Moses, ​The Meekest Man in the World (Numbers 12:3)

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 could see from the disagreement that Moses was upheld by divine power and not by family favour; third, the incident reveals that jealousy and sinful ambition can arise in the most surprising of people – Miriam and Aaron had their positions only because of the greatness of Moses’ position; and fourth, people should be content with the spiritual gifts that God has given to them.

Miriam and Aaron had two complaints and they are connected to the forty years that Moses was away from Israel. During that time, two things had happened to him. The first was that he had married the daughter of Jethro and the second was that God had called him to be the leader of the Israelites. When he ran away from Egypt forty and more years earlier, after killing an Egyptian taskmaster who was mistreating an Israelite, he was single and had no aspirations to be a spiritual leader. But during his period away from the Israelites, he had become a changed man in many respects. He had married into the family of Jethro, a family where God was worshipped, and he had become the kind of person whom God would use to fulfil his promise to deliver his people from bondage.

God heard the complaints of Miriam and Aaron and was displeased with what they said and did. He who knows the hearts of all confronted them with their folly. It was a solemn occasion when the Lord came to judge them. He rebuked them for their sin, and Miriam as the instigator was given a greater punishment than her brother. The punishment was immediate, but the leprosy was limited to a week in a divine response to Moses’ prayer. No doubt, the incident said a great deal to the people of Israel. It would have reminded them of the importance of listening to Moses, the man whom God had called to be their leader.

It looks as if a comment has been inserted in verse 3, because it is unlikely that Moses would have described himself as ‘very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.’ The Holy Spirit guided someone to give this assessment of Moses at the time when his position and character was under attack. I would like us to consider how Moses became a meek man.

We can remind ourselves of two things about Moses. The first is that he was not a meek man when he killed the Egyptian taskmaster who had mistreated an Israelite. Indeed, we could say that then he was the opposite of meekness. The second is that God promised that he would raise up a Prophet who would be like Moses. No doubt, there are several ways in which Moses was like Jesus in his character and roles. But we are told that Jesus is meek and lowly in heart. So we can ask how Moses went from being a murderer to becoming like the Master, to becoming the meekest man in the world at that time. What can be identified about him that helps us understand how he became such a meek person?

1. He became meek through divine providence

Think of Moses’ life. He had an amazing experience as an infant when his mother placed him in a small ark of bulrushes and sent him floating on the Nile. She committed him into God’s care and God took the ark to where the daughter of Pharaoh would find it. Moses became her son. Surely Moses would have been astounded later as he reflected on how God had taken care of him! And he would also have been aware of how the Lord had arranged for his real mother to look after him. God had taken care of him and brought him to a place of safety.

We can move on a few decades and consider Moses as an adult, living as a prince in Egypt, yet longing to be involved in the deliverance of his people. Yet what could he as an individual do? We know what happened. He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite and slew the Egyptian. How surprised he would have been to discover that his action had not impressed the Israelites! After all, he was still an Egyptian prince. But he had to flee for his life. Later he would have reflected on why God had allowed this. The obvious deduction was that he was not yet ready to be the deliverer of Israel from bondage.

After he fled into the desert, he wandered for a while until he came across the family of Jethro. Much to his surprise, he discovered that this man knew the true God. What kind of providence was this that brought a proud Egyptian prince to the tents of a God-fearing man! Moses must have thought about this divine provision many times especially after he married Jethro’s daughter and lived with the family, working as a shepherd. There he met people who didn’t need Egypt and who were content to be the people of God. They would have influenced him and over the next forty years he became a spiritual man.

Towards the end of this forty-year period, while he was looking after the sheep, God appeared to him at the burning bush. He discovered that God intended to use him, but he also knew about his weaknesses. No longer was he self-confident or rash, trying to liberate his people by himself. But God was determined to use him, and Moses found himself fulfilling a divinely commissioned task while aware of his inadequacies. Then he observed how God was able to use him in extraordinary ways as he was the instrument of the plagues that fell on Egypt. Moses must have thought about the nature of divine help, and he had learned to trust in God to keep his promises. This was one reason why he became meek. God had changed him from an independent, self-confident, ambitious man into a dependent, submissive servant. Life had taught him the path of becoming meek. He had learned meekness through divine providence – his God had been moulding him, even although the training had taken a long time.

2. Moses had remained humble in his privileges

We can see from what God says in this chapter that Moses had received a great position from God. He was a greater spokesman for the Lord than Miriam or Aaron. She was a prophetess, and he was a priest, and they received messages from God in special ways. But the ways that they received them were not like the manner with which the Lord communicated with Moses. ‘With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord’ (v. 8). Moses interacted with the Lord in verbal fellowship that was clear and straightforward, and God appeared to him in a unique way. Yet Moses did not boast about his special relationship with the Lord, or the incredible privileges that he had enjoyed. He did not say to Miriam and Aaron that he was better than them. Rather, he remembered that he was unworthy of all that he had received. His privileges had led him to be content.

3. Moses was faithful as a servant

God says that about Moses in verse 7, and this description is taken up by the author of Hebrews when he says that Moses was faithful as a servant in God’s house. How does one describe a servant? A servant is a person who does what is required of him. Moses, when he was a prince in Egypt, would have known what was demanded of a servant. He would have expected loyalty and commitment. And that is how he served God after he was called. He went faithfully to Pharaoh and told him about the plagues that God would send. He passed on faithfully the requirements that the Lord had given to him to give to Israel. He even wrote them down under God’s direction. Moses was dependable and diligent. His faithfulness made him submissive, and submissiveness is a feature of meekness. A servant’s role is service, and Moses knew that he was under God’s care as well as under God’s command.

4. Moses was approachable by others

We have an example of this aspect in this incident when Aaron pled with him to do something about what had happened to Miriam. On another occasion, Jethro once had to advise Moses not to let all the people come and burden him with their concerns. While he adopted the advice of Jethro, we can deduce that he was willing to listen to and help people with their troubles. Moses was not indifferent to the needs of others. He was patient as he tried to help people, and his responding in such a way to those with concerns is evidence of a meek attitude.

5. He was an intercessor

There is an example of his intercession in this passage when he prayed for his sister that the divine judgement of leprosy would be removed. The Lord answered in such a way that showed his willingness to hear the request of Moses and to let people know that what Miriam had done was serious. This was not the only time that Moses did this. In the previous chapter, he prayed about a fire that was endangering the camp. On another occasion, after the people had rebelled against God when Aaron had made for them a golden calf while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the ten commandments, the Lord as an act of judgement indicated that he would remove his presence from them, although he would send an angel to guide them. The response of Moses was to pray for the Israelites that God would retain his presence with them and bring them safely to Canaan. In response, the Lord heard the pleas of Moses and went with his people, and so showing his mercy in that way. As a meek man, Moses knew that contact with God was essential.

Conclusion

As we take those strands together, we can see how they contributed to Moses becoming meek. Providence was his classroom, humility led to contentment, faithfulness led him to conform to God’s will, approachableness led him to care for others, and prayer revealed his confidence was in God as far as solving difficulties was concerned. As we look at those traits in his life, we can see that Moses was like Jesus. Jesus was perfect in those areas, unlike Moses in his depth of meekness.

It has taken a long time, a lifetime, before Moses could be described as the meekest man on the earth. His experience shows us what God’s grace can bring about in a sinner’s life, of the momentous change that occurs in sanctification, of how the fruit of the Spirit can develop and show itself in the most difficult and strangest of circumstances.

A great promise is given to the meek by Jesus in the Beatitudes, but also connected to a verse in the psalms: ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ Moses showed that he was an heir of God by his Christlike attitude. He lived a challenging, consecrated life.