Numbers 12 · Story · Humility
Moses, the Most Humble Man
Numbers 12 calls Moses the most humble man on earth in the middle of a quarrel with his brother and sister.
The LORD spoke for Moses on the day his own family questioned his place.
Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.
- Where
- Hazeroth
- Who
- Moses, Miriam, Aaron
- When
- in the second year, after Israel set out from the Wilderness of Sinai (Numbers 10:11 to 12)
Summary
Numbers 12 tells how Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses and claimed that the LORD spoke through them as well. The narrator stops the story to describe Moses, and then the LORD Himself takes up the quarrel. The chapter ends with Miriam struck with a skin disease and brought back after seven days. Moses' humility runs through his whole life, from the burning bush to the plains of Moab.
- The Hebrew word for humble in Numbers 12:3 is anav, which can also mean afflicted or needy.
- The LORD answered Miriam and Aaron Himself and called Moses His faithful servant.
- Scripture records his failure at Meribah beside the praise of his humility.
The Humble Man
The narrator's verse stands between the complaint and the LORD's answer.
In Numbers 12 Scripture calls Moses humble, using the word for the lowliness before God that Scripture commands and God defends. The verse matters to every reader because it shows the kind of servant God chose to lead His people out of Egypt.
Every reader of this short chapter meets the same question. What did humility look like in a man who led a nation, worked signs in Egypt and spoke with God, when his own brother and sister turned against him?
The Humble Man's Life
Four scenes from Exodus to Numbers show the same man before God and before the people.
From the burning bush to the camp at Hazeroth, Moses doubted himself, needed others and prayed for those who wronged him.
- At the bushHe asked God who he was to go to PharaohExodus 3:11
- At the battle with AmalekHis hands grew heavy, and Aaron and Hur held them up until sunsetExodus 17:11 to 12
- After the golden calfHe asked God to blot him out of His book if He would not forgive the peopleExodus 32:31 to 32
- When Miriam was struckHe prayed for the sister who had spoken against himNumbers 12:13
A sequence of four scenes in the order the books tell them.
The LORD Answered for Him
The LORD called Moses, Aaron and Miriam to the Tent and spoke for His servant.
The LORD summoned Moses, Aaron and Miriam to the Tent of Meeting and came down in a pillar of cloud. He told Aaron and Miriam how He speaks to prophets and how He speaks with Moses.
But this is not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you unafraid to speak against My servant Moses?”The LORD's answer sets the humble man above every other prophet.
When the cloud lifted, Miriam was leprous, white as snow. Aaron pleaded with Moses not to let her be like a stillborn infant (Numbers 12:11 to 12).
A Man Who Needed Others
Exodus and Numbers show Moses doubting his own gifts, taking counsel and wanting others to share the Spirit.
At the bush Moses pleaded that he was slow of speech and tongue, and he asked the LORD to send someone else (Exodus 4:10 to 13).
Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.The leader of Israel takes the counsel of a Midianite priest and shares his work.
Joshua wanted Moses to stop two men who prophesied in the camp, and Moses refused (Numbers 11:28 to 29).
The Failure at Meribah
Scripture records the day Moses spoke as if the water came from him and Aaron.
At Meribah Moses gathered the assembly before the rock and said, "Listen now, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" He struck the rock twice, and water came out.
But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me to show My holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”The LORD names the fault as a failure to trust Him and to show His holiness, and He keeps Moses out of the land for it.
Scripture calls Moses the most humble man and also records this day, so its account of him holds both.
What His Humility Teaches
Moses shows humility as trust in God's defence and care for those who wrong him.
Moses' humility showed first in what he left to God. He did not guard his own place, and the LORD guarded it.
It showed also in his readiness to be helped and to see others honoured beside him.
Now Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be spoken later.The letter to the Hebrews carries the LORD's verdict on Moses into the New Testament.
How Teachers Have Read the Verse
An early teacher of Alexandria and an English commentator read the verse as praise given in a time of trial.
died 253 · Origen of Alexandria
Origen of Alexandria taught that God praised Moses most highly in the chapter that tells of his Cushite wife.
“Moreover, Moses himself, in spite of all the great and splendid achievements of faith and patience that are recorded of him, was never so highly praised by God as on this occasion when he took the Ethiopian wife. It is said of him, in reference to this: ‘Moses was a man exceeding meek above all men that are upon earth.’”
Origen of Alexandria · Commentary on the Song of Songs 2:1 · on Numbers 12:3Patristic
Matthew Henry, in his Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), taught that the work Moses was called to needed all the meekness he had. He drew from the quarrel a rule about friends and enemies.
"And sometimes the unkindness of our friends is a greater trial of our meekness than the malice of our enemies."
Humble or Afflicted
Readers of the verse have taken anav in two senses, and the lexicon gives it both.
Wesley read the word as meekJohn Wesley
In his Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765) Wesley called the word "the reason why Moses took no notice of their reproach, and why God did so severely plead his cause".
The objection is that the same word often means needy or afflicted, and the verse stands where Moses is under attack.
Clarke read the word as afflictedAdam Clarke
In his Commentary on the Bible (1832) Clarke asked how Moses could "write this encomium upon himself" and read the verse as "Now this man Moses was depressed or afflicted more than any man".
The objection is that the verse explains why the LORD stepped in, and a man who answered nothing fits the sense humble.
The Epitaph of Moses
The last chapter of the Law gives the narrator's verdict on Moses after his death in Moab.
The five books that call Moses the most humble man close his life with the highest honour they give any prophet. The LORD had defended His servant, and the closing words of the Law name him again.
Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face—The epitaph names the same closeness to the LORD that Numbers 12:8 describes.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- The tagged Hebrew text of Numbers 12:3, with Strong's numbers and morphology.
- STEP Bible, Translators Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Hebrew (Tyndale House, Cambridge, CC BY 4.0), entry h6035.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765), on Numbers 12:3.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Numbers 12:3.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Numbers 12:3.
- Origen of Alexandria, Commentary on the Song of Songs, book 2, on Numbers 12:3.
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