The Claims

Studies in Numbers

III The Finale

A The Continuity

2 The Claims, Text:27:1-23

Title: True inheritance

INTRODUCTION

In the Bible God’s people are spoken of as His inheritance, Deuteronomy 32:9 For the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. But He is also their inheritance, Jeremiah 10:16, He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the people of his inheritance– the LORD Almighty is his name. He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the people of his inheritance– the LORD Almighty is his name. This is true because all we really have in life is the Lord, and what he chooses to preserve. In a moment family, possessions, accomplishments, will all disappear, and in the end it will be you and God. Note especially that the descendants of Levi, the Priests and Levites had no land of their own.They were scattered through the land and lived off the donations , the tithes of God’s people. This emphasizes the fact that God is the real inheritance of His people. This deserves serious contemplation. In this particular study we are looking at inheritances.

I THE CHANGE

And we read beginning at verse one through 11, of a significant departure from custom. 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. 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, 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. Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he has no son? Give to us therefore a possession among the brothers of our father. And Moses brought their cause before the LORD. And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: you shall surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers; and you shall cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them. And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. And if he have no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. And if he have no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. And if his father have no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be to the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the LORD commanded Moses. So you can see what a departure from custom this is in favoring the female gender, I suggest that in ancient cultures land inheritance rules, favored males. in 340 societies sons inherit, in 90 other patrilineality|patrilineal heirs (such as brothers), in 31 sister’s sons, in 60 other matrilineal heirs (such as daughters or brothers), and in 98 all children. In 43 societies land is given to all children, but daughters receive less. The dominant method excluded female heirs. And in some, where females were recognized they either received less or it was their sons who received the inheritance. Here is the beginning of Paul’s statement that in Christ there is neither male nor female (Galatians 3:28). This is not a call to abolish all earthly relationships. Rather, it puts earthly relationships in the perspective of salvation history. As Paul goes on to say, “And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:29; and Romans 10:2). All who are in Christ have the same salvation status before God. Here in our text the feminine gender receives preference over the male members of the family and the same inheritance parallel to Paul’s statement.

II THE CHASTENING

This is found in verses 12-14, And the LORD said to Moses, Get you up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel. And when you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered. For you rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes: that is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. Here Moses encounters his destiny. He has courageously and faithfully led the people out of bondage, through the Red Sea and through the wilderness, and done so wisely. It is almost shocking to us that all of that good is ignored, and a single transgression ends his hope of entering the promised land. God has declared that He is a jealous God. He cannot overlook what is an insult to His sovereignty. One commentator says, “Moses, whose life is lengthened that his honorable task may be fully done, must all the more conspicuously pay the penalty of his high misdemeanor.” This, of course, demonstrates the folly of people reasoning that many good deeds will outweigh some bad ones on the scale of God’s justice. It takes no more than a single sin to invoke the eternal judgment of God. As James clearly says in James 2:10, For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. This enforces the truth that we need a savior who bore all our sins in His body on the tree that we might live if we trust in Him. For, indeed, who has not sinned? And, so we understand, the sin was impatience. God told Moses to speak to the rock in order to supply water and he was tired of the people’s complaining and the story was in Numbers 20:5-10. If you recall, this is it, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. Have you been impatient with persistent obstruction, in traffic, in the family, in the church, in the government? As we noted earlier Moses was not banned from heaven, but only from the promised land. He had the same Savior we do. But he taught us an important lesson. Years of gainful service do not balance one transgression. We all need the Savior, and if you recall, when we studied that portion we said that the symbolic equivalent to striking the rock a second time was the same as crucifying Jesus again because God declares later that the rock was Christ. I Corinthians 10:3,4 They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. When we become impatient with circumstances, we are becoming impatient with God, and we become foolishly angry. Who are we mad at? The book of Hebrews in which we find the reference to crucifying Christ again is warning people who were in danger of falling away from the faith due to persecution. It is a serious warning because Christ cannot be crucified again, and therefore there is no hope for them if they abandon Christ. The fact that Moses had struck the rock once meant he did not have to strike it a second time. He only had to speak to it. When he foolishly violated the image, the picture, the type, the symbol, God was obliged by His own honor to discipline His servant whom He obviously loved. Later, long after this, we see Moses in the New Testament, eternally alive in Matthew 17:1-3, After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Moses made it to the real promised land.

III THE COUNSEL

Although Moses is departing he has not forgotten the wisdom he has learned under the Lord’s teaching. And so we read in verses 15-23, And Moses spoke to the LORD, saying, Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd. And the LORD said to Moses, Take you Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him; And set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight. And you shall put some of your honor on him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the LORD: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation. And Moses did as the LORD commanded him: and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation: And he laid his hands on him, and gave him a charge, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses. It is a testimony to Moses faith that he is not thinking about himself, but about the Lord’s people and the Lord’s reputation. It is the reason that he was successful in his leadership, and will be the same today for any leader. The Lord has chosen Joshua one of the two spies that came back with a good report. A man of courage and talent for leading and a man who trusted in the Lord. He will bring the people into their earthly inheritance, just as Jehoshua, that is Jesus, brings His people into their heavenly inheritance. It has been written, “The past receding, the future advancing, and God the sole abiding link between them. For us, as for Israel, notwithstanding all our care of the monuments and gains of the past, that is the one sustaining faith; and it is adequate, inspiring. The swift decay of life, the constant flux of humanity, would be our despair if we had not God. So Moses wrote in Psalm 90, (KJV) ‘Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as asleep: In the morning they are like grass which groweth up, In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up; In the evening it is cut down and withereth.’”