I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 11-13.

In yesterday’s passage we read about some people who were disappointed in not being able to celebrate the second Passover (and the solution which Moses gave them).  Today’s passage contains examples of how only a short time later the people began to complain about Moses’ leadership.  I was going to write about the people’s ungratefulness, but I realized that I want to focus on the lessons in leadership from this passage.  God told Moses to appoint 70 elders to assist with managing the people and their problems.  The passage gives us no idea how these 70 elders were chosen, but Moses summoned them to the Tabernacle.  Two of the 70, for reasons never disclosed, did not come to the Tabernacle.  Nevertheless, when God poured his Spirit out on the elders, those two received it along with those gathered at the Tabernacle and began prophesying.  Joshua, Moses’ assistant, wanted Moses to stop them.  Moses declined to do so.  What we learn is that these 70 elders had authority given to them from God, not from Moses.  Joshua wanted Moses to exert his authority to establish that these 70 were subordinate to him and were only acting on his authority.  Moses declined to attempt to supersede God’s authority by doing so.

Again I find myself going in a different direction from my original intention.  I had planned to connect the dispute between Moses and his sister and brother (Miriam and Aaron) to the above issues.  However, it struck me that this dispute gives us a lesson on women in leadership (although perhaps not the one you might think).  Miriam and Aaron were wrong in challenging Moses’ authority.  However, the important lesson is that Miriam, a woman, had sufficient authority in the first place to be able to challenge Moses.  Miriam was clearly one of the leaders of the people of Israel.  She had enough authority to challenge Moses for overall leadership of the people (although only with Aaron to act as her proxy).

As a side note, this is the second time where Aaron acted in a way which brought down God’s wrath where he did not directly suffer.  The first time was when he made the golden calf for the people to worship.