THE ELEMENT OF LEADER SEEN IN MOSES, AARON AND MIRIAM
I want to speak, dear brethren, of Moses and Aaron and Miriam as representing divinely provided leadership for God’s people. It is of God that there should be leaders; there should be leaders in every locality. They are provided divinely for our help. Here in Micah Jehovah is speaking most feelingly and tenderly to His people as feeling the way they had departed from Him, and reminding them of what He had done for them in having brought them up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed them out of the house of bondage, and having sent before them, He says, “Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” It is a remarkable thing that so many hundred years after these divinely appointed leaders had departed, God should mention their names in this way, as though He would impress His people with the way His love had provided them with what was intended to be a real help and preservation for them.
We are told in the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews that we are to remember our leaders who have spoken to us the word of God, and considering the issue of their conversation, or manner of life, to imitate their faith. Then it adds, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come.” So that those who have led in the past (for I have no doubt that that verse refers to those who have led in the past, because we are to consider the issue of their manner of life), are to be taken account of as having been sent before for our help and instruction. We are to consider the issue of their conversation, or manner of life, and to imitate their faith. They are said to have spoken to us the word of God, but it is not the word of God that the writer of the epistle is especially thinking of at that moment. It is not what the leaders have ministered, but rather what the leaders were, their conduct, or manner of life, and their faith, which is to be imitated. Then it brings in at once Jesus Christ, as though every true leader is one who has had Jesus before him as the One in whom all that is pleasing to God in manhood is to be learned. God is working in men, dear brethren. Men are the great battleground between God and Satan, and it is in men that God is working out His most wonderful thoughts—securing in men, who have themselves been slaves of Satan and in bondage to the world—those in whom He can be rightly expressed, a most wonderful thought, and ministered to also in a way that is pleasing to Himself. It is a great thing to realise that God is working out such great matters in men, and we ourselves are among them through grace—brought out of Egypt, redeemed, as it says, “... redeemed thee out of the house of bondage”. I have no doubt there is in its application to us an allusion, first of all, to the great basis of redemption in the death of Christ, and then to the powerful operations of the Spirit, for it is as the Spirit has His place with us according to the epistle to the Romans, that we are effectively delivered from the influences of the world. But then there are not only the work of redemption and the powerful operations of the Spirit in the saints, but there is also this divinely provided help for us in leadership. We are to take account of those who have led, and take account of their faith and the issue of their conduct. Jesus is, of course, the one who is always to be studied by the saints. When He came into this world, He came in as a babe, expressive of the great feature of dependence on God which is morally right for man and is man’s glory. Dependence on God, “I was cast upon thee,” He says, prophetically, in Psalm 22, “from the womb”. Nothing is more expressive of dependence on God than a babe—a most wonderful thing that the Lord should come into the world in that manner to express, among other features, this great feature of dependence on God. It is the thing which, in the measure in which it is formed in us and is maintained by us, is invulnerable against the efforts of the enemy. Then another thing that marked the Lord Jesus, along with dependence, is His feeding on the word of God. “Man shall not live”, he said, “by bread alone, but by every word of God”. I am only alluding to these things in passing because after speaking of the issue of the conduct of the leaders and of imitating their faith, the Spirit of God directs our thoughts to Jesus Christ, and says He is, “the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come”, as though whatever is to be learned as to what is right in the sight of God in manhood is to be learned in Jesus. If leaders are to be of any value, they must themselves seek grace to be continually appropriating to their own souls the different features of perfection in manhood which have shone in our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we are also told in that same chapter to obey our leaders—not only to remember the leaders that have gone and imitate their faith, but to obey our leaders because, it says, “They watch over your souls as those that shall give account, that they may do this with joy and not groaning, for this would be unprofitable for you”. Now that is a matter to be borne in mind by all those who have in any degree a place of leadership among the saints. It is not everybody, of course, who is a leader, but we who are led are to recognise our leaders. If they lead, of course, it is contemplated that we will follow. It is not contemplated that there will be any difference between those who lead and those who follow, only that those who lead are to lead and to give a good lead. Indeed, things will not prosper in any locality if the element of spiritual leadership is not there. Therefore, those who find themselves in a position of leadership are to take account of the responsibility attaching to them, “They watch”, it says, “over your souls as those that shall give account, that they may do this with joy and not groaning, for this would be unprofitable for you.” So this matter of leadership is something that should be faced, both by those who may be in the position of leaders, and those who are led, because the led are to recognise their leaders, as it says, “For that leaders led in Israel ... bless Jehovah”. It is a great principle of preservation that there should be leadership according to God, and that that leadership should be recognised by us who are led.
You will remember that David qualified for leadership by his devotedness to his father’s flock. He was only a youth, and he was tending his father’s flock. And there came a lion and a bear and laid hold of a lamb of the flock. And he went out and met the lion and the bear single-handed and at close quarters and delivered the lamb. It says at the end of Psalm 78 that God took him from the sheepfolds and appointed him to lead his people, Israel. “And he fed them,” it says, “according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands”. Another thing I would say before passing on is that those who are in a position of leadership should know that they are. It is not a question of aspiring to anything. It is a question of what the Lord has made anyone. So in Romans 12 it says that he that leads is to do it with diligence. That involves that the one who leads knows that he is a leader. Hence, those who lead should understand that they are in the position of leadership, and are to be faithful in it.
Coming to the scriptures that one has read, I wanted to refer first of all to Moses in Exodus 33—a well-known scripture, often referred to, and yet of continual importance, and of constant importance for the younger ones growing up amongst us. Idolatry had come into the camp, as we know, the golden calf had been made and the tabernacle had not yet been constructed. God had given the instructions to Moses as to the tabernacle. “They shall make me a sanctuary”, He said, “that I may dwell among them”. “A sanctuary”, he said, stressing the idea of holiness. But it had not yet been made. The tabernacle, of course, typifies the assembly. Moses is one who had the light of the assembly in his soul, but the tabernacle had not yet been made. It could not yet be taken account of concretely. It was there in the mind of God; it was there in Moses’ mind for he had seen the pattern on the mount. But it had not yet taken shape concretely. Then this position of idolatry comes into the camp, and Moses, without any instructions from God, so far as we know, acting of his own intuitions, took the tent—or it might be a tent—and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tent of meeting. Now he has the divine idea—the tent of meeting where God is to meet His people and His people are to meet Him. For us it is the idea of the assembly. But what is being stressed is the moral conditions in which alone the truth of the assembly can be realised. There must be separation from evil, as it says in the second epistle to Timothy, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. The name of the Lord must not be connected with iniquity. Therefore, if there is what is iniquitous, as indeed there is in the world around us on every hand in that which claims the name of Christ and professes to have divine worship, the only thing to do is to withdraw from it, and Moses does that. It was only a tent he took. It may have been his own tent for all I know, just a tent. But the great point was, he was recognising the moral necessities of the moment. That is, that the dwelling place of God must not be connected with iniquity. He takes the tent and pitches it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tent of meeting.
Now he has the assembly in his mind. It is very important to see—the older ones, of course, are very familiar with this—that in the second epistle to Timothy we are called upon to move on individual lines. “Let him that nameth the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. But then we are also called upon to follow certain principles, righteousness and faith and love and peace, with all those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. You do not choose your companions; you embrace all those who are governed by the truth—all those who follow righteousness, faith, love, and peace, calling on the Lord out of a pure heart. On those lines you arrive at the truth of the assembly. I think a moment’s reflection will show that that must be so. You, first of all, withdraw in individual exercise, but you find others doing the same and you go on together. As you are going on together, the question will, of course, at once arise, “By what principles are we to govern ourselves as going on together?” The only answer to that is, ‘The truth of the assembly - the principles of the assembly’, because that is the only light that we have in Scripture to govern saints in their movements together. Hence it is on the principle of 2 Timothy 2, taking up the exercise individually of separating from iniquity and finding others doing the same,
that you arrive at the truth of the assembly. It is a most important thing for the young ones to keep that in mind, that what is in view from the outset is the assembly. There may be only a few available to work out the truth; it may be in humble circumstances outwardly that the truth is worked out, just as this matter of the tent was a very humble, insignificant position to connect the idea of the presence of God with it, but there it was. It was in the right position morally in regard of the evil that was around. Then it says, “Everyone who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp”. Now you have got, in principle, the assembly. Of course, it takes form, as we know, in localities. It is on these lines that the truth of the assembly is realised in these days.
Now it says, “ It came to pass, when Moses entered into the tent, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the entrance of the tent, and Jehovah talked with Moses”—talked with him, not simply talked to him but talked with him. It is God showing His approval of this action that Moses took. This is a faithful man who, in an emergency, acts for God according to the holiness of His nature. The result is that it says, “Jehovah talked with Moses”. It says later, “Jehovah spoke with Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend”. Well, that is a great feature of leadership. God would never forget this action on the part of Moses. The faithful in Israel would never forget it either. They would understand that he saved the whole situation for God and for them by this action of faithfulness on his part. God Himself expressed His approval of Moses by speaking with him face to face as a man speaks with his friend. But then it brings in the young, and this is also to be noticed. It says, “He returned to the camp, but his attendant, Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, departed not from within the tent”. Now here is a young man following up the truth, seeing how right was Moses’ action, and determining that he would not depart from within the tent. He would not linger outside it; he would go right into it and remain there. It is a young man who is fully committed to the assembly. He intends, so to speak, to make it his whole interest in life. He sees the position that has been brought to pass, notwithstanding the idolatry in the camp, and he departs not from within the tent. You can understand that forty years later, roughly, that young man became a leader. Leadership according to God has its roots in faithfulness in secret—faithfulness that perhaps a great many do not know anything about. Leadership has its roots there, but God does not overlook any feature of faithfulness. So forty years later, this young man is chosen to be the leader of God’s people. He had already made his mark in the conflict with Amalek. That is another feature. The young will never get on if they do not enter into the conflict with the flesh. If they dally with it, if they make provision for it, they will never get on. But if they follow up the truth of Romans and come to the appreciation of all that the Spirit can be to us, as we have it in Romans 8, then they are on the way to proving their manliness according to God. Eventually, they may be of real service to the saints. So this is one feature in which Moses shines.
Now we come to Numbers 12 in order to get another feature in which Moses also shines. There is more than one thing to be noticed in connection with Moses in Numbers 12. Alas! it is a time when Miriam and Aaron are speaking against him, Miriam apparently taking the lead. No doubt, she thought she was entitled to because she was older—older than either Aaron or Moses. But that does not give any title for a sister to go out of her place, and Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses. There was jealousy at work there, and they were questioning the sovereignty of God. If God has been pleased to give Moses the first place, who are they, or who are any of us, to question His sovereignty? But they spoke against Moses. It is a sorrowful thing, and the Spirit of God records it. It is a touching example of grace, that notwithstanding this action on the part of Miriam and Aaron in jealousy against Moses, the Spirit of God, centuries later, through the prophet Micah, brings forward both Miriam and Aaron as those through whom God led His people. Although their failure is recorded for our learning, yet the last mention of Miriam and Aaron in Scripture is that they are spoken of as leading the people.
But now this attack on Moses gives occasion for God to speak Himself about Moses. He says, “He is faithful in all my house”—all my house. How one would like to take on something of that character—faithful in all my house! I think we have had examples of it. We have had an example in the lifetime of most, if not all, of us present here, of one who was faithful in all God’s house. It is a question of the assembly and the principles of the assembly, and the working out of those principles in an actual way, and of being faithful in it. That was what marked Moses. He was faithful at the time of the golden calf, but he was faithful all the way through. You read Exodus 40, where it goes over the way that Moses constructed the whole system and set it up in its functioning, and you will find time after time it says, “As Jehovah had commanded Moses”. That is to say, Moses was carrying in his mind all the time the pattern shown him on the mount and was determined that there was no detail of that pattern that was not to come into actual expression among the people. How God valued that! Therefore, we need to have our eyes open as to the truth of the assembly in every feature of it, so that if there is anything which has not yet been taken up by the saints, we must be concerned to take it up. It is a question of being faithful in all God’s house. Moses was that. We know how many tests he went through; the book of Numbers is full of it—tests arising amongst the people in opposition to the truth, the glory appearing from time to time. God can always be relied upon to give needed support to those who are tested, and a sense of His approval to those who are standing faithful. That is what the book of Numbers gives us - constant tests but always met, the glory of God if necessary coming in to support the position. So God speaks in this way of His servant Moses. He says, “Not so my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. Mouth to mouth do I speak to him openly and not in riddles, and the form of Jehovah doth he behold”. Then there is something else that Jehovah does not exactly say about him but which the Spirit of God says about him—not, of course, that the Spirit of God is not God. But I mean it is not put that way. Jehovah says certain things to Miriam and Aaron about him but the Spirit of God says, “The man Moses was very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth”. Think of that in such a distinguished leader—one who had led out the people of God from Egypt, one who had stood against Pharaoh. In Exodus 11 he is also called “the man Moses”, but not in connection with his meekness—he was meek - but in connection with his unflinching repudiation of the world. “He went out from Pharaoh,” it says, “in a glowing anger”. He was indignant with the world. “Woe to the world”, the Lord said, “because of offences”. The world is doomed to judgment from that standpoint, apart from other things, that it has proved such a stumbling block to God’s people. So the Lord says, “Woe to the world because of offences”. Moses goes out from Pharaoh’s presence in that spirit. He said, “Against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue”. The Spirit of God says, “The man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt”. Here he is also called “the man Moses,” as though real manhood is to be learned in Moses. He is called the man Moses in connection with his meekness—“very meek above all men that were upon the face of the earth”. Was it natural to Moses to be meek? Certainly not. It is not natural to any one of us to be meek. How did he become meek? I believe he became meek because he was so much in the presence of God, and because God showed him the pattern of the whole tabernacle. I have no doubt God would speak to Moses about Jesus, and tell him what kind of man He would be, and that He would give character to the whole system in which God would dwell eternally. The result was that Moses was very meek. So that when his sister and his brother speak against him, he does not say a word in self-vindication, He leaves that with God. So we are to remember our leaders. Moses is brought forward in the book of Micah as one through whom God had led His people. Doubtless, his influence had great effect upon them.
Then we get Aaron also mentioned as a leader. We read of him in Psalm 106 where he is called the “saint of Jehovah”. We read of him in Psalm 99—“Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name”. What a pleasure it is to see how God refers to his saints hundreds of years after they have gone! He never loses the remembrance of them and what they have been. For instance, in Ezekiel 14 He refers to Noah, Daniel and Job. Daniel was still alive at that time. Noah and Job had been dead for centuries; yet God has not forgotten Noah or Job, and he links them alongside of Daniel through the prophet Ezekiel. How encouraging all these touches are, showing us that God greatly appreciates faithfulness to Himself in whatever age and circumstances it is rendered. He will give His saints the sense that he never overlooks any feature of faithfulness to His name.
And so in Numbers 16 we have that the whole assembly murmured against Moses and Aaron—the whole assembly. Judgment had come in upon Korah and his band and upon the two hundred and fifty who had presented incense. Judgment had just come in upon them. You would have thought the whole assembly would have been in the fear of God in the presence of such a thing. Yet, the very next day they murmur against Moses and Aaron. Think of that! It is like the murmuring that sometimes is heard in respect of an assembly judgment. It is a solemn thing to murmur against an assembly judgment, and here the whole assembly murmured against Moses and Aaron. God is proposing to smite them all. “Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Get you up from the midst of this assembly, and I will consume them in a moment”. That was to Moses and Aaron, because it says earlier that “Moses and Aaron went before the tent of meeting. And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Get you up from the midst of this assembly,” so that is Moses and Aaron, and it says, “And they fell on their faces”—Moses and Aaron. They are not considering for themselves. They are considering for God. Now Moses tells Aaron what to do, and Aaron does it.
Aaron took the censer, as Moses had said, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and behold, the plague had begun among the people; and he put on incense, and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living. How wonderful that is! Entirely free from self-consideration, entirely free from any thought of self-vindication, greatly desiring that the people of God should be saved notwithstanding what was really their desert at that time. It would have been morally right that they should have all been swept off the scene. But Moses and Aaron come in, and Aaron especially takes the place of intercession. He takes a censer and fire from off the altar. That is to say, he brings before God at that time on behalf of the people, typically, the fragrance of the work of Christ in its unchanging efficacy. He can plead it, as it says, “He is the propitiation for our sins”. He is that. Not only His work has made propitiation, but He is that in the presence of God, maintaining in the presence of God the efficacy of His work and the exceeding acceptability of His Person. Here in Aaron you have a man typically who, when the people of God are in grave danger of being swept away because of their conduct, he can take this censer and go into the presence of God, and it says, “He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed”. God answered his faith; God answered his energy. He ran. There was no time to be lost. What an important matter this is, dear brethren! If there is anything happening among the saints that is grievous, let us seek grace to meet it, but let us also be before God in intercession in relation to it that the saints may be preserved. Aaron does that. He took this censer and ran into the midst of the congregation. “And behold, the plague had begun ... And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed”. That is a good lead.
Then we have also Miriam, and in Exodus 15 we get mention of Miriam in an honourable way, for she is a prophetess and a sister, one who can communicate the mind of God, one who is sisterly in her relations with the rest of the people, one who has influence. It says, “She took the tambour in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambours and with dances”. Now we have a sister exercising influence for good among the sisters in Israel. They do what she does, and she is setting a good example. She is not doing here what she did in Numbers 12; she is setting a good example, and she can convey the mind of God. How valuable sisters of this type are! They have their part, so to speak, in leadership—not that they are leaders in any outward public way, but they are leaders in the sense that they exercise influence of the right kind, influence that can be followed; and so Miriam was a prophetess. She is, first of all, a prophetess, and yet along with that she is a sister. She does not assume any importance because she is able to communicate the mind of God, but she is a sister. We read in New Testament times, of Anna, another prophetess, she knew all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem —all of them—and spoke of the Lord to them. “She, coming up the same hour,” it says, “ gave thanks unto the Lord”. She is there at the right time. God will see that she is in everything of importance that is moving. “She, coming in that instant”, it says, “gave praise to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem”. We can thank God for sisters of this kind. They can communicate the mind of God in a comely, private way; they are sisters, and they exert influence of a right kind so that other sisters do the same thing, and they are joyful in the service of God, too. It says, “all the women went out after her with tambours and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing to Jehovah, for he is highly exalted: The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea”. She is entirely in keeping with the point they had reached at the moment. It might be said they had not got very far, but she is where they are; she is with them in it, and she is joyful in it, and she is praising God in relation to it. That is a good thing for any sister to be able to do, that she is able to influence the saints rightly so that the praise of God is secured through them. So, as I was saying, Anna is one such. It is beautiful to see that. You have the man Simeon, a man in Jerusalem, and the woman Anna, a prophetess, God bringing those two in as though He would indicate that He had those who would give a lead to the godly in Israel at that time. So it is at any time.
In speaking in this way of Moses and Aaron and Miriam as divinely provided leadership for His people, I believe God intends to energise us that we should take on more than ever features that are according to Himself, and as doing so, exercise an influence for good amongst the people of God. If features of true leadership appear in some, then let us who are the led recognize it, and see that they have the right of way, so to speak, that they are entitled to, and not be marked by anything like that which was found with Miriam and Aaron when they opposed Moses, but rather to see that leadership is recognised and gladly appreciated, and followed. We are to imitate their faith and consider the end of their conversation. May the Lord bless the word, for His Name’s sake.
SUMMIT NJ
13th December 1958
From Notes of Readings in New York, 1961
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