1.6.26 – Miriam

The Kansas City trip is wet, wet, wet! Water everywhere. Water always makes me think of Miriam, whose name has water (mayim) built into it, but her name also contains bitter (marah). Which one is it? Yes.

If we are going to give Miriam a tribute from God's perspective, we will have to understand something about God Himself. One of His many names, which describes much more than His almighty character, is El Shaddai (God Almighty) (Gen. 17:1). Yet with this name, there is much more than His name implies—even though there is nothing mightier!

We know that man was created in the image of God, both male and female (Gen. 1:26–28), but there is something extra special about the woman. She is the capstone to all of God's creation. She is the completer of man and the one to whom the man clings (Gen. 2:24). She is the one who takes away his aloneness (Gen. 2:18). The male produces the seed, but the woman brings it to life (Gen. 3:20), and she is the one who nurtures the baby to maturity (Gen. 3:16).

When God is named El Shaddai, His almighty nature comes from His ability to nurture individuals to maturity. The root word of shaddai is shad (breast). An infant child nurses at its mother's shad (breast). There he or she gets all the nourishment, vitamins, immunity, and essentials to grow to maturity, and ironically, even blesses the mother's immune system by suckling. Evolution did not pull this one off, gang! Even though God is referenced as masculine almost all the time, one of His strongest attributes as our helper (ezer) is the One who nurtures us with the milk of His Word—His Torah—from the shad (Song 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:13–14; Ps. 131:2; etc.). Hence, man was made in His image, both male and female. And though we are focused on Miriam, we had to set the precedent for all women.

Back to our regularly scheduled program... Let us journey back to the beginning of Exodus, where we will see a life-giving theme throughout the entire Torah narrative, which connects Miriam and water (Moses in the basket, crossing of the Sea, Miriam's song, bitter waters of Marah, striking of the rock, and Miriam's well—providing water for forty years). This theme will be continued up to Numbers 20, where Miriam dies, the water stops, and Moses strikes the rock the second time. Like milk from the breast (shad), the Torah is also compared to living water (mayim chayim) (Isa. 55:1; Jer. 2:13; 17:13), with picture after picture of this life-giving elixir.

Everywhere Miriam is in the narrative, there is water. This morning I want to talk to you about the faith journey and life-giving decisions (Rom. 1:16–17; Hab. 2:4; Heb. 10:38; 11:6–7) by visiting the scene at the Reed Sea (Yam Suf—also known as the Red Sea), where Miriam (mir – blessed; yam – sea) will lead a post-crossing celebration (Ex. 15).

When Pharaoh's chariots were coming, the people began to panic (Ex. 14:5–9), and they revealed at least four predictable responses to their challenge (Ex. 14:10–12):

  1. Paralyzing fear

  2. Surrender

  3. Fight or flight

  4. Suicide in the sea or pray

What does Moses do with Miriam (Miryam) near him? To everyone, he says, "Stop. Do not do what you are planning. Do not even pray." Huh? "Just stand still and see the salvation (Yeshua) of the Lord" (Ex. 14:13). What exactly does this mean?

One of the challenges we face in times of crisis is reverting back to what we know, not what is possible through the salvation (Yeshua) of El Shaddai.

Here, Moses asks the people to trust God—to have faith! At this point, the people only know four options. What they do not know is what we know: the sea is going to split. We know that the sea is going to split because we have read the story so many times. But if you did not know that the sea was going to split, you would also think those four choices are your only options. In these life crises, we (speaking of me, myself, and I) have to open ourselves up to the possibility that we are going to be saved (yeshua'd), even if we do not know how.

Whatever you are going through, there is salvation (Yeshua) waiting for you. He will take you through the sea (yam). And the sea (yam) of impossibility will become the blessed (mir) sea (yam) because of your faith in the Almighty God (El Shaddai), who nurtures you every step of the way!

Shalom,
Alan

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