In chapter 12, the story becomes one of opposition, hard hearts, and divisions within the camp. The opposition that Moses is now facing comes from within his own family circle, from his brother Aaron and his sister, Miriam, who seems to be the ringleader. The ground for this attack was the fact that Moses had taken a Cushite wife. Moses’ first wife, Zipporah, was from Midian, and so it seems that she had died and that Moses had taken a second wife who was Ethiopian. If this is correct, then Miriam was saying, “I don’t like this black woman in my family.” So it’s not only sibling rivalry, it’s the worst kind of racial prejudice. 

What’s the difference between when they complained the first time about their diet and now? Well, the difference is that a year in their lives has transpired, and during that year God has revealed a great deal about Himself. When they came out of Egypt they didn’t know much about God at all. They were a nation of slaves. But He’d begun to teach them about Himself at Sinai. He taught them that He is a holy God, and that He is a powerful God. They’d seen the miracles. The Israelites knew how He was preserving them as they went through the desert by the manna they ate and the water they drank. A great cloud overshadowed the camp in order to protect them from the hot desert sun in the daytime, and then it turned into a pillar of fire at night to provide both warmth and light. They had perfectly adequate evidence of the power and the grace of God and shouldn’t have been complaining now.