Exodus 15:20

"And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out with her with timbrels and with dances."

Miriam is the first woman mentioned in the Bible as a "prophetess," and this was because she was endowed with the gift of prophecy. What a preposterous statement on this is the affirmation that "she was endowed with the gift of ecstatic utterance!"[42]; Numbers 12:6-8 reveals that her inspiration was of a degree less than that of Moses, which also may account for her being introduced here, not as Moses' sister, which presumably she was, but as the sister of Aaron. The mention of dances here is in keeping with the custom of religious dances prevalent also in the times of David. We like the comment of Dobson on this to the effect that any such acceptance of dancing into Christian worship was frustrated because, "dancing was closely connected with the worship of other gods, or with drunkenness or sexual immorality."[43] It should also be remembered in this connection that at no time or place did any of the apostles of Jesus Christ sanction any such thing as a dance in the worship of God. We must also add that the same applies to timbrels and other instruments of music.