Numbers 12 / Psalm 39

Numbers 12

1 - 16 Aaron and Miriam Jealous of Moses

Best joke in the Bible so far: "Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth" (3).

Miriam and Aaron (Moses' sister and brother) are upset because Moses married a Chushite woman (Zipporah). They think that the Lord could be "speaking" to them to. The Lord tells the three of them to have a meeting. He clears up that He's speaking to Moses face to face. After the Lord leaves, Miriam becomes leprous. Moses asks the Lord to heal her, but the Lord asks her to be shunned by the camp for seven days. Which they do.

Psalm 39

The Vanity of Life

1 - 3 My notes: "The lament of a mortally ill person who at first had resolved to be silently submissive." "I was silent and still; I held my peace to no avail; my distress grew worse . . " (2).

4 - 7 The grief becomes too much and the psalmist laments how brief and meaningless life is.

7 - 9 The psalmist remains hopeful: "And now, O Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you" (7).

10 - 13 The psalmist both accepts illness and hopes for healing.