Numbers 27:1-11
Then the daughters of Zelophehad came forward. Zelophehad was son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, of the clans of Manasseh, son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. 2 They stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders, and all the congregation, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying, 3 “Our father died in the wilderness; he was not among the congregation of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the congregation of Korah but died for his own sin, and he had no sons. 4 Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father’s brothers.”
5 Moses brought their case before the Lord. 6 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 7 “The daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they are saying; you shall indeed let them possess an inheritance among their father’s brothers and pass the inheritance of their father on to them. 8 You shall also speak to the Israelites, saying: If a man dies and has no son, then you shall pass his inheritance on to his daughter. 9 If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. 10 If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. 11 And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman of his clan, and he shall possess it. It shall be for the Israelites a statute and ordinance, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
The story we just read, about the daughters of Zelophehad is not one I have preached on before. It’s a story that is a part of the Camp curriculum at our Methodist camps this year.
A story meant to help students understand that God is with us when we need to advocate for our own justice. The daughters of Zelophehad advocated for their inheritance and God let Moses know the daughters were right. So we teach our campers that they should also advocate for themselves because God is a God of justice.
But it’s also a story that has a whole lot of Biblical, theological and Cultural Context!
What happened before this story is that there was a rebellion against Moses that was called “the Congregation of Korah.” So after the rebellion was put down, the families of the rebels were disinherited and cast out from the people of Israel.
Zelophehad was related to Korah, but Zelophehad died in the wilderness before the whole rebellion thing, so his daughters were fighting not just for their inheritance, but for their place in the Israelite community. As 4 women, where would they go? Where would their children go?
Back to Egypt?
And as women they had no right of inheritance under the usual rules of the time, so if they were cast out, they would be cast out with nothing. No sheep, no tent, no cart, no clothes but what was in their backs.
Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah were fighting for their lives, their family, and their citizenship.
That’s what’s going on in the story.
There’s also some Biblical context you need to understand – Biblical, as in, understanding how the Bible was written.
Only one part of the Bible was carved in stone by the hand of God. Any guesses as to what that part is?
The 10 commandments.
Everything else in the Bible was written and edited and edited and copied and copied and translated and translated again and again by people.
The Bible is mostly, except for the 10 commandments, humans talking about their experience of God – what we call oral tradition, then other people writing about what those humans talked about, often several generations later. There was no eye witnesses news following Moses around!
Nobody was writing this story down as it happened. Especially stories that are this old. So think of this like a story told by your Great Aunt about her Grandmother. It’s mostly true but told from your Auntie’s perspective, not her Great Grandmother’s perspective.
There’s also a theological context in play here.
Then as now people’s religious beliefs and theology are shaped by our culture and the religious beliefs of the surrounding cultures.
A common belief in many religions and cultures at the time was that if something bad happened to you God was probably punishing you.
We see this belief in divine punishment in this story in verse 3 where the daughters are basing their claim to their inheritance on their father having “died for his own sin.”
This is why it is important for us to take the Bible seriously, not literally.
Here’s how I explained this to the kids at camp:
There are things in the Bible that are not correct theology.
We know they are not correct theology because Jesus talked about a lot of these wrong ideas when He was here on earth.
The disciples asked Jesus this question in the gospel of John chapter 9 verse 3, when they saw a blind man. They asked,
“Who sinned this man or his parents?”
Jesus responded, “neither this man nor his parents sinned.”
Because we believe that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One God, with one personality, what Jesus says is what God says.
So the idea that Zelophehad “died for his own sin,” is not God’s opinion. It’s the common belief of the culture they lived in at the time.
This actually happens a lot in the Bible. Like when Abraham was convinced that God wanted Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac. Most of the religions in the area practiced child sacrifice and Abraham’s relationship with God was kinda new, so Abraham assumed that God was like all the other gods. So God has to substitute a ram to talk Abraham out of sacrificing his son.
We deal with this issue today, because people assume that
our culture is God’s culture,
our values are God’s values,
our laws are God’s laws.
So just as the people of the Exodus assumed that women could not inherit and Zelophehad died for his sins,
We also assume that God shares our social norms.
But God’s Mercy and God’s Justice are often much more inclusive and expansive than we are.
God made sure that Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah’s names were remembered, not just Zelophehad’s name.
God convinced Moses that these women mattered at a time when women didn’t matter.
And God made sure that Moses knew the value of women because Moses owed his life to his sister, his mother, her midwives and Pharaoh’s daughter who adopted him.
We were using this story at Camp to teach the campers to be brave and speak out for justice even when it’s not popular and even when people tell you that justice is against the rules.
And I witnessed many beautiful examples of students advocating for one another and for themselves at camp.
One of our autistic campers was really frustrated by the speed at which we were learning the music for the production we put in at the end of the week and shouted,
I don’t know where the *fork* I am in this music!
She didn’t say “fork”
And this is where it’s important to realize that sometimes we play the part of Moses.
Sara, the choir director, who is school choir director and is very good at her job,
Sara didn’t discipline that camper for saying “fork”
Sara instead took a deep breath, and consulted with Spirit – because it’s easy to feel insecure when someone is demanding justice from you.
Because, If they have to demand justice from you, then maybe you did something wrong. And it doesn’t feel good to have to admit that you might have done harm.
A lot of people would just tell that camper to be quiet and keep rehearsing and they will get it soon enough.
But Sara did a Moses.
Sara consulted with God and then she asked if others were struggling with the song, and a lot of us raised our hands, including me.
So Sara changed her plan of teaching. Like Moses changed the rules.
Because sometimes we are in the position of Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah and we need to advocate for our own justice.
And sometimes we are in the position of Moses and we need to remember that God’s grace also applies to us when we are being unjust.
A deep breath, a pause, a hasty prayer of “Help me Jesus,” is sometimes all we need to ground ourselves in God’s grace.
God’s grace for the person seeking justice and God’s grace for ourselves when we have made a mistake.
