View source

{{info}}"My God, Moses, the girl is black!"<br>The end of Miriam's attack<br>Made Moses wince and set his jaw<br>Like stone to guard his tongue with law,<br>And hold his peace, if somehow love<br>Might be reborn. There was more dove<br>In Moses than the hawk. Her words,<br>Like wolves upon the hapless herds<br>Of Midian, had almost ripped<br>The meekness from his heart and stripped<br>Him of the deep respect he'd known<br>For Miriam. Almost a stone<br>Now, Moses watched his sister's face,<br>And feared, lest pedigree and race<br>Had eaten, like a leprosy<br>Of pride, the root of sympathy,<br>And killed the power to confess,<br>And serve as Israel's prophetess.&nbsp;

Two years Zipporah had been dead.<br>And though she was not born or bred<br>A Hebrew lass, she looked like one.<br>Perhaps too swarthy in the sun<br>Some said. But few denied that she<br>Was strong and helped her husband be<br>The greatest man in Israel.<br>None doubted Moses loved her well.<br>Now she was gone, and in her place<br>The great man Moses turned his face<br>To love a Cushite slave. He shocked<br>All Israel. And while some mocked,<br>He married her and made her free,<br>And said, "She will be wife to me.<br>Zipporah came from Midian,<br>The Cushite from the Land of Sun.<br>God made them love himself, then me;<br>There is here no idolatry." 

But Miriam seemed singed with hell:<br>"Are there no maids in Israel!<br>And is our own tribe so unfit<br>That you should turn your face and spit<br>On all the widows in the land<br>And offer up your noble hand<br>To foreigners? Has not the clan<br>Of Levi any wives a man<br>Like you could love or tolerate?<br>Or, Moses, do you really hate<br>Your own, to raid a Cushite shack?<br>My God, Moses, the girl is black!" 

The thought flashed over Moses' mind:<br>This is not Miriam, the kind,<br>And gentle prophetess. Oh, she<br>Was strong, but animosity<br>Was not the way her strength would show. 

And then she gave another blow,<br>And stunned her brother once again:<br>"Do you think you're the only man<br>Who hears the Lord in Israel?<br>When God has plans does he not tell<br>To me as well, and Aaron too,<br>What he designs and plans to do?" 

The knuckles of his hand turned white<br>Around his rod, and all the might<br>Of Moses' meekness ruled his heart,<br>Until the silence broke apart<br>With heaven's voice: "Come out you three<br>Before the tent. Confer with me,<br>And we will have a reckoning."<br>And as they came before the King,<br>The Lord descended in a cloud,<br>And stood with glory for a shroud,<br>And said to Miriam, "Stand forth<br>With Aaron now and hear the worth<br>Of murmuring against the friend<br>Of God. There is a sudden end<br>For pride in priest and prophet both.<br>Beware, for I am God, and loath<br>To let my friend be vilified<br>For long. Do you not know I hide<br>My plans from prophets in a dream:<br>They are not always what they seem.<br>Not so with Moses, Miriam,<br>All of the words I speak to him<br>Are mouth to mouth and clear as day,<br>And he knows everything I say.<br>Why were you not afraid to mock<br>The faithful shepherd of my flock?" 

And suddenly the cloud was gone,<br>And Aaron looked, and saw upon<br>The skin of Miriam, as white<br>As melting snow, the dreaded sight<br>Of leprosy. And Aaron turned,<br>"Have mercy Moses, we have learned<br>Our lesson well. Let her not be<br>Among the living dead. For we<br>Are old, and do not always say<br>What we approve. Now, brother, pray<br>For her." 

Before the words were out<br>Of Aaron's mouth there was no doubt<br>What Moses meant to do. He knelt<br>Beside the rotting flesh and felt<br>A wave of pity break behind<br>His eyes and flood his face with tears,<br>And heave his chest for all the years<br>That he had known his sister's joy,<br>Since he was just a little boy.<br>She pressed her forehead into him,<br>And heard him say, "I love you Mim.<br>It's only right, you know, that I<br>Should hold you near me now and try<br>To save your life the way you saved<br>Me more than once, because you braved<br>The river glades and made the ark<br>To carry me with pitch and bark<br>Above the flood of Pharaoh's wrath.<br>And many times along the path<br>For eighty years now you have raised<br>Me up with songs, and I have praised<br>The Lord for your prophetic gift.<br>Forbid that there should be a rift<br>Between us in the evening of<br>Our lives; I feel the same deep love<br>For you today I felt beside the sea<br>When you sang out the victory<br>Of God, and led the massive choir:<br>Ten thousand women full of fire!<br>Oh, Miriam! Has not our God<br>Been good to us! You see this rod?<br>It's been a snake, and eaten three!<br>It's beckoned frogs and split the sea.<br>Now, Miriam, I'm going to pray." 

"There's something first I'd like to say,<br>I'm sorry, Moses. What I said<br>About your wife was wrong. Your bed<br>Is pure. Of all the women I<br>Have taught in Israel, they fly<br>Beneath the heights of faith and love<br>Where she's at home just like a dove<br>On wind. And it is no surprise<br>That you should choose not Hebrew eyes<br>Or Hebrew skin, but one who loves<br>Your God and soars on wind with doves.<br>It was an ugly thing to say,<br>Perhaps the leprosy should stay." 

"I think not, Miriam! Let's pray:<br>O God, I simply ask today<br>That you would heal my sister's life;<br>Remove the remnants of our strife.<br>Create a bond between my wife<br>And Miriam, and let no knife<br>From earth or hell divide with pride,<br>Or shame." 

And so the Lord replied,<br>"I give you what your love has seen:<br>In seven days she will be clean." 

Today let fire from candle three<br>Consume all family enmity.<br>Let all repent and all forgive.<br>Let Miriam and Moses live.<br>And as we sing the birth of Christ,<br>Think well why He was sacrificed.