So Moses brought [the case raised by Zelophehad’s daughters] before the Lord, and the Lord said to him, “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and give their father’s inheritance to them.
Numbers 27: 5-7 (NIV)

The Hebrew tribes are camped on the Jordan River across from Jericho. On the other side of the Jordan lies the Promised Land. The time has come to take possession and everyone in the camp is talking about the land that their tribe and their families will eventually be given. The idea of land to farm and graze and a homestead for the family and future generations to live and flourish has been a common human dream throughout history.

This is a moment of promise for the Hebrews. At Mt. Sinai almost 40 years earlier God gave them a vision for this moment. He gave them his guidebook for life and community with God and others in Leviticus. God told the Hebrews that He was going to show them His ways and they would be an example to all the other nations, empires, and peoples of His ways. This included radical new ideas like a sabbath day of rest, the care for strangers, societal protection for the poor and vulnerable, and being a nation with no human king, pharaoh, or emperor.

Now, at this very moment of history on the edge of fulfilled promise of a land to call one’s own, one of the most amazing stories in the entirety of the Great Story takes place. It is a prime example of God wanting things to be different than human defaults. It is a tale no one taught or talked about in all my many years of sermons and Bible classes. It is the story of Zelophehad’s daughters.

At this moment when everyone is thinking about the land they will be given, the daughters realize they have a problem. Their father died and he had no sons. It’s just the sisters. The ancient near east, especially Mesopotamia, the nations and people groups were staunchly patriarchal. Women had no autonomy. They owned no land. They could inherit no land. Everything was legally channeled through the males in the family.

So, with divine chutzpah, the daughters approach Moses and the elders of the community. This in itself was a radical departure from cultural norm. Women didn’t participate in the meetings of the elders or the formal business affairs of the community. Nevertheless, the daughters broke protocol and they made their case before Moses. They had listened and embraced what God had said at Sinai and what Torah taught about God caring about the marginal, societal protection for the vulnerable, and justice. Why should another family get their family’s promised plot of the Promised Land simply because they had no brother?

Then something more amazing happens. Moses takes the daughters’ case before God. God quickly and unequivocally decides for the daughters. Women can inherit land and own it. God sides with women and demands that it become the law of His people. While there were other ancient cultures in which women had the right to own and inherit land (Egypt being prime among them) the right typically had certain patriarchal limits. Never before had there been a divine decree that simply and directly conferred upon women the right to inherit and own their family property. This was radical.

Remember, in the Great Story everything is connected. What God is doing with physical inheritance here in Numbers is the same thing He will do with spiritual inheritance through Christ:

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…” Romans 8:17 (NIV)

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 (NIV)

There are two main themes that flow out of my meditation on Zelophehad’s daugthers in the quiet this morning.

First, I love the holy audacity of the daughters to step-up at the right moment and stand for what was right. It echoes the same chutzpah I see in Wendy and in our daughters. I love it. I love their heart for what’s just for everyone. I love that God blessed their courage and that God divinely cut against what was entrenched human cultural tradition. I hear echoes of the prophet Isaiah: “Your ways are not my ways.”

Second, history has taught me that human defaults and entrenched human culture traditions never change easily. In just a few chapters, the men will find a way to use human legal means to hem in the radical rights God has just granted to women. Early Christian “fathers” made similar moves to hem in the spiritual equality Jesus brought to the table. The tension remains to this day. I don’t think the tension will ever abate this side of eternity because it is connected to the consequences of the Garden in just the third chapter of the Great Story.

But, I can embrace God’s heart. I can embrace and celebrate what He did for the daughters of Zelophehad thousands of years ago and all the women their precedent effected through the centuries. I can embrace and celebrate what Christ did in bringing women to the table as full and equal heirs of God’s Kingdom. And, where it is in my ability I can speak and act in supporting and encouraging that spiritual reality and all that it means.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.