06/24/2020 GETTING THROUGH IT TOGETHER
(Lessons from Daughters of Zelophehad)
Numbers 27:1, 6,7 One day the daughters of Zelophehad came to the entrance of the Temple to give a petition to Moses, Eleazar the priest, the tribal leaders, and others who were there…. So Moses brought their case before THE LORD. And THE LORD replied to Moses, “The daughters of Zelophehad are correct….” [Living Bible translation]
THE SISTERS ZELOPHEHAD
Who are we?
We are the daughters of Zelophehad.1 There are five of us: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, Tirzah. Some of our ancestors came from Africa---Egypt! We are descendants of Manassah, one of the sons of Joseph from his African wife. We are part members of the half-tribe of Manassah!2 Numbers 26:28 See, Manassah had a son named Machir, who had a son called Gilead. Gilead came from the region of Gilead and the family of Gileadites. Numbers 26:19 Gilead was our great grandfather. Gilead had a son called Hepher, our daddy’s daddy. Hepher is our grandfather. Numbers 26:30-33
Our grandfather, and my daddy and we sisters are called Hepherites. Numbers 26:33 Yes, if you want to, you can call us Hephers.3
The census is correct. The records are true. When GOD told Moses and Arron to take a second census, after the plague in the dessert ended, the census was that my daddy, Zelophehad, had five daughters and no sons. Yes, no males at all. Not a one.
We are GOD fearing woman. Unlike some of the others (those who perished in Korah’s rebellion against the LORD, Numbers 16:1 or like some of those Israelites who joined in the Baal worship Numbers 25:5, and who perished or died in the wilderness), we never worshipped other gods. Our daddy raised strong, GOD fearing women. And although we had no brothers in our household, we the daughters of Zelophehad household, have a strong household too.
OUR TRIAL
We have a problem. Our daddy died in the wilderness. He didn’t die of the plague. He died of natural causes. In other words, he didn’t die because of Korah’s revolt or because of Baal worship, he died because of his own sin. Numbers 27:3 The problem for us is that our daddy left no sons. There was just us, five daughters. And, it was now time for the allocation of land to the tribes, clans and families.
Under the tribal inheritance law, property allocation was made to male heads of families. But, since the head of our household is gone, we now viewed as having no head of household at all. So, we five women needed to put our heads together. Because, if we do nothing, we will end up with nothing! No land, no allocation, nothing in the record books. Our family legacy will just be gone!
It will be like our daddy, and we, never existed! See, this was not about just protecting women, this was about protecting Joseph’s African sons’ inheritance too. Our case is about protecting Manassah’s defendant’s inheritance, which included us Hepherites. Maybe Joseph’s own daddy knew that the African side of the family had to be protected when it came to dividing up his inheritance. Maybe that was another reason why he adopted Joseph’s sons so the Manassah decedents and the Ephraim decedents could each become a half-tribe. If you don’t make sure there is equality in the “inheritance pot,” early on, later descendants definitely suffer. Now, once again, the Manassah decedents and the Hepherites, the African side of the family, needed protection against being disinherited and diminished! We needed the law to give our daddy and us equal protection.
HOW WE GOT THROUGH IT
Being women in our culture, we sisters know we cannot do a lot of things. We cannot become high priests. We cannot attend services with the men. But our daddy talked to us about things. Maybe daddy knew that his daughters, a bunch of sisters, would need to know more than just cooking and drawing water at the well. And, we sisters paid attention. We listened and watched what occurred when the men had meetings. We heard about this thing called a “petition.” We heard about people petitioning and presenting their case. So, we sisters got together and talked it over and decided that we were going to petition about what was happening to us. Numbers 27:2 We sisters decided to protest! We were going to present “our case” in front of everybody! Because if you’re going to protest, you might as well go high and go wide!
We went to the Tent of Meetings entrance door, which is where women are allowed to stand and serve, and spoke.4 See, Exodus 38:8; 1 Samuel 2:22.
When we got to the entrance of the Tabernacle, we argued our case and petitioned Moses, Eleazar, the priest, the tribal leaders, and everybody else who was there. We reviewed our lineage going back to Manassah, and the families that came out of that African root, including our grandfather, Hepher, and our daddy, Zelophehad. Numbers 27:1
We explained that our daddy didn’t die in Korah’s sinful revolt, which killed a lot of people in the wilderness. We explained that our daddy died a natural death. We told them that our father’s name should not disappear from history, but that we, his daughters, should be given our daddy’s inheritance in the same manner as our daddy’s brothers would be given theirs! Numbers 27:4
We don’t know what Eleazar the priest did, nor what the trial leaders did. We don’t know what decision they would have made had the decision just been left up to them. What we do know is that Moses took our case to THE LORD! And, PRAISE YAHWEH, THE LORD ruled in our favor! THE LORD said we were RIGHT!
So Moses brought their case before THE LORD and THE LORD said to him. “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and turn their father’s inheritance over to them.
Numbers 27:5-7 [New International translation]
GOD said, if a man dies and leaves no sons, turn his inheritance over to his daughters! If he has no daughters, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. And if he has no brothers then you give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. And if his father has no brothers, then give his inheritance to his kinsman that is next to him of his family. THE LORD made this a legal requirement for the Israelites!
Numbers 27:9-11 [New International translation]
To make sure the land stayed within the tribe of Manasseh, all of us sisters married men from our own tribe so that the inheritance remained within our tribe and our tribe’s inheritance was not reduced.
We protested injustice and won! Just as Moses did what THE LORD commanded and gave us our daddy’s inheritance, we sisters also did as THE LORD commanded and made sure that the inheritance remained within the Manassah tribe. See Numbers 36:12
We protested! And, GOD took care of us sisters! GOD took care of us our people, our tribe. And, when you are right, GOD will take care of you too!
Sometimes you just have to act like Hephers!