Women in the Bible: Miriam, the Singer

Exodus 15: 19-21
19 When the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his chariot drivers went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them; but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.
The Song of Miriam
20 Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. 21And Miriam sang to them:
‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.’

Truthfully, these few verses do not do Miriam, the sister of Moses, much justice. In fact, usually when you say, “Miriam, you know, Moses’ sister,” everybody says, “Oh, yeah, right.” While Moses’ song is verses and verses long, hers is 1. But then again, that is the story of Miriam: always there with her brother, moving the story of God and God’s salvation for God’s people along, making sure that the right person is available for God’s mission at the right time. Take a quick trip with me back to the beginning of the story of Miriam.

Long before they arrived at the sea of Reeds, also called the Red Sea where Pharoh’s guys lost the trail of the Israelites, Miriam stood at the side of another river: the Nile. The Hebrews were still enslaved in Egypt, and there was an order from the Pharoh for every boy born in the land to be thrown into the river but that the girls were to live. This would prevent the Hebrews for continuing to grow rapidly in number and would allow him to keep control over them. So, Miriam’s mother gave birth to a boy during this time and hid him as long as she could. But when she couldn’t hide him any longer, she put him in a kind of basket and set him into the Nile so that he would not be thrown there and drown. But he wasn’t left their to drown on his own; Miriam was there watching, making sure that he made it. And the story goes that he did make it, at the hand of the Pharoh’s daughter and the breast of his very own mother. How was this boy so lucky? It wasn’t luck: it was Miriam.

Miriam watched her baby brother, Moses, and when Pharoh’s daughter found him, Miriam was the one who suggested that she get a wet nurse for him from among the Hebrew people. It was really a brilliant plan—this way, Moses would be reunited with his mother and her mother with her infant son whom she had given up so that he would have a chance to live. And that chance came under the watchful eye of Miriam. But who among them—Miriam, Moses, their mother, or Pharoh’s daughter—could have known what would come to pass as a result of an older sister’s careful eye?

Ten years ago I was working as the Director of Youth Ministries at the Briarcliff United Methodist Church. About halfway through my tenure there, a family arrived at our church who had 2 teenaged children. The older of the 2 was a girl, and the younger was a boy. The boy was one of the most difficult kids I had ever worked with. He ran away from the church every week for a while when they first started coming. We would have supper and he would have a little fit because he didn’t like the food. Then we would move to the youth room to start our program for the evening, and as soon as we would close our eyes to pray, he would run out of the room. I had to recruit an adult leader just to run after this boy when he ran out of the room because we were close to an outside entrance and located at a pretty busy intersection. I had no idea what he would do, and I was worried about whether or not he would make it, quite honestly, into adulthood. When we went on retreats, there was a constant battle between this guy and the adult chaperones: he didn’t want to participate in our activities and was always starting trouble. He was exhausting. When I left that church as I was getting ready to graduate from seminary, I stood before the congregation on my last Sunday and thanked them, especially the youth and their families, for their gracious welcome to me and for working with me in ministry for a great group of kids. I knew I would miss them.

The troublemaker ran to me after I had addressed the congregation and hugged me tight. “I’m going to miss you so much,” he said. I couldn’t imagine why, but it seemed genuine. A few months ago, this kid—now a young adult working full time and making a way for himself in life—found me on Facebook of all places. He survived. I was relieved to know it having had my doubts. Looking back on that show of emotion, I have wondered if the reason he was going to miss me was that he knew that underneath the correction and the reprimand he constantly received from me he saw that someone was watching out for him, that someone cared what happened to him. I had no idea that he would make it to adulthood or if so be able to support himself and make a life. But he has, knowing that there are people in the world who care about him.

We don’t always get to see the result of the seeds we plant in life, and we don’t always know how much someone’s participating in our lives is going to mean later on. As Miriam stood by the Nile watching that basket that contained her baby brother, I don’t imagine she had any idea they would stand together at the side of the Sea of Reeds, singing the praises of God who had saved them from Egypt, the land where the Pharoh called for the drowning of baby boys and the slavery of the Hebrew people. I bet she had no idea why it would be so important to her people for Moses’ life to be saved. How could she have known as a little girl that Moses would be the one God would choose to stand up to the Pharaoh, to lead the people out of Egypt, and to share with them the vision of the Promised Land and the 10 Commandments? If Miriam had not stood by the side of the Nile, making sure that her brother didn’t perish as so many other baby boys did, Moses would not have been able to consider and say yes to God’s call, to step up with the help of his brother and sister and speak to the Hebrews about the recovery of their freedom, and the religious world as we know it would not be what it is today.

Have you ever wondered if some small thing you have done in someone’s life really made a difference? Has someone done something that seemed small at the time but has played a very big part in who you have turned out to be? God has not promised us that salvation would be an easy road. If you read the whole story of the Exodus, you will find that it was pretty tough going between Egypt and Canaan. The road to Jerusalem was not easy for Jesus. And our journey of faith is not easy for us, either. But thank God there are Miriams in life to give us a boost, watch over us, and make sure that God has the chance to do all the things God wants to do in our lives and through us in the world.

So keep doing the small things in the lives of the people you know. And keep letting people watch over you and urge you along the path that God has chosen for you. You never know what could happen.

Amen.