Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Is God Fair?

Is God Fair? That is a question that has been asked for hundreds of years. People look around and witness events that seem to cast a bad light on God. Drought and famine kill millions, mostly children and innocents.  Bad, terrible things happen everyday, some to good people. Innocent people suffer, always have, always will. At times it seems that good people suffer and evil people prosper. In this life there might not be fairness.

Why did God strike Miriam with leprosy and not Aaron as well? He was guilty of the same sin as his sister. In the wilderness trek Aaron and Miriam began to complain about Moses. They didn't like his style and complained that why should God only speak through Moses. God was apparently unhappy with the complaining and the leprosy was Miriam's consequence. Some thoughts come to mind about fairness in regards to Moses, Miriam and Aaron.

Moses escaped death; Egyptian midwives were supposed to kill Hebrew boys at birth. The mother of Moses put him into a safe position. He was found along the Nile in a reed basket, by non other than the daughter of Pharaoh. The daughter of Pharaoh requested a Hebrew to nurse the baby and the mother of Moses raised him. At Moses' birth Aaron was three and Miriam was older than both brothers.

Miriam would have first hand knowledge of the care given to Moses and she would certainly know that their God was protecting Moses. Later in the narrative Miriam is referred to as a ,"Prophetess". I believe that her experience with Moses and the Providence that surrounded him raised her accountability to a high level. The narrative also names her before Aaron in regards to the complaining episode. Now comes a twist. When god calls them to account for their sin He names Aaron first. Was that due to ppatriarchal selection, or because of Aaron's position as spokesman and high priest?

The cloud of judgement moves on and Miriam is left judged, evidenced by the physical condition of her skin. We have no idea or indication of a physical judgement upon Aaron. It might be safe to surmise that God dealt with him in the same way He did Moses, over striking the rock twice for water. Moses was not allowed to enter the promise land.

Did Aaron get away with his sin and Miriam was the only one punished? I don't think so. Was God fair in His judgement of Miriam. I don't know, I'm not God. We see in part and know in part. I'm just glad that He is and I'm not.

3 comments:

  1. God does every thing for a reason , only that He knows . I am sure in due time if someone sins God deales with it . The sin will be forgiven as God promised if we are one of his children , but we will have to pay the conaqusens for that sin .

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  2. This is a question I have dealt with in my own life over and over - why do bad things happen to seemingly good people? Why do the nasty mean people get away with things that we all can see are clearly wrong and evil? I don't claim to know the answers - I only know who does and that we need to depend upon him to right the wrongs in his time, not ours.

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  3. As I read Romans we hear a lot about our sinful nature passed on to us from Adam, the Headship of Adam.
    we have sin as part of our human nature but we find forgiveness of Christ who brings a understanding to the fact that if we give, we open our hearts, we will be one with Christ. We will aways have that sinful nature but our giving of ourselves to Christ, one in Christ, will bring us the courage to do what is right. Faith and trust in Christ will have each of us accepting all that we wonder about, for he knows what is best for us. We now have the Headship of Christ which will bring each of us into his loving arms.

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