Num 20:1 | KingComments | STEP | The wilderness journey is nearing its end. The death of Aaron, at the end of this chapter, takes place in the fortieth year after the exodus from Egypt ( ). They arrive in Kadesh, at the border of Edom. Miriam dies in the first month of, it is believed, the fortieth year. She also belongs to those who fall in the wilderness. This will also happen to Aaron and Moses. Through this excellent trio God has led His people out of Egypt ( ), but none of them will enter the land with the people. The death of Miriam, just before the end of the journey, gives the tone of the past forty years, about which hardly anything has been recorded. Scripture is silent about this. But it has been a death march. Every day men died, until the whole unbelieving generation is fallen in the wilderness. With the death of Miriam, the joy of redemption, a joy she expressed after the people had passed through the Red Sea ( ), is silenced. That joy had to make way for the sadness of the ubiquitous death. It seems that Miriam, together with her brother Aaron ( ), has completely disappeared from the scene after her attack on the authority of Moses. Perhaps she never got back the privileged position she had before her uprising. It may be a lesson that, even if someone is forgiven for a great sin, he or she will not regain the influence or position in the work of God that was there before this sin occurred.

‏ Numbers 20:1

The Death of Miriam

The wilderness journey is nearing its end. The death of Aaron, at the end of this chapter, takes place in the fortieth year after the exodus from Egypt (Num 33:38). They arrive in Kadesh, at the border of Edom. Miriam dies in the first month of, it is believed, the fortieth year. She also belongs to those who fall in the wilderness. This will also happen to Aaron and Moses. Through this excellent trio God has led His people out of Egypt (Mic 6:4), but none of them will enter the land with the people.

The death of Miriam, just before the end of the journey, gives the tone of the past forty years, about which hardly anything has been recorded. Scripture is silent about this. But it has been a death march. Every day men died, until the whole unbelieving generation is fallen in the wilderness. With the death of Miriam, the joy of redemption, a joy she expressed after the people had passed through the Red Sea (Exo 15:20-21), is silenced. That joy had to make way for the sadness of the ubiquitous death.

It seems that Miriam, together with her brother Aaron (Num 12:1-2), has completely disappeared from the scene after her attack on the authority of Moses. Perhaps she never got back the privileged position she had before her uprising. It may be a lesson that, even if someone is forgiven for a great sin, he or she will not regain the influence or position in the work of God that was there before this sin occurred.