Thru the Bible - #142-Numbers 27- A Law of Inheritance

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Today’s Focus
• 0:36 Reading Numbers 27 Aloud
• 6:10 The Daughters’ Petition Explained
• 9:20 God Affirms Their Claim
• 12:00 Ordinance Of Inheritance Outlined
• 17:12 Tone And Humility Of The Petition

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to Marine's Corner, the podcast where we go through books of the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Wherever you are in the world, thank you for enjoying it. Grab a glass of water, a cup of coffee or tea, and let's get into today's lesson. Alright, welcome back. I know it has been a while since the last lesson to this one, but as always, we're gonna get right back into it just like we never left. Open your Bible to Numbers chapter 27. And the title of today's lesson is A Law of Inheritance. Numbers 27, and let's read.

SPEAKER_00: 0:46

Numbers 27. The daughters of Zalophad, son of Hefer, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, belong to the clans of Manasseh, son of Joseph. The names of the daughters were Mala, Noah, Hagla, Milkah, and Tirzah. They approached the entrance to the tent of meeting and stood before Moses, Eliezer the priest, the leaders, and the whole assembly, and said, Our father died in the desert. He was not among Korah's followers, who banded together against the Lord, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. Why should our father's name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father's relatives. So Moses brought their case before the Lord, and the Lord said to him, What Zalophagad's daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father's relatives, and turn their father's inheritance over to them. Say to the Israelites, If a man dies and leaves no son, turn his inheritance over to his daughter. If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father's brothers. If his father had no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan, that he may possess it. This is to be a legal requirement for the Israelites, as the Lord commanded Moses. Then the Lord said to Moses, Go up to this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land I have given the Israelites. After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was. For when the community rebelled at the waters of the desert of Zinn, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes. These were the waters of Mirabah, Kadesh, in the desert of Zinn. Moses said to the Lord, May the Lord the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in. So the Lord's people will not be like sheep without a shepherd. So the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Have him stand before Eliasar the priest, and the entire assembly, and commission him in their presence. Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. He is to stand before Eliezer the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the Lord, at his command. He and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in. Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eliesa the priest and the whole assembly. Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord instructed through Moses.

SPEAKER_01: 3:58

Alright now. The last time we were together, we looked at the second census God had given Israel to conduct to get a new number of men who could go to war. Today we are looking at the law of inheritance. In this chapter, we will break this down into three topics. So where we will begin is, excuse me, lost my spot. Number one, the law of inheritance for five daughters. We see this in verses one through eleven. Then the daughter of Zalipahad, the son of Hefer, the son of Gilead, the son of Makur, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, came near, and these are the names of his daughters, Malaya, Noah, Hoglah, Milkai, and Tizar. And they stood before Moses and before Eliezer the priest and before the leaders and all the congregation at the doorway of the tent of meeting, saying, Our father died in the wilderness, yet he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but he died in his own sin and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be withdrawn from among his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father's brothers. And Moses brought out their case before the Lord. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, The daughters of Zalephahead are right in their statement. You shall surely give them a hereditary possession among their father's brothers, and you shall transfer the inheritance of their father to them. Further, you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, If a man does, excuse me, if a man dies and has no son, then he shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter. And if he has no daughter, then he shall give his inheritance to his brothers, and if he has no brothers, he shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers. And if his father has no brothers, then he shall give his inheritance to his nearest relative and his own family, and he shall possess it. And it shall be a statutory ordinance to the sons of Israel, just as the Lord commanded Moses. Now there's a few things to uh point out in this section. First is that we know that in the previous chapter the inheritance was split up amongst the men. They went through the tribes of Israel minus the Levites, and they split up this land. But now we have a situation where there is a man of Israel, a son of Israel, if you will, who has land, but he has no sons to pass this land on to, and he has five daughters. And his daughters want to know, and these daughters are not married. So they want to know, well, so what's going to happen with us? Where do we live? Our father died, and he had no sons to pass his inheritance on to, but he did have us, we believe that this should belong to us. Now, what's important to note here is that the young ladies, the way that they went to Moses, if you go back and you look at verse 2, and they stood before Moses, they being the daughters, and before Eleazar the priests, and before the leaders, and all the congregation at the doorway of the tent of meeting, saying, Our father died in the wilderness, yet he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but he died in his own sin and he had no sons. Notice that these young ladies went to Moses and Eliezer and even the rest of the elders very respectfully, very humbly. They didn't go shaking their fists, screaming, you know, our father had land, our father deserves something, which means we deserve it. They went there very humbly and they just stated their case. Hey, our father had land, or our father is deserving of this. You know, what what about us? Where are we where are we gonna stay? And notice what else they said too. They said that their father, he died in his own sin. He was not amongst the company of Koral. Now, you remember all the people who went complaining and grumbling, and then the Lord opened up the earth and swallowed them up. They're saying, hey, our father was not one of those. He wasn't one of the rebellious people, he died in his own sin. Now, we don't know what the sin was of this man, we just know he, just like us, we will die in our sin. Whatever your sin is, whatever the thing is you struggle with in life, hopefully not practice it. It's the same, the same for me. Hopefully, it's not something I'm practicing, but a sin in my life because we've all sinned, that's how he died. That's how we're gonna die, and that's how their father died. So they were really saying that as a reminder to say he wasn't one of the rebellious ones. He died, and he died in his sin, but he wasn't one of them. I also want you to notice what happens in verse uh, let's start to pick it up in verse 5. Moses brought their case before the Lord. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Notice this the daughters of the Lephahead are right in their statements. The Lord said that these women are right. What they're coming to you and they're bringing to you is right. Now, with this situation right here, you know, with men and women, because we know that men were in charge of a lot of things uh at this time. I want to read something that uh my pastor said. One second. Sorry, I had to get my notes back up. I want to read something that he said regarding this particular situation right here. And my pastor, David Thompson, this is on page 146 of his exposition of numbers, and this is uh what he said. Said God's world is a man's world. This is not going to change. If you don't like that, it's just too bad. You don't have to like it or agree with it or submit to it, but that is, but it is what it is. You will miss out on many wonderful blessings if you don't submit to this truth because this is the truth. God created man first, and he has put men in charge, and it was the woman who first sinned, and that's the way it is. But God also made women and he cares about them, and he cares about their needs. That's exactly what is happening right here. Yes, it is a male-dominated society the way that a society is supposed to be, it's supposed to be ran by men. This is how God designed it. But don't let anyone ever tell you that the Christian faith is anti-woman, anti-women, excuse me, because it asks women to submit to their husbands. Or it says that a woman is under the rule, you know, she's under the rule of her father, and then her father passes her on to her husband, uh-huh, and then she's under her husband's rule. She's under his covering, his protection as she was her father. God is the God is that created all of us. He created men and he created women. He didn't create men to stump over women, he created men to be women's covering, not to not to stump on them, not to treat them as dura mass, not to treat them as less than, like a uh, like a lot of other religions, a lot of these so-called religions of peace that are around in this world, they treat women very badly. They look down on women, they say that women's vote doesn't matter. He says that their thoughts don't don't count. Christianity has never been a religion of that. Don't let anyone lie to you and say that it is. Right here is a prime example. Look at what happens. If it was always so pro-male, then the Lord would have said, Well, unfortunately for him, he died without sons. That's his problem. There is no inheritance to pass on. But what did the Lord say to Moses? The daughters of the left ahead are right in their statement. You shall surely give them a hereditary possession among their father's brothers, and you shall transfer the inheritance of their father to them. So these young women are gonna get a piece of their father's inheritance. Shows you how good and gracious our Lord is. He He loves the just and the unjust, and He loves the men and He loves women. He created us all and He created all things. So always keep that in your mind, and you can even go back and remember this and pull this up if anyone ever tries to pull that type of nonsense on you that the Lord didn't care about women. And there's a couple other things I wanted to know that I wanted to point out in these first 11 chapters. Not only did the Lord say that they was right, but he also talked about what would happen from here on out. So he said, from here on out, if a man dies and has no son, then he shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter, which is what's happening right here. If he has no daughter, then he shall give his inheritance to his brothers. Remember, mostly these men were passing these things on to their sons. But now the Lord is giving a new ordinance, a new commandment on what to do. And if they have no daughter, he shall give it to his brother or brothers. And if he has no brothers, then he shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers. So in other words, he will give it to his uncles. And if his father has no brothers, which will be uncles for him, then he shall give his inheritance to his nearest relative in his own family, and he shall possess it. Meaning that if he had no sons to pass it on to, he didn't have a daughter to pass it on to, he would pass it on to his brothers. If his brothers didn't have uh you know, if he couldn't pass it on to his brothers, then he would pass it on to his nearest relative. So that would be a cousin or someone like that. So that is the first part, the law of inheritance for the five daughters. Let's move on to part number two. God speaks to Moses about his death. We see this in verses 12 to 14. Then the Lord said to Moses, Go up to this mountain of Aberim and see the land which I have given to the sons of Israel. And when you have seen it, you too shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was. For in the wilderness of Zen, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against my commandment to treat men as holy before their eyes at the water. These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zen. Now, God explains why Moses won't go into the promised land. And let's take a minute to look at that. Let's uh turn back, turn back to keep your finger here, but turn back to Numbers chapter 20. Let's read let's re-look at this and see what happened. Just just uh, you know, give us give us a little refresher. Numbers chapter 20, we are looking at verses 1 through 13. This was when Miriam had passed. Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zen in the first month at the peep, and the people stayed at Kadesh. Now Miriam died there and was buried there, and there was no water for the congregation, and they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. The people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, If only we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord, why then have you brought the Lord's assembly into the wilderness for us and our beast to die here? And why have you made us come up from Egypt to bring us into this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink. Then Moses and Aaron came in the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the rod, and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water from them out of the rock, and let the congregation and their beast drink. So Moses took the rod from before the Lord just as he had commanded him. Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock, and he said to them, Listen now, you rebels, shall we bring forth water from out of this rock? And then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod, and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation in their beast drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you have not believed me to treat me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. Those were the waters of Meribah, and because the sons of Israel contended with the Lord, and he proved himself holy among them. So that right there is just to give us a refresher of what was going on here. Now here we are in chapter 27, and this thing has now come to pass. We move on to part three, Joshua to succeed Moses. We see this in verses 15 through 23. And Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation. Notice that the Lord told Moses, don't forget what I said, I'm gonna let you see the promised land, but you will not walk in it. You are going to meet your end just as your brother Aaron did. But notice that Moses doesn't beg or plea for his life, he just moves on. And in verse 16, May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who will go out and come in before them, who will lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd. So the Lord said to Moses, In whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him, and have him stand before Eliezer. I'm sorry, uh let me go back to verse 18. It seemed like I skipped something. So the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of none, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. Sorry about that, Pete, but somehow I missed that first part of verse 18. Verse 19. And have him stand before Eliezer the priest and before all the congregation and commission him in their sight. And you shall put some of your authority on him in order that all the congregation of the sons of Israel may obey him. The Lord is saying, You're gonna put some of your authority on him. So it's important to do this in front of the people. That way the people say they can see, oh, this is the man that the Lord is anointing to come after Moses passed. So they all see this in the in the so this is happening all in the sight of everyone. Moreover, he shall stand before Elias the priest, who shall inquire by him, by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his command they shall go out, and at his command they shall come in, both he and the sons of Israel with him, even all the congregation. And Moses did just as the Lord commanded him. And he took Joshua and set him before Eliezer the priest, and before all the congregation. Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him just as the Lord has spoken through Moses. Alright, that brings us to the end of Numbers chapter 27. That was very interesting. It's good to see how the Lord is just, how the Lord treats us all equally. He doesn't have one above the other. There's no species above the other, there's no war. It's just the order of the way that the Lord did things. And we see, as what happened, what happened or is what's about to happen soon with Moses, what happens when we don't obey the Lord. We all the Lord is gracious to us, but we have to stay in his path. We have to stay on that straight and narrow if we want to reap his blessings. Now, Moses has reaped many of blessings, but he's not going to get to go into their promised land. He's going to lead the people right to the edge of it, but he's not going to get to go in. All right. I hope as always that you got something out of this lesson, that you learned something. As always, I ask you to continue to pray for me to stay fast and to stay steadfast in these scriptures. And I am doing the same for you. We may not know each other, but I pray for you all all the time. Anyone who jumps on Bereen's Corners and sits here and listens to me uh lay out this word of God, I am praying for you always. And as I always say, I appreciate you all a great deal. Now, as all for now, God bless. Thank you for listening to Bereen's Corner. We appreciate you joining us as we dive into God's word and seek biblical truth together. 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