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I’ve wondered the same thing regarding God’s singling Sarah out foraufhig at the prospect of her bearing a child when Abraham was chuckling along with her at the absurdity of the idea.
Another place this problem shows up is with God’s election of His chosen people: it’s His prerogative as God, but it’s hard for me to square with the concepts of His love and goodness.
I’ll never understand it.
I’ve come to peace with it functionally through seeing that “fair” and “just” also mean in keeping with what is fitting with relative merit and what is morally right as well as being free of favoritism. There are probably other factors involved that are not evident to us.
I think that God can be both inequitable and just.
Another of those mind-bending paradoxes He is.

I was just studying that chapter this week. I wondered the same thing. My observation was that Aaron was the repentant one. It does not mention Miriam’s response to God’s chastisement but Aaron’s was immediately to beg Moses to spare Miriam.

If we approach the issue from a theological angle, the idea of “fairness” is really about getting what one is owed/has earned… since we’ve all sinned and deserve nothing short of death according to the law, anything we get above that is grace! I love what Darla added – God isn’t really “fair”, else we’d all be in trouble. Beyond that, from a philosophical/logical perspective, if God is the creator, and He has a purpose for each of us in the grand story, then whatever He chooses to give us is essentially “fair” because He created us so He calls the shorts… that whole “some for noble use and some for common” thing spoken of in Romans.

See you Saturday!

God’s measure against the transgression of Aaron and Miriam might not be a matter of ‘fairness’ in this case, but a matter of practicality. Firstly, I would consider what the Lord said as an indication of His purpose. Firstly, the Lord wants to instill a corrective in the minds of Aaron and Miriam. The Lord is angered at the presumption of equality in terms of role, not gender. God informs Aaron and Miriam that while they have their roles, Aaron as Moses mouthpiece and Miriam as prophetess (Exod1:20) and He might reveal Himself indirectly through visions, dreams and the like to the prophets (Num 12:6,7), God speaks directly to Moses (Num 12:8). It should be the fear of the Lord that gives them more respect for Moses position and decisions. With this in mind, we must consider the purpose of God’s discipline in terms of this hierarchy of roles, not gender. Aaron’s role as mouthpiece and worship leader suggests that if he had been the one who was to bare the discipline of the Lord, which was a lesson for all who saw, this would not have served the people well, and the worship of the Lord would be hindered if Aaron would have fallen ill. This, of course, cannot happen. The second statement of the Almighty that we must consider is the comment upon spitting (Num 12:14). When speaking of spitting, and in context we can consider this a violent spewing toward another, this demonstrates the shamefulness of their attack upon Moses (see Job 30:10). Since Miriam was singled out in this regard, this might implicitly demonstrate that her offence was more violent, like that of spitting in Moses face, than Aaron’s. In the end, I do not think that God is in the business of demonstrating His favor of some over others in a ‘in your face’ sort of way, through punishing some and not others for the same transgression (Matt 5:45). Instead, I find God’s actions to be deliberative and instructive, if not as clearly for us now, as for those involved.