Jesus is the Master of the pay-off sentence at the end of a parable or other teaching.
“Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’” (Mark 2:27).
“Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?’” (Mark 3:4).
Jesus even scores a one-two punch in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount:
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you” (Matthew 6:33).
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
Other Biblical voices have their moments, too. Nathan the prophet nails the self-righteous “God favourite” King David with “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7).
My personal favourite prophet, Micaiah (patron saint of the sarcastic), scores a number of excellent lines in I Kings 22, concluding with this mic drop: “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me” (v. 28).
Buried in another Old Testament passage, however, is a line so brief and laconic that it is easy to read right over it without noticing. Not noticing it would be a grim mistake.
In Numbers 12, Moses’ older sister and brother, Miriam and Aaron, grumble against him for marrying a foreign woman, even if a godly one. That’s what they say is the presenting problem.
They then go right on, however, to aver that they’re tired of living in the shadow of their little brother. That seems to be the real issue. (That problematic wife of Moses doesn't show up again in the story.)
After all, didn’t Miriam save baby Moses’s life in that little basket on the Nile? Didn’t she later sing the great song of triumph on the Red Sea shore?
And, after all, wasn’t Aaron God’s appointed high priest?
So they complain: “While [Israel was] at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had indeed married a Cushite woman), and they said, ‘Has Yhwh spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?’”
Hmm. Maybe not a good idea to moan about not getting enough glory in the economy of God. Maybe a worse thing to speak against the one God clearly favours.
And here’s the punch line, tucked into the end of verse 2: “And Yhwh heard it.”
Those are four of the most chilling words in all of Scripture. God listens to us. All the time. Every single thing we say. And he takes us seriously.
God summons the family trio to the tent of meeting. God makes clear to Miriam and Aaron that Moses is not like anyone else, and particularly not like either of his siblings:
Hear my words:
When there are prophets among you,
I Yhwh make myself known to them in visions;
I speak to them in dreams.
Not so with my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.
With him I speak face to face—clearly, not in riddles,
and he beholds the form of Yhwh.
Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?
God is angry, and Miriam—the eldest, and named first in the story (indicating her priority in this gripe)—is struck with leposy, head to foot, a pale horror.
She has nothing to say in the remainder of the story, having already said too much. Aaron, aghast, immediately and humbly pleads with Moses to save her.
Moses, to his credit, immediately prays for her healing. Yhwh himself, however, withholds immediate mercy:
“If her father had but spit in her face [in anger at her disrespect], would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.” So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days.
I have been musing of late over the complicated territory of speech. The Bible has a lot to say about what we say, and I hope to write a short book about what God has been teaching me—and has yet to get through to me—about what I am to say as his child, his coworker, his ambassador, and his friend.
Today, then, just this: “And Yhwh heard it.” Every. Single. Thing. I. Say.
Jesus, the Master wordsmith, punches this lesson home:
I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. (Matthew 12:36–37).
Time to say less, and better.