When Women Finally Caught A break!

By John Stallings

Numbers 27:1-11

Recently I read the top ten reasons God made woman.

10. Adam seemed to always be lost in the Garden.
9. Adam needed someone to hand him the T.V remote, not to see what was on but to see what else was on.
8. When Adam needed a new fig-leaf he’d never order one without a wife.
7. Adam would without question forget garbage night.
6. Adam would never make a doctor's appointment for himself.
5. Adam would have never gone through the pain of childbirth.
4. With Eve Adam would have someone to blame if things went wrong.
3. Men left alone get into all kinds of trouble.
2. Adam would never remember where he kept his garden tools.
1. After making Adam God said, “I can do better than that.”


In Numbers 27, after the forty years in the wilderness, & toward the end of Moses’ life, there is a fascinating story of five sisters, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, the daughters of a man named Zelophehad. This man was of the tribe of Manasseh who died during the wilderness journey. He had five daughters but no sons. In order to perpetuate their fathers name by means of the allotted share of the Promised Land that would have gone to him, & then to his sons if he had any, Zelophehad’s daughters approached Moses & asked if the land might be given to them instead. Up to that time there was no provision made in the law for property or possessions to be passed down to women when there were no living male sons.

These daughters were facing the stark reality that the system & its policies were set up in such a way that some were going to be left out of the promise from the very start, & that included them. They came because Israelite customs threaten to erase their father’s memory. Their claim is both affectionate & courageous.

The story is interesting first of all because it wasn’t customary for women to approach Moses in this way. These women came to petition Moses to change things, indeed to if necessary make a new law that would do away with this injustice which in truth made second class citizens of women. These young women were women of faith & came to Moses in such humility & presented their case so convincingly, that Moses had to take the matter to God for directions on how to handle it. God told Moses the women were right & that a new law should be written to see to it that in such future cases, women would receive the same benefits that man received when it came to family inheritance.

Let’s consider five specific stand-out principles that could work for us all when it comes to seeing change effected in our lives & our world. The first thing about these daughters of Zelophehad was;

1.THEY KNEW THEIR IDENTITY.

They not only knew who they were from a human standpoint, they knew they were daughters of covenant. They knew who they were in God & they knew God is not a respecter of persons. They were daughters of the Most High God & approached Moses with Faith.

They knew before the verse was written the meaning of 1 Peter 2:9—But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an Holy nation a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

THEY WEREN'T CONFUSED ABOUT A GENDER GAP.

What an example they set for women & as a matter fact all people. It’s always been sad to me to see women who feel somehow they're second class citizens. To be frank, in the 21st century, women are in many quarters, underpaid, under valued & under appreciated. You see women almost everywhere wearing t-shirts that carry the message that they are sexual objects. They seem to feel that if they don’t pass the test of sensuality they need to have re-constructive surgery so that they can measure up to what men & society think they should be.

Sadly many young men also seem to be plagued with an identity crisis. Though I’m not an expert on the subject I’ve heard that the style of wearing their trousers hanging so low they seem in danger of falling off came from prisons where the men have to wear hand-me-downs. Another explanation for the style would be, God forbid, it transmits to other males their availability for sexual contact.

I doubt that the naive kids who style & profile through the Malls have the slightest clue of where the style they are wearing really comes from. But again it points to a confused generation of youth who haven’t a clue of who they are & were meant to be.

These five daughters of Zelophehad knew who they were and set a good example for all women to come by recognizing who they were as daughters of God, made in His image & commanding every bit as much respect as men .

They knew the meaning of Galatians 3:28……..For in Christ there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ.

Romans 8: 16-17 says,-The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs; and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.

They understood;

2 Corinthians 5:20 which says,--Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ……

They understood;

1 Peter 2:9,--But ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people……


2. THESE WOMEN TOOK THE INITIATIVE.

The five sisters saw a challenge when they realized that property rights were passed on through males of the same ethnic clan. They saw that whatever was about to be celebrated by the allotting of land to the people, it didn’t include them. When their father died, if they had been sons they would have inherited his portion of the land. If they had been brothers they’d have been able to share in their brothers’ land. If they had been married they’d have gone to live on their husband’s land. If they had been widowed their husbands family would have taken care of them. But being that they had no father, no brother, no husband & no in-laws, they had no rights to any land. They were coming into the land of promise but it was clear that they didn’t count for anything & they’d remain forever disconnected from the land & from sustainable life.

They looked through the dark foreboding window of the future & realized that they were invisible, at least when it came to possessing any earthly goods.

They approached Moses & Eleazar the priest at the door of the Tabernacle in front of the congregation. What makes this so spectacular is that there was no forum for Mahlah, Noah, Milcah & Tirzah to voice their grievance. A woman’s place was in the home. For them to act outside the system was to take a great risk, the risk of being rejected by the rest of the community. Even Moses’ own sister was stricken with leprosy for daring to question her brother’s judgment as God’s spokesman.

Some might have seen this request as confrontational, out of order or disrespectful but God judged their motive. They were doing their part in preserving the inheritance of their father.

How did these girls know their rights as heirs to their father’s inheritance? I believe it was because they spent time at their father’s feet as he shared with them the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob. God had promised to preserve the legacy. They were assured of their birthright because of the time spent with their father. Zelophehad had built faith in his daughters that God would keep His word.

They understood Hebrews 4:16 before it was written,--Let us come boldly therefore the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

These five sisters with no precedent, no rights, no authority & no testosterone go ahead & take action & initiative. They had the right stuff to go before Moses & take on the legal system in the most public place possible with imagination & grace.

Everyone heard them plead their case to Moses. These women respected the Shekina Glory in the tabernacle but it didn’t cause them to be intimidated. They knew they were right in what they were requesting so they proceeded.

INITIATIVE MEANS SEEING A NEED & DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT WITHOUT WAITING TO BE PRESSURED.

They approached Moses with boldness not arrogance & with confidence not pride. They didn’t have the attitude of militant feminists nor were they presumptuous.

· A little boy had played in the mud until he was almost covered with it from head to toe. As he entered his house his mother playfully asked, “Who’s that little boy coming in my house?” The boy answered, “Well the lady next door was right. She said I was so dirty my mother wouldn’t recognize me.”

These five daughters didn’t have an identity crisis. They recognized exactly who they were & without being cocky about it, they took the initiative. They took action. And not only did they approach Moses with no fear, they were successful & actually got things changed. There was no anger in what they did. They weren’t all worked up & in a rage. Had they done that, nothing would have changed as a matter of fact they would have set their cause back.

James 1:21says –For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 3:4 says—But let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek & quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price.

These women weren’t pushy & brassy. They had courage but they also were in possession of their emotions & they showed humility. Have you noticed that we can’t get much done of any consequence if we’re angry? Anger just makes other people angry. If you & I aren’t being successful in getting our ideas implemented we should stop & ask ourselves if we’re going about it in the right way. We also should realize that not much will happen in our lives until we move on our ideas.

I heard the story of an immigrant who came to America years ago. He’d never seen a cafeteria before so he walked into one & sat down, waiting to be served. A man was watching him & figured he was confused so he walked up & told him how a cafeteria worked. He could just go up to the buffet & get anything he wanted & then go pay for it. The man later said he then understood what America was all about. He could have anything he was willing to pay for but no one was going to get it for him. He’d have to go get it himself.

That’s what initiative is all about. Just do it.

3. THESE WOMEN BROKE WITH TRADITION.

There can be no question that while their father was alive, they were going to have an inheritance & they had probably dreamed about what their share of land would look like. However when he died, all that evaporated & since no mention is made of a mother, they were now no doubt orphans. The girls had probably spent a lot of time talking about their plight; this seems to me to be a valid female approach to dealing with things of importance. In their discussions it probably came up that the land was being given to Israel by God so in truth no one was earning their share. Grace was involved here much more than law, & they had faith to believe that God was going to work for them in the matter. But they were smart enough to realize that a few "sacred cows" would have to be slaughtered if they were going to have any chance at all in an inheritance. The definition of a sacred cow is: Once a rule is in place it's very difficult to replace that rule even though the original reason for the rule has disappeared."

It wasn’t customary for women to go to Moses. There was nothing in the law to pass an inheritance down to women so in essence they were asking that another law be written. How nervy can you get? Obviously pretty nervy. But it worked. They got Moses so shook-up that he had to go & pray about it. Long before women actually had any rights at all these women were asking for equal dignity for women. Long before the phrase was coined, they were asking Moses to “think outside the box.”

I read about a young married woman who was cooking a ham for her family. As she proceeded to cut the ham in two, her little girl came by & asked her why she was doing it. The mom confessed that she didn’t know but she’d go call her mom & asked why she always cooked ham that way. Her mother said she didn’t really know either; her mom had always cut hams in two before cooking them. The mother called the grandmother who was quite old & asked her why she’d always prepared a ham by cutting it two pieces & she answered, “Oh, the reason I always cut hams in two was because I didn’t have a pot large enough to cook a ham in one piece.”

So a tradition was born in that family & people were going through the motions not recognizing there was no longer a valid reason to be doing it.

These daughters of Zelophehad knew nothing had been written about their need so everyone was just following a tradition; a tradition that needed changing.

Sometimes people will pray for supernatural discernment when all that is needed is a little common sense. The sisters knew that there was the written law but there was also such a thing as the spirit of the law & the spirit of the law said they should be treated as fairly as anyone else. We can get so hung-up in our traditions that we don’t realize how silly we look doing things just because that’s the way we’ve always done them.

In 2 Corinthians 3:7 Paul said, “Who has made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter but of the spirit: for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.

Legalists will write a rule for everything. When that happens, everything gets in bondage & boxed in to rule keeping, consequently all joy evaporates. The Bible doesn’t speak on every little issue we face, if it did it would be so big it would take a box-car to carry it. What God expects us to do in those cases is use our sanctified common sense & follow the spirit of the law. If a person accidentally shoots another person & it is very obvious that it was an accident, a judge isn’t going to treat it like a murder. If its demonstrable that it was an accident the judge will use the spirit of the law to judge the person. Intent & motivation are always carefully examined.

If you want to see a depressed group of people, go into a church that’s bound up by laws, rules & regulations & you’ll see the saddest sight you can imagine. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty & joy in the Holy Ghost. There’s no need for God’s people to get all bound up with legalism when all we have to do in cases where there’s no written direction is read the intent of God’s law.

If you want to know what legalism really looks like read Matthew 23 & you’ll not only read the best description available anywhere about what makes legalists tick, you’ll also see Jesus excoriating the Pharisees until you can almost smell the hide burning. He scolded them because all they could think about was their traditions. If you haven’t read that chapter lately you should re-read it.

In the book of Revelation we hear Jesus speaking to the seven churches about hearing-- “what the spirit is saying to the church.” Yes God’s written word is true. Yes it’s all written under the Spirit’s directive. Yes it’s all profitable to living victorious lives. But Jesus is saying that God is still speaking to the churches in the 21st century & we need to have keen listening ears.

These women motivated Moses to think & to pray. You have probably observed that women have a talent for building fires under men.

4. THEY MOTIVATED LEADERSHIP

When these women got through presenting their petition, all Moses could do was go pray. When I think about these sisters I can’t help but think about Barak & Deborah. Mention is made of Barak in Hebrews eleven. When I think about them it also brings to mind Abigail & the way she confronted David when he was on his way to kill her weak husband & probably all the males in her family. Abigail confronted David & taught him mercy, saving him from untold regrets.

· In 1859 a woman by the name of Sarah J. Hale petitioned the Government to have a special day of Thanksgiving. She had to jump through a lot of hoops but the bottom line is that today we men have a full day of eating turkey & watching football because of this woman.

· My mother was, by any standards a very strong woman. When my sister & I were in junior high & high school the pressure was constantly put on us to learn to dance. My mothers answer to that was, “you teach my kids reading, writing & arithmetic & I’ll teach them the social graces.” Though she was called on to confront several school systems in several different states she always prevailed & her children never graced a dance floor.

My wife Juda has taken my mothers place & she stands as a sentry in my life calling me to do more than I think I can do. She often throws me out of the boat and says “walk.” When you look at my life don’t give me too much credit. The credit goes to great women who saw in me more than I ever saw in myself & pushed me to excel.

How often have I heard the admonition-“you’re thinking too small?”

5. THE DAUGHTERS OF ZELOPHEHAD'S ACTION BENEFITED OTHERS.

It would have been risky to approach Moses in private. It would have looked like they were trying to get a better, maybe secret deal for themselves. By coming to him publicly their petition becomes an action to effect change on behalf of the whole community. These sisters were using their heads & being extraordinarily creative, & along the way, filing one of the earliest law suits on record.

Notice that Moses came out of his prayers & announced- “These women are right.” What they started has benefited women across the ages up to this day.

· I think of Rosa Parks. In 1955 she’d had it up to her neck with being treated like a poodle dog so she refused to move to the back of the city bus. History will show that by taking the stand she took, all women were blessed. Frankly the entire human race was blessed because she refused to be treated like a second class citizen that day in Montgomery Alabama. Likewise, the daughters of Zelophehad didn’t do what they did for strictly selfish reasons. They knew what they were doing would help women of many coming generations.

These daughters knew that they and all others were priests under God & because of their persistence a new law was written not only for them but to secure rights to property for generations to come.

Thank God for women & thank God for the differences that are woven into our lives by our creator. Without these differences life would be rather lack-luster. Thank God for the woman’s touch even though it historically has been somewhat underappreciated. As for me, I’ve appreciated women since I first found out they weren’t men.

I recently wrote an article in my blog called-“I hope you dance.” It was inspired by the country song of the same name. Dancing in the song was really synonymous with being engaged with life, not sitting on the sidelines letting life with all its opportunities pass us by.

Life isn’t meant to be feared, it’s meant to be lived with gusto. I’m always amazed when I read Christ’s parable about the talents that a business man gave his servants. When he returned he expected to see that they had invested his money & made it grow for him. The servant who was given one talent went & hid it while the others immediately went & put the money to work to see an increase. When the master returned he commended the ones who’d wisely invested his money & chastised the one who’d played it safe & put the money in a hole in the ground.

The reason it surprises me when I read this parable is that you just wouldn’t think Jesus, being so spiritually oriented would have financial investments on his mind. Of course the parable, like all of Christ’s parables has many shades of meaning. Not only was He stressing wise money management, He was reminding us that God expects a return on the talents & abilities He’s given us, whatever they may be. If we don’t use what we’ve been given we’ll have to face God someday & explain why we allowed His investment in us to stagnate.

The daughters of Zelophehad were shining examples of being engaged with the realities of life. They had the courage & initiative to take the bull by the horns as it were & effect change, not only for themselves but for future generations. Mahlah, Noah, Milcah & Tirzah didn’t change everything but they did make a significant difference in their rights as well as others that would be beneficiaries of this legal change.

The book of numbers doesn’t record the reaction of the sisters when they won their case but I think I know what it was. Of course, they danced.

What is it you believe that God has called you to do? Have you been sitting at your father’s feet daily? Are you waiting for your next assignment? Don’t let any man, women or world system intimidate you or victimize you into believing you are only a woman. You are a daughter of Zion. Arise & shine for your light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you -Ish.60:1-2. Take your rightful place & claim your God given heritage. Your reward will be great because you’ll receive your inheritance & that will be time well spent.

In closing here’s a poem to mothers, wives, & all the loyal, loving hearted women who have graced our lives & made them richer; women who’ve indeed been- the wind beneath our wings. It’s called;

WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN’T LOOKING.

When you thought I wasn’t looking I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator & then I knew how proud you were of me.

When you thought I wasn’t looking I saw you feed a stray cat & I thought how wonderful it was to have such a kind heart.

When you thought I wasn’t looking I noticed you baked my favorite cake & I was so glad you were my mother.

When you thought I wasn’t looking I saw tears come from your eyes & I knew you had a soft heart & it made me love you more & I said I wanted to be just like you.

When you thought I wasn’t looking I saw how much you cared for me & all our family & I wanted to say thanks for all the things you did,

---when you thought I wasn’t looking.

Blessings,

John