Numbers 12:1-9 English Standard Version

Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses

1 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. 2 And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. 3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. 4 And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. 5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed.

If we were to read on we will discover only Miriam was stricken with leprosy and was put out of the camp for seven days until her plague was removed at Moses’ intercession. Interestingly, their journey did not continue until after Miriam was restored. Read into that what you will.

The issue of who hears the Lord is not a sign of leadership. God chose Moses to lead them. It is a clear sign of the dangers when self-imposed prophets try to usurp leadership. They might be useful as advisors but should never be allowed to gather a following. History has produced multiple destructive cults that formed around so-called prophets and false messiahs.

We no longer live in the age of judges or earthly kings. We have one Lord who sits on the throne and has sent us the Holy Spirit to live by faith. The mistakes of the past are not to be repeated. We have seen the results. 

In this present age there are many voices rewriting history. We must not allow those loud voices to infect our faith like it infected Miriam. She was put out of the meeting place and we must take care not to allow the same thing to happen to us.

No matter our place in the body of Christ, we all serve God. As was pointed out to me by a wise counselor, when a toe is stubbed, the whole body feels it. We all matter no matter where we are placed to serve.

Romans 16:26

but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—

Were all the scriptures contained in the 66 books of the bible written by prophets?

We don’t even know who wrote the book of Job and there is speculation as to the author of Hebrews. The psalms were in places written by musicians. Moses wrote the first five books, was Moses a prophet?

The office of the prophet is long over, no one holds the title of prophet any longer. All of us who have placed our faith in the works of Christ have been given the Holy Spirit to hear by faith what our Lord has to say to us. Is that the modern day definition of prophecy?

Hebrews 1:2

but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

2 Peter 1:21

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

This is the hidden gift that resides in every believer, to hear the Word by faith. What is confusing for most of us is the listing of the prophetic gifts in two places in scripture. The first being in the grace gifts of Romans 12:6 and the second the service gifts of 1 Corinthians 12:10. What is not said about these two gifts is how they are manifested.

Whenever there is liberality within scriptures there can be those who seek to abuse those liberties for selfish reasons. Be leary of those who proclaim themselves to possess the prophetic gift, the Holy Spirit abides in us all and holds the power, not the other way round.

Prophetic utterances are not announced, they are simply spoken.

In my past experiences I have heard men say “Thus saith the Lord.” and then quote scripture. Anyone can quote scripture, that doesn’t mean it is a prophetic utterance. In some cases that method has been used in my past to hurl accusations at secret sins wounding a person. That is not the way God uses prophetic utterances. Abuses abound, and this is one good reason the gift should remain hidden.

The office of prophet does not exist but the gracious and service gifts remain. One last word to heed, it is not an administrative gift. We do not follow prophets.