Black Lives In The Bible: Zipporah
Continuing with the series: “Black Lives In The Bible,” we see Zipporah, a Black woman and the wife of Moses. We see through her brother-in-law and sister-in-law (Moses’ siblings), that through a situation they were racist towards her. And we see because of situation that God hates racism, as well as having His decisions challenged by man’s opinion. Racism is not a skin color issue, it’s a heart issue. In looking at the account of Moses’ siblings’ racism towards his wife, we see that the Hebrews were held back from moving forward, until Moses’ sister’s bad heart was sanctified and transformed. Racism doesn’t just hold back the racist, it holds back the subjugated as well.
“Mozes en zijn Ethiopische vrouw Sippora” | by Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens, 1650
A little background…
For anyone that went to Sunday School for any period of time knows the story of Moses and how God used Him to part the Red Sea so that the Hebrew children could cross it as God guided them into The Promise Land [Israel]. But, what you may not know is that Moses was married to a Black woman. Meet Zipporah, the Midianite wife of one of the Bible’s most celebrated leaders.
The Midianites were a group of people, made up of different tribes, descants of Midian (a son of Abraham and his wife Keturah), who lived in the Arabian Peninsula on the eastern side of the Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea. The location is modern day Saudi Arabia. But some also came from Nubia, and this is where Zipporah came from- somewhere between Ethiopia and Sudan. Her father, Jethro (also known as Reuel) was a priest of Midian and a shepherd, as well as a wise man. As a side note, there is argument that Moses had two wives: a Midianite and a Cushite. But Jewish rabbinical teaching and writing states that Moses had one wife: Zipporah who was African (Cushite) and the Midianite part is mentioned most likely because of her extreme beauty. This belief is that after God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, he became very serious about his calling. There was a time that Zipporah and their two sons, Gershom and Eliezer lived her family because [Moses] was delivering the Hebrew people out of Egypt and they had a battle to fight with the Amalekites. I doubt very much that Moses had time for the family drama that comes with polygamy.
It was at a well that Moses met Zipporah after having killed an Egyptian in Egypt for harshly beating a Hebrew slave, he fled to the land of Midian to escape his shame. Wells have a symbolic significance in the Bible, they represent marriage and salvation, as Jesus, Who is the living water that we draw eternal life from. Ok, Allyson… stay on point… I just find the deep treasures of the word so inspiring and I can’t keep them to myself.
The Story
But here’s the story… as you’re wondering why you should care that Moses married a Black woman… so what, many people do, you say…
Ok… before I get to the story I have to point out that Moses and God were tight, meaning they were extremely close and God was protective of Him. Like, if you spoke negatively of Moses, God’s anger burned. God called him a friend (Exodus 33:11) and he defended and protected his [humble (see Exodus 12:3)] friend from human insults. God and Moses were so tight that God didn’t speak to him through dreams, God met Moses face to face. Moses saw the “form” of God (Numbers 12:8). This is also symbolism that when an ungodly, non-follower of the Godhead speaks evil of a child of God, God will lash out at that person in some way.
Ok, back to the story…. We see at the beginning of Numbers 12 that Moses’ sister, Miriam and brother Aaron, the High Priest spoke against their brother in the context of his Black wife. The two siblings, with bad hearts called out Zipporah’s distinct trait, her skin color or ethnicity, and the fact that she was a foreigner. And on top of that, they had the nerve to question God’s decision to speak only through Moses, not them. It’s as if they had hearts to usurp his God-given authority and had been drinking some of King Richard III’s cool-aid (a reference you will only understand if you like English monarchical history):
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite [Black] wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this. Numbers 12:1-2
Brace yourself. Lawd, why did the two go and open their mouths. God since Deuteronomy was very clear that the Hebrew people were to be open, show justice, give rights and not be exclusive or racist towards foreigners. And, when He chooses to speak through a leader, that’s His holy wisdom and choice. We shouldn’t mumble or complain about leaders He has put in power.
All teachers will be able to picture this illustration. Imagine, Miriam and Aaron harboring these feelings in their hearts and mumbling about it. God had had enough. As a teacher calls out children on a playground field to yell at and dole out punishments this is what God did:
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 went out. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; He stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward, 6 He said, “Listen to my words:
“When there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions,
I speak to them in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses;
he is faithful in all my house.
8 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?”
Numbers 12: 4-8
And verse 9 is clear: “The anger of the Lord burned against them, and He left them.”
As Ben Christian writes: “We can't ignore the words they used to start the conversation/ confrontation.” Miriam and Aaron started their whole argument with mentioning Zipporah’s race: …. “his Cushite wife. (Numbers 12:1).” From the get go they had bad heart issues.
Before I proceed lets really look at this because this is where racist White America, racist White Europe, and racist White Oceania- racist any race- need to pull up a chair and take notice. From Numbers 12:1, non-Whites have heard some form of this from Whites:
1. I don’t think that bi-racial marriages are good or God’s natural order or things. Plus, think about the hardships their children would face being half White and half [Black, Asian, Latino, Ingenious].
2. Or, a racists White person who makes jokes or negative remarks about non-Whites, and you confront them and they say: “of course I’m not racist! My next-door neighbor is from Sierra Leone and I give him tomatoes from my garden every summer. It’s just a little joking I do, stop being so sensitive!”
3. Now sweetie, we want you to marry a good man, but not a [Black, Latino, or Asian man]. Can you imagine what your children would look like? Can you imagine walking around with a child that doesn’t look like you, having to explain and carry the burden of society judging you? That wouldn’t’ be good for you or the child, walking around with a child that doesn’t look like you and you having to explain yourself.
We’ve all heard racist and close-minded comments like this from some White people, but not just them, from Asians, Latinos and Blacks as well.
Now, back to the story… we see God’s judgement on Miriam, which was making her skin so white and slapping her with leprosy that Aaron compares her to a '“stillborn baby.” Leprosy is a very painful skin disease and it is uncomfortable to go through. The thing Miriam judged became her judgement, and that was skin color.
10 When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous—it became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease, 11 and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.” Numbers 12: 10-12
But also, Aaron calls his and Miriam’s act, sin. Let me zero in on that: SIN. Racism is a sin and God HATES it. And in some form or another, when one is racist, whether they be White, Black, Asian, Latino or Indigenous and they hate another race, the Bible calls it out as SINNING. There is no room for racism or hating foreigners in God’s family and He has little tolerance for it.
Photo by: Ali Hamed Haghdoust | Source
Somewhere in our lives when we sin and don’t repent, though we may not be struck down with leprosy, we will get slapped with judgements that bring pain- and things won’t go well for us. Not to mention the day we will stand before God and give an account for our unclean heart posture on “the day”: Judgement Day, when the secrets of all men’s [and women’s] hearts will be revealed.
So, God, Miriam’s Creator “spits in her face,” after Moses pleads with Him to heal his sister, and He [God] sends her outside the camp for seven days. Seven is the number for completion in the Bible. For her complete transformation and heart transformation, God makes her live in isolation with this skin disease:
14 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.” 15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back. Numbers 12: 14-15
Sometimes I think if all White people got Black skin for seven days, most all would come out of that experience differently. If any racist person got the skin color they were against for seven days, most would come out of that experience differently.
Racism doesn’t just hold back the subjugated, it’s holds back the subjugator(s) as well
The Hebrew people, a nomadic people had to wait seven days for her sanctification transformation. I think I’m safe in saying that if you look at world history for centuries past, it is the White race that has been consistently racists towards non-Whites through acts of colonialism, slavery, killing non-Whites and causing all kinds of evil brutality. The White race is one having coming out of Europe of the Caucus region, just as the Black race is one having come out of Africa, Asia is one, etc. It is symbolism in that Miriam had to go outside of the camp for seven days, which in turn held up her people, the Hebrew children from traveling on to their next destination. They were due to travel as whole, but she kept everyone back for seven days. In what ways have Whites held themselves from moving forward collectively, which inevitably holds us all back, because of many upon many in their race have heart posture of embracing racism?
Racism doesn’t just hold back non-Whites, it holds back Whites as well. It was when her seven days were up that a whole nation [Israel] could move from Hazeroth and encamp in the Desert of Paran (Numbers 12: 16). They were supposed to be in the Desert of Paran seven days earlier. Where could the White race have been but they are years behind where God had planned for them to be as a result of systemic racism (aka bad sinful heart posturing)?
We learn from Numbers 12 that God hates racism and people thinking that their skin color is better than another. We also learn that He doesn’t like to have His decisions of who he puts in powers and speaks through questioned. And finally, we learn that racism doesn’t just hold back the subjugated, it’s holds back the subjugator(s) as well.