HEBREW WORD STUDY – HE DEPARTED –  YALAK  ילכ 

Numbers 12:9:  “And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed.”

God has now spoken to Aaron and Miriam and reprimanded them for questioning Moses’ separation from his wife.  All our translations say that the anger of the Lord was kindled. Although the word ‘aneph could be rendered as anger it could be rendered as many other types of emotions. I have discussed ‘aneph at length in earlier studies and will not rehash the whole word study except to remind you that the origin of this word is in the snorting of a camel.  A camel will snort if it is upset if it is frustrating if it has lost a mate and is grieving and a camel will snort when in heat, desiring an intimate relationship with a female camel.  Hence, we do not have to say God was angry, we could say He was frustrated, or He was grieving or He was longing for a relationship He could not have.  Only from the context will we really know what God felt.  The traditional church view is that God was angry, I mean would you not be angry if you were in God shoes, if your child was accusing his brother or sister of something terrible when you specifically asked that brother or sister to perform that act?    Maybe.  

I do not recall this ever happening in my childhood but let’s suppose we were on a fishing trip and unknown to my older brother my father gave me his best fishing rod and reel to go fishing.  My older brother comes along and sees me with my father’s favorite rod and reel and really lays into me. “Boy are you trouble.  Dad will not even let me use that rod and reel, you had better put it back where you found it right now.”  Then my father appears.  Would he be angry at my older brother for scolding me?  For one thing, I had never known my father to be angry at any of us, but I am certain if he did get angry it would take more than that to arouse his anger.  He would simply point out to my older brother: “I told him he could use it.  You should have checked with me first before scolding your kid brother.”   Really, that is what all this was all about, the big brother and sister telling Moses he was in trouble for separating from his wife without even consulting God in the matter.  They just assumed it was wrong and they started to scold him. 

I don’t believe for a moment God was angry, He was hurt, disappointed but more important this act of superiority over God’s chosen vessel had to be nipped in the bud.  Aaron and Miriam had to realize that just because they were the older siblings, did not mean they had a higher calling than their little brother.  I mean he was about to lead a mighty Exodus and God had to establish right at that time that although Aaron would be a high priest and Miriam a worship leader, Moses was still calling the shots.   This is something Aaron and Miriam should have realized or known had they sought the face of God before accusing Moses. 

We will see later that Miriam was found to be ceremonially unclean at this time. Not only did she instigate this attack on Moses without consulting God, but she herself was also ceremonially unclean.  It was only the grace of a Holy God that He was able to correct Miriam while she was unclean but He could not reconcile with her and connect with her intimately until she went through a ceremonial cleansing.  Thus God had to yalak.

The word yalak comes from the root word halak which means to walk, to depart, to walk away among other things.   However, this is in a Hiphil imperfect form, indicating He is caused to walk away against His own desire.  He did not want to walk away but as a Hiphil, He had to.  This not only grieved Him but Miriam as well for God so wanted to hug Miriam and tell her it was ok knowing how ashamed she felt.  Aaron was ceremonially clean and God could comfort Him, but not Miriam. No, I do not believe God departed in a huff and zapped her with leprosy to punish her.  I believe God was grieved. 

This will be explained more in further segments of this study, but the point here is that if you go to worship God with unconfessed sin, God will be grieved. He will be grieved because He wants to put his arm around you, hug you, tell you that you are forgiven, but he can’t do it.  Sure, he forgives you the moment you sinned and became unclean, but there is a ceremony to perform.  1 John 1:9:  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Just as Miriam had to perform a ceremony of cleansing, not for God’s sake, God already forgave her, but for her sake just as confession is needed for our sake so we understand what we did, so we can repent and then accept the cleansing forgiveness of God.

Until we do, we are wasting our time and breathe trying to worship God because He cannot face us and He must yalak reluctantly walk away.  We are still saved, still His child but we cannot share that sweet communion and presence with Him.

TOMORROW   HEBREW WORD STUDY – SEVEN DAYS