Every time I ask a question like the one in the title, I’m hit with a wave of answers that say roughly the same thing: “Of course she deserved it! God is just, so if He does something, it’s justified!”
Let me be clear: I will never disagree with that stance…ever. God is just, so if He acts, it’s always with integrity and righteousness.
That being said, I can also hear the other side of the argument from a non-Christian perspective. That is, that you can’t just assume God is just and then rationalize away His actions. That’s incredibly biased, and arguably short-sighted.
An atheist would never buy the argument of “this action is just because God did it.” Instead, they would argue those “unrighteous” actions make God unjust. Becauase of that, we as Christian have to look at the moment objectively.
Here we are then with the story of Miriam’s leprosy, which is hard to stomach for one major reason: Miriam was the only one punished.
If God was truly just, shouldn’t Aaron be punished as well? They both spoke out against Moses and they both challenged his authority. Why is Miriam the only one that gets leprosy?
Moreover, God’s reaction in Numbers 12:14 singles out Miriam as the one hypothetically “spitting” in God’s face, but didn’t Aaron kind of do that, too? He even says in Numbers 12:11 that “we have sinned.”
Traditionally, it’s assumed that Miriam becomes leprous because she’s the ringleader, but that’s reading into the Text. Nothing about the story to this point suggests that she acted over Aaron. On the surface, it seems like they worked together.
Some have also suggested that the reason Aaron wasn’t leprous was because of his role as High Priest. If he had leprosy, the whole camp would grind to a halt. But status didn’t stop God from punishing Nadab and Abihu, so it shouldn’t have interfered with this situation, either.
After all, even Moses was struck with leprosy for his sin in Exodus 4. If he’s not immune, Aaron certainly isn’t.
For the record, I do think Miriam was the ringleader here. Aaron’s timid and malleable temperament lends itself well to playing second fiddle to Miriam’s more outgoing nature. The only other time she appears in Scripture, it’s in a position of leadership (Exodus 15:20).
Maybe that gives us a secondary clue to this scenario. If she is a leader in women’s worship, and the complaint also centers around Moses’ wife being a foreigner, then it makes sense that she would look at the Cushite wife and question why she isn’t the one in charge instead. She’s done her job well. She’s a true-blood Jew. She’s Moses’ sister. Why isn’t she higher up on the totem pole?
Ironically, this seems to be the exact charge leveled against Eve in 1 Timothy 2:13. Adam was made first, but it was Eve who took the fruit first from Satan, then gave it to her husband to eat.
In doing so, she inverted the natural order (1 Corinthians 11:3). Her presumptuousness was wrong, just as Miriam’s presumptuousness was wrong (as was Aaron’s), and God demonstrated, yet again, who He wanted as the leader over His people.
