By Way of the Wilderness (27 page)

Moses went before the elders to try to speak with them about the mixed multitude of strangers. He found no encouragement there and was saddened. “If the elders of Israel will not accept a lover of the Lord, what can we expect?” he said to them bitterly. He turned and went at once to Aaron's tent. He spoke with him briefly and found that Aaron was also opposed to paying any special attention to the woman.

“She's an Ethiopian, a heathen,” Aaron said harshly.

“But we are all strangers until God makes us His own,” Moses said quietly. He turned and left the tent, and for a long time he walked, thinking and praying. Finally he sent for the woman, and Shani brought her to his tent.

“Shall I go outside, master?” Shani said.

“No, you stay here,” Moses commanded. He turned to Lamani and said, “I'm glad you have a love for the Lord, and I grieve that our people have not accepted you.” He stood looking at the woman, and pity and compassion—always close to the surface of his heart—began to rise up. “I have decided to protect you,” he said. “The only way I can do that is to make you my wife.”

“Your wife!” Lamani was startled. “You cannot mean that, master!”

Quickly Moses said, “It will be merely a legal thing.” He thought of Zipporah, who had gone back to Midian again. He had paid her so little mind that she had left him, and he knew now that he must make this matter very clear. “You will have a tent. You will have the protection of my name—but that is all. It will not be an ordinary marriage, but it will allow you to stay with our people. Will you accept this offer?”

Lamani bowed and whispered, “Yes, my lord, I will accept.”

“I will find witnesses now.” He marched to the door of the tent and called for Joshua and Caleb, who stood not far away. He called them inside and said, “You two will be witnesses. I take this woman Lamani as my wife. I will be her husband.”

Both men were startled, but neither would ever think of challenging the word of Moses. “Yes, Moses. What are your orders?”

“Find her a tent. See that she has food. It will be a legal marriage and that is all, you understand? Protect her from those who would insult her.”

Caleb grinned. “Yes, my lord, it shall be as you say.”

“Go with these men, Lamani. We are now legally married.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

Moses watched the woman as she left and then turned to Shani. “Now I must tell my sister and my brother what I have done. They will not like it.”

“Why not?” Shani said.

“They are jealous for my honor. I wish they were more jealous for the honor of the Lord! Come. Go with me while I speak to my sister.”

Moses found no support at all from Aaron or Miriam. Both were angry and upset with him, and both tried to dissuade him from following such a wild course. Moses finally said, “It's something I must do. We must learn to love those who are different from us. She is a creature of God, as are all in the mixed multitude. Do you think God is interested only in one race?”

“We are the chosen race,” Aaron said loudly, his face red with anger. “You have said so yourself.”

“Chosen for a task, yes, but God chooses every man, woman, and child to love, so this is something I must do.”

As Moses left the tent Aaron muttered, “My brother is not wise.”

“No, he is not,” Miriam agreed. “Sooner or later this will mean trouble. We must do what we can to ward it off.”

“There's little one can do when Moses gets his head set that he's doing something for God, but we will try.”

“Bezalel, look—I brought you some cakes.”

Bezalel straightened up, arched his back to ease the strain, and turned to face Shani. She was holding out two cakes, one in each hand, and her eyes were bright. He took one of them and said, “We'll share them.”

“No. I've had some already. I baked them myself because I know you like them so much.”

“You're too good to me, Shani.” Bezalel bit into the cake and chewed it slowly, with obvious enjoyment. “This is good! You're getting to be a fine cook. Your husband is going to be a lucky man.”

Shani laughed. “If all I know how to do is make cakes, he'll be pretty hungry.”

“Maybe I'll have that other one after all.” Bezalel took the cake and leaned back against the work table. He ate the second cake with obvious enjoyment, then said, “I've been meaning to tell you. That was a good thing you did for the Ethiopian woman.”

“I felt so sorry for her.”

“Well, you have a good heart, Shani.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Of course I do.”

Shani looked down at the ground and began to make a small line with her bare toe. She was silent for a long moment; then she looked up and asked, “Do you think I'll ever be pretty?”

“Why, you're pretty now, Shani.”

“I don't think so.”

“Nonsense. You're getting more beautiful every day. Look how much taller you are now and how your face has filled out, and you have the prettiest eyes I've ever seen.”

“That's … that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me.”

“Well, you'll hear lots of nice things like that, Shani.” Grinning, he reached out and ruffled her hair. “I'll have to get a stick to beat off all the young men who are interested in you.”

“I don't want any of them.”

“Maybe not now, but you will.” He licked his fingers and added, “My wife and I will be very careful of the young men that come courting you.”

Shani looked up, a frown creasing her smooth forehead. “Your wife? You're going to get a wife?”

“Why, of course I will someday. A man needs a wife.” He reached out and pinched her nose and laughed when she pulled back and slapped at his hand.

“I don't want you to get a wife.”

“Well, you seem to have taken over my business, so I guess you'll have to help me find a wife too. You can pick out one for me.”

He had spoken in jest, but Shani was deadly serious. “None of the young women I've seen around here are good enough for you.”

“That's right.” Bezalel gave her a hug, then kissed her with a loud smack on the cheek. “There, that's a reward. Go get me some more cakes and I'll kiss the other cheek.”

“I'll go get them right now!”

Shani whirled and ran away, her feet flying across the sand.

“That's a sharp one,” Bezalel said with a grin. “I won't have to make any decisions with her around.”

He heard his name called and turned to see Oholiab hurrying toward him. “What's the hurry, Oholiab?”

“There's going to be trouble.” He stopped before Bezalel, panting with the effort, and nodded as if he had said something very profound. “I knew nothing good would come of it. Didn't I tell you so?”

“You tell me so many things I can't keep up with them, Oholiab. What are you talking about now?”

“I'm talking about that Ethiopian woman Moses married.”

“I think that was a good thing.”

Oholiab snorted. “You're about the only one who does! Everybody's talking about how wrong it is.”

“How could it be wrong? All Moses wanted to do was protect her.”

“Why, she's a foreigner—that's what's wrong with it. Moses has already said when we go into the land of milk and honey, we can't take wives of the people there.”

“That's because they're idolaters, and besides, this woman isn't from that land. She's from Ethiopia.”

“Well, the people don't like it. A lot of them are muttering about how Moses chose to favor the mixed multitude.”

“Oholiab, Moses just tells us to love the stranger because the Lord loves the stranger. Can't you understand that?”

“I suppose you're right.” Oholiab rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “But what makes it worse is that Miriam and Aaron are both talking against Moses.”

Bezalel's eyes narrowed. “I can't believe that.”

“It's so. I myself heard Aaron say that Moses had committed a sin.”

“Aaron is wrong, and he'd better keep his mouth shut.”

****

The tribes were, for all their size, somewhat like a family. Almost everyone knew other people's business. Gossip was the only recreation some of them had, and they often concentrated on their leaders—Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

One day a crowd of people saw Aaron and Miriam heading for Moses' tent. A big bushy-bearded Hebrew nodded as they went by and said to those around him, “Didn't I tell you? They're going to straighten Moses out about this foreign woman.”

A murmur of approval went around as they all watched the two enter Moses' tent.

****

Moses looked up from where he was sitting and rose to his feet at once. “Good morning, brother, and you, sister.”

“We've come to talk to you,” Miriam said. “Your brother and I are unhappy with you.”

“I suppose it's about the woman I married.”

“Exactly that. You made one mistake marrying a woman from Midian, and now you've married another foreigner. The Lord cannot be pleased.”

“That's right,” Aaron said. “Don't you know she's of the mixed multitude?”

“I've told you many times there shall be one law for both the stranger and for Israel. We must love the strangers because we were strangers in Egypt.”

Miriam shook her head. “Your brother and I feel you should cast the woman off. The people of the mixed multitude are nothing but trouble.”

“Yes, they're trouble, but so are all of us trouble. It wasn't the mixed multitude alone that worshiped the golden calf.” Moses fixed his eyes on Aaron, who suddenly flushed and dropped his head, unable to meet Moses' gaze. “I know they are not the seed of Abraham,” Moses went on. “This means they haven't inherited the bloodline that the Hebrews have, but the Lord is their God also. Don't you know that God has even warned us against taking away the mother bird from her little ones when we find a nest in the field? He's caused a law to forbid us to muzzle the ox when it treads out the corn. If He cares for beasts like this, how much more does He care for people? He is a merciful and compassionate God.”

Miriam was rarely angry with Moses. She had been his chief supporter and loved him ever since he was an infant, but she was deeply convinced that Moses had fallen into the snare of this woman.

“Because of you, all Israel will be troubled! Do you not know that other men will take strange women as their wives? Moses, you must declare at once that you have done a wrong thing, something which is forbidden of God!”

Moses stood there, his head slightly bowed, staring at the ground as Miriam and Aaron spoke at great length concerning his marriage. Aaron finally concluded by saying, “You must send her away, Moses. There's no other way.”

Moses was quiet. He was the meekest of men, and it hurt him dreadfully that his brother and sister were angry with him and felt he had fallen into error. Still, he had heard the voice of God, and now he said, “The Lord has not prohibited Israel from taking wives among the mixed multitude, and He has told me not to exclude the stranger who acknowledges Him. This woman loves the Lord. I cannot turn away from the will of God.”

Miriam's anger boiled over. “It is not God who says this! It is your own will. It is
you
who have made this decision—not the Lord!”

Aaron spoke up at once. “Has the Lord spoken only by Moses? Has He not also spoken by us?”

“You know He has,” Miriam said, “and we will stand against you.” She stood before him, her back straight and her eyes flashing.

Moses neither moved nor spoke. He was praying in his spirit, asking the Lord to give him wisdom, and even as he stood there, a presence seemed to fill the tent. Then they all stood transfixed as they heard the voice of God.
“Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.”

At once Moses left his tent and they followed him to the tabernacle. As soon as they reached it, a pillar of cloud came down and stood at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and the voice of God summoned Aaron and Miriam. When they had stepped forward, God said:
“Listen to my words: When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

The cloud lifted, and when Moses turned, he was horrified to see that Miriam had been stricken with leprosy. Great running sores covered her face, and her hands were curled together like the claws of a crippled bird. The sores filled her throat and even her eyes!

Aaron cried out and fell at Moses' feet. “Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away.”

At once Moses began to cry out, “O God, please heal her!”

Again the Lord spoke audibly.
“If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.”

Outside the people had gathered to see what would be the outcome of the conflict between Moses, his brother, and his sister. As they came out, they were shocked to hear Miriam's voice cry out in anguish, “Unclean … unclean … I am a leper!”

“She is a leper! It's because she has slandered Moses,” one of the elders whispered. “God has punished her.”

One of the mixed multitude said with satisfaction, “She has always hated us and called us less than lepers. Now she herself is a leper.”

So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and Israel walked carefully before the man Moses. God had spoken, and it was evident that to criticize the Lord's servant was not safe!