Numbers 27:1-11

Hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions is where every weekday morning you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2024, Lord willing, we'll make it through the books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Hebrews. So glad to be with you today. Why don't we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll jump into God's Word.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. Father, we pray that you would please help us to understand your word. We pray that it would soak deeply into our hearts. Lord, we pray that you would teach us, for you are good and merciful. So Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would instruct us this morning in Jesus's name. Amen.
Alright, so we are at Numbers chapter 27. Numbers chapter 27. Remember, Numbers chapter 26, we've just gone through the whole second census, all that first generation who had rebelled against the Lord after the spies went in. All of them are dead, just like God had said in Numbers chapter 14 was going to happen. So it's just Caleb and Joshua left of that generation. And he had told them that they were going to receive the promised land by the lots given to them. So it's with that context that we jump into the passage today. Numbers chapter 27. Then came the daughters of Zeliophad, the son of Hephaer, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, from the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. These were the names of his daughters. Mala, Noah, Hogla, Milcah, and Terzah.
And they stood before Moses, before Eleazar the priest, and before the leaders and all the congregation, by the doorway of the tabernacle of meeting, saying, Our father died in the wilderness, but he was not in the company of those who gathered against the Lord, in company with Korah, but he died in his own sin, and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be removed from among his people because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father's brothers. So Moses brought their case before the Lord.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, The daughters of Zeliophad speak what is right. you shall surely give them a possession of inheritance among their father's brothers, and cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers. And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the relative closest to him in his family, and he shall possess it. And it shall be to the children of Israel. a statute of judgment, just as Jehovah commanded Moses.
Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? Right. So, A, what is this about? Well, we've heard about The son of Manasseh, Zelophehad, who had four daughters. We heard about that actually in the census from last time, or two times ago, in Numbers chapter 26. It didn't really explain why the daughters were listed, right? Everybody else seems to be sons. There's only a few girls mentioned, but here, these four girls come to Moses and they say, hey, hey, hey, hold on.
Our dad wasn't rebellious like Korah, right? He was a sinner. He died in his own sin. But why shouldn't we receive an inheritance? Because if we don't receive an inheritance, our father's name is going to be wiped off the books, right? When we go into the promised land, when we cross over that Jordan River and we believe it's going to happen, Our dad's not going to be remembered at all. And he was a sinner, but he was also a follower of the Lord.
And so notice what Moses does here in verse 5. So Moses brought their case before the Lord, right? Moses, when he's got these important decisions to make, that precedence for what's going to happen in Israel, he doesn't just make it up for himself like a tyrant, but he goes to the Lord to get guidance.
And there, this is what the Lord says. He says that there is an order of inheritance. So what the daughters of Zeliophad speak is right. You shall give them a possession of their inheritance. Women are part of God's economy, part of God's covenant, part of God's people. This is not just, it may be father run, it may be head of the household type environment. However, the women still have a very special place.
And so he says to them that, right, if a man dies and it goes through, right, I'm not going to read all of it, but there's a series of, right, if somebody dies, how is their inheritance passed down, right? So if a father dies and he has sons, you give it to the boys.
Why? Right? Because the inheritance is largely land and the land needs to be worked. This is an agricultural economy. and this is going to be running the plows and going out into the fields and taking care of the harvest, bringing in the sheaths, right? And so there's a reason why it was very, very normal that you wanted to have large families with lots of boys, lots of hands, lots of help, because it was backbreaking work.
And so the farm's going to go down to the boys, but if there's no boys in the family, it goes to the daughters, right? Notice it goes to his daughters. And then verse 9, if there's no daughters, then it goes to the father's brothers, or to the husband, to the man's brothers. So the point is, you don't just skip over the girls, but it goes then to his brothers.
If there's no brothers, then it goes to a generation up, it goes to the uncles. But if he doesn't have any uncles, then it goes to his nearest of kin, then it goes to his closest of relatives. So there was an order in which inheritance was supposed to go. So to sons, well obviously first it's going to go to the wife, but if his wife is dead and it's going to go down, it's going to go down to the sons. If there are no sons, it's going to go to the daughters. If it doesn't go to the daughters, it goes to his brothers. If there are no brothers, then it goes to uncles. and if there are no uncles and it just goes to the nearest of kin, right?
They keep searching. We have laws like that in every state in America, right? Because there's an order of inheritance, right? Trying to find the closest relative. And so in this scenario, in this economy that the Lord had set up, it was just traditional, but it's also practical that the men were, right? The sons were going to receive the inheritance, but make no doubt about it. That meant that the women in society were cared for because the men were in charge of making sure the land was cultivated. And they were in charge, and the brothers would take the place until their sisters got married or moved out, that they were responsible for caring for the farm and caring for their family members, right?
The family units, the tribes and the families were the most local place for support. We get these ideas in American society that, right, this goes out the window. I'm kind of moving into calling here, right? But that society takes care of the widows or insurance companies need to take care of this stuff, but that's not how it was in ancient Israel, right? This was the local family takes care, then the broader family, then the broader family, then the tribe And then the nation, right, it was always meant to be the local care was at the lowest level of the closest family relation and the women must not be overlooked. Women have a right to have their names remembered. God enshrined their names in the book of Numbers, both in Numbers chapter 26 and now in Numbers chapter 27. And so whether you're a man or you are a woman, you have a place in God's covenant. You have a place in God's kingdom. He remembers even those girls whose father died and gives them an inheritance. He doesn't leave them without hope. He doesn't leave them destitute.
I think we also, and this is where I speak to the men, right? We have a pattern here. Now, this is where we go to general equity. This is not law, but we have a pattern here. where that case law shows us that we as men have a blessing to care for those in our families.
We have a blessing to oversee their well-being and to bless them and care for them, but not to act as if they don't have a place in God's kingdom. Because these women are seen as just as important as the father's brothers and the father's uncles. They actually get front-of-the-line privileges in the inheritance.
And so we must not turn into that characteristic or caricature of patriarchy in which the women are overlooked and they're just trash in the society. Absolutely not. That is not how the Lord commanded this to go. And so neither should we take advantage of the women or overlook them.
We're called to protect and care in love. This is the beauty of how God has shown us the expansiveness of his kingdom, the care that he shows us. And so I pray that we, as those people of God, might know that he has, even for us, stored up a good inheritance, even the new heavens and the new earth. And we know that he who did not spare his own son, but freely offered him up for us, how will he not with him also freely give us all things? Our inheritance is great. And we have a great hope that he'll remember us no matter how lowly or small we may be.
Let's pray. Father, we pray that we would rejoice that our King Jesus Christ has promised us an eternal inheritance and that you don't overlook The most feeble are small, but Father, you, you give good rewards and you make good promises and you will make sure that they happen. Lord, we thank you for all you have done in Jesus's name. Amen. Well, may you rest in God's promises. May you trust that he who said these things will make them good. And may you love the Lord all your days. I'll see you next time. Bye.