Indeed, Has God Said?

“Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, . . . and they said, ‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?’ And the Lord heard it.”

Numbers 12:1-2

A troubling trend has developed in our contemporary Christian culture. More and more people, including both laity and clergy, are asserting God has spoken to them. Given the incident of Miriam and Aaron’s jealousy of Moses and their assertion God had spoken to them as well, others in times past have done the same thing. The question is, had God spoken to Miriam?

The problem of jealousy seemed to be more of an issue with Miriam than with Aaron. As far as Aaron was concerned, God indeed had spoken to him. Most of the time, when God spoke, he spoke to Moses and Aaron together. What about Miriam? Did God speak to her? Scripture gives no evidence of God ever having spoken to her in the way he did to Moses and Aaron.

Miriam and Aaron got into a lot of trouble because of their rebellion against Moses. Miriam was cursed with leprosy and had to be isolated outside the camp of the Israelites for seven days? Why wasn’t Aaron stricken with leprosy or some other disease? Was God a sexist? First of all, Aaron seemed to be unable at times to act on the basis of principle. When the Israelites wanted a god while Moses was speaking with the Lord on Mt. Sinai, Aaron went along with them. In the same way, he went along with Miriam. The greater sin seemed to have been Miriam’s.

When this sister and brother made their claim, “the Lord heard it.” He called them and Moses to the tent of meeting. There, he declared in no uncertain terms how and to whom he would speak. God declared, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, he is faithful in all My household; with him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?”

Can we say, given the biblical evidence, things have changed? Is the Lord now speaking openly, “mouth to mouth,” with believers? Few individuals, according to Scripture, ever heard the Lord speak to them apart from dreams and visions. Oddly, only once does the Bible record a conversation between Jesus and the Lord. When he was in Jerusalem, some Greeks asked to see Jesus. He saw this as a the sign of his “hour.” He then prayed, “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour '? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then, the Lord answered him “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Interestingly, in Gethsemane, Jesus made a similar plea: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” The Father was silent.

Too many casually declare “God said to me,” without really thinking about the implications of what they are saying. God does not speak casually, and when he has spoken, what he has said is not open to interpretation or debate. For that reason, and because we believe the Bible is inspired by God, we assume the infallibility, inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture. If God speaks, he speaks in that manner: infallibly and inerrantly. Further, if Scripture is sufficient, why would God need to say more?

We must remember what was said about Moses. The Lord chose to speak to him “mouth to mouth, even openly,” and only to Moses in that manner. Further, we must remember as well the closing words of Deuteronomy: “Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.” We have no Moses in our midst today.

We must remember also the little comment following the jealousy-inspired assertion of Miriam and Aaron. “And the Lord heard it.” Not only did the Lord hear, he also held Miriam and Aaron accountable for what they had said. Simply declaring God had spoken to them did not make the assertion true. The standard by which their declaration was judged is the same for us today. To whom God has spoken, and the how, has been established by the Word of the Lord. He has not changed his mind or his methods.