2024.11.22 Hopewell @Home ▫ Numbers 27:1–11

Read Numbers 27:1–11

Questions from the Scripture text: Who came in Numbers 27:1? Before whom (Numbers 27:2)? Where? What had happened (Numbers 27:3)? What didn’t their father have? What do they ask in Numbers 27:4? And what do they request? To Whom does Moses bring the case? Who spoke in Numbers 27:6? To whom? What does He say about the request of the daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:7)? What is Moses to do? What is to pass to them? To whom is Moses to speak (Numbers 27:8)? Who receives inheritance if there are no sons? And who, if there are not even daughters (Numbers 27:9)? And who, if there are no brothers? And who if there are no uncles (Numbers 27:11)? How does verse 11 formalize this policy?

How is the plight of the ladies of Zelophehad central to the concerns of the book of Numbers? Numbers 27:1–11 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God is faithful to His promise to give the land to this generation.

This passage gives an order of priority of claim for inheritance: sons first, but if no sons then daughters (Numbers 27:8), and if no daughters then brothers (Numbers 27:9), and if no brothers then uncles (Numbers 27:10), and if no uncles then the nearest flesh to them (Numbers 27:11). There is a high value placed upon preserving a man’s name and possession (Numbers 27:4, Numbers 27:7). This theme will be picked up again in chapter 36.

But Numbers 27:3 clues us in to another concern that is more essential to this overall section of Numbers. The people of the first census have fallen in the wilderness. As the five daughters say, “Our father died in the wilderness […] he died in his own sin” (verse 3). His generation was judged for their unbelief (cf. Hebrews 3:16–19). But the book of Numbers is about how God was yet faithful to His promises and gracious to His people: raising an entirely new generation in their place, to whom He would give the land (cf. Numbers 14:31).  The daughters of Zelophehad “speak what is right” (Numbers 27:7) because they have come, in Numbers 27:1, to lay claim to what the Lord had promised a generation ago. 

Even when the consequences of our sin fall upon us, there is still hope in God’s grace for loved ones and descendants. He is faithful to His promises and gracious to His people! Perhaps you are descended from those who rightly brought God’s punishment or chastening upon themselves. Take comfort, dear sinner (and descendant of sinners), in the Lord. He is faithful to His promises and gracious to His people.

What hope do you have that you will be spiritually better off than your parents? That your children will be than you?

Sample prayer:  Lord, forgive us for how our sin has squandered opportunities for blessing for us and our children. Keep Your promises, and be gracious to us and our children, over-against what we deserve, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP78 “O Come, My People” or TPH222 “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”