humble

One of the least attractive traits of grown men, and actually of a lot of other Americans as well, is our insistence that we be treated with respect. Usually when we say this, what we mean is we want to be treated better than our status or accomplishments warrant; we like short cuts and the head of the line and the best food and drink.

Every day I encounter people who demand better things from other people, or who think life owes them something better. Sometimes that person is me. That’s why I was intrigued to read Numbers 12: 3: “(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)”

The parentheses are because this is a fact stuffed into the center of a story about a challenge to Moses’ authority. His own brother and sister started to grumble about him – you can read about it in the first two verses of the chapter.

But look at what Moses did in the fact of this disrespect: nothing. He was humble. He wasn’t going to disrespect Aaron or demean Miriam to defend himself.

But Moses, humble and honorable, had a fierce defender in God. If you read through verse 15 you’ll see that God called Aaron and Miriam to Moses’ tent, and spoke to them in a pillar of cloud. Actually, he chewed them out, and when he left, Miriam had leprosy. Moses shows his character by pleading with God to spare her, and God reduces her sentence to seven days of uncleanness.

This is a good thing to keep in mind. God will defend his people. That means a couple of things to me.

It means that I don’t have to worry so much about defending myself. If I’m doing God’s work, if I’m walking closely with God, he’ll make sure that my mission and my witness aren’t compromised by anyone else. And that’s all I should care about.

The other thing, though, is that I’d better be careful about how I treat the people God loves. This includes, loosely, all of his image bearers, but more so his elect. And possibly more than that, the widows, orphans and refugees that he has said he will defend.

I think it all comes back to caring about the things God cares about. Aaron and Miriam were looking at things humans think are important, and too often I do to. Moses had a good grasp of God’s values. I need to work on that.