authority so that they could be in a
position of leadership and authority?’
The answer
to this question was stated in verse one: Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses
because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. There is no other reason
implied or stated, is there? The reason is staring us straight in the face.
Miriam and Aaron did not like the fact that Moses had married a Cushite woman.
But why did Miriam and Aaron not like that fact that Moses had married a
Cushite woman? One possibility was that God had forbid the Jewish people from
marrying those from the Cushite people.
However,
Moses marriage to this Cushite woman did not violate God’s command because the
Cushites were not among those whom God had commanded the Jewish people not to
marry in a section of another letter in the Old Testament of the Bible called
the book of Exodus, in Exodus 34:11and16. So, if Moses did not violate any of
the commands that God had given the Jewish people by marrying a Cushite woman,
then why were Miriam and Aaron attempting to overthrow Moses from his position
of leadership and authority so that they could be in a position of leadership
and authority?
To
understand the answer to this question, we first need to understand who the
Cushite people were. The Cushite people comprised the region south of the
nation of Egypt in what is now known as the Sudan and Northern Ethiopia. And
just as it is today, in Moses day the inhabitants of the region known as the
Cushites were dark skinned, black people. So Moses, being a Hebrew, had married
a black person. As we will see in a few minutes, Moses did not enter into an
interreligious marriage; Moses entered into an interracial marriage.
And as a
result of Moses entering into this interracial marriage, Miriam and Aaron felt
compelled to challenge Moses leadership and authority. Miriam and Aaron felt
compelled to challenge Moses leadership and authority because they believed
that they were superior to Moses. They believed that they were superior to
Moses because Moses had demonstrated that he was inferior by marrying someone
from another race that they believed that they were superior to. Miriam and
Aaron’s racism led them to challenge their brother as being inferior as a
result of his marriage to someone that they viewed as being from an inferior
race. We see what happens next in the last part of verse 2:
And the LORD heard it.
Now if we
were watching this event from history on a DVD, at this point some ominous
music would begin playing, wouldn’t it? At this point, we would hear “Duh, duh
duhhhh” in the background. Moses then makes a seemingly incorrect and arrogant
statement in verse 3:
(Now the man Moses was very humble,
more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)
Now some
have used this verse to argue that Moses was not the writer of the Book of
Numbers because, after all, if Moses had made this statement, it would have
been an untrue statement, because the moment that you say you are humble you
reveal the reality that you are not. So, if this statement is true, then Moses
must not have written it, or so the argument goes. However, I believe that
Moses did write this letter and that this statement is true. And the reason
that I hold that position is due to the fact that this statement was not
designed to focus so much on Moses character as it was on God’s entry into this
event from history.
God inspired
Moses to include this statement in this letter because God wanted the readers
of this letter to clearly understand that in his humility, Moses was going to
let this racial slight go unanswered. Moses, in his humility, did not feel the
need to defend himself. However, while Moses humility was driving him to not
defend himself, as the Lord heard the racism of Miriam and Aaron, He was driven
to defend Moses. We see this reality unfold in Numbers 12:4-5a:
Suddenly the LORD said to Moses and
Aaron and to Miriam, "You three come out to the tent of meeting." So
the three of them came out. Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and
stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam.
Out of the
blue the voice of the Lord proclaimed to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam,
"You three come out to the tent of meeting." Now can you imagine what
that must have sounded like? I mean, imagine being a member of the Jewish
nation who had witnessed Miriam and Aaron challenge the leadership and authority
of Moses. And as you are listening to Miriam and Aaron challenge Moses,
suddenly you hear the voice of the Lord say, you three come to the tent of the
meeting, right now.
Now the tent
of the meeting was a tent that was set up in the midst of the Jewish people
where God would come and meet with the Jewish people. Can you imagine what that
must have been like? Can you imagine the Jewish people gathering around and
following Miriam, Aaron, and Moses as they headed to the tent of the meeting?
Can you imagine the conversations that would have been occurring among the
Jewish people? “I wonder what’s going to happen? Someone’s getting in trouble?”
I wonder how many of the Jewish people were taking Moses
side and how many were taking Miriam and Aaron’s side? After all, many people
had already begun to complain about Moses. And then he marries someone that is
from a different race than them? Can you imagine the scene as they approached
the tent of the meeting? Can you imagine the scene as the Lord appeared at the
tent of the meeting as a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent
of the meeting? Can you imagine hearing the voice of the Lord call Miriam and
Aaron to step forward? Can you imagine the sense of expectation when it came to
what they thought would happen next?
Tomorrow, we will see what happened next…
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