Now, Zelophehad, son of Hefer,
the son of Gilead, the son of Makar, son of Manasseh, had no
sons, but only daughters whose names were Mala, Noah, Hagla,
Milka, and Terza. And I can't tell you for certain
if I pronounced those right, but, you know. Not that important, I suppose.
They went to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders
and said, the Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance
among our brothers. So Joshua gave them an inheritance
with the brothers of their father according to the Lord's command. Now these chapters, in this portion
of Joshua are about dividing up the land among the various
tribes of Israel. One of those tribes is Manasseh.
Manasseh was the son of Joseph, the first of the Jews to go into
Egypt. Levi did not have a tribal allotment. because the descendants of Levi
served in the temple. Consequently, the Levites were
spread out throughout the nation so that they might minister to
the needs of the people everywhere. They may have their own little
plots of land, but there is no such thing as a tribe of Levi.
But Joseph, whom Jacob considered to be his firstborn, It was not
the first son born to Jacob, but it was the first son born
to Jacob by his favored wife, Rachel. And this is the one who
had been given, King James calls it the coat of many colors. I've
seen it described as a richly ornamented coat. But obviously,
Jacob gave that to Joseph in order that Joseph would stand
out among his brethren. But Joseph had gone down to Egypt,
when sold into Egypt, but later elevated to essentially second
in command in Egypt. And he married an Egyptian woman,
and they had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. So there are, instead
of a tribe of Joseph, there are two tribes named after his sons,
Manasseh and Ephraim. So that means you have 12 tribal
allotments, which would be expected, but you know, because Jacob had
12 sons. But Levi gets no allotment. I think we studied this earlier.
Levi's allotment was actually, it's the Lord himself, because
they are those that serve in the temple. And to replace that,
missing tribal allotment, and then also to honor Joseph. And
you know, in the laws of inheritance, the firstborn gets a double portion.
So Joseph, considered by Jacob really to be his firstborn, the
leader of the household, he gets two allotments because his two
sons each get an allotment. So that's where this name Manasseh
comes from. Now, as these tribal allotments
were being made, these daughters of Zelophehad come to Joshua
and Eleazar, I believe, a few people there, and said, our father
died in the wilderness. He left no sons. So you should,
as the Lord commanded, you should give us an allotment. so that
the name of our Father does not die out. Now, this is in reference,
if you want to look at Numbers 27, and we kind of need to read
a couple of passages of scripture, even though it takes significant
time, but this is what gives the background of this encounter
between these five daughters of Zelophehad and Joshua. But if you look at Numbers chapter
27, beginning in verse one, the daughters of Zelophehad, son
of Hefer, the son of Gilead, the son of Makar, the son of
Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh, son of Joseph. The
names of the daughters were Mala, Noah, Hagla, Milcah, and Terzah. They approached the entrance
to the tent of meeting, and stood before Moses, Eliezer, the priest,
and the leaders, and the whole assembly, and said, now, what
we're gonna be noticing here is these five women as representative
of believers and their actions as being a pattern of faith.
So we've already read what they did in Joshua. They came to Joshua
and said, now give us the allotment that Moses commanded be given
to us. Well, here back in Numbers 27,
we're beginning to see what brought about Moses' command that they
be given an allotment. Because normally speaking, women
didn't get allotments. Their allotment came through
whoever they were married to. Well, these women were unmarried
and So how can they get an allotment? And I think one thing to notice,
and it's a good example of something that faith always does, when
they had a problem, there in verse two, they approached the
entrance to the tent of meeting. Now that's what they called the
tabernacle. So in going to the tent of meeting, even though
they were gonna be talking to Moses and Eliezer and those,
the tent of meeting is where God was. And you know, faith
always looks to God for the answer. Now faith doesn't ignore whatever
means are at hand to get what is necessary, but the eye is
always toward God, and particularly in making appeals, and appeals
for things that we wouldn't normally expect to get or couldn't get
on our own. A few weeks ago, I gave that
definition of faith that I read, oh, probably 40 years ago. Some fellow described faith as
trusting God to do what only God can do. And that's where
faith is really proven, when we recognize that we have needs
beyond our capacity to fulfill. And so we go to God with this
and lay it before him. Let's go on reading. Verse three,
our father died in the desert. He was not among Korah's followers. Now they had risen up in rebellion
against Moses. He was not among Korah's followers
who banded together against the Lord, but he died for his own
sin and left no sons. Now this Zelophehad, he died
because he was among those 20 and over, who in unbelief refused
to go into the land of promise some 40 years previous to this.
And according to the Lord's curse, all of them died in the desert,
and that included Zelophehad. Verse 4, 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 Zelophehad'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 the inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan that he
may possess it. This is to be a legal requirement
for the Israelite as the Lord commanded Moses. Now, it was
very important within the Jewish economy that one have an allotment. You know, there was the tribal
allotments, then each male member of those tribes had their own
allotment within that tribe. And it was assumed that that
would be handed down to the firstborn son and on and on and on. And
in this way, No one's name would disappear, no family name would
disappear from the list of Israelites. Of course, the problems presented. If this is supposed to pass from
man to man, what's going to happen to a man who has no sons? And
so rules were made about that. Now if you look, turn over to
chapter 36 of Numbers, We'll begin with verse one there. Now this is, tells the story of some people
who are concerned about the issue is what if a woman inherits her
father's allotment and then she goes and marries a man from another
tribe? Will that land then become part
of that other tribe. Technically speaking, that's
what the issue is. So the family heads of the clan of Gilead,
son of Makar, the son of Manasseh, who were from the clans of the
descendants of Joseph, came and spoke before Moses and the leaders,
the head of the Israelite families. They said, when the Lord commanded
my Lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites
by lot, he ordered you to give the inheritance of our brother
Zelophehad to his daughters. Now, suppose they marry men from
other Israelite tribes. Then their inheritance will be
taken from our ancestral inheritance and added to that of the tribe
they marry into. And so part of the inheritance
allotted to us will be taken away. When the year of Jubilee
for the Israelites come, their inheritance will be added to
that of the tribe into which they marry, and their property
will be taken from the tribal inheritance of our forefathers.
Then, at the Lord's command, Moses gave this order to the
Israelites. What the tribe of the descendants
of Joseph is saying is right. This is what the Lord commands
for Zelophehad's daughters. They may marry anyone they please
as long as they marry within the tribal clan of their father. No inheritance in Israel is to
pass from tribe to tribe. For every Israelite shall keep
the tribal land inherited from his forefathers. Every daughter
who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her
father's tribal clan so that every Israelite will possess
the inheritance of his father's. No inheritance may pass from
tribe to tribe, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it
inherits. So Salafahad's daughters did
as the Lord commanded Moses. Salafahad's daughters, Mala,
Tirzah, Hagla, Milcah, and Noah, married their cousins on their
father's side. They married within the clans
of the descendants of Manasseh, son of Joseph, and their inheritance
remained in their father's clan and tribe. Now, all of that seems
like, you know, kind of a complicated system, you know. And in our
day, you know, we don't look at land quite like that, you
know. We buy and sell land, don't worry about it. In the Jewish economy, the land
that the various tribes got was considered an inheritance. And
the continued possession of that inheritance, marked out their
continued possession or continued position within the people of
God in that time. To lose your inheritance, to
lose for your family, to lose its name among the people of
God, a very serious business. So it was important that laws
be laid out that did not allow any group of the Israelites to
lose their inheritance, not even to another clan, or tribe within
Israel. Now, those are the two rules
that give rise now to this story in Joshua. All of this happened back in
the wilderness. Now they have conquered the land, the land's
being divided, and these sisters show up to Joshua and they say,
now give us our allotment. as the Lord commanded Moses to
do. Now, this is a demonstration
of faith. You've heard me say probably
quite a few times, there is no such thing as faith absent a
promise. Now, we can ask God for anything.
We're allowed to. Make your request known to God,
says the Apostle Paul. But we can't say, I'm asking
God for such and such on faith. Wait a minute, did he promise
you that? If he didn't promise you the thing you're asking for,
then you can't have any faith that you're going to get it.
There must be a promise in order to exercise faith. That's why
it says of Abraham, in his faith, he believed that what God had
said or what God had promised, he could do. See, faith's always
connected to a promise. So these women came because by
the command of the Lord, In essence, they had received a promise that
they would be inheritors in the land. So in faith, they came
to Joshua, who is a representative of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
said, give us that which the Lord commanded be given to us. Faith is bold. I mean, real God-given faith
is bold. And why should it not be? If
we have a promise from God, then we are as certain of it as if
we were already in possession of the things promised. Consequently,
when the time comes to receive the things promised, there is
simply no reason for us to be backward about, for lack of a
better way, to put it, claiming it. I almost hate to use the
word claim, and you'll see why in a few minutes, but a lot of
people, well, particularly your TV evangelists, you know, the
whole name it, claim it type of thing. Well, no, we can't
name it and claim it, but if God names it, we can claim it.
If he says it's ours, we can lay claim to it. And that's what
these women did. They laid claim to that which
God had promised them. Now, what a remarkable thing
here is when, way back there in the wilderness, when they
approached Moses and said, you know, our father died and he
had no son, so his line's gonna die out in Israel unless you
give us an inheritance. And when Moses went to the Lord
about it, he said there in, let me see, it's, chapter 27, I think it's verse,
yeah, verse seven. This is what the Lord said about
Zelophehad's daughters. What Zelophehad's daughters are
saying is right. Now, normally, you hear us saying
things like, you know, what God says is right, and it's our duty,
if that's the right word, to follow what God has said. But
here's one of those rare occasions where God says, Zelophehad's
daughters are right. They pleased the Lord in what
they said. They pleased the Lord in the
argument they put forth, which in truth, the argument they put
forth, that itself was an act of faith under the economy that
was in operation then. They realized that promises had
been made to all the house of Egypt, And yet, if they were not allowed
to inherit their father's allotment, then those promises that had
been made about the possession of the land, those promises would
fail, so far as their concerned, so far as their father's household
concerned. So even way back in Numbers,
when they first approach the Lord through Moses over this
matter, they are exercising faith. They are claiming the promises
that had been given to all the Israelites. And it says in Hebrews 11, verse
six, without faith, It's impossible to please God. Now, we commonly
say, you know, we can't please Him. That's true. We can't please
Him with anything that comes from our natural selves. But
faith is the gift of God. It's not the product of our natural
intellect or our natural will. It's a product of the grace of
God. And that faith pleases God. And the one who has that faith
is pleasing to God, despite all the errors and distortions and
outright failures in their life. Nonetheless, they are pleasing
to God simply because of that faith that they have. Now this faith that they have,
honored, and justified God in the punishment of sin. They came
to Moses, way back there in the wilderness, and they said, our
father did not sin, he did not join with Korah in the rebellion,
but he died for his own sins. They did not charge God with
injustice over the death of their father. He died in the wilderness
through unbelief, right along with all the others who were
above 20 when they left Egypt. And the daughters didn't say,
the Lord shouldn't have done that. He should have let my father
live long enough that he could take possession of his allotment. Faith always justifies God's
justice. I don't want to go to hell. I don't think I'm going to go
to hell. But if I did, I could not make
any argument against God and say, this is unjust. I don't
deserve this. Now, just about anybody that
would honestly say that is a believer. You see, non-believers always
think they have something to commend themselves to God. Or, if they're of the atheistic
persuasion, you know, they think God doesn't exist, and one of
the reasons they deny His existence is they just don't like the fact
that He's a just God that punishes sin. But faith always recognizes
God's right to punish sin. I don't like thoughts of hell,
but I can't say God's wrong about it. These women, by faith, they approached
the matter of their standing on the condition of God's equitable
dealings with his people. They approached God with this
matter because they knew God is just. Now, I mentioned that
faith is ready to justify God in punishment. But when we come
to Him in faith through our Lord Jesus Christ, we are doing so
in recognition that God will properly respond to His justice
satisfied in Christ. When we are saved by virtue of
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, there is no violation
of God's justice in that. Christ willingly accepted our
sin, the responsibility for it, the punishment for it. and He
fully discharged our debt, consequently we can come to God. If we understand
what God did in Christ, we can come to Him through Christ boldly,
knowing that our request or our calling upon His name for salvation,
it is not going to offend Him as though we are asking Him to
do something contrary to His nature. Our gospel, the gospel, well,
our gospel, but it's ours only because God revealed it to us. So God's gospel, it's a just
gospel. This may sound out of place,
but I think you'll understand what I mean. Everybody who ends
up in hell deserves to be there. Everybody who ends up in heaven
deserves to be there. He said, wait a minute, we're
sinners. Not in Christ we're not. That's what justification
means, to be declared righteous. And righteous people deserve
blessing. Now, we don't deserve it in any
sense that we could glory in it, because we know the glory
for us deserving that belongs completely to Christ. He's the
one that made us deserving. But that doesn't change the fact
that we deserve it. It is the just response of God
toward the work of His Son. Just as it would be unjust of
God to take into heaven someone for whom the Lord Jesus Christ
had not made an atonement, it would be unjust of God to send
to hell someone for whom Christ has made atonement. We have a
gospel that stands on a firm foundation of divine justice. Well, faith goes on. It's exemplified
in these women. They called for that which had
been promised to them. and it was given to them. And not only was it given to
them, notice that because of their faith and their approach,
God actually made a law. Not only about them, but about
anyone else that might be in the same position. So faith finds God reacting to
gospel promises. It finds God responding with,
shall we call it gospel law, by which he says, everyone that
comes to me like this, they get the inheritance. Now, the only qualification on this promise
is because of the nature of inheritance and the importance of inheritance.
When people make this claim, when these women made this claim,
someone said, well, what are we going to do if they go and
marry somebody from another tribe or another clan? That means that
whatever they had gotten as part of their father's inheritance
is going to accrue to this other clan or tribe. So this law was
put in place to keep that from happening. See, there's more
than one way for a tribe to lose part of its inheritance. It could
lose it through the death of a man who had no sons and there
was no one to inherit it. Or it could lose it if it fell
to his daughters and then they went and married somebody from
another tribe or clan. What to do about that? All right,
those who obtain this promise, like the daughters of Zelophehad,
to keep that, to keep that inheritance, they have to marry within their
father's tribe, their father's clan. Now, was that just because
they wanted to restrict these women? No, every law God ever
made, has a gospel principle tied to it, tied to it somewhere
to illustrate us, to us, something of the gospel. And it's simply
this. We cannot maintain or keep the
inheritance of God in the gospel if we're gonna marry ourselves
off to some other God. You're gonna stay in this tribe
Each one of those tribes, in a sense, was a picture of the
whole people of God and their connection to Him. You're going
to stay here. You're going to be part of this
clan, this group, into which you were born. And we're spiritually
born into a clan, a tribe. And in order to keep our inheritance,
so to speak, we gotta stay there. Now, no believer's ever gonna
leave. In fact, what happened? Those five daughters, each one
of them, this may sound a little creepy to us, but each one of
them married a cousin. Each one of them married a son of one
of their father's brothers. So they got this inheritance,
and then it wasn't lost through intermarriage because they married
within their clan. And we as believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we're not going to try to keep the inheritance
of Christ and yet marry into a false religion or a false version
of Christianity. To do so, now I realize no one
who's ever truly saved is ever lost again. Not saying that,
but the idea is, and actually in the book of Hebrews and in
the book of Galatians, this is what they're being warned about.
Do not leave. Do not, you know, we were talking
with our guests here about this, forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together. That doesn't, that's not a rule
about, you know, make sure that you're there every Sunday, or
every time the doors are open, you gotta be there, or, you know,
these, those, there were some Jews who, under persecution,
were utterly forsaking the church, probably going back to the synagogue,
thinking, ah, we're worshiping the same God, You know, yeah,
they got some things wrong down at the synagogue, but I can just
ignore that. And the way that's worded, Paul,
or the writer of Hebrews, equates that with essentially leaving
God, leaving Christ. And if one were to do that, they
would lose the inheritance that had been given them. Of course,
as we pointed out, no one saved by the grace of God ever does
that. But have we not seen those who
claimed to believe God and walked according to the truth for a
while go and marry themselves off to someone else? And all we can conclude then
is they have no inheritance among the people of God. Paul said,
I have endeavored to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. Married to him and no one else. And if you go and spiritually
marry yourself to someone other than Christ, there is no inheritance
for you among the people of God. All right, you're dismissed until
the regular service.