Daring Joyنموونە

Miriam: Comparing Our Joy

In many ways, Miriam is a paragon of joy and celebration, and there are several invitations throughout her story to emulate her example. But like many of us have found out the hard way, Miriam discovers that comparing ourselves to others is a shortcut to losing that joy altogether.

We get to know Miriam through a few different stories in the Old Testament. While the Bible introduces Miriam as the sister who stood watch when her baby brother Moses was placed in a basket in the Nile River to hide him from Pharaoh, we are going to enter Miriam’s story later on in the book of Numbers when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness.

Before we explore the sibling relational dynamics at play in Numbers 12 between Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, it’s important to note that while Moses was the primary leader of the Israelite people—a role that came with unique privileges and responsibilities—both Aaron and Miriam had significant leadership roles in the Israelite community as well. Still, all three were human, and their spiritual leadership was not without the pitfall of pride and being prone to comparison.

First, the siblings criticized Moses for marrying a Cushite woman (because she was not an Israelite). Second, they complained about the fact that the Lord only spoke through Moses, revealing their desire to be equal partners with Moses and share in his privileges and responsibilities as leader of the Israelite people. Comparison and jealousy over Moses’s power seemed to be the main issues at play here, while the issue of Moses’s wife was a Trojan horse of sorts.

Verse 2 ends with, “And the Lord heard it.” We know that God is all-knowing, and we see this demonstrated throughout Scripture. But here, it’s plainly spelled out for us. It’s easy to convince ourselves that our motives are disguised by our behavior. For example, we might justify gossip by saying that we’re concerned. Or, as was the case with Miriam, we might find fault with others because we actually feel threatened by or envious of them. But God knows the content of our hearts. He knows the motives that drive our behavior. Scripture makes this point clear with Miriam. Whether or not Moses heard it, God heard it. And that was all that mattered.

God began His address of Miriam and Aaron by affirming Moses’s leadership and ended His address by bringing judgment upon both of them. God was not pleased with Miriam and Aaron’s grumbling. Because Moses was God’s anointed leader, their grumbling was really against God.

Two of the biggest side effects of comparison are that we become insatiable, and it drains us of joy. Whatever it is that we decide will give us more value or security, will in fact tease us and never provide enough to satiate us. Furthermore, it becomes impossible to celebrate what we have when we’re constantly measuring our own reality against someone else’s.

When we practice comparison, measuring our life against another’s, it’s easy for us to conclude that life is unfair. We tell ourselves we’ve worked harder or have the gifting that makes us more deserving of an opportunity or reward. Like Miriam, we see lack in our own story as we lust after the story being lived by someone else. But when we do this, we discredit the unique story God is writing in each of our lives, a story that is intended to reflect His glory in myriad ways.

If you are like me, prone to wander toward comparison and jealousy as you watch others live out the joy you wish you could have for yourself and conclude that life is unfair, it will help to remember the gospel—Jesus’s sacrificial death on your behalf and His resurrection from the dead. Because the gospel is proof that you and I are the recipients of a joy that is anything but fair.

Read Numbers 12, and spend some time thinking of ways you compare yourself to others. Thank the Lord for the gift of the gospel. It is a gift of grace and mercy we could never deserve, but He willingly offers it to us.