Racism is ridiculous because interracial marriage best illustrates the church as the bride of Christ...

This week we have been looking 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. Moses, the author of the book of Numbers, brought us into this event from history by revealing for us a conflict that occurred between himself and Miriam and Aaron. Miriam and Aaron became angry and envious of Moses and spoke against him was because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. 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.

Moses, being a Hebrew, had married a black person. 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.

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. 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." However, the Lord did not speak to Moses. Notice that the Lord does not call out Moses for violating one of His commands. Notice that the Lord did not address Moses for marrying an African black woman. The Lord did not call out Moses because Moses did not enter into an interreligious marriage which would have violated His commands. Moses did not enter an interreligious marriage; Moses had entered into an interracial marriage.

Instead, the Lord’s anger burned against Miriam and Aaron for their selfishness and rebellion in a way that resulted in the Lord intervening to defend Moses, who was too humble to defend himself.  And in the Lord’s right and just anger over the selfishness and rebellion of Miriam and Aaron, there would be consequences. Consequences that are revealed in Numbers 12:10:

 But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.

As the presence of the Lord left Miriam and Aaron, Miriam was left with leprosy. To understand the significance of the Lord’s consequences on Miriam, we first need to understand what leprosy is. Leprosy is a slowly progressing, contagious, and incurable skin disease characterized by scabs or crusts and white shining spots appearing to be deeper than the skin. And in the Jewish culture of the day, leprosy left its victims in a place that rendered them unclean.

In other words, a person with leprosy was not allowed to participate in the life of the community of the Jewish people in any way. A person with leprosy was sentenced to a life separated from the community as outsiders and outcasts for the rest of their lives, or until they were healed. The problem was that no one was ever healed of leprosy. In the letters that make up the Bible, the only people who ever recovered from leprosy were those who were miraculously healed by God. By infecting Miriam with leprosy, we see the Lord paint a powerful word picture to Miriam and the rest of the Jewish people.

By infecting Miriam with leprosy, the Lord was basically saying to Miriam “so Miriam you and Aaron think that you are superior to Moses because Moses has married someone from another race who you believe you are superior to. You believe that you are superior and that your brother is inferior because he married someone who has darker skin than you. You believe that you are better than this Cushite woman because you have a lighter skin tone than her? Well, if that is the case, let me really give you a lighter tone of skin. I will give you a lighter tone of skin that will result in you being treated as an outsider and outcast, just as you tried to treat this Cushite woman as an outcast because she had darker skin. I will give you a tone of skin that results in you being treated like you wanted to treat someone who had darker skin.” Moses then reveals how Aaron responded to what had happened to Miriam in verse 11-13:

 Then Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. "Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother's womb!" Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, "O God, heal her, I pray!"

Now do you see the irony here? Aaron, who was the High Priest of the Jewish nation, who, with Miriam viewed themselves as being superior to Moses, had to plead with Moses to intercede on Miriam’s behalf that she would be healed of the leprosy which the Lord had given her. Miriam and Aaron found themselves as being in a position to acknowledge their inferiority to Moses after challenging Moses as being inferior.

Moses responded to Aarons’ request be providing the proof of his amazing humility. Instead of taking a position of arrogant gloating over God defending his leadership, Moses took a position of humbly serving the very person who questioned his leadership. The man who refused to defend himself prayed to God in defense of Miriam by asking to heal Miriam. We see how the Lord responded to Moses request in verse 14-15:

 But the LORD said to Moses, "If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again." So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.

Now to fully understand what is happening here, we first need to define some words and phrases. When the Lord uses the phrase “if her father spit in her face” this phrase referred to an action that would serve as a sign of contempt that one would have toward another. In addition, the phrase “bear her shame” refers to being held in a state of public humiliation.

So the Lord responded to Moses request by basically saying “If an earthly father expresses contempt when their rebellious daughter challenges his authority by disciplining her in a way that publicly humiliates her for a week, how much more should she be publicly humiliated for challenging My authority by viewing My choice of you as being inferior to her choice of herself over you. Since she challenged My authority by viewing you as inferior because you married someone who had darker skin than her, let her be publicly humiliated for a week by being treated as an outsider and an outcast because of her skin color.”

So the Jewish people spent a week unable to move forward because of the racism of Miriam and Aaron. And Miriam spent a week living as an isolated outsider and outcast as a result of her racist belief that she was superior to Moses because he had married a person of a different race. And it is here, in this event from history, that we discover a reason why the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel best addresses the issue of interracial marriage. And that timeless reason is this: The gospel best addresses the issue of interracial marriage because interracial marriage best illustrates the church as the bride of Christ.

The letters that make up the Bible do not condemn interracial marriage. Instead the letters that make up the Bible condemn interreligious marriage. And interracial marriage actually provides the best illustration of the church as the Bride of Christ. You see, as we have discovered throughout this series, the church, the bride of Christ, is comprised of followers of Jesus throughout history that have been rescued from their selfishness and rebellion as a result of God’s gracious activity, regardless of race, not because of their race. The church, as the bride of Christ, is comprised of followers of Jesus who are representatives from every nationality, without distinction to race or ethnicity. The church, the bride of Christ is comprised of followers of Jesus throughout history who are called to find their identity in Jesus and not their race.

And interracial marriage is a beautiful word picture of the unity in diversity that we will experience as a part of the bride of Christ for all eternity. Interracial marriage best illustrates the reality of the church as the body of Christ. Now some of you, right now, in your mind, are going “la la la la, I am not listening to you, my God is not like that, my God is not like that.”

And my response to you is God is exactly like that. That is the reason why this event from history has been preserved and recorded for us in the Bible. The timeless reality is that, regardless of what you have heard before by some misinformed Christian; regardless of what you have heard before by some preacher twisting and contorting some Bible verses out of context; God is not against interracial marriage. What God is against is interreligious marriage.

And that is why racism and its application against interracial marriage is ridiculous. Racism is ridiculous and opposition to interracial marriage is ridiculous and is because interracial marriage best illustrates the church as the bride of Christ. Interracial marriage does not reject the message and teachings of Jesus. Interracial marriage beautifully depicts the message and teachings of Jesus. The message and teaching that red, yellow, black or white, everyone is precious in His sight.