Faith for the Future
Numbers 36:10-13,
“The daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses, 11 for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to sons of their father’s brothers. 12 They were married into the clans of the people of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.
13 These are the commandments and the rules that the Lord commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.”
On this Christmas Sunday, by God’s grace, we come to the end of our series though the Book of Numbers. We’re gonna be looking at Chapters 33–36, but we’re going to focus especially on Chapter 36 and the daughters of Zelophehad. As we just heard, the story of these five daughters concludes the Book of Numbers and for good reason. There are at least three lessons that we should learn from them and that’s what I want to show you this morning.
The first lesson is …
1. There is a lesson to be learned.
So let’s zoom out for a minute and remember what the Book of Numbers is all about. It’s the story of two generations of Israelites.
There is the first generation that God rescued from Egypt but they failed to enter the Promised Land because of their unbelief. (They all died in the wilderness.) Then there is the second generation that emerges in Chapter 26 and they do inherit the Promised Land because they believe.
The first generation was faithless — they did not trust God, so they did not do what God said. The second generation was faithful — they did trust God, so they did what God said.
And as Christians, when we read the Book of Numbers, our headline takeaway is: “Don’t be like the first generation; be like the second generation.”
The apostle Paul confirms this takeaway for us in the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10. He says that the Book of Numbers is meant to be an example for us. There are lessons to be learned here. This book is designed for our Christian moral development, and a lot of it is cautionary: Don’t worship idols. Don’t set your heart on evil things. Don’t commit sexual immortality. Don’t grumble. Don’t be a sucker in the moments of temptation. Don’t put Christ to the test.
These are all warnings we find in Numbers that Paul highlights in 1 Corinthians 10. They’re all things that the first generation did to their own demise. So learn from that. Don’t do that.
Which is really helpful, by the way. We need instruction like this. We need good examples. To simply say “Have faith!” or “Trust God!” is true and it’s always relevant, but oftentimes things can be a little more complicated. We need some more help! We need to know what it looks like to have faith! What do we do if we’re trusting God? (Or, what do we do if we’re not trusting God?) Numbers has shown us this. There are lessons here.
And therefore, one of the first things we should think when we read about the daughters of Zelophehad is, “What can we learn from them?” There’s most likely a lesson here for us. They are in this story for a reason, so what is it?
There is a lesson to be learned — that’s the first thing to learn.
2. God wants your faith.
Now again, this is simple and straightforward and it’s something we’ve already talked about in this series: What does God want from you? Wherever you are, whatever you’ve got going on, what does God want from you?
God wants your faith.
This is a lesson we see again at the end of Numbers, but it’s a lesson made in a profound way, and I want you to see this …
First, for the context, the last four chapters, 33–36, are a true recap of the book: Chapter 33 recounts the journey of the people of Israel over the last 40 years, from Egypt to here in the plains of Moab, on the brink of entering the Promised Land. Chapter 34 lays out how the land will be divided and who the heads of each tribe are. Chapter 35, still on the topic of land, explains the inheritance of the Levites and the cities of refuge. And then in Chapter 36, which could seem a little random, there’s this story of the five daughters of Zelophehad. It’s still connected to an issue with the land, but it’s more than that because this is not the first time we’ve read about the “daughters of Zelophehad.”
Bookended by Exemplary Faith
The first time they show up is in Chapter 27. We read about them in Chapter 27 and in Chapter 36, and that’s really significant. Here’s why…
Remember Chapter 26 is the second census. It’s what introduces the second generation of Israelites who are supposed to be different from the first generation. The second generation is the faithful generation, and we read about them from Chapter 27 through 36. Which means, if the daughters of Zelophehad show up in Chapter 27 and Chapter 36, they’re the literary bookends of this faithful generation.
We read about them in Chapter 27 as the intro to this generation, and then we read about them again in Chapter 36 as the summary of this generation. So these daughters form a kind of package that must tell us something about this second generation, and by that fact alone, I’m looking for a positive example here!
I’m clued in that there’s something important about these daughters that we’re supposed to take away, and it’s probably got something to do with having faith. So see, just the placement of these daughters in this story is pointing in that direction. Their example should be what’s ringing in our ears when we leave this book!
So, in that light, let’s go back to chapter 27 and see what they did.
God Calls Them Right
Look back at Chapter 27, verse 1 …
This is right after the census has been reported. Everyone from the first generation has died, and the inheritance has been passed to the second generation. And, as was the custom in the ancient world, the inheritance went to the sons.
But there’s a problem, Zelophehad had five daughters and no sons, and these daughters had a legit question: Unless their father’s inheritance was given to them, it would disappear. It’d be lost.
So these daughters, who names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah — all solid Hebrew names — they came to Moses and Eleazar, explained the situation, and asked that their father’s inheritance be given to them. Well Moses wasn’t exactly sure what to do in this situation, so he brought this case to the Lord.
Which is all going according to plan. Back in Exodus 18, do you remember Jethro’s advice? The disputes among the people were too many for Moses to handle himself, so he appointed judges to help him carry the burden. But if there was an especially tough case, that came straight to Moses, and then Moses went to God. This is one of those. These daughters did right to bring this to Moses, and Moses did right to bring this to God. We’re on the right track here.
And we know this for sure because God says so. I want everyone to see this. Look at Chapter 27, verse 6,
“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘The daughters of Zelophehad are right. …”
Then God says to give them their father’s inheritance, and there’s more details here we’ll get to, but the thing I want to focus on for now is that God says these five daughters are right.
There are not too many instances in the Bible where God says so clearly about humans, “They’re right.” They’ve spoken right.
Wouldn’t you love to hear God say that about you?
First off, everybody loves to be right … And we really love to be told we’re right … So what about when God tells you you’re right? God says, Correct. Well done. Nailed it! … what if God says that about you?
Whether you realize it or not, that is actually what you want more than anything in the world. This is not just affirmation, this is divine affirmation. That’s really what you want behind your spouse’s affirmation. That’s deeper than your parent’s affirmation, or your friends’, your colleagues’ — you want divine affirmation, which is more than you being right, but it means God is pleased with you. God is happy with you. He says to you, Right! You’re right!
And we know from Scripture, that’s only possible when there’s faith.
The Judge of All the Earth
The daughters of Zelophehad are motivated by faith — They had faith to “draw near” to Moses and Eleazar (that’s a special phrase, to draw near). They had faith to submit their hard case for Mosaic review. And they had faith to do this because they knew, ultimately, the God who judges is just.
They were thinking what Abraham thought in Genesis 18:25, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” These daughters trust that God, who is sovereign over all things, will do what is right. Which means their confidence is not in their case per se, but it’s in God. They are entrusting their future to him.
The real message then of these women is not their rightness, though they are right, but the real message is the righteousness of God who always does right — and who is therefore worthy of our trust. Do you know this about God?
This doesn’t mean that he gives us everything we want immediately, but it means that everything he does is right, and we are right to trust him.
The daughters of Zelophehad model that kind of faith for us, and we should be like them. God wants your faith.
Third lesson:
3. Our Redeemer has come!
Let’s go back to the details of God’s ruling in Chapter 27. Heads up: this can get a little complicated, but try to stay with me. I’ll keep it as basic as I can.
God said, Yes, the daughters of Zelophehad are right, give them their father’s inheritance. And then he makes this a general statue for all of Israel when they have similar cases …
When it comes to a father’s inheritance: If there’s no son, it goes to daughters; if there’s no daughters, it goes to his brothers; If he has no brothers, it goes to his uncles; And if he has no uncles it just goes to whoever is the closest relative.
The whole point is how to keep your father’s inheritance. The solution is that a kinsman preserves it.
But then in Chapter 36, a new possible dilemma is brought up. The daughters of Zelophehad were from the tribe of Joseph, and some of the heads of that tribe started thinking: Wait a minute, if these daughters inherit Zelophehad’s land, but then they go and marry a man from another tribe, then that man will end up getting the land. It could end up that all of Zelophehad’s inheritance is taken over by another tribe. So what do we do about that?
See, they found a potential hole in this case law — there was still a possible scenario that would defeat the intent of the ruling to preserve the father’s inheritance. And God says, again, they’re right. Like the daughters of Zelophehad, the tribe of Jospeh is right.
And what we see here is that the heads of the tribe are actually following the example of these daughters in chapter 27. They’re thinking about the future, about the land — they’re motivated by faith. This is very different from the first generation, remember?!
That generation was so faithless that they were too afraid to enter the land. This second generation believes God so much they wanna get down to the details about how the land inheritance will work, not just for that moment, but long into the future. There’s an amazing contrast here between the second and first generations. The second generation believes God’s promise. Faith is at the root.
And so here’s the solution: the way to ensure that the father’s inheritance stays within his tribe is for the daughters of Zelophehad to marry within their tribe. Now they can marry whoever they want, but he’s just gotta be within their tribe.
A husband within their tribe is the only way to ensure that their father’s inheritance isn’t lost. So chapter 36, verse 10: “And the daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord commanded Moses …” — that’s basically how the book ends.
The example of faith is central, we’ve talked about that. But there is another underlying logic here. This is something that shows up first in Leviticus, and then is explained more in Deuteronomy 25 — it’s the role of the kinsman redeemer.
The logic is: if an inheritance was on the verge of being lost, like in this case, a brother or relative of the man who died, a man within his own tribe, would redeem the potential loss through marrying the woman. That principle is emerging here, with the daughters of Zelophehad, but it comes up later in the Bible’s storyline, in a real-life example.
Taking Us to Jesus
There was a man named Elimelech, a man of Bethlehem, of the tribe of Judah. He was married to a woman named Naomi. They had two sons, one married to Orpah, one married to Ruth.
Well, Elimelech dies; and his two sons die; Orpah goes back to her family. So it’s just Naomi and Ruth, and of course they’re not going to be able to preserve Elimelech’s inheritance … until they meet one of Elimelech’s relatives, Boaz.
Boaz becomes the kinsman redeemer — he marries Ruth and they have Obed; Obed has Jesse; Jesse has David, the King. These names all show up in Matthew Chapter 1, in the genealogy of Jesus, of the tribe of Judah, born in the little town of Bethlehem.
See, the daughters of Zelophehad’s faith, their concern for their father’s inheritance, their concern for the future, paid into the future of Israel’s Messiah. The logic of their case law became part of the story of the genealogy of Jesus.
And so when we read about these daughters at the end of Numbers, we see the example of their faith, but even more than that, we see a thread here that takes us to Jesus … To Jesus who became our kinsman redeemer. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas.
Except we were in much worse shape than these five daughters were, much worse than Ruth. We had no inheritance at all in the Promised Land. We were destined for wrath. We were without hope in the world.
But then came one who became our kinsman. One who took on our flesh, became like us in our humanity, and he paid the price to redeem us.
Church, our Redeemer has come!
Jesus took all of our debt and he gave us his inheritance — he has given us the right to be called the children of God!
Right with God, by God
In Christ, you call yourself a child of God, and you are right. God says you’re right. And it’s by faith alone.
So let that be the last thing on our minds as we close the Book of Numbers.
To borrow from the Heidelberg Catechism, answer 61:
It is not because of any value my faith has that God is pleased with me.
Only Christ’s satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness make me right with God.
And I can receive this righteousness and make it mine in no other way than by faith alone.
And that’s what brings us to this Table.
The Table
This table is an invitation to Jesus Christ. We come to him with our hands open — help me, Jesus! You’re my hope! We come to him in faith, and we come to adore him.
And so if that’s you — if you trust in Jesus Christ, if by faith in Jesus you are a child of God, let us eat and drink together and give him thanks!
