MIRIAM Miriam’s story in the Bible started in her childhood in Exodus 1 & 2. Her mother, Jochebed married Amram, who was a grandson of Levi. During their time in Egypt, they had a daughter called Miriam. Miriam was already fairly grown when Jochebed fell pregnant with their second child, a boy called Aaron. Three years after Aaron was born, Jochebed was pregnant with her third child. (Read Exodus 7:7 which explains that Aaron was the oldest son and three years older than his brother.) While Jochebed was pregnant with her third child, the Pharaoh of Egypt was concerned about the growing numbers of the Israelites in Egypt. He was scared that their numbers would grow to such a point that the Israelites might overthrow the Egyptians. He then issued instructions in Exodus 1 to the Hebrew midwives. They were to kill all baby boys born to the Israelite woman. The baby girls were allowed to live. The midwives however ignored these instructions by the Egyptian king and allowed the baby boys to live. When confronted, they later told the Pharaoh that the Hebrew woman were so strong that they gave birth before the midwives could arrive. This angered Pharaoh and he commanded all his people: “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive”, (Exodus 1:22). The Bible does not say, but we can presume that Aaron was allowed to live as the decree by the Pharaoh was only issued after he was born. During this time, Jochebed gave birth to her second son. It was a boy. Knowing about the decree of Pharaoh, she hid the baby away for three months. After three months, she could not hide him anymore and derived a plan to try and keep him alive. Jochebed took a papyrus basket and coated it with pitch and tar to make it waterproof. She then took her baby boy, put him in the basket and placed the basket in the Nile River amongst the reeds at the banks of the river. Miriam, her daughter knew what was happened and looked from a distance to see what will happen to her baby brother. The place at the river where Jochebed put the basket, was the same place where the daughter of Pharaoh would take her baths. The princess saw the basket in the river and sent one of her servants to fetch it. When she opened the basket and saw the crying baby in it, she immediately knew that this was a Hebrew baby and she felt very sorry for him. Miriam, still lurking in the background, came forward and asked Pharaoh’s daughter if she should get a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for her. The princess agreed and Miriam immediately went to fetch her mother, Jochebed and brought her to the princess. Pharaoh’s daughter asked Jochebed to nurse the baby and offered to pay her. This meant that through the actions of Miriam, she assisted in keeping her brother alive and then her mother, Jochebed could also look after him as a baby whilst getting paid for it. After this we meet up with Miriam again in Exodus 15, after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt through the Red Sea. She was one of only a handful of women in the Bible given the title of ‘prophetess’. (Exodus 15:20) She was also the first female prophet named in the Bible. She was the first leader amongst the women of Israel, as after the Egyptian armies were killed in the Red Sea, she took a timbrel in her hand to worship God with song and dance, and all the women followed her. Numbers 12 recorded the dissension of Miriam and Aaron. They spoke out against Moses, who decided to take an Ethiopian woman as his wife. From their words, we can gather that they harbored jealousy against Moses: “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?” (Numbers 12:2) Unfortunately for them, the Lord heard them and His anger was aroused against them. Moses was a very humble man and had a special and close relationship with the Lord. The Lord spoke to Miriam and Aaron: “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:6-8) As a result of Miriam’s rebellion, God struck her with leprosy. Once Moses prayed to God to heal her, she was shut out of the camp for seven days and then she was healed. As the Israelites were on their journey to the Promised Land, they came to a place called Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin. It was here where Miriam died and was buried. The three siblings, Miriam, Aaron and Moses went on to become extremely important figures in history. God was very active in this family: “For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam”, (Micah 6:4). As a child, Miriam’s obedience to her mother helped to keep her brother alive. As the first female leader in the Bible, she carried a lot of responsibility. Her first action was to praise God! As a prophetess she had to relay important messages. Although she had all these privileges and were looked up to by other woman, she was still human, and her pride and jealousy got to her when she spoke badly of her brother Moses. Through this action of her, we can learn that although we cannot see God, he hears every word that we utter out of our mouths. Jealousy is a very bad trait that we should guard against, as this can cause one to smear the good reputations of others. Especially guard against speaking ill of those that God chose to have a specific calling. Miriam was chosen by God, (we read in the Talmud, a collection of Jewish writings recording their laws and traditions, that they regard Miriam as one of the seven major female prophets of Israel). Yet, this did not eliminate her from receiving God’s discipline when she committed sin. This serves as a reminder that we should always remain humble, have respect for others and just as important always guard our words.