A Very Humble Man

Numbers 12

Websters defines Humble as:

: not proud : not thinking of yourself as better than other people

: given or said in a way that shows you do not think you are better than other people

: showing that you do not think of yourself as better than other people

One day Miriam and Aaron were criticizing Moses because his wife was a Cushite woman,

It's not certain if this griping was directed towards Zipporah [Midian was sometimes called Cush] or towards a new (or another) wife, nor if the complaint was about her non-Israelite background, or her skin color, or something else.

 and they said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn't he spoken through us, too?”

But the Lord heard them. Immediately he summoned Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to the Tabernacle: “Come here, you three,” he commanded. So they stood before the Lord. 

(Now Moses was the humblest man on earth.)

Then the Lord descended in the Cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tabernacle. “Aaron and Miriam, step forward,” he commanded; and they did. And the Lord said to them, “Even with a prophet, I would communicate by visions and dreams; but that is not how I communicate with my servant Moses. He is completely at home in my house! With him I speak face-to-face! And he sees the very form of God! Why then were you not afraid to criticize him?”

Moses receives honor from God - in front of his older brother and older sister.  Is this a repetition of the jealousy of Joseph's brothers?  In any case, Moses is described as the humblest man on earth, even with the praise from God ringing in everyone's ears.

Then the anger of the Lord grew hot against them, and he departed. As the Cloud moved from above the Tabernacle, Miriam suddenly became white with leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened, he cried out to Moses, “Oh, sir, do not punish us for this sin; we were fools to do such a thing. Don’t let her be as one dead, whose body is half rotted away at birth.”

And Moses cried out to the Lord, “Heal her, O God, I beg you!”

No hesitation, no mental strategies; Moses urgently calls to God in intercession for his sister.

And the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face she would be defiled seven days. Let her be banished from the camp for seven days, and after that she can come back again.”

So God essentially spit in Miriam's face.  

And what about Aaron?  Is he a guy that goes along to get along?  It's not easy for a brother to correct a sister (we are raised to protect them, not attack them - even in rhetoric - but sometimes they need it).

So Miriam was excluded from the camp for seven days, and the people waited until she was brought back in before they traveled again. Afterwards they left Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

In temper and conduct, may the example of Moses be carried in our habits.  What a beautiful spirit he manifested - no reproaches, no angry denunciations. There was no revenge in his heart.  Like Jesus, Moses could pray for those spitefully using Him.

May we have the grace to pray humbly for those who ill treat us.