Did you know that Moses was probably married twice and that one of his wives was from Cush, making her an Ethiopian?
MOSES WAS MARRIED TWICE
A lot of people think the Ethiopian woman and Zipporah were actually the same person because Zipporah was dark-skinned too and it was assumed that some people might have mistaken Zipporah for a Cushite instead of knowing that she was from Midian.
I don’t buy that argument.
We have to look hard at history to figure this mystery out; because the scriptures leave out a lot of facts and details.
Josephus wrote about some of the facts though and these have been helpful in putting together the pieces.
BEFORE MOSES KNEW HIS IDENTITY IN GOD
Do you ever stop to remember the life you had before God called you by name?
If you are like me; it was completely different. You did different things, had different desires, lived different ways with different goals.
Why would we expect that Moses’ life would be any different?
There was a time when Moses did not know God at all. He didn’t even know that he had a Hebraic identity, and when he prayed; he prayed in general, not to a very specific and personal One God.
All of that would change; but it didn’t happen overnight. It took years!
It seems that long before Moses even knew he was a Hebrew, and way before God called him out to save the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage; he was called upon to lead Egypt’s army against Ethiopia.
Ethiopia was Egypt’s next door neighbor and many of the Ethiopians had been bold enough to go in and plunder some of the Egyptian’s possessions.
The Egyptians decided to go into Ethiopia after their missing possessions and recover their losses. This resulted in many battles and the Egyptians were not faring very well until Moses came into the picture.
MOSES THE WARRIOR
Moses began to win battle after battle.
Are you surprised to hear that long before he became the most humble of all men he was a mighty warrior?
An Ethiopian princess (the King’s daughter) was observing this fact that Moses was a mighty warrior. She fell instantly in love with him.
Moses would have been about 40 years old when all of this was taking place.
When Moses was winning one of the battles for defeating Ethiopia’s main stronghold; the princess sent out messengers to him explaining her feelings for him and asking him to arrange their marriage.
Pretty unusual huh?
Talk about loving your enemies!
WARS WON BY MARRIAGE ARRANGEMENTS
Actually in those days there were arrangements made all the time where the King’s daughter was given in marriage in exchange for a peace treaty when her country was losing the war. Sometimes being a princess isn’t all it’s hyped up to be.
In this case though, it seems the daughter had truly fallen in love with Moses and she actually desired and initiated the arrangement.
Moses didn’t object.
He agreed to marry her under the condition that she secure the possessions of the Egyptians in the city of Saba; and she and the King of Ethiopia agreed to honor those terms.
A VICTORY AND A MARRIAGE
After the battle was over; Moses gave thanks to God (even though He was not living close to God at the time) and then he married Tarbis (the name of the Ethiopian princess.)
After their marriage was consummated, he led the Ethiopian people out of Egypt and back to Ethiopia.
All parties concerned were happy.
Apparently, Tarbis came to live with Moses in Egypt (for at least part of the time) and they seemed to be happy together. Moses was actually considered to be a king of Ethiopia. They lived in both places whenever they desired to do so.
WHEN THE TABLES TURNED
It was after this time that Moses, defending a Hebrew slave, killed an Egyptian in self-defense and became a fugitive of Egypt.
He had to run away and hide for a while.
The question that no one can answer is whether or not he told his wife what was going on; or did he just leave without a word?
All we really know is that Moses hid out in Midian for forty long years.
There are records though that indicate he did stop for a short time in Ethiopia on the way to Midian. Perhaps his wife had been home for a visit and he had informed her of his plight. Maybe he told her brother or her father?
No one actually knows.
MEETING THE NEXT WIFE
The next thing we hear is that Moses went on to Midian and there he meet Zipporah who was working at her father’s well.
Moses helps her there by protecting her from some evil men passing through the land.
A REPEATED PATTERN IS REPEATED AGAIN
Have you ever noticed the pattern that all of the ancient biblical heroes met their wives beside a well and defended them from harm and also that these men all wound up eventually married to two very different kinds of women?
Please don’t misunderstand me here and think I’m for that happening again! Absolutely not; but it is just a very strange coincidence that the pattern is repeated with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now Moses.
You can carry this thought even further when you consider God’s marriage to Israel and how the Gentile church has been grafted into the family.
ANOTHER POLITICAL MARRIAGE IN MIDIAN
When Moses protected his daughters and secured his wells for his flocks; Zipporah’s father (Jethro) offered her in marriage to Moses as a gift for his gratitude.
I’m really glad that these types of arrangements don’t happen today; in most places anyway.
Nothing is said of the fact that Moses was already married; but you have to realize that in those days this was the way of the cultures.
It wasn’t wrong for a man to have MANY wives.
The ten commandments had not yet been given at the time that Moses married Zipporah (his second wife) and Moses had not yet come to the place of personally knowing God or God’s destiny for his life.
IS REMAINING SILENT A SIN?
Legally and culturally, Moses actually broke no laws nor did anything wrong; unless perhaps remaining silent was a sin in this case.
For all we know, Moses might have TOLD Zipporah of his other marriage and perhaps she had accepted the fact and married him anyway.
No one really knows.
ZIPPORAH GOES TO EGYPT THEN BACK TO MIDIAN
Years passed, forty to be exact; and finally the day came when God revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush. At that time Moses was still living in Midian.
Moses knew he had to go back to Egypt and do God’s will so that his people could be delivered.
When Moses leaves; Zipporah and their two sons go with him on the journey to Egypt.
However, when they all arrived in Egypt, Zipporah and her two sons are either sent back and/or decide on their own to return to Midian.
Why was this?
Could she have known that Moses would again be re-united with his first wife once he reached Egypt?
No one knows all the facts here; but up until this point – Moses had committed no sin by being married to two wives.
TEN SHORT COMMANDMENTS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
After the people are delivered from Egypt and led out to Sinai; Moses was given the ten commandments by God.
That was the beginning of the changing of the world.
At this point, and from this point forward, anyone who wasn’t married to only one woman would be living in sin.
The commandments clearly speak about the sin of adultery. (I can’t explain King David here; but we will get to that lesson one day.)
But; both of the marriages of Moses had happened BEFORE the giving of the law and BEFORE any of the parties involved even knew God.
KNOWING GOD CHANGES EVERYTHING
So was Moses in the wrong now?
It is my personal opinion that he wasn’t, but I suppose he needed to start to sort out some things from this point forward.
I’m sure he pondered what to do first!
Was that why Zipporah and the two sons were sent back?
Had the timeline been skewed in the interpretations of their returning home?
Did they actually return to Midian before Moses re-united with his first wife?
Some have even suggested that Zipporah died in the wilderness right before Tarbis returned into the life of Moses.
No one really knows!
MIRIAM AND AARON SPEAK AGAINST THE CUSHITE WIFE
All we know now is that Zipporah had returned back to the camp of Moses again. This happened at some point just before the people arrived at Hazeroth, and it was at Hazeroth that Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite wife; so this must have been when the Ethiopian wife had finally been able to find Moses again and had decided she would return to being his wife.
What a mess!
Moses must have been in quite a pickle.
He hadn’t done anything wrong at the time of his marriages; but now it all LOOKED very wrong in other people’s eyes.
Probably Moses loved both of the women.
What was the right thing for Moses to do?
WHOSE PROBLEM WAS THIS?
Some people thought that Moses definitely needed to make a decision about the situation.
Some people being; Miriam and Aaron.
They were very vocal about their thoughts against the Cushite wife; and God heard the things they were saying to Moses. They must have been very harsh and unkind and judgmental.
Most such situations do seem to go this way; as a wise and humble man prays and seeks a wise solution to a problem often a haughty and judgmental crowd will make snap judgments that are hurtful and harmful for all parties concerned.
That isn’t a godly way to live.
GOD COMES TO MOSES’ DEFENSE
I suppose God wanted to remind Miriam and Aaron of the fact that He had hand-picked Moses as their leader; which also meant that they would not have even been on the journey had that not happened.
Miriam was even so bold as to ask Aaron if they were not prophets too; so she was blatantly questioning the authority of Moses and their place under his leadership.
(Some people think Miriam’s constant questions play into the fact that she was punished more severely than Aaron, who knew when to speak and when to remain silent.)
RACE WAS NOT A CONSIDERATION
Many have assumed this whole story was caused by a racial issue; but history doesn’t play out that way.
The Ethiopian people were actually very respected and honored in that time and culture and there were no racial issues going on.
It was clearly an issue of two people (mostly Miriam) letting a little power go to their heads and forgetting their place.
THE FINAL WORD FROM GOD
So God called a meeting with all three parties; Moses, Miriam and Aaron.
He quickly expressed to Miriam and Aaron that Moses was special, higher than they were on the ladder of leadership over the people.
God reminded them that other prophets existed, but they had received communications from God in the form of dreams and visions; and Moses was different.
God spoke to Moses face-to-face.
He reminded them of the fact that Moses had seen His form and lived. No other man had ever done such a thing.
It was pretty obvious that God was angry at them for speaking against his humble servant; Moses.
God was so angry that after speaking to them; he left.
THE CLOUD LIFTED AWAY AND THE LEPROSY CAME DOWN
When the cloud with God inside lifted above the tent of the Tabernacle where they had met; Miriam’s skin was leprous.
Aaron quickly began to apologize to Moses and to ask him to speak to God to heal Miriam.
It is pointed out in the beginning of this passage in Numbers Chapter Eleven that Moses was a very humble man; the MOST humble man on earth.
WHEN A HUMBLE MAN PRAYS WITHIN GOD’S WILL
We hear of how Moses quickly began to pray to God for Miram to be healed. I suppose that Aaron knew he did not have favor with God right in that moment and he was very wise to seek out the prayers of Moses.
You can’t simply sin in one breath and expect God to send down healing in the next!
God must have wanted Miriam to remember this day so that she would never commit this sin again.
He told Moses that she should be confined outside the camp for at least seven days.
SEVEN DAYS TO CONSIDER HER SIN
Maybe in all the same amount of time it took for God to create the world, Miriam might manage to find her heart again and return to a more humble and serving state.
God will do whatever it takes to bring this about in all of us.
Miriam served her time of seven days outside the camp; was proclaimed healed and then she was allowed back inside the camp again.
The people waited until Miriam was back inside the camp; then they moved on to set up camp again in the desert area of Paran.