If you want living water to come out of The Rock like a geyser try singing. This would be what, Miriam, the first Mary in the Bible would tell you. Her name meant “bitter” as she was born at the height of the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. She was no doubt a for runner, a shadow of many, many Marys to come. The most common name for any daughter to this very day. I wish I had the time to share all the dots in the Bible she connects, but I can share a few of the treasures of this saint.

The Jewish people hold her in an extremely high place along with her two younger brothers Aaron and Moses, the Bible tells of her help in getting Moses to Pharaoh’s daughter in the Nile, and her song when the red sea saved them from their enemies, both significant water miracles. The Midrash teaches so much more, these stories maybe legend but sure explains why the Elders sang to the well in Numbers 21:16-18

 From there they continued to Beer, that is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.” Then Israel sang this song:“Spring up, O well! Sing to it!
“The well, which the leaders sank, Which the nobles of the people dug, With the scepter and with their staffs.”

Much has been written on Miriam’s well, a stone that was shaped like a sieve or a bee hive that rolled following the Jews through the desert after Moses struck it at Horeb the first time. Take a close look at 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;  and all ate the same spiritual food; 4and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.

Did you see that, yes, the stone that followed them, we are talking rock and roll here for sure. Miriam died at Kadesh in Numbers 20: 1 and immediately, the Jews were out of water, the Midrash and Talmud teach that  Miriam was the singer to the stone and now she was gone.

Again, you may say that’s legend and you may be right, but the thing that jumped out at me was that this stone didn’t just pour out water, it shot out like a geyser or a fountain, now the Jews don’t teach what Jesus said to the women at the well. John 4: 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Mary, a rolling stone, water like baptism and water springing up, just a coincidence?

Here is the sweetest part of the whole story to me though at first look it seems harsh. Numbers 12:1 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married”

Then in 9-15

So the anger of the Lord burned against them and He departed.  But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous. Then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned. Oh, do not let her be like one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes from his mother’s womb!” Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “O God, heal her, I pray!” But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again.” So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.

Miriam was clearly a prophetess and clearly walked with and loved Jesus, yet like me she got all judgmental, God did inflict her but she was sent out alone into the wilderness, intimacy, fellowship, restoration, time with her Savior, to me to whom much is given much is required and this was her chance to get back in union with God. Was their singing while she was banished, I’ll bet you there was and there was water gushing, living water… Look at the end of her life and how God has continued to honor her name, Miriam/Mary

Miram, had a little rock, whose shape was like a hive, and every where that Miriam went that Rock would soon arrive… Just sayin.. 🙂

Another cool article about Miriam:

Miriam’s Legacy of Leadership