The Tongue - Edition #16: Revering Talk

April 20th, 2006

Today, a friend of mine turns 31. I remember when I was 31. Those were the good old days. Last night, my leg was hurting way more than normal so I got out of bed and went for a prayer walk around the apartment complex. I saw my fuzzy criminal friend, the raccoon. I met a new guy, “Play-dead,” who is a possum. I found that if you look around the dumpster, you see all sorts of crazy little creatures. Of course, I respect their space. I’m not keen on rabies or other nasty diseases. Afterwards, I listened to the Rangers take a 6-1 lead and turn it into a 9-6 loss. That broke my heart.

The Tongue – Edition #16: Revering Talk

Numbers 12:1-15
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn't he also spoken through us?” And the LORD heard this.

(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

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 came out. Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, he said, “Listen to my words: “When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. 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?”

The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them.

When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam—leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy; and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother's womb with its flesh half eaten away.”

So Moses cried out to the LORD, “O God, please heal her!”

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.” So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.

Proverbs 4:24
Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.

Perverse (adj.):

1. Directed away from what is right or good; perverted.


2. Obstinately persisting in an error or fault; wrongly self-willed or stubborn.


3. Marked by a disposition to oppose and contradict.

Aaron and Miriam both had perverse talk. And even if what they were saying was true, it didn’t make it right or good. God did in fact speak to others in dreams and whatnot. He spoke to Moses face to face (well, actually, God had his back to him, but Moses did get to see God, unlike anyone else). The think is that Aaron and Miriam both weren’t showing the proper respect that is due Moses. Both were prophets, both were well respected by Moses, who in fact prayed for them after God left, and both were held in high esteem in the community. It wasn’t enough them: the more the power, the higher the chance for corruption. If I am to be an effective leader within my family, the only thing that comes out of my mouth is to be good things about other people. This goes for when it is just me, my wife, and my son, as well as when it is around a group of my friends… and even around people I don’t know. It goes for when it is about people I know who are up to their ears in sin, people I haven’t formally met, and about people I don’t even know. It all boils down to this: Show proper respect to everyone. A look at a few definitions:

Proper (adj.):

1. Worthy of the name; true.


2. Marked by suitability or rightness or appropriateness.

Respect (verb):

1. To feel or show deferential regard for; esteem.


2. To avoid violation of or interference with.


3. Regard highly; think much of.

Everyone (pronoun):

1. Every person; everybody.

Revere all men. That is what 1st Peter 2:17 starts out with by going back to the Greek (according to E-Sword). Prize all men. It’s more than simple respect. It’s regarding with awe. It is showing devotion to everyone. I need to do this to as many as possible. I need to hold dear everyone I come across. NIV translation doesn’t do justice in my mind as to what the Greek says in all this. Check out this translation: Revere as many people as possible. How many people am I revering today? Does my talk show that I am holding dear my fellow man? Since my mouth is the overflow of my heart, am I reflecting awe to others, even people I know who are not Christians? When I talk, what does it say about me? With these questions, I see that there is much room to grow. And I am glad to ask myself these questions of myself. Johnny Out.