Saturday, August 10: Numbers 12– Jealousy and bigotry raise there ugly heads!

I sat in bewilderment before the text listening to bigotry and jealousy spew its venom.

I am regularly tempted to believe that somehow we Americans invented bigotry and racial discrimination because so heinous was the slavery issue and our treatment of Native Americans in our history. But that is not the case. Here is an example thousands of years before Jesus.

Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite (1). Cushites were black Africans. When the writer of Ecclesiastes said that there was ‘nothing new under the sun’ (Ecc. 1:9) sin is included in that statement.

To make matters worse from the platform of bigotry, Aaron and Miriam climb into the heights of jealousy, pride and the desire for recognition. "Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?"(2).

The Lord heard them and dealt with this insurrection swiftly.

Reading all this I had to admit that I carry those same sin-marks in my life. As much as I hate to admit it, bigotry lives in me. I try to curb it and monitor it, but it is there.

Oh, God, forgive me when for racial and ethnic or economic or education reasons I think less of other people, the people You have created in Your image! Oh, Lord, forgive me.

And jealousy, pride and the desire for recognition, they are there too! Ouch, today’s reading hurts. I want people in my work-group to know it was MY idea. I look at nicer homes and stature/prestige/job of others and quietly wish that was me!

Oh, God, forgive me. Sin lives in the bowels of my life. Sometimes it just erupts in thoughts or subtle comments. Forgive me again, Lord. Forgive me when jealousy, envy, and their cousins boil in my life.

Lord, I am sin filled. I beg You, please forgive me and lead me to the quiet waters of contentment and satisfaction in the life You have given me to live. Through my Lord Jesus, I pray. Amen