Sermons, Articles, and Other Things

In this chapter, we have the account of a domestic argument, a family dispute at one level, although it was also a political disagreement of leaders in Israel. Miriam and Aaron had a disagreement with Moses. The fact that Miriam’s name is mentioned first suggests that she was the instigator in complaining. Grumbling was a common reaction of the Israelites as we can see from the account of their travels through the desert. In the previous chapter, the people had grumbled because of the conditions in which they lived, and the Lord had judged them. Perhaps that grumbling stirred Miriam and Aaron to grumble in their way, but they should have known better. John Calvin, in his commentary on this passage, says that this account ‘is especially worthy of observation for many reasons’. Among them, he mentions these four: first, he argues that in divine providence God used the disharmony within the family to highlight the prominence that he had given to Moses; second, he suggests, that the people...

Given the information given about him in the Bible, we can think of many ways of describing Abraham. Paul, for example, calls him the father of the faithful, and we are not surprised that he has a prominent place in the famous chapter of faith, Hebrews 11. The Bible also tells us that Abraham was a prophet, which means that he was a spokesman for God when he was living in the Promised Land. Abraham was a predecessor of Jesus, and we can see his name in the genealogies of Christ given in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. He was the ancestor of the Jews, and there are not many nations from back then still in existence, but the descendants of Abraham are still a nation. After Abraham had spent years in Canaan, one of the local chieftains said about Abraham that he was a mighty prince when he asked them for land in which to bury his wife. All these testimonies are very good, but I suppose the real test of who a person is depends on what God says about him. God called Abraham by a powerful a...