Boiling Over

I have this bible that I bought several years ago when I first moved to Charlotte. I love it. It is a Women's Devotional Bible. I will admit, I have slacked off recently with reading it each night. I probably haven't picked it up in over a month. Tonight I opened it up to the next devotional and I think there was reason I had not touched the Bible in a month...He knew I needed to read this devotional right at this moment; here and now. It was what I needed to hear.

Boiling Over

Scripture Reading:

Numbers 12: 1-15

Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. "Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the Lord heard this. (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.) At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, "Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you." So the three of them came out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, the said, "Listen to my words:

"When a prophet of the Lord is among, you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them. When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam - leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy; and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with is flesh half eaten away." So Moses cried out to the Lord, "O God, please heal her!" The Lord replied to Moses, "If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back." So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.

Devotional:

APPLAUDING OTHERS can be surprisingly difficult. It's easy enough to fake it, to smile approvingly and nod in agreement. But sometimes with others are recognized for achievements, it's hard to feel anything but that ugly burning twinge of jealousy. Outwardly we're clapping and congratulating , but inwardly we're slowly beginning to simmer. Who does she think she is anyway? What's so special about her? Why all the fuss over one person? And if we don't catch it in time, that simmer an turn into a hard boil that erupts in anger, harsh words and broken relationships.

The root of jealousy, when we dig down deep enough, is often insecurity. It's not so much a question of what's so special about someone else as it is a question of what's so unspecial about me? What's wrong with me, we wonder, that God doesn't use me like that?

When Miriam and Aaron saw the way God was using Moses, they were jealous. They wanted to be what he was. And who wouldn't? God actually talked to Moses face-to-face. He had a unique role in history that no one else ever played.

But Miriam and Aaron also had unique roles in history, roles that Moses couldn't fill, roles that they alone could fill. God had used them in wonderful ways. Miriam was a prophetess. Think of how rare in that day - a female prophet! Aaron was the high priest - the priest above all other priests. He was different from Moses but amazingly gifted. Miriam and Aaron both had gifts used by God, but their jealousy started to burn, and they allowed their negative feelings to affect their positions.

God has made a place for you in his kingdom that only you can fill. You may be a Moses, out front leading the way. Or you may be serving in more behind-the-scenes ways like Miriam and Aaron. Your job is not to compare your work to another's and attach value based on what you see. Your job is to turn down the heat of jealousy and quietly go about the work God has given you to do. "Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load" (Galatians 6:4-5). When it's God's work, it's valuable. When we allow jealousy to simmer up and boil over, our own bitterness will only burn us.