The Song of Miriam - I

By Inés Velásquez-McBryde

June 9, 2023

Scripture — Exodus 15:20 (NRSV)

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her tambourine and with dancing.

Focus

Miriam was around 85 years old before they crossed over the Red Sea. Yet she had been living into her vocation of prophetess since she was a young girl. If you remember, she secured Moses’ rescue with her mother Jochebed and convinced Pharaoh’s daughter to disobey her father’s orders and to take her baby brother into the palace. God did not undermine Miriam’s youth in order to use her calling and develop her voice as a prophetess.

Devotion

Miriam left Egypt and thought to bring her tambourine. Have you ever wondered about that? You get the news that Pharaoh has let God’s people go and as you scramble to grab your most precious possessions and leave the place of slavery… you bring your tambourine. Miriam’s tambourine had a story to tell and a song to sing.

Miriam was around 85 years old before they crossed over the Red Sea. Yet she had been living into her vocation of prophetess since she was a young girl. If you remember, she secured Moses’ rescue with her mother Jochebed and convinced Pharaoh’s daughter to disobey her father’s orders and to take her baby brother into the palace. God did not undermine Miriam’s youth in order to use her calling and develop her voice as a prophetess.

Miriam’s calling is one that should inspire any one of us: do not undermine the young. She was born in slavery and a child of the enslaved. She is the first female prophetess and mother of all women prophets in the Hebrew Bible. She is single, unmarried with no known/recorded children, yet she is a spiritual mother in her prophetic vocation.

Miriam is a prophetess of the people and she is a prominent presence among her people. She prophecies and innovates, strategizes, and dreams, from the place of pain. She is a visionary, for she sees things before they have even occurred. She sings to the Lord for she knows who has redeemed her people, but she has offered her hands, her skills, and her dancing tambourine and she dances on dry land.

Her tambourine is her testimonio. Before the Red Sea is parted and the people dance to the other side, I want you to see her visionary skills in that she grabbed her tambourine not knowing when or by whom or how they would be freed. She trusted the promise, and the tambourine was a promise of praise. She had seen God’s steadfast love from the time she helped pull her brother Moses from the river and back into her mother’s nursing arms. She trusted that God’s love would nourish her leadership.

Reflect

Do you have a letter, a picture, a “thing” that reminds you of God coming through for you during a difficult time of leadership?

Act

Remember a time when God got you through a difficult season of leadership. What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about God? How did it form you as a leader?

Pray

God of tambourines and God who turns seas into dry land, we thank you for the way we remember how we got through to the other side of a difficult situation. Though the road did not go as expected, goals weren’t met as expected, objectives not reached as expected, help us remember that you were with us and you helped us get through to the other side. In present and future moments, help us remember your ever-present love that sustains and nourishes our leadership. May we find our tambourine that gives witness to your guidance and strength. Amen.

Banner image by Stefano Girardelli on Unsplash.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project’s online commentary. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: The Work of Midwifery and Mothering (Exodus 1:15-2:10).


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Inés Velásquez-McBryde

Chaplain at Fuller Theological Seminary & Pastor, Preacher, Speaker

Inés is an ordained pastor, preacher, reconciler, writer, and speaker. We are pleased to feature Inés as a regular Life for Leaders writer. On June 15, 2019, Inés received her Master of Divinity degree from the School of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary where she now serves as...

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