What would happen to the inheritance? Would God allow their family name to be blotted out? What would Yahweh decide?
Questions like this would have raced through the minds of the daughters of Zelophehad. They presented their plea to Moses and waited for a response. In this final article, we will see God’s gracious answer towards them and we will be reminded of God’s love for all of those who desire their inheritance.
There they stood. Zelophehad’s daughters were before Moses awaiting God’s decision. As was his custom, Moses brought the question before Yahweh:
“And Moses brought their cause before the Lord. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, the daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them” (Num 27:5-7).
The daughters of Zelophehad speak right. Their spiritual reasoning and thinking was sound and was vindicated by God. Their desire to keep their family focused on the Truth and connected to the Father was rewarded. Their father’s name would not be blotted out — in fact, it would be more well-known than anyone else’s in his family! His name would be made a great name, and his inheritance would be passed on to his daughters.
Thus the law was changed, so that it was now possible for a man’s daughters to inherit the land, and other provisions were made in the ensuing verses, in the case that the man also had no daughters. The courage, the wisdom, and the love for their family’s connection to Yahweh was justified in the sight of all of the congregation — and once the children of Israel entered into the Promised Land under Joshua, they were given that promised inheritance.
Getting the inheritance
“There was also a lot for the tribe of Manasseh; for he was the firstborn of Joseph; to wit, for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead: because he was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and Bashan. There was also a lot of the rest of the children of Manasseh by their families; for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manassah the son of Joseph by their families” (Joshua 17:1-2).
This is Manasseh’s inheritance. Gilead and some of his children received the land over on the other side of Jordan, the land that they had requested in Numbers 32. In addition, there was another section divided off for Manasseh, to be split between six of the sons of Gilead —Abiezer (which, by the way, was the family of Gideon; Jdgs 6:11), Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, and Shemida.
“But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters: and these are the names of his daughters, Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. And they came near before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before princes, saying, The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brethren. Therefore according to the commandment of the Lord he gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father” (Joshua 17:3-4).
Here are the special sisters. As the descendants of Hepher, they approached Joshua, and reminded him of the promise that God had given to them. They were to keep their family’s name alive and inherit the portion of their father. They were the inheritors of Zelophehad’s portion, which would be the portion of Hepher; the rest of the land would then be given to five other sons of Gilead. Thus, we would expect to see the land divided out into six different portions, one for the descendants of each of those sons of Gilead:
“And there fell ten portions to Manasseh, beside the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side Jordan” (Josh 17:5).
Yet, when the inheritance was divided to the families, something strange happened! There were six families inheriting the land — but instead of six portions being given to the tribe of Manasseh, they were given ten! There were ten portions of land, and the descendants of each of the six sons would have been given a portion. This leaves four extra portions. Where did these come from?
Perhaps if we count the heirs a bit differently we will find an answer. There were six sons of Gilead and each of their descendants were going to receive a portion; in other words, there were the five daughters of Zelophehad (descendants of Hepher) and the descendants of the five other sons of Gilead. If you add up the five daughters and the five sons, the sum is ten. This is where the ten portions came from! Each of the daughters was given one of their own and then the descendants of the other five sons of Gilead each received a portion. The chapter goes on to explain that this is exactly what happened:
“Because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons: and the rest of Manasseh’s sons had the land of Gilead” (Josh 17:6).
The reason for the extra four portions was because the daughters of Manasseh — the daughters of Zelophehad — had an inheritance with Manasseh’s sons. And isn’t that wonderfully appropriate that it was the daughters of Zelophehad, the ones who recognized the meaning of the inheritance, the ones who understood that it was to be used for God’s honor, and the ones who desired to use it as such, were given more inheritance than anyone else? They were the children of the generation that was supposed to inherit the land, yet they received one lot of inheritance each — because they understood the principle, and because they longed to use their inheritance to bring glory to God.
The Lesson
This is just the beginning of the story of the daughters of Zelophehad––though this series of articles is finished, the daughters can continue to give us encouragement and a beautiful example to follow. In our own personal study, we can trace their story throughout the pages of Scripture — they come up again in Numb 36, and it is almost as though we can see their shadow in the Lord’s parable of the five wise virgins.
The daughters of Zelophehad give us a beautiful example of spiritual sisters who knew God’s principles and were willing to do whatever was necessary to ensure that they could give glory and praise to God with their inheritance. They didn’t just desire it because it would give them a highly valued material possession, but instead they longed for it because they knew what it meant for their father’s name, and they knew that by having it, they could use it in the service of Yahweh. They didn’t care that they had to first go to the judge of one hundred, then the judge of one thousand, and finally to appear before the great Moses and Eleazar the priest. They were filled with zeal for God, with a knowledge of His values and with a love for His name.
We too should strive to think like this — to be those who do all that we can to receive our inheritance — the Kingdom of God — not just because we think that it will be exciting to be immortal, or not just because it will be enjoyable for us, but because we love our Father’s name! We should long and strive to be in the Kingdom, because with our inheritance we will be able to glorify God in a way that we have never been able to before.
This is something that is so easy to forget, yet also something that the daughters of Zelophehad demonstrate to us. They wanted their inheritance because by having it, they could bring more praise to the Father in Heaven. We too should get excited about the Kingdom because we know that it is there that the whole world will learn the Truth and that God will finally receive the honor that He deserves! We know that our lives will no longer be tarnished by sin, and God will be able to be worshiped in purity.
This is the kind of attitude which Yahweh seeks in His children — and this is the same type of attitude which is beautifully shown to us by the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Glory of the Lord
All throughout His life, our Lord worked to demonstrate the glory of the Father. He was the perfect manifestation of God, the express image of His person. Everything he did brought honor to God’s name. In some of his last words to his disciples before he was crucified, which was also a prayer to his Father, he made it clear that Yahweh’s honor was his purpose:
- “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4).
- “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world…” (John 17:6).
- “And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it…” (John 17:26).
And notice how it was that he began this prayer:
“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee” (John 17:1).
“Glorify thy son,” he said. He wanted to be given that eternal life — yet note the reason why: “that thy Son also may glorify thee.”
The Lord Jesus wanted to be given eternal life. He desired to be given his inheritance so that as an immoral being, he could bring even more praise to his Father than he could before. What an example that is for us. Just like the daughters of Zelophehad, it wasn’t about the physical inheritance. Instead, it was about the glory of God. It was about the Father’s honor. As a result of that attitude, Christ was given eternal life and now sits at the right hand of God. May we seek to have that attitude along with the Lord and may we strive to be in that Kingdom — not for our own glory, but for the glory of our Father in Heaven.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One