3. Numbers 12
1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
We have had lessons and Bible Studies speaking about the “strange women” that Solomon married, so while reading this I could see the concerns Miriam and Aaron may have had. And yet, because what I’ve learned here, it is now apparent that they were seeing effect and expecting the worst. Pretty much the definition of looking at the situation humanly. It was certainly not their spiritual sense that led them to speak.
For Moses’ part, here is a man that could marry outside the Israelites, and yet not be waylaid by it. While thinking on this, I read what Gilbert Carpenter wrote in Chapter 72 of Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Footsteps:
“Asa Eddy died as the result of induced animal magnetism. But it was not animal magnetism overpowering a scientifically-poised student, for that is something that animal magnetism can never do. There must be a falling away first.”
This helped me to see that any person – myself included! – who has been thrown off due to marriage, or whatever, must see it is not the spouse or the situation which was at fault, it is the individual’s initial, and perhaps continual, falling away from God.
Moses did not have a falling away; he was as meek and steadfast as ever, therefore any concerns entertained to the contrary were malpractice. That is what came back on Miriam, as Mrs. Eddy wrote on page 569 of Science and Health, “The sin, which one has made his bosom companion, comes back to him at last with accelerated force…”
I am very grateful for this church and for Christian Science, as I know that without this teaching so much of what I read in the Bible would bring no understanding or insight. Thank you!