1. "The Bible calls us not to fight or to flee, but to have faith. Not in ourselves, but in God. In the face of opposition, we have faith that God hears us and will fight for us. And we need only to be silent."

2. "Envy needs little evidence to justify its actions. Do not be surprised when your obedience to God invites and brings opposition in your life."

3. "Proximity and nearness to God, it doesn't stir pride or cause us to be proud, it kills our pride. Nearness to God does not create in us a sense of self-importance. Instead, it exposes it. Suffocates it, and replaces it with God's importance."

4. "When we slowly but surely die to our pride, we slowly but surely die to the need to defend ourselves."

5. "Every single slanderous sentence, every session of gossip, every threat, every single word against God's people, the Lord has heard it. He has heard it all and he remembers all. There's nothing that he has missed in all of the world's history."

6. "The reason we are called to trust and not to defend ourselves is because the Lord hears and will get glory for vindicating his people in the end."

7. "God saves us by his word. He sanctifies us by his word. He guides us by his word. He assembles and orders his church by his word. If you want to hear God speak today, just open and read your Bible. He has spoken."

8. "I can think of no greater name as a believer to hear God say to you than 'Mine.' If you have repented of your sins and placed your faith in Jesus Christ, He looks past your sins, your struggles, your rebellions and imperfections, and He looks at you and says, 'Mine.'"

9. "One of the ways in which God brings healing in our lives and conforms us into his image is when we intercede for those people who've harmed us, who've opposed us, and who've caused us great pain in our life. In doing so, we become like God in the process."

10. "Moses had encountered the living God and he never recovered from it. He experienced a mercy that was so great and so deep that the only thing he could think of was to extend it to other people."

Observation Questions

1. According to Numbers 12:1-2, what two reasons did Miriam and Aaron give for speaking against Moses, and what question did they pose to challenge his authority?

2. How does Numbers 12:3 describe Moses, and what characteristic distinguished him from all other people on earth?

3. In Numbers 12:6-8, what distinction does God make between how He speaks to ordinary prophets versus how He speaks to Moses?

4. What question does God ask Miriam and Aaron in verse 8, and what was God's emotional response described in verse 9?

5. According to Numbers 12:10-12, what happened to Miriam after God departed, and how did Aaron respond to Moses when he saw her condition?

6. What was Moses' response to Miriam's affliction in verse 13, and what consequence did the Lord still require according to verses 14-15?

Interpretation Questions

1. The sermon suggests that the Cushite wife was a "smokescreen" for Miriam and Aaron's real concern. Why is it significant that their stated objection (Moses' wife) differed from their actual motivation (desire for authority), and what does this teach us about the nature of opposition?

2. How does Moses' description as "very meek" (v. 3) relate to his silence throughout this confrontation? What does the sermon suggest is the connection between proximity to God and the death of pride?

3. Why does God emphasize multiple times that Moses is "my servant" (vv. 7-8), and what does this reveal about the true nature of Miriam and Aaron's opposition—was it ultimately against Moses or against God Himself?

4. The sermon presents Moses as a "type of Christ" in this passage. In what ways does Moses' intercession for Miriam foreshadow Christ, and in what ways does the sermon say Moses falls short of being a perfect picture of Christ?

5. What is the significance of the phrase "and the Lord heard it" at the end of verse 2? How does this detail provide both warning and comfort for believers facing opposition?

Application Questions

1. The sermon identifies two natural responses to opposition: fighting or fleeing. Which tendency do you most identify with, and what would it look like this week to respond with faith instead—trusting God to vindicate you rather than defending yourself?

2. Moses was opposed specifically because of his obedience to God's calling. Is there an area of your life where faithfulness to God has invited criticism or opposition from others, even family members? How might this passage encourage you to persevere?

3. The sermon emphasizes that praying for those who hurt us is one way God brings healing in our lives. Is there someone who has sinned against you that you have not yet interceded for? What specific prayer could you offer for them this week?

4. Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote that the truly meek person "never pities himself" and is "amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do." In what situations are you most tempted toward self-pity or self-defense, and how might remembering your identity as belonging to God ("mine") change your response?

5. The sermon states that God has clearly spoken in His Word and "we need nothing else for life and godliness." Is there a difficult teaching in Scripture that you are tempted to soften or avoid because it invites opposition from others? What would it look like to trust God to vindicate His Word rather than defending it through your own efforts?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Exodus 3:1-15 — This passage shows God's original call of Moses while he was faithfully shepherding sheep, demonstrating that Moses did not seek leadership but was chosen by God.

2. 1 Peter 2:18-25 — Peter describes how Christ responded to opposition by entrusting Himself to the One who judges justly, providing the ultimate model for believers facing unjust treatment.

3. Matthew 5:3-12 — Jesus' Beatitudes describe the "blessed life" including the meek inheriting the earth and those persecuted for righteousness, directly supporting the sermon's call to meekness in opposition.

4. Hebrews 7:23-28 — This passage presents Christ as our eternal High Priest who always lives to intercede for us, showing how Jesus is the "true and better intercessor" that Moses foreshadowed.

5. Romans 12:14-21 — Paul instructs believers to bless those who persecute them and leave vengeance to God, providing practical guidance for responding to opposition with faith rather than retaliation.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Facing Serious Opposition in Life

II. Be Slow to Speak (Numbers 12:1-3)

III. Trust That God Hears and Will Act (Numbers 12:4-9)

IV. Intercede for Those Who Oppose You (Numbers 12:10-16)

V. The Transforming Power of Encountering God

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Have you ever experienced real opposition in your life? Now, I'm not talking about the kind of opposition like who gets the last two scoops of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, because we know that the dad of the house should always get those. It's a good and right thing. And I'm not talking about opposition where it was like on social media, you got into a little bit of a spat with somebody that you don't know. Or you got in a disagreement with somebody, a coworker, over something that really didn't matter.

I'm talking about a serious opposition, an opposition that was so real that it wasn't after your ideas, it was after you. This opposition, this person or people, they were coming after you and they wanted to see you ousted and removed. Maybe they thought you were doing your job poorly. Thought somebody else could do it better. Or maybe themselves, they themselves were convinced that they could do a better job than you.

And so it was their task for the good of everyone else to see you removed. How did you respond? How do you respond when you face serious opposition in life? Are you a fighter? Your natural tendency and disposition is when somebody comes after you, you bow up and quickly seek to show them that you're the wrong cat to mess with.

That you are confident and fearless in the face of opposition. You don't care if it's one person or a hundred, you won't back down. Maybe you're not a fighter, but you're someone who flees. The very thought of conflict with other people makes you anxious. In fact, you order your life in every way to avoid these kinds of situations altogether.

You do everything that you can to make everyone around you happy. And if someone wants something from you, you'll happily give it to them. You're the kind of person that is paralyzed and struggles with the thought, maybe you said something that offended somebody. It might even keep you up all night. You don't run to fights, you run from them.

We all have a natural disposition to how we respond to opposition. But how do we as people who have been born again have a new heart and a new life, how are we supposed to respond to those who oppose us? Do we fight? Do we flee? Well, I think today in Numbers chapter 12, we're gonna see that it's neither one of those things.

What we find and see is that the Bible calls us not to fight or to flee, but to have faith. Not in ourselves, but in God. In the face of opposition, we have faith that God hears us and will fight for us. And we need only to be silent. So if you have your Bible, I invite you to go ahead and grab them and turn to Numbers chapter 12.

If you have a red Bible beside you, this is found on pages 120 and 121. Numbers chapter 12. We're going to read all 16 verses now.

This is what Moses writes through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married, before he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, 'Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it.

Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. 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. 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. 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. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly and not in riddles.

He beholds the form of the Lord.

Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and they departed. When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, 'O my Lord, do not punish us, because we have done foolishly and have sinned.

Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried to the Lord, oh God, please heal her, please. But the Lord said to Moses, if her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed for seven days?

Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.

So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days and the people did not set out on march until Miriam was brought in again. After that the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran. So last week, as we studied Numbers chapter 11, we saw that Israel had been camped out at Sinai. So from Exodus chapter 19, all through Leviticus, all through Numbers 10:10, the people are camping out, receiving God's law, receiving instructions for how to build the tabernacle, and learning how they are supposed to worship God and live in the land that he has given them. They finally set out for the exciting prospects of finally making it to the promised land.

And things went poorly rather quickly. We saw that the people complained about their misfortunes, about not having the right food that they wanted to eat and they longed in their hearts to go back to Egypt. We saw that Moses was so burdened by the people that he just said, Lord, go ahead and kill me. Yet the Lord in his mercy heard Moses' lament and he provided men to help bear the burdens of the people and he judged those who had rejected God. You would assume that after an event like that, that the others would be warned and afraid, that they would walk soberly toward the promised land.

But after reading Numbers chapter 12, that would be the wrong assumption. We see early here that Moses faces opposition not from the people of Israel, but from the people in his own family. How does Moses respond to this opposition? And what can we learn and apply to our own lives? I think there are three things in this passage that Moses does that we can apply to our own life in facing opposition.

There's three things that we should do when we face opposition. The first thing is be slow to speak.

Be slow to speak. This covers verses one through three.

The second thing is trust that God hears and will act. This covers verses four through nine. The third point, the third thing for us to remember and to do is intercede for those who oppose you. Intercede for those who oppose you. This is verses 10 through 16.

Let's look at point one now. When faced with opposition, be slow to speak. So we see here in verse one, much like last week, that there is immediate conflict that happens. The people are discontent. This time it's Miriam and Aaron, which is believed to be Moses' sister and brother.

What is the reason they're speaking against Moses? Well, on the surface, they say, the Cushite woman, for he had married. Now, from the outset, we don't fully know who this woman is. It could be Zipporah. We see that he married her in Exodus chapter 2, and Habakkuk 3:7 equates Midian and Cushan as the same place.

So they could be speaking against Zipporah. Moses could have married another woman, and Cush was believed to be ancient Ethiopia. So this could be racial prejudice. They could have opposed Moses because he had married a woman who was not an Israelite. But to decide who she was is to speculate on what scripture, speculate where scripture does not speak.

However, quickly reading on to verse two, we see their real motivation. The real motivation was not, or real concern was not Moses' wife. That was a smokescreen. It was a mirage. The real issue, the real angle, the real agenda was this: they wanted more authority.

Look what they say in verse 2: Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? This was a power grab. And this should show us that in the face of opposition, ordinarily, the issue on the surface really isn't the issue at all. It's one of the reasons why we should be slow to speak, we should pray and listen, because the more we wait and the more we ask questions, we begin to see there's actually greater problems underneath.

The issue on the surface really isn't the problem at all. So they confront Moses and really speak to the people in some ways and they're saying, Has God not also spoken to us? Which is a true thing. If you were to go back to Exodus 15:20, Miriam is listed as a prophetess. We know that Aaron was the high priest and the Lord used both of them and spoke through both of them.

So what was the reason? Why their complaint? Well, maybe the people began to complain and grumble. They began to pull Aaron and Miriam to the side and to say, you know, that's tough times out here. People are dying.

Hot is difficult. Seems like Moses is not strong enough to lead us. And his leprosy policy, his guidance and restrictions are a little too tight at times, a little too strict, or they're not strict enough. Maybe you could lead us. Maybe you could do a better job than Moses can.

Regardless of their motivation, Miriam and Aaron fiercely challenged Moses' authority. And it's interesting as we think about this is Moses' life, we see much of it throughout the Pentateuch. Really from Exodus to Numbers, really to Deuteronomy, it kind of functions as a biography of Moses. And when you think about how much we see of his life, I can't think of no other person that we see as much of their life and their teaching as Moses, but maybe Jesus. We see much of his life, and so we see basically everything about this man.

We're able to track his life and what he did. We see early on that it's the Lord who called him out. The Lord is the one who put him in this position.

So what was the real opposition to Moses? What had he done wrong to deserve this opposition? Well, Moses obeyed God. Moses had obeyed the Lord. He didn't pursue this position on his own.

He wasn't trying to be the leader of Israel. Actually, when you go back and read Exodus chapter three, he flees Egypt. He ends up meeting a man named Jethro who gives him his daughter and it says this in Exodus three, and Moses was content to dwell with the man.

He's not seeking more authority, yet it was the one, it was God who was the one who called Moses out. And what was Moses doing when God called him to lead? Was he surfing indeed.com looking for better jobs? No, he was faithfully caring for the sheep. He was doing what Jethro had entrusted him to do.

You see, Moses had this position of leadership not because he sought it, but God sought him. God had entrusted that to him. What we find out and see here with Miriam and Aaron is envy needs little evidence to justify its actions. Envy needs little evidence or proof to justify itself and its actions. So church family today know this.

Do not be surprised when your obedience to God invites and brings opposition in your life. Just don't be surprised by it. When your obedience to God brings opposition into your life. It's clearly what happened here to Moses. But look how Moses responds.

Look down at verse three. Look how he responds. He doesn't. They complain, they oppose him, and then Moses says here in verse three, he says this, Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. Which is interesting because Moses is writing this about himself.

It doesn't seem very meek. It's like going into a job interview and the interviewer asks, what are your strengths? And you reply, My humility. It seems like an odd play. Why was Moses writing this?

Why list the conflict and then list this description about himself? Well, I think Moses is trying to help us see that he had no strength in himself. He was a poor and needy man. He was trying to say that I'm afflicted. I have nothing in myself.

I trust the Lord. You see, the Hebrew word that's listed here for meekness is also can be translated humble or poor or afflicted and oppressed. Listen how David uses this same word in Psalm 9:18, For the needy shall not always be forgotten. And the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. The word poor there is also translated meek.

Moses doesn't say anything, doesn't defend himself. In fact, Moses only speaks one time in this whole passage, and it's in verse 13, and we'll see that later in what he says and what he does there. I think it's Moses trying to say is I'm poor and needy in spirit, and I'm not gonna defend myself. I trust the Lord to do that. And what's interesting to me, if anyone in this passage was going to have pride, it should have been Moses.

I mean, when they initially opposed him, he could have spoken up and said, do you not know who I am? Do you not know who I work for and who I represent? But he doesn't do that at all. You see, because it's this proximity to God And nearness to God, it does not stir or stoke pride, it kills it. Proximity and nearness to God, it doesn't stir pride or cause us to be proud, it kills our pride.

Nearness to God does not create in us a sense of self-importance. Instead, it exposes it. Suffocates it, and replaces it with God's importance. And when we slowly but surely die to our pride, we slowly but surely die to the need to defend ourselves. That's exactly what happened here to Moses.

He had died to his pride, saw there was no reason to defend himself at all. And this, this is true meekness. And this is what it looks like. What about for you? If you were going to describe yourself in a few words, would meekness be one of the words that you would use?

Or better yet, maybe ask three people today that know you best and say, How would you describe me? Do you think meek would be one of the words they would use? Or growing in meekness? Or would they say, you,'re someone who is slow to speak? When corrected in the face of opposition.

I wanna be clear today. There are times that God allows for believers who've been greatly sinned against to seek justice. We are grateful for the fact that the Lord allows us to live in a country as citizens that we have rights and means to acquire justice for those who have harmed us and sinned against us. We see Paul does this in Acts where he appeals to Caesar.

But ordinarily the disposition and the posture of a Christian should be one who is slow to speak and to defend themselves, even at great cost to themselves. This is the Christian life. This is what Christ calls us to. And you remember what Christ calls this life in Matthew chapter five? He calls it the blessed life.

Blessed are those who are meek, for they shall inherit the earth. It's counter-cultural, it's counter to our natural dispositions, but it's what Christ saved us for. And when you think about this, who is the meekest to ever live as we heard about in one of our prayers earlier? It was Christ. If anyone had a right to defend himself, it was Jesus.

And yet he was silent before his accusers. He prayed for those who persecuted him. That's what Christ did. A few years ago, I read part of Martin Lloyd-Jones' sermons on the Sermon on the Mount. It'd be a really good thing for you to get a copy from the bookstall and read that as one of your devotionals.

It's an excellent book. And I read his sermon on meekness, and now I make it my goal to read that sermon every single year. Because you know why? It is not natural to my disposition to be meek, to be silent in the face of opposition. So I'm going to read you this quote, it's a little bit longer, but it's Martin Luther Jones, that's okay.

And this is what he says about true meekness here. To be truly meek means we no longer protect ourselves because we see there's nothing worth defending. So we are not on the defensive, all that is gone. The man who is truly meek never pities himself. He's never sorry for himself.

He never talks to himself and saying, you,'re having a hard time.

How unkind these people are to not understand you. He never thinks how wonderful I really am if only other people gave me a chance. Self-pity. What hours and years we waste in this. But the man who has become meek is finished with all that.

When a man truly sees himself, he knows nobody can say anything about him that is too bad. You need not worry about what men say or do. You know you deserve it and all the more. The man who is truly meek is the one who is amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do. That's the picture of meekness.

That's the picture of Moses. Moses did not speak up for himself because he had nothing to defend. And ultimately he was trusting that the Lord would be the one who would vindicate him in the end.

How do you respond in the face of opposition? Be slow to speak, slow to defend yourself. The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Point two, trust that God hears and will act.

This covers verses four through nine. So here, we see that God now is going to respond on Moses' behalf. There's three things in this section I wanna see in particular. One, we'll see how God hears. So this whole section here, four through nine, is about God vindicating Moses, which is ultimately what this passage is about.

God's vindication of Moses. So we're gonna see how God hears in vindicating Moses, and also in the vindication, God confirms his word, and then God affirms his people. So God hears, we're gonna see that first, then we see God confirms his word. We'll see God affirms his people. Let's look at God hears, look back at verse 2.

Now we see that Moses lists that the people complain, that Miriam and Aaron complain, they oppose him. But then Moses writes something there at the end of verse 2. Did you notice it when I read it? It's a very subtle thing that's easy to pass over. He says this, Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?

Has he not spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. Last week, Moses, he prayed, he lamented toward the Lord and the Lord heard it. And now the opposition against Moses, the Lord hears. This is our confidence and our comfort in the face of opposition is that the Lord hears it.

The Lord hears all things. So we can be slow to speak, slow to defend ourself because we know that the Lord hears. It's like this yesterday I read an article that was talking about how kind of data privacy stuff and that how we often assume that if we delete our text messages, they're gone forever, that no one else can see them or find them. And it's actually false. That though it may be deleted from our phones, it's most likely still out there somewhere in the world to be found and read by someone potentially.

And the article listed a man who'd worked with NASA and IBM and Harvard and MIT. And after arguing, it's basically nearly impossible to guarantee that a text message can be deleted. Here's his counsel. Don't write something that you're going to be sorry about later if someone brings it up to you. For many people, this is a terrifying thought, right?

Some of you know you're on text messages and you're like, Lord, let them be gone. It's a terrifying thought that somewhere out there in the world, These text messages could reappear and the whole world could see and read them. It's a sobering thing. But what should be more alarming and more sobering than humanity seeing our own text messages is that God sees all and knows all. Every conversation, every sentence, He hears and remembers.

And as Christians, that should completely sober us today. But better yet, it should comfort us. Because every single slanderous sentence, every session of gossip, every threat, every single word against God's people, the Lord has heard it. He has heard it all and he remembers all. There's nothing that he has missed in all of the world's history.

The reason we are called to trust and not to defend ourselves is because the Lord hears and will get glory for vindicating his people in the end. This is exactly what Christ did. This is what Peter lists in first Peter two, right? He says this, he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to the one who judges justly. We can be silent because we know that God hears and one day he will not be silent on our behalf. He will speak and he will vindicate his people and that is exactly what Moses does here. He's silent and the Lord is vindicating Moses. The Lord, the one who judges justly, is acting on his behalf.

This is what God will do for all of his people on the last day. Not only we see God hears here, but we see that God, in vindicating Moses, confirms his word. So look through here in verses six and on. Pick your Bible's there. This is the Lord's first response as he rebukes them.

He says this, 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. Not so with Moses, my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.

With him I speak mouth to mouth clearly and not in riddles. He beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? It's the very beginning, the Lord says, hear my words. If there's any confusion, I'm going to clear it up right now.

This is how I've spoken. The Lord lists and he says, if there be a prophet among you, I will speak in dreams and visions and riddles, but not so with Moses. We see the Lord speaks that way through Daniel and other major and minor prophets throughout the Old Testament. That's how the Lord has spoken. But with Moses, he's altogether different.

The Lord speaks with Moses mouth to mouth as a man with his friend. So in vindicating Moses, God is confirming his word. And to further communicate the significance of Moses' role, the Lord says he also beholds the form of the Lord. No other prophet beheld the form of the Lord. Now, it's not entirely clear what this means because we see in Exodus 33 that Moses asked to see the Lord, to see his glory.

Remember what the Lord replies with? He said, All of His goodness would pass before Him, but you cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live. So Moses here sees the form of the Lord, but not His being nor His face. But the Lord is saying this to communicate the utter difference between Moses and Aaron and Miriam. He had a completely different role.

What is God doing in all of this? He is vindicating Him and He's ultimately vindicating His Word.

God is saying to Aaron and Miriam, I have spoken. The reason why Moses is doing what he's doing is because I've spoken to him. The reason that the tabernacle is set up the way that it is is because I have spoken it. The reason that the laws are what they are is because I have told them to be that way. I have spoken it.

And the reason that Moses is leading you through the desert in this way is because I have said so. God is saying to Miriam and Aaron, your problem isn't with Moses, your problem is with me and my word. The Lord is confirming his word. Brothers and sisters, we can have confidence today that God has clearly spoken and it's our job to listen and obey. God is doing everything for us by his word.

He saves us by his word. He sanctifies us by his word. He guides us by his word. He assembles and orders his church by his word. If you want to hear God speak today, just open and read your Bible.

He has spoken. There's no confusion about it. We need nothing else. God has given us all we need for life and godliness in his word. And it is not our responsibility to go on kind of a PR campaign to help God look better in the eyes of the world with some of the difficult things that God has said.

It is our responsibility to submit to his word and to obey it and trust that he will vindicate us in the end. So in affirming or in vindicating Moses, God is confirming his word, saying all that I've said, Moses is doing.

Charles Spurgeon said this about God's word, and it'd be tempting for us today to try to make the word more palatable for others to accept us and to accept the word. Here's what Spurgeon says, there's nothing in God's word that is ashamed of the light.

Church, it's our responsibility to hear God's word and to obey it. And he will vindicate those who do that on the last day. So in vindicating Moses, God shows that he hears, he confirms his word. And now next, look, he affirms his servant. He affirms his servant.

Look what God says here. He asks a devastating question to Miriam and Aaron. Why were you not afraid then? Because I have spoken, why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And Moses is standing there hearing this whole thing.

But notice what the Lord says several times. He says it in verse 7. He said, My servant Moses, not so with my servant. Then he says, Moses is faithful in all my house. He's the most faithful one there.

And then again he says, you, are my servant. Again, the Lord is saying, you,'re not just speaking against me and my word, but my Son, my servant, the one who I have placed there. He is mine. Why were you not afraid to speak against him?

How encouraging this had to be to Moses, the weak and feeble and frail man that he was, to hear the Lord hear him say, moses is mine. Think about your own family growing up. Did your family members, your parents have kind of terms of endearment for you or names that they would call you that just made you swell with pride and joy? So I was the only boy, so I'd get called the boy. Pretty bland, but it worked.

One sister would call me Benhamin, because I'm Benjamin. Another one's sister would call me Herman. Don't really know what that means or what that was ever about, but that's what she did. But it means something to me because it's like, well, they love me. What about you with your family?

What name would they call you that brings great affirmation and joy in your family? I can think of no greater name as a believer to hear God say to you than mine. That when He looks at you, if you are His, if you have repented of your sins and placed your faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation, He looks past your sins, he looks past your struggles, he looks past your rebellions and your imperfections, and he looks at you and he says, Mine. What greater comfort do we need today in the face of opposition, is that if you are in Christ, you are God's and you will be for all eternity. God vindicates his servants and he affirms them in the process that they are his.

This was the comfort the apostle John gave to the persecuted saints when he wrote Revelation. Listen to what John writes in Revelation 18, where Babylon is defeated, all the wicked rulers and authorities and governments of the earth are defeated. Listen to what he writes in Revelation 19:1-2. He says, After this I heard what seemed to be a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just, for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.

They are his. In the end, he will vindicate his people. Brothers and sisters, if you're looking for affirmation today in the faith, look no further than to Christ. For you are in him, you are the Lord's. No matter what you go through in this life, no matter what opposition you face, God will vindicate you on the last day, and you need only to be silent.

So the next thing that we see here is that ultimately that God is going to vindicate Moses through confronting those who opposed him. God told him that I hear God confirmed His Word and God affirms His servant. The next thing we're going to see, and my last and final point is this, when faced with opposition, intercede for those who oppose you. Intercede for those who oppose you. We see this in verses 10 through 15.

I'm going to read that again here. As the Lord speaks, He confronts them. He asks them, why weren't you afraid to speak against my servant Moses? It says, the anger of the Lord was kindled, and then he departed. It was assumed maybe the judgment has come and God's verbal rebuke was enough.

But we see here the Lord continues to act in judgment upon Aaron and Miriam. It says this, When the cloud was removed over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous like snow, and Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said to Moses, oh, my Lord, do not punish us, because we have done foolishly and have sinned.

Let her not be as one who is dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb. Moses cried to the Lord, oh God, please heal her, please. But the Lord said to Moses, if her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again. So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march until Miriam was brought in again.

So God's verbal confrontation was not the only judgment that would be received for opposing Moses. We see here that when the cloud lifts that Miriam has leprosy here, some form of skin disease. Now many of you wonder and ask why was it Miriam only? I think it simply was because Aaron was the high priest. His responsibility was to go before the Lord and offer sacrifices for the sins of the people.

But notice here Aaron's response, that he doesn't get out scot-free. He clearly sees and recognizes that he has done wrong because he immediately goes to Moses, the one who was opposing, now asking for forgiveness. Oh, Lord, my, my Lord, it's what he calls him. He acknowledges his divinely appointed role and says, Do not punish us because we have acted foolishly and have sinned. Aaron feels the weight of his own sin.

Of Miriam's sin, and he recognizes that they have done wrong. But notice Moses' response here. Look down at verse 13. How does Moses respond? His siblings have finally gotten the justice they deserve for not respecting him enough.

For most of us, this would be cause of celebration. Finally, justice have been served, and I have been vindicated. But how does Moses respond? With rejoicing, with gloating, says this in verse 13. This is how Moses responds to his sister and brother's sin, to the punishment they received.

O God, please heal her, please. There is no gloating. There is no rejoicing. Only a brother who is grieved over his sister and brother's sin.

He loves them so much that He would plead on their behalf even though, even though He was the one who had been sinned against. Can you relate with Moses today? Are you here and you've been sinned against by somebody? Maybe you probably look around in this room and maybe it was this week, there was another member of this church has sinned against you and said something and you're still bearing the weight of what they've done against you or said against you. Or maybe you're like Moses and it's not a church member, but it's a friend or a family member like Moses.

What they've done and what they've said, you still feel the weight of those scars daily. And the hurt and the sorrow, it still follows you around like a shadow each and every day. One of the ways in which God brings healing in our lives is to pray for those who hurt us. One of the ways in which God brings healing in our lives and conforms us into his image is when we intercede for those people who've harmed us, who've opposed us, and who've caused us great pain in our life. In doing so, we become like God in the process.

Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 5:44-45. I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. When we pray for those who harm us and oppose us, when we seek to do them good in prayer, we are bringing God glory because we are acting like God in the process. Doing good to those who reject us. Just think about what Jesus said there in Matthew 5.

God has continually done good to those people who will never turn towards him, who have consistently rejected him. And yet he continues to send rain and sun on them because he's a merciful God, even though they'll never turn towards him. This is what Christ calls us to. This is the expectation for the Christian. Life.

And this is what Moses does here. He prays for those who sinned against him. He's grieved over their sin. Now it's interesting here. He, he prays and she's partially healed.

Look what the Lord says in verse 14. He basically responds in saying, sure, okay, but she's still going to be cast out seven days. There's this interesting illustration here about the Lord talking about a father spitting in the child of the face, which was apparently a custom where people would shame one another.

Be cast out for seven days because of their sin. But Moses yet he pleads for her. And do you see it here? You see Christ in this passage? That Moses here is a type of Christ.

He's a foreshadowing of who Jesus would be and what Jesus would do. I mean, do you hear Moses' plea and not think of Jesus on the cross saying, forgive them for they know not what they do? Moses, a picture, a glimpse of a greater reality that is to come in the person, in the work of Jesus Christ. But though he's a picture, he's a poor picture. He's imperfect in that.

Jesus is the true and better intercessor. Because you see, Moses pleads for her, she's still cast out of the camp. And at no point in Moses' plea does he say, Father, let me take her sickness and disease and I will be cast out on her behalf. Moses doesn't do it, but Christ did that for us. Christ took our sins, he took the punishment for our sins and he was put outside the camp for us so that we could be brought near to God.

Christ is the true and better intercessor today. That is the comfort that we have is that Christ in this very moment knows our every weakness, yet he's interceding on our behalf with the father every single second of our life. He is the true and better intercessor. His blood speaks a better word. And he loves us in spite of us put outside the camp for our sins, for what we deserve.

If you're here and you're not a Christian, We're so thankful you're here. The greatest thing that we can offer you today is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the best thing we can give you. You see, we're all sinners. We've all done wrong.

We've all sinned against God. And we all, because of our sin, deserve God's good and right judgment. This is God's world. He has created it for us to live in, and yet we have rebelled against him. And if you don't know Jesus, you're currently in rebellion against God.

But hear the message of this, that Jesus was put outside the camp, that he was put out, he was killed for sin, put on the cross, took God's wrath so that those who repent, turn from their sin and trust in him can be brought in and be reconciled to God. If you will turn towards Christ today, you will find life in him and you will be reconciled to God. That's the greatest need you have in your life. Is to be reconciled to God. If you want to know more about what it means to follow Jesus, we have members all around us who will be here in the South Room talking afterwards, and I'll be at that back door.

We'd love nothing more than to answer your questions about what it means to follow Jesus and how to become a Christian. Church, we will face opposition and persecution in this life. It's a reality. What will happen? It's not our job to vindicate ourselves, but to continue to entrust ourselves to the one who judges justly.

He hears all, he'll confirm his word in the end, and he affirms us by his son. So when we face opposition, continue to be silent and to continue to trust the Lord, because one day he will come and he will act on our behalf. So in conclusion, I asked, what is your natural disposition? In the face of opposition, do you fight or do you flee? I bring that up because Moses was once a man who, when faced with opposition, he didn't run away, he ran to it.

We see in Exodus chapter 2 that Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave and Moses and goes and kills the man, runs into the opposition. He hides the man. Then Pharaoh hears about it, and then Moses becomes not a fighter but a fleer, and he runs away. He hides in shame. But what happened to this man Moses to turn him from a man who once fought and fled to a man who was meek?

What changed him from a man who once would defend himself or others to one who would be persecuted by others for the sake of God. What happened? He had encountered the living God and he never recovered from it. He encountered the living God and never recovered from it and he experienced a mercy that was so great and so deep that the only thing he could think of was to extend it to other people. What Moses did with Miriam and Aaron was simply what God had done with Moses.

He extended the mercy and grace that he had received from God. So brothers and sisters, we face opposition. Those who oppose us for standing up and trusting the Word of God, it's simply another opportunity for us to extend that same mercy that we have received in Christ Jesus. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we come before youe to praise youe as the God who takes sinners and redeems them and gives them new life. Father, we thank youk for how youw have spoken and youd've drawn a people to Yourself. Oh Father, we pray that as we hear your Word today that we would be a people who no longer feel the need to defend ourselves. But who trusts you, who trusts that you will vindicate all your people on the last day. Oh, Father, we pray you would increase our faith when we are weak.

Strengthen us by your Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.