Scripture Reading - Numbers 27

The Daughters of Zelophehad and the Inheritance of the Lowly

Seated. Please turn your Bible to Numbers 27. Numbers 27 can be found on page 135 of your Pew Bible. Excuse me. Yes, 135. In this passage, recall that the former chapter was a census that was taken of the people before they go into the land of Israel that would determine what the sizes of their inheritances would be.

So immediately after this comes a question about the daughters of Zelophehad. Now the daughters of Zelophehad had lost all the, there were no sons that would be able to receive an inheritance. So the question is, would they receive an inheritance or would they receive no inheritance because there are no sons?

This is a significant question for how the land of Israel will work as they are about to go into it. Would this be one where orphans and widows are disinherited, disenfranchised, or would it be one where even they have a standing, have a position in the kingdom of God?

And the answer that they receive is that they will receive an inheritance. They do receive an inheritance. They are not disenfranchised. They get to enjoy the blessings of the kingdom. And this is the case for the great promised land that we have waiting for us as well.

Orphans and widows are not disenfranchised. Those who are lowly in the world are not disenfranchised but get to enjoy the full share in the inheritance of God. Now after this, we see a passing off of the authority over the people from Moses to Joshua.

Moses, Joshua, and the Passing of Authority

Moses is not permitted because he was impatient when he struck the rock and he did not have patience with the Lord and with the people that the Lord had given to him. And so he takes him up, takes Joshua up on the mountain to pass off authority to him.

And later we learn that this is Mount Nebo. This in many ways prefigures the authority that is given to Jesus Christ to lead the people. Interestingly, the names Jesus and Joshua are the same name. You do not typically see that since Joshua is a Hebrew name and Jesus is a Greek name, both of those being anglicized for our language.

But all those names are one and the same when they are translated into other languages. So Joshua prefiguring Christ the one who will lead the people into victory through conquest into the promised land.

The Daughters of Zelophehad Receive an Inheritance

Numbers 27, beginning in verse 1. Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepper, the son of Gilead, son of Macker, son of Manasseh, from the clans of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were Mala, Noah, Hagla, Milcah, and Tirzah.

And they stood before Moses and before Eleazar the priest, and before the chiefs and all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying, our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but died for his own sin, and he had no sons.

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. Moses brought their case before the Lord, and the Lord said to Moses, the daughters of Zelophehad are right.

You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers, and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, if a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.

And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. And if he has no brothers, then 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 nearest kinsmen of his clan, and he shall possess it.

And it shall be for the people of Israel a statute and rule, as the Lord commanded Moses. The Lord said to Moses, go up into this mountain of Abiram, and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel.

When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin, when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes.

These are the waters of Meribah, of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who shall go out before them, and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.

Joshua Commissioned to Lead the People

So the Lord said to Moses, take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight.

You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. And you shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord.

At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole congregation, and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the Lord directed through Moses.

Amen.