Criticism Toward Leaders

We are continuing our series of Growing in Gospel Gratitude where our emphasis is on Handling Criticism: Criticism Toward Leaders: Numbers 12:1-16

There’s no question that our country is going through some turbulence. Turbulence in the hearts of a wide swatch of people abroad, spilling out all over the cultural floor/landscape.

Well, did our Lord rightly teach his church that the “good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” – Luke 6:45

The climate of our culture is that of criticism, and it’s typically not reflective of holiness and sobriety. There’s good criticism and bad criticism. There’s the kind of criticism that is helpful, edifying and constructive. But there’s also a kind of sinful criticism that seeks to tear down and destroy. So for today, I want to preface this sermon with a focus on the latter with an emphasis toward sinful criticism toward leaders based out of the book of Numbers 12:1-16

Proposition. As we grow in Gospel gratitude, I want to give you 3 vital truths about the seriousness of sin toward God’s appointed leaders, so that we would not imitate what is evil (3 John 1:11)

As followers of Christ who are under spiritual construction, there’s no question that there will be instances in the Christian life where our Lord will allow trials/circumstances that will bring to the surface some sinful dross that can hinder our spiritual growth and formation in Christ.

I. Sinful Criticism Distorts Reality (vv.1-2)

“Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman); and they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard it.” (pause)

It would help to paint a portrait before marching through the passage. So let me start off by saying that our Lord had established Moses as the de-facto mediator between Israel and their God.

The people of Israel knew this. Miriam and Aaron understood this, after wall, they were the They were Moses’ older siblings. So what happened? Well…they were siblings! It’s bad enough that the people of Israel grumbled against Moses because they had no meat (cf. chapter 11), it’s even worse when the leaders around are members of your own household!

In fact, the running theme of Numbers chapters 11-25 are filled to the brim with disorder/rebellion among God’s people in the Wilderness – now mark this because always on the heels of rebellion/sinful criticism follows a distortion of the truth, as we are about to see in the case of Miriam and Aaron.

It Distorts The Truth (vv. 1-2) (cf. 2 Samuel 15:1-4,13-14; Luke 20:22; John 19:12; Mark 15:7)

Now follow me here because I want you to see how sinful criticism rears its ugly head – Miriam is the principal antagonist because (1) she’s was mentioned first and (2) the original language puts a spotlight on her as one who took the active role in the rebellion against her youngest brother Moses, while Aaron took on a more passive role in following in her older sister’s lead – not too surprising, really.

If you recall the golden calf incident of Exodus of Exodus 32, when Moses was away on Mt. Sinai, and the people of Israel grew impatient and ordered Aaron to fashion a golden calf, and rather than to correct their sinful behavior, he took heed to their command and gave them what they wanted.

God then instructed Moses to go back down the mountain. And Upon coming down the mountain, he finds Aaron and asked him “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?” Aaron’s response is an absolute shell shocker if I ever heard one – “they gave [their gold] to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.” (Exodus 32:24)

Do you see how he distorted the truth? Now, fast forward our minds back to the incident with Miriam and Aaron in the Wilderness in the book of Numbers. Somehow, Miriam (who is the oldest, by the way) got her younger brother Aaron to come against Moses. She directed her attack against Moses’ wife because of her ethnicity – Moses was a Jew and his wife was of African descent. The land of Cush refers largely to the land of Ethiopia (cf. Leviticus 24:10).

And you can trace their lineage back to one of Noah’s son, Ham, who was the father of a man named… “Cush” (Genesis 10:6).^[1] It’s debated whether this is Moses’ wife Zipporah or if this is another wife that he had married after Zipporah died because in Exodus 2 Zipporah was the daughter of Jethro who was a Midianite, which is Saudi Arabia.

Whatever the case may be, the attack against Moses’ wife was clearly against her ethnicity as well as an attack on the leadership of Moses. But this attack is odd at best, and at worst, a smokescreen, for the central issue rises to the surface in verse 2 that the primary reason for Miriam’s animosity against her youngest brother was due to his prophetic office and relationship with Yahweh. In other words, she was…jealous.

“Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard it.” – verse 2

This was not a casual discussion here, folks – she convinced her other brother Aaron and they berated Moses before the people of Israel. And they seemed to think this was ok – after, Moses was their brother, you see…

Do you see how sinful criticism just distorts reality – things just get complicated and the truth becomes difficult to discern… the berating got so heated that their sinful criticism incited rebellion.

Sinful criticism…

It Incites Rebellion (v.2) (Genesis 11:5; Psalm 33:13; Hebrews 4:13)

But Yahweh see right through the fog, we know that “The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men” – psalm 33:13

He sees what’s going on in our hearts because “there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” – Hebrews 4:13

Transition: That’s the point the end of the spear of verse 2, right? “And the Lord heard it.”

II. Sinful Criticism Invites God’s Judgement (vv. 3-11)

Verse 3 “³ (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.)

I want to take you real quick back to verse 3, where we read that “Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.” Let that verse sink in lieu of what’s going on between the sibling rivalry of Miriam and Aaron against their youngest brother Moses.

Moses was a humble man – God wants you to know through his inspired pen that Moses did nothing wrong/sinful to illicit the kind of response/pushback from Miriam and Aaron. Remember, that Moses had a problem with the way he talked and he wasn’t too keen on leading Israel out of Egypt – yet the Lord placed him in that position, Miriam and Aaron – of all people – were aware of this fact! And they attacked him mercilessly.

Faith church, this happens in a number of churches in which you have, by and large, faithful pastors, who are, without warrant, sinfully attacked and criticized and torn down.

I remember a story I heard from Pastor John MacArthur when we were living out in California and members at Grace Community Church. He told us a story about a pastor who I had the opportunity to meet, and eventually he was hired on as one of the professor’s at the Master’s Seminary. He’s just a kind and faith and humble man and was a seasoned pastor who knew a lot about ministry. At some point during his ministry, he went away on vacation and entrusted the stewardship of his ministry to the assistant pastor and the rest of the elders at the church he served in. Upon coming back to church, the assistant pastor and elders had removed him from his position and he was no longer the pastor! You want to talk about a shock. To arrive at your church to which you were faithfully serving only to end up removed right under your nose!

Pastor MacArthur asked him what happened and this pastor said he truly didn’t know – he was completely blind sided. He had no idea who began a coo against him. So Pastor MacArthur asked him who the new senior pastor was at the church, to which this pastor said “the assistant pastor.” John MacArthur responded and said, “he’s the guy!”

How about another story. I will never forget a group of young men and women who came to Hope Bible Church sometime between 2014-2015. They came from another church in the area, and we knew little about them, but we gladly welcomed them into the church and assumed the best, despite the growing rumblings that was slowly taking shape around this group…

I was at-least 3 years out of seminary and was working toward getting ordained. Out of this group were two men who were clearly stood out as leaders of this small group. The best way I can describe it was that these men began to attach themselves to the leadership at Hope Bible Church.

And as they got to know the faithful pastors serving at HBC, they had a private/unsanctioned bible study that we were not privy to at the time and they began to personally attack the leadership of Hope Bible Church. The reason why we know this is because there were some who left that group and made us aware what was going on and the things they were saying.

As best as I can recall, they were immediately told to shut down the Bible study – they said they would – but they lied, they just dug their heals in and only certain people were allowed into this group. Well, I was assigned the task of calling their previous church to understand a little more about their background and what I had discovered deeply troubled me.

Upon speaking to this young pastor who was a relatively a new pastor there from what I recall, he was receiving some level of assistance/help/counsel from a well known pastor and respected church in the DC area. This pastor shared his heart with me about the grief these two men had put him through – you could just tell that this pastor was still licking his wounds – there was deep hurt there.

This young pastor had done nothing to illicit the kind of pushback and sinful criticism from these two men who had gotten others in the church to do the same. He had done nothing that rose to the kind of level to illicit the kind of criticism he had received.

Eventually, these men left the church and took a number of people with them, and they ended up at the doorstep of Hope Bible church where these men attempted to do the same thing at our church, but largely failed in their attempted coo against the leadership and a number of other people at Hope Bible Church.

The long and short of it was that after they had left, it was as though they were scattered to the 4 winds…listen.

Faith church, this is precisely what Pastor Rod was talking about a month ago in his sermon titled How to Handle a Divisive Person. I commend his sermon to you be he quoted from Romans 16:17-18 where Paul had warned the church about the kind of sinful criticism that rises to the level of where it must be dealt with.

“¹⁷ Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. ¹⁸ For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.”

Sinful Criticism Distorts Reality

It Distorts the Truth

It Incites Rebellion

And if not checked, it will invite God’s wrath. Why? Because it…

Usurps God’s Authority (vv. 4-8) (Job 13:9; Galatians 6:7-8)

Verse 4 “ Suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them came out.

This verse is pregnant with terror! Can you imagine the scene? Our Lord looks down from heavens, he sees what’s going down upon his stepstool (i.e. the earth) and suddenly his voice is heard by Moses, Aaron, and Miriam!

It’s a though our Lord stood up from his celestial throne room, stepped away from his throne of grace and said to heaven, ‘I’ll be right back…there’s a matter that needs my immediate attention…

So Yahweh, comes own as a theophany (i.e.. an appearance of God). I mean, that would certainly give given pause, would it not? Especially, to have your name called by Yahweh Himself came the terrifying realization that Miriam and Aaron messed up big time!

Verse 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, He said “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. “Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?”

In other words, when God speaks through a prophet, he doesn’t speak to them in the way he spoke with Moses. When he speaks to prophets, it’s through visions and dreams. But with Moses, it was without mediation. It was neither through dreams nor visions. Yahweh spoke directly to Moses, face to face.

No only that, Moses was privileged to see “the form of the Lord” – that is to say, When God took on form (i.e.. Theophany, the preincarnate Christ), Moses was privileged to see that! Miriam didn’t see that! Aaron didn’t see that! They knew that Moses was being used in a unique and special way that they didn’t experience No one in all of Israel was on such familiar ground with the God of Israel as was Moses.

Now, we know God’s character, right Faith? We know that he is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.” (Exodus 34:6; Numbers 14:18; Psalm 103:8; James 5:11) But this instance however, the berating of Moses by his oldest sister and brother was seen and heard in front of the people of Israel such that God would directly intervene and address them in the presence of Israel!

And the challenge for us that we had best understand is that should we ever…

Sinfully Criticize to Distorts Reality/Truth

Should we Distorts the Truth

Should we Incite Rebellion

We are asking for it, friends.

We’re inviting God’s chastening hand as believers, and wrath for the unregenerate who are outside of salvation grace.

BECAUSE…we are attempt to usurp God’s authority to take as our own, it, which…

Demands His Response (vv. 9-12) (Psalm 50:19-21)

Verses 9-12 “So the anger of the Lord burned against them and He departed. But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous. Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb!”

How about this for an illustration – sin spreads like leprosy. It’s infectious. Aaron quickly realized his sin and repented immediately, but you want to know what happens after that - he immediately went back to the position that God called him in the first place – that of a high priest for the people of Israel.

And you ask, “why didn’t Aaron receive any consequences?” And the answer is that God determines and measures out the consequences of our sinful criticism and will respond either quickly, such as the case with Miriam and Aaron, or it may be different for others. At least that seems to be the sentiment behind the writer of Psalm 50:21

Psalm 50:19-21 “You let your mouth loose in evil And your tongue frames deceit. “You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. “These things you have done and I kept silence; thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.”

John MacArthur “God’s longsuffering must never be looked upon as laxity (cf. 2 Pe 3:3-10) nor abused. His reckoning for rebellion will be manifested.” (The MacArthur Study Bible, p.776)

So in the case of Aaron, no doubt he was affected and had he been struck, he would not have been able to fulfill his intercessory role as high-priest, which was an act of sheer grace. But the point to the end of the spear behind Aaron’s intercessory function as high-priest was that it was a function and symbol of intercessory that never ceased…do you see where this is going?

III. Sinful Criticism is Forgivable (vv. 13-16)

Verses 13-16 “Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “O God, heal her, I pray!” But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again.” So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again. Afterward, however, the people moved out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.”

After intercessory prayer is made for Miriam (the implication is that she did repent) she is forgiven and receives mercy. They knew that having leprosy would have, for all intents and purposes, been like a death sentence for her, because it involved being outside the community of Israel.

And if there’s anyone here this morning, who has yet to turn to the Savior in repentance, your sin still cleaves to your soul. It’s like leprosy, but far worse because failure to repent will send you to the eternal flame.

And for us who name the name of Christ, if anyone have sinfully failed in this area, let’s go

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong, a perfect plea;
A great High Priest, whose Name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.^[2]

Repent of sinful criticism toward leaders. (vv. 13-14) (1 Thessalonians 5:12,13; Hebrews 13:17)

Reaffirm your love toward your brother or sister in Christ who has sinned in this way (v. 15-16) (2 Corinthians 2:1-11; Galatians 6:1-2,10)

Verse 15: “So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.”

I love how this passage reflect the deep love all of Israel had for Miriam. She was a believer just like them. She made a grievous mistake and sinned. They didn’t leave her behind. The text says she was received back into the community of faith.

As Paul said to the man who had grievously sinned, had repented, in 2 Corinthians 2:7-9 and forgive him and comfort him “otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.” Then Paul warns God’s people in verse 11 of that chapter “so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.”

So then let’s train our spiritual minds to reflect these truths…

[1] "For of the four sons of Ham, time has not at all hurt the name of Cush; for the Ethiopians, over whom he reigned, are even at this day, both by themselves and by all men in Asia, called Cushites" (Antiquities of the Jews 1.6). See https://www.gotquestions.org/Cushites.html

[2] https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/327