Chapter 22: The Daughters Of Zelophehad

Numbers 27:1-11:
(1) Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph: and these are the names of his daughters; Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah.
(2) And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,
(3) Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons.
(4) Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father.
(5) And Moses brought their cause before the Lord.
(6) And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
(7) The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.
(8) And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.
(9) And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren.
(10) And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father's brethren.
(11) And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the Lord commanded Moses.
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            Last month I successfully finished reading the entire Bible. It took about seventeen months, and I did it the old fashioned way: I started in Genesis 1:1 and ended with Revelation 22:21. The very next morning I flipped all the way back to Genesis and started again. For the last couple months I have established a routine of getting up early each morning and spending at least a solid hour in my Bible. I average 4 – 6 chapters a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. On days when I don’t have to be at work until later in the morning, I will spend more than hour in study. (That’s how I got through the entire saga of Joseph in just 2 days.) Sometimes I only get through 2 or 3 chapters because I get caught up reading the commentary (I’m currently using a MacArthur study Bible). Today, I covered the usual 5 chapters, ending with Numbers 27. In my first read-through last year, that passage I quoted above hadn’t stood out to me in any particular way. I breezed right through it without a second thought. This morning, however, I came to a screeching halt and I read it again. Then a third time. Then I sat and stared at the wall, sipping my coffee, lost in thought and meditation.
             Have you ever been afraid to ask God for something?
         I’m not talking about the usual stuff such as prayers for friends and/or family who are sick or needing salvation or are burdened with the various cares of daily life. Nor am I talking about the usual requests that we ask of God on our own behalf such as good health, provision of basic needs, or maybe something specific like an upcoming performance review at work.
            Has there been something that you’ve desired, something secret and so important that you haven’t even said it aloud to God, much less your friends and family? Is it something special and specific, possibly a ‘want’, or something more than just a basic need, but you’ve been too afraid for one reason or another to put it up as a prayer request during your daily time alone with God? Maybe you’re afraid that God will say ‘No’, that He might consider the request as ‘too selfish’ on your part, and that He might dismiss it as something you don’t really need and you shouldn’t be foolish enough to ask for it in the first place.
            I’ve been debating for about 2 weeks whether or not to post this particular blog entry. Of everything that I have posted here since getting saved in September of 2020, this one is the most personal. (And, considering all that I’ve laid bare on the virtual pages of the world wide web these last 18 months, that’s saying something!) Three weeks ago, at the behest of my pastor and after an especially bad weekend of losing my daily battle with sin and old temptation, I sat down on a Saturday morning and wrote a letter to God.
           I finally put into black and white on the screen of my MacBook a special request that I had been hiding deep in my heart for over a year. Until that last counseling session with my pastor, I had shared this with no one, not even God. The closest I had come in my nightly prayers was to say, “Lord, please change my deviant, sinful desire for one that honors and glorifies you.” But that’s as far as I went. I had never dared to continue that thought, to say aloud what I finally wrote that Saturday morning three weeks ago.
            This morning, after reading those first 11 verses in Numbers 27, God showed to me, clear as the spring day outside my front window right now, how wrong I was to keep this request from Him for so long. Through the books of Exodus and Leviticus, as God is communicating to Moses the Law and the foundation of Israel’s society, there was no provision given by God for the unique situation in which those 5 daughters of Zelophehad found themselves in in Numbers 27. This was near the end of the 40 years of wandering that God had judged upon Israel for that generation’s disobedience when they showed a lack of faith after the 12 spies returned from Canaan. Zelophehad has just died and he had no sons. His 5 daughters were understandably distraught, and, though it doesn’t say so specifically in those verses, it’s reasonable to assume that they debated among themselves for a bit about what to do. They had no legal recourse. We can also reasonably infer from the context that they were probably not married. They had no claim to any inheritance, and thus, their immediate future was very uncertain.
       But instead of staying silent and resigning themselves to whatever their tribal leaders would have for them, those 5 daughters were bold enough to take their special request directly to Moses. They asked to be given their father’s inheritance, just as if they were sons. Moses, in turn, took the matter to God. In verse 7, He answered Moses, saying, “The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.”
        God not only granted that special request, but He instituted a new law of inheritance for ALL of His chosen people! The boldness of those 5 women didn’t just change their lives, but positively affected the lives of their fellow Israelites and all future generations! Despite their fear of being rejected, they dared to come forward and ask for something that they believed should rightfully be theirs. God honored that courage and their faith in Him by granting their request.
         There’s multiple lessons to be learned from this short passage, but the most pressing to me just now is this: we should NEVER be afraid to ask God for ANYTHING, no matter how small or great, or whether or not we think it’s too selfish or unnecessary. What’s the worst He can do? Say ‘No’? Fine. But at least we asked. And then we can stop torturing ourselves with the ‘What if” scenario and move on with our lives, trusting in His infinite wisdom that He knows what’s best for us.  But, then again, God just might say ‘Yes’ and bless us with something that we might have ended up denying ourselves just because we were too afraid to ask in the first place.
3 weeks ago, I wrote a special request to God. It was a prayer that I have been repeating aloud every night since. I don’t know when this will be answered, and it might not be in the way that I expect. But ever since I brought this particular request to Him, I have felt a new peace within. My faith, though it is still relatively new, tells me that this is the path that God has chosen for me. He’s given me this particular desire, and I’ve felt it growing stronger and greater every day for the last year or so.
         Until now, I have only shared this with my pastor, my family and a few close friends. By posting it here, I hope to encourage those of you who regularly read my posts but maybe aren’t part of my inner circle. If there’s something you’ve been afraid to ask of God, don’t be. Sit down, write it out, and then add it to your prayer journal. Put it forward every day when you go before God, and trust that He will answer it in His time. You might just be pleasantly surprised by His response.
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March 5th, 2022
9:20 a.m.
 
Heavenly Father,
            You are the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You are Yahweh, Jehovah, the Great I AM; the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. By Your word the heaven and the earth were made. You spoke and it was so. By Your awesome power, glory and providence You delivered Your chosen people from their bondage in Egypt. You parted the Red Sea and You led Your children by fire and cloud. You hardened the heart of Pharoah. You – and You alone – have the power to change the hearts of men as You so desire.
           You are God of the impossible.
           Lord, I come before You with a request that seems impossible. You have already done so much within me and my life, changed me in such fundamental ways of which I am still in awe after more than a year of being Your adopted son. And yet…this request still seems impossible. I am still at war so often and so earnestly with my old flesh, with the sinful, deviant desire of which I was a slave for all my life until September 17, 2020. I long to be led by the Spirit and walk upright in my new faith, but, instead, I find myself falling back into sin over and over again. So yeah, this request seems impossible right now, even for the God that brought ten plagues upon the children of disobedience in Egypt and parted the Red Sea.
            Father, I need a wife. I need a companion and a help-meet. Just as You hardened Pharoah’s heart in order to demonstrate Your power and glory, You have placed within me a new desire to be a husband and father. There’s no other reasonable explanation for my change of heart since getting saved almost 18 months ago. You gave a son to Abraham and Sarah when they were both well past childbearing age. That promise seemed impossible to them, yet You kept Your word. So I don’t believe that You would give me this desire now and not fulfill it.
            But my faith is still new and weak. I can think of a dozen reasons why this request will never be answered. Satan whispers in the back of my mind, reminding me of all the ways I have failed You since getting saved. He keeps stoking the fires of my sinful desire, and, at times, it seems as if that future – marriage and family – is just a stupid, childish hope. It seems impossible. But I also know that You are God. There is nothing You cannot do! I also know that You have changed others like me – both men and women. You have given them husbands and wives, marriages that are in accord with Your holy, grand design as spoken by Adam in Genesis 2:23-24. My faith tells me that there is nothing beyond Your power and capability, so I have to believe that You will, hopefully one day soon, fulfill this new desire You have placed within me.
            I first wrote about this over a year ago, and I even had a name picked out for a son: Daniel Joseph Robert. (Yeah, I changed the two middle names since then.) Now I also have a name for a daughter: Mykaela Elizabeth Ruth. Some days, when I am strong in my faith and feeling worthy of this new life in You, I can see that future so clear and precise. It seems almost a reality. I see myself coming home from work after a long day, my two children running to meet me at the door. I hug them and kiss them, and then I kiss my wife. We have dinner together as a family and talk about our day. Later, before bedtime, I read to Daniel and Mykaela from Your word, just as my dad did with me and my brothers when we were young. I pray with them and tuck them in bed. And then later, after the children are asleep, my wife and I have our own time with You and Your word. And afterwards we cuddle on the couch to watch some TV. (Probably an old episode of Star Trek. She will be a sci-fi nerd like me. That, too, seems certain.)
         But then, other days, when I am weak in faith and consumed with doubt and despair over my daily struggle with sin, that future seems blurred, hopeless and utterly impossible. It all seems so stupid and childish. I keep listing all the reasons why that scenario is impossible and I fall into a cycle of sin, despair and regret. That’s been happening a lot lately.
          Pastor Serviss told me to write You this letter. So here it is. I’ve had to pause a few times to wipe away tears. I’m not sure why this has been so emotional for me. That, too, has been happening a lot lately. But I know that You are God. You answered my cry for salvation, You redeemed me, You are sanctifying me (despite all my efforts to fall back into my old life of sin), and You have given me this new desire. My faith tells me that You will one day fulfill it, and I can’t wait to see exactly how You do that. I imagine that Joseph, as he lay on his deathbed, looking back over the extraordinary events of his long life, marveled yet again at Your wisdom, power and magnificent providence. There were times when he must have suffered doubt and despair, must have questioned You at least once or twice when his future seemed utterly bleak and hopeless. But even through all that, his faith was so much stronger than mine will – probably – ever be. He trusted You wholly and completely, and You did not fail him.
          Compared to all the miracles that You caused for Your chosen people throughout the Old Testament, my special request seems insignificant and quite simple. It is nothing for You, and so I choose to exercise the faith that You’ve given me. I will wait upon You, studying to show myself approved unto You, preparing myself for that day when You decide it’s time. I know that when the one You’ve chosen for me arrives in my life, I’ll know it. And I’ll do my best to not to screw it up.
         Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for everything that You have given me. I don’t deserve any of it – my salvation most of all – but You loved me anyway, even when I was dead in my sin, blaspheming You. You knew me before I was even born, and You have always known every moment of my whole existence from beginning to end. I trust in You to guide me, step by step, every day. And when I am finally holding my children in my arms, the first thing I will do is give them right back to You. I will dedicate them to You the moment they are born, as Hannah gave her son Samuel back to You after You granted her special request. I will rear them in You and Your word, just as my parents did with me. I will love my wife and my children with the same love You have shown to me.

      Psalm 139:16 – “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
         
           Amen.