Prejudice

Everyone knows what racial prejudice is but we may not be aware of how old of a problem it is. The scriptures reveal that it was a problem among some very godly people. In Numbers 12:1-15, Moses’ sister Miriam and his brother Aaron did not like Moses’ wife because she was a “Cushite”… of a different race.

Their prejudice cause them to sin, they “spoke against” Moses by questioning his rank as a prophet… they thought they were just as good as he was. Verse 3 states that Moses was, “very humble, more than any man on the face of the earth”. Miriam and Aaron were not humble, they were the opposite, they were jealous and full of pride.

Cushites were African peoples. In fact, the Septuagint version of the Old Testament calls them Ethiopians. The word Ethiopian is a Greek word that literally means “burnt face”.

When God punished Miriam he gave her the disease of Leprosy. The text says she was turned “as white as snow”. It’s ironic that Miriam and Aaron disliked Moses’ wife because she was a “burnt face” and God punished Miriam by turning her into a shade of white that she didn’t want to be.

Prejudice against someone because of their race is a sin of pride. Pride makes us think that we are better than others. Christians are supposed to be humble… counting others as better than ourselves.

Let’s be like Moses… not like Miriam and Aaron.