Rev. Don Campbell

Numbers 26-27

THOUGHT FOR TODAY, March 6, 2019

“AN EQUAL INHERITANCE IN THE LORD”

Zelophehad descended from Joseph through Manasseh. He had five daughters and no sons. The sisters appeal to Moses: “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” (Numbers 27:3-4). Moses took the case to God who confirmed the sisters’ right to an inheritance. At the same time, he established a rule for dealing with all such situations (vv.5-11).

There is no theological connection, but an interesting one between Moses’ first act after fleeing Egypt for the land of Midian. The priest of Midian had seven daughters who came to draw water for their father’s flock. Shepherds would come and drive them away, until Moses interceded on their behalf. Moses married Zipporah, one of the seven. Now, Moses, near the end of his journey, acts to secure the daughters of Zelophehad their rights, not only theirs, but also those of all other daughters of Israel in the same situation. Problem solved. Not quite. Some from the tribe of Manasseh objected that if the sisters married someone from another tribe, then their inheritance would be transferred to the tribe into which they married. The final solution was that in such cases, a woman could marry only within her own tribe (Numbers 36).

Let’s fast forward to the mid-19th century. The British common law of coverture was a legal doctrine not only in Britain but the United States as well whereby, upon marriage, a woman’s legal rights and obligations were subsumed by those of her husband, in accordance with the wife’s legal status of feme covert. An unmarried woman, a feme sole, had the right to own property and make contracts in her own name.

Whatever the date, a woman’s inheritance rights in the kingdom of heaven are the same as those of men, for in Christ there is neither male nor female (Galatians 3:26-27). The inheritance is not a piece of property, but one which no one can take from us: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time: (1 Peter 1:3-5).