Numbers 12  Miriam and Aaron, the sister and brother of Moses, start talking against their brother.  They feel as if they also should be heard and recognized.  Moses has no desire to argue with them and allows the Lord to handle the situation. God does so by calling the 3 of them into His presence right at the door of the tent. God speaks directly to the 3 of them and makes it clear that Moses is His chosen leader.  When He departs from them and the cloud lifted, Miriam had turned white with leprosy.

It is Aaron that confesses their sin and begs for his sister's healing, directing his appeals to Moses.
It is Moses who turns to the Lord and prays for her healing.
The Lord sentences Mariam to 7 days of being outside the camp.  The entire community is locked down for those 7 days. Once Mariam was allowed back into the camp, then they moved on to their next location in Paran.

Aaron does not appear to have a relationship of his own with God, even though he and Miriam had both claimed to have heard from Him.  This man was given the privilege of becoming the first high priest of the nation of Israel, but couldn't even pray for his own sister, instead asking Moses to intervene. Aaron had failed once before to be the man of God he needed to be, when he built a golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai.  He also failed to direct his oldest sons, allowing them to offer the wrong kind of incense in the tabernacle.   That must have been so sad for Moses.  To know his family was missing out on the love and presence of the God who sat and talked to him face to face.

Chapter 13 brings us to the mission of the 12 who went in to spy out the land of Canaan.  12 are sent out and spend 40 days there making their observations.  When they return and make their report, 10 give a bad report, but 2, Caleb and Joshua, desire to go in and take possession of the land.
10 saw themselves as "grasshoppers".  2 saw themselves as conquerors because God was on their side.

Once again the Word gives a clear picture of a life of faith versus a life of unbelief. 
The actions of Aaron and Miriam reveal hearts that did not fear God or believe that it was God who chose Moses to lead Israel.
Moses trusted God to direct as He desired.  He would allow God to defend him or even remove him if that was what He wanted.
The actions of the 10 spies revealed that they did not believe that God could give them the land that He had promised.  They were walking by sight and not by faith.
Caleb and Joshua, on the other hand were willing to walk by faith, to go into a place that they could not take on their own, to fight a battle that they could not win on their own, believing that God would do what He had promised.

Faith is sometimes a hard concept to grasp.  Recently I read a statement that keeps coming to mind, the idea that sometimes faith is accepting without understanding... 
When faced with giants and impossible odds... can we accept God's promises, even though we don't understand how or why?
When faced with conflict and criticism ... can we accept by faith that God will take the necessary actions; that He is our defender; even when we are hurt or confused by the assault on us?

This is what Jesus asks us to do. To trust in God...
That He will fulfill His promises.
That He will take vengeance when it is due.
That He will bring good out of all situations, according to His plans and His purposes.
That He will be with us and never forsake us.

Moses is a great example, for he led a great nation with absolute dependance on the Lord. 
Joshua and Caleb are great examples, for they believed that God could do the impossible. 

Father in heaven, once again we are led to "Trust and obey".  You are able to do anything.  We can depend on You in all situations.  Let us  be humble like Moses and faith-filled like Caleb and Joshua.
That we would please You and walk in Your ways.  We ask this in Jesus' Name.  Amen.