JJM 

I am amazed and disturbed by the so called scholars that interpret the verses below through a flawed modern lens. Miriam was not upset because Moses married a Black women, but rather a person from another group, tribe, ethnos (culture). Let me explain why so people can start shifting their thinking. Miriam could not possibly be referring to skin color because she was a person of color. Get Hollywood out of your head and let the text speak. If Miriam was White the curse God put on her would’ve been pretty hard to see since something “resembling snow” on White flesh isn’t much of a statement. We must right these stories. The truth must be told that almost none of the biblical characters we read about had white skin. I read one commentator after another make this a Black vs. White issue. Until slavery people could certainly see the difference, but it did not matter as much as it did where you were from culturally. 

THOUGHTS FROM JACKIE 

I think Miriam’s issue had to do more with Moses marrying from a class of women that was considered the most beautiful. Zipporah shows up all dark and lovely and jaws are dropping. Miriam says my brother brought this beauty queen (Midianite) home and I don’t like it at all. God perhaps said, “I’ll make your skin even lighter. I’ll take you further away from the color most men desire.” 

FINAL THOUGHT 

Midianite women were known for drawing Hebrew men because of their beauty. It caused situations on more than one occasion. In scripture several of our heroes end up in jacked situations chasing dark chocolate women. 

Abraham & Hagar

Samson & Delilah 

David & Bathsheba

Some Bible stories have men walking away from God, because they just must have that dark chocolate. 

Numbers 12:1-16 – CSB

Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite woman he married (for he had married a Cushite woman). They said, “Does the Lord speak only through Moses? Does he not also speak through us?” And the Lord heard it. Moses was a very humble man, more so than anyone on the face of the earth. Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “You three come out to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went out. Then the Lord descended in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them came forward, he said: “Listen to what I say: If there is a prophet among you from the Lord, I make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my household. I speak with him directly, openly, and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. So why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” The Lord’s anger burned against them, and he left. As the cloud moved away from the tent, Miriam’s skin suddenly became diseased, RESEMBLING SNOW. When Aaron turned toward her, he saw that she was diseased and said to Moses, “My lord, please don’t hold against us this sin we have so foolishly committed. Please don’t let her be like a dead baby whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “God, please heal her!” The Lord answered Moses, “If her father had merely spit in her face, wouldn’t she remain in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.” So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was brought back in. After that, the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the Wilderness of Paran.