Miriam: The Wilderness Prophet

Illustration: The forgotten Women of the Civil Rights Movement. Exercise - Name the great leaders of the civil rights movement.

Jo Ann Robinson - started the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Septima Poinsette Clark - started citizenship shools

Diane Nash - helped to start Student Non-violent coordinating committee (SNCC)

Dorothy Height - Key organizer of the March on Washington

Fannie Lou Hamer - Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

Daisy Bates - President of the Arkansas Chapter of NAACP and helped to enroll the Little Rock 9 in all white school

Ella Baker - Community Organizer and Mentor to W.E.B. Dubois, Thurgood Marshall and MLK and birthed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

CIT: God called Miriam to Preach and help shepherd the people of Israel.

CIT: God called Miriam to Preach and help shepherd the people of Israel.

Miriam’s Prophetic Song was Sung by all who were present. ()

The song is here prophetic utterance, her exhortation to the community.

And Miriam sang to them. Who is the “them” that she sang to, and who is she exhorting to join in?

“Them” in this passage is Third person, Masculine, Plural.

It is not saying that Miriam took up her tambourine and the women followed her and she said to the women “sing to the Lord...”

it is not saying Miriam took up her tambourine and the women followed her and she said to the men “sing to the Lord...”

it says that she took up her tambourine and the women followed her and she said to everyone present, “sing to the Lord...”

Illustration: Children to act out the scene

Miriam heard from God as a prophet and was respected by the community as a prophet. ()

Miriam knew that God spoke prophetically to her. God Confirms this by call ing her close to the tent and speaking to her. He also confirms it by speaking to her about the ways he speaks to his prophets.

Miriam is described by God to be a leader of the people and sent by him. ()

Miriam as a prophet and leader of the wilderness people is a divine action.

I (God) Sent before you.

“sent before you” signified leadership (spiritual & governmental) over Israel

I Sent you Moses, I sent you Aaron, I sent you Miriam

Conclusion

DESPITE SET BACKS, SILENCING - NEVER THE LESS SHE PREACHED

AND THERE ARE OTHERS WHO PICKED UP MIRIAM’S MANTLE

Jarena Lee (AME)- "If the man may preach, because the Savior died for him, why not the woman, seeing he died for her also? Is he not a whole Savior, instead of half of one?"

Sojourner Truth - “The Spirit calls me, and I must go.”

Lucy Farrow - the niece of prominent black abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Pastor of a Holiness Church in Houston and was the one who laid hands on many at the Azuza Street Revival.

God has always Called women to preach in the wilderness. and even when silenced, Nevertheless they preached.