Daughters of Zelophehad

Before today, how many of you knew this story about the daughters of Zelophehad, or for that matter Zelophehad himself? So far we have been talking about some of the most well-known women from the Old Testament and the last three will also be famous women, but when I saw this story as one of the stories to choose from I actually wrote it off initially. Then I heard this story from a completely different source and I felt that God was calling me to talk about these daughters. And as we hear this story, and as I talk us through it today, I hope we can all walk away appreciating this lesser known, yet very important story of the 5 daughters of Zelophehad.

Now that we have established that no one has heard of these women before, what would you say if I were to tell you that they appear in the Bible multiple times? And not just twice, but they actually appear three times in the Bible and in two different books of the Bible. They obviously appear in the text we read today. Then again in Numbers 36:1-13 where this new law is remembered and then put into practice when the daughters marry within their clan so that the land they inherit will remain within their own tribe. Then we see them the last time in Joshua 17:3-4 when they remind the leaders of the agreement God made now that the land was theirs and it was being given out by lot, and they follow through with it by giving the land to these daughters.

For these women that we don’t even know, they are mentioned an awful lot in the Bible. So the question becomes for us, if they are brought up three times in the Bible then what is the significance of what they are doing? To get to the bottom of it let’s remind ourselves of what it is they are asking. The current law as provided by God was that all land inheritance when they came into the promised land would be passed down through the male heirs and there was nothing that gave consideration for the man who did not have any male children. So what happens to the land? Does it get taken away from the family? Should the father, the last remaining male in the clan line lose his land and his namesake becuase he didn’t have any male heirs? Remember that everything was passed down through the male lineage. When the daughters come up to Moses, Eleazer the priest and the chiefs, they are presenting a real life scenario that has very real consequences for their family. Should the law not change their whole family line would cease to exist.

If you’ve been with us for the last few weeks then you will have seen the ways with Ruth and Tamar how they were able to preserve family lines through marriage and birth, but this is not possible in this case. Is it really Zelophehad’s fault that he didn’t have any male children? Well yes, yes it is genetically, but should he and his family line be wiped out because of that? That is the question these five daughters are raising. Even if the daughters marry, which they do, they cannot pass along the lineage through their children, because when they marry they become a part of that new family and possibly clan.

So that’s the practical part of the matter. Let’s take a look at another aspect: the bravery of these women. They are fighting for what they feel is an injustice to their family lineage. It’s hard for me as a male to fully understand this, but can you believe the strength these women had to do what they did? Perhaps it took all five of them to stand up together, but they stood before Moses, Eleazer the high priest , the chiefs, and the entire community to present this case, but they did it. On top of that the women knew the law, because there was a law allowing women to present cases before the assembly. These women were using their rights to fight for more rights.

Then Moses brings the request before God. There are probably multiple ways to interpret this passage, but I believe that Moses felt this was so important that it shouldn’t be decided by himself or the other leaders, but that the case should be brought before God. God would be the one to decide what the outcome of the request of these women should be. And without any deliberation God simply states that the women are right and that they should indeed receive the inheritance from among their uncles, then it goes on to play out all the ways the inheritance will go if there are also no daughters, but that’s not as pivotal to our conversation.

What is pivotal, is that not only does God agree with them, but since God agrees with them, do you know what that means? It means that God adjusts the law, or maybe to put it in a more radical way…God changes God’s mind. And the way that God changes God’s mind is through this petition of Zelophehad’s daughters. These women change the mind of God, and therefore change the law. The law that we oftentimes seem to think is so immovable and came down from God once and was perfected in it’s presentation from God. These daughters show us that this is clearly not the case.

If these daughters, who are brought up by name three times, are able to change God’s mind and the laws of the Israelite people, then what does that teach us about ourselves, our community and our world today? I think these women have taught us the importance of speaking out in the right ways and through the right channels to bring about the change that we feel is important for our world. These women teach us perhaps something we know already, but is important to remind ourselves: our petitions to God matter. What we say to God, what we commend to God, the kinds of things we pray to God about matter. God is listening to the prayers and the petitions of God’s people through that we can bring about real change that affects not just ourselves, but the lives of the people around us.

These daughters, though fighting for their father and their family name, were actually fighting for all families who present or future did not have a male heir to pass their family name along. This was an important and impactful change and even Moses recognized this was something so important it was meant to be brought to God for consideration.

So today, we give thanks for the daughters of Zelophehad: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, for their courage and bravery, for their passion to see a better more equal world and for all women who throughout the centuries have done what is right for the bringing about lasting change for both themselves and those who come after them. What a blessing from God to have these women in our world and in our lives. Amen.