It is not often that we hear stories of the men who died in the "wilderness wanderings" of the Israelites. I'm referring to that 40-year time period between when Moses' 12 spies returned with their (mostly) unfavorable report about the Canaanites and when Joshua took the Israelites across the Jordan to war.
However, this morning, we are going to look at the person and family of one, Zelophehad. This man was of the tribe of Manasseh. His unusual situation was that he sired 5 daughters, and no sons. In the culture of Israel in that day, this meant the end of that family line.
The story is re-joined in Joshua 17:1-10, but it begins several years earlier, in Numbers 27. Here it is, in The Message version.
27 The daughters of Zelophehad showed up. Their father was the son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Makir son of Manasseh, belonging to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. The daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
2-4 They came to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. They stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and before the leaders and the congregation and said, “Our father died in the wilderness. He wasn’t part of Korah’s rebel anti-God gang. He died for his own sins. And he left no sons. But why should our father’s name die out from his clan just because he had no sons? So give us an inheritance among our father’s relatives.”
5 Moses brought their case to God.
6-7 God ruled: “Zelophehad’s daughters are right. Give them land as an inheritance among their father’s relatives. Give them their father’s inheritance.
8-11 “Then tell the People of Israel, If a man dies and leaves no son, give his inheritance to his daughter. If he has no daughter, give it to his brothers. If he has no brothers, give it to his father’s brothers. If his father had no brothers, give it to the nearest relative so that the inheritance stays in the family. This is the standard procedure for the People of Israel, as commanded by God through Moses.”
A census had been taken in that day, and the results of it are recorded in Numbers 26. It was after the taking of this census that the five daughters of Zelophedad appealed their lack of inheritance (and basically their family's extinction) to God, through Moses.
God honored them and granted their request. And, He goes on to specify how inheritance would follow in related cases when there is no close male relative to inherit. Now, you may be wondering - - -- how is that going to work? What if these women married men from another tribe? You weren't the only one to ask this question! It was raised in Numbers 36 as well, by Zelophehad's nephews, in vs. 1-4. God's answer:
5-9 Moses, at God’s command, issued this order to the People of Israel: “What the tribe of the sons of Joseph says is right. This is God’s command to Zelophehad’s daughters: They are free to marry anyone they choose as long as they marry within their ancestral clan. The inheritance-land of the People of Israel must not get passed around from tribe to tribe. No, keep the tribal inheritance-land in the family. Every daughter who inherits land, regardless of the tribe she is in, must marry a man from within her father’s tribal clan. Every Israelite is responsible for making sure the inheritance stays within the ancestral tribe. No inheritance-land may be passed from tribe to tribe; each tribe of the People of Israel must hold tight to its own land.”
10-12 Zelophehad’s daughters did just as God commanded Moses. Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, Zelophehad’s daughters, all married their cousins on their father’s side. They married within the families of Manasseh son of Joseph and their inheritance-lands stayed in their father’s family.
Ordinarily in such a situation, the family of Zelophehad would have been subject to the existing law of levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5), which basically said that if a man produced no sons, his wife would be married as second wife to one of the man's brothers to produce male heirs in the dead brother's name. However, no mother to these five daughters is mentioned. It can be assumed that she was dead and that the usual law of levirate marriage could not be followed.These five daughters were united, wise and bold. They approached Moses when he and the power players of the community were worshipping at the Tent of Meeting (the pre-cursor to the Temple)
It is easy to make the mistake of believing that God was in that day partial to males, that He esteemed them more highly than He did females. It is easy to make that incorrect deduction because men were appointed to familial positions of leadership. That has carried over to the New Testament, where the apostle Paul appointed men as the head of the family unit (Ephesians 5:23). It is clear that God created male and female as different but complementary creations, with different strengths, and that He likewise appointed them to different roles in the family.
In Psalm 145:9 we read that God is loving and merciful to all His creation.
The Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all He has made.
The truth is that no people groups have esteemed women more highly than did the ancient Israelites (through God's commands) and the Christian faith. Some will argue that the positional restrictions placed on women denigrate and limit them, while I maintain that those decrees of God revealed in Scripture serve to both protect and elevate women to a status not previously seen in other people groups. While it is true that women in our American society have, by and large, cast off some of the restrictions of the Bible regarding women, I would argue that this has been to the overall detriment to our sex.
One thing that I believe we can learn from these five daughters is that they boldly asked. They were not irreverent. There is no indication that they were acting in an unseemly manner. Rather, it seems that they were well-known in the community, one can assume, from their righteous acts. None of them had, at the time of their request to Joshua, married. This was unusual in itself, as they surely were beyond the usual age of marriage by this time. Jewish tradition has them marrying very late, as they were quite discriminating as to whom of their male cousins they chose to marry. While this is somewhat conjecture, it does "make sense". I reckon they didn't want to marry someone who was only "out for their money" (land holdings).
I love studying the people of Scripture, particularly the women, and learning from their examples. Let's boldly ask Father today, for His compassion, His goodness, His mercy on us, His beloved creation.
Good morning, Lord. Thank you for daughters, even though I have none. Thank you for, in Your wisdom, creating us male and female, and for giving us abilities which complement the other. Thank you for giving each of your children gifts, which we can use to further Your kingdom. May we not get hung up on the perceived "superiority" of one over the other, because this is not what You intended. You made Your creation and declared that it was "very good" (Genesis 1:31). In Jesus' name, amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment