It is manifest that Moses endured in silence the domestic obliquity which his sister drew down upon him, patiently committing his justification to God, until her would-be pious zeal assumed a more alarming aspect. Since Aaron had made common cause with Miriam, Aaron, who wore the breast-plate, Urim and Thummim, and Miriam, who, as a prophetess, had already led the chorus of the women of Israel, must have held high places in the minds of the people; hence, when they raised the question, “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us?” there is no telling where this sedition of Miriam and Aaron might have ended, had not the Lord Himself taken it promptly in hand. But the Lord heard that complaint, which implied that the prophetic gift was exercised by them also, that they were prophets, vested with authority, and if they even suffered Moses, since his objectionable marriage, to remain in the prophetic college, they could at least outvote him. So Moses, Aaron and Miriam were suddenly cited to the tabernacle of the congregation. When the three presented themselves at the place appointed, the Lord came down in a cloud at the door of the tabernacle, and “called Aaron and Miriam” apart from Moses, and there, at the door of the tabernacle, administered a stern rebuke to both of them. They had lived with Moses so long, and yet knew so little of his exalted position. As a brother he stood too near to them, and they themselves, with their self-consciousness, stood too much in their own light. “And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle.” As Aaron saw the cloud lifting up and moving off, he must have been inwardly crushed at this punishment. The fires on his altar went out, the pillar of smoke no longer mounted up as a token of grace, the divine presence was withdrawn, and it was as if an interdict of Jehovah lay on the services of the Sanctuary. But this was not all. “Miriam became leprous, white as snow.” There seems to be a singular connection between the punishment of Aaron as the representative of the Church, and Miriam, who had thought herself and Aaron above Moses, snow-white in righteousness, while she looked down on him as unclean. She would dominate the Church, for she dominated Aaron, and now, as a leper, she must be excluded from the Church. When Aaron looked upon his afflicted sister, though High Priest, the Lord having withdrawn the symbol of his favor from the altar of sacrifice, was as helpless as Miriam, and he now implores Moses, as his superior, to intercede. Here only the spiritual high priesthood of a divine compassion can deliver the helpless High Priest himself and his unfortunate associate in the prophetic office. In his appeal, Aaron almost speaks as if Moses could heal the leprosy. Moses, however, understood it as an indirect request to intercede for Miriam.