The Codicil

Studies in Numbers

III The Finale

C The Configuration

5. The Codicil, Text: 36:1-13

Title: Wills and Deeds

INTRODUCTION

Many people are very concerned with what happens to their property after they die. They not only write wills and pass on deeds, they do all they can to obtain the result they wish after they are gone. They can’t take it with them but they know where they want it to go after they die. Some times this is pure greed and materialism and sometimes it is sentimentalism and emotion, and sometimes it is just good common sense. I find the best thing is to distribute as much as possible to the loved ones you desire to bless before you die. Wills are often bitterly contested after death. This Scripture is a picture of such a contesting with the judge Moses. Death is not involved but property is. Before I explain further, let me point out that Calvin has a very interesting moral comment on this passage. He said, “Let us bear in mind that if heavenly things are the subject of as much anxiety to us, as earthly things were to the children of Manasseh, the rule that we should observe will always be made clear to us. Let us consider then the dilemma, the decision and the devotion.

I THE DILEMMA

We find the dilemma fully described for us in verses 1-4, The family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, who were from the clans of the descendants of Joseph, came and spoke before Moses and the leaders, the heads 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 comes, 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 ancestors.” They may seem greedy, but they were only asking to retain what was rightfully theirs. This request was not rejected by the Lord or Moses. The dilemma was resolved. And there is a deeper significance. It is the thought of the sacredness of the Israelitish inheritance in its division among the tribes which was in a typical sense the unchangeable and everlasting assurance of the divine inheritance for the people of God in its consecrated membership. One need only read the description of the eternal city in Revelation 21:11-14, to see this, It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The names of the 12 tribes are still there, and I am sure they were preserved for for all time, and you will see them when you arrive.

II THE DECISION

The dilemma results in a Divine decision in verses 5-9, 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 their father’s tribal clan. No inheritance in Israel is to pass from one tribe to another, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal inheritance of their ancestors. 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 their ancestors. No inheritance may pass from one tribe to another, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it inherits.” The command of the Lord is reiterated and it is plain. The inheritances stay with the tribes and adjustments must be made. From a legal standpoint it is simple, but as anyone knows who has read Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet the answer is not simple emotionally. The daughters may marry anyone they want as long as they choose from a limited group of men in the clan. These would be, basically, distant cousins. In our culture, in these days of liberated women, that would not get off the ground. However God deemed it wise for His ancient people. The old feeling is proved to have a deep root in fact. As we cope today with our national boundaries we,realize all the more that territorial solidarity is indispensable to a nation; and the exclusion of a people from large portions of its land is intolerable. Old writers claimed, “Christianity has not done its work where the Church, the teacher of righteousness, is unconcerned for this great matter. How then, can religion flourish? First among the economic questions which arise in Christian settlement is that of land tenure, land rights.” We know that this is guaranteed in the constitution of the United States of America for that very reason.

III DEVOTION

The women in view in the Scripture promptly obeyed and we read about it in verses 10-13, So Zelophehad’s daughters did as the Lord commanded Moses. Zelophehad’s daughters—Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milkah 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 tribe and clan. These are the commands and regulations the Lord gave through Moses to the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. The provision here, like all the other arrangements peculiar to the Jewish people,serves the ends for which Israel existed. It was necessary to the end designed, and is to be considered, In the first place as we have seen in its typical meaning regarding the inheritance of God’s people but also In its connection with the whole genealogical history and life of the people. As we have learned, the issue of genealogy was in the forefront in relationships in God’s chosen people. In other words , only men from Judah could be king, and only men from Levi could be in the priestly service

CONCLUSION

This is a book, not about Numbers, in spite of its English title , but about people in the wilderness of life. What is their guide in this wilderness? I tis the law of God.This law is wisely given to govern them so as to preserve them for a great event. That event is the advent of the Messiah. Everything aims at that goal. And now we enjoy the blessings that have come to us through their trials and tribulations. We should be grateful to them and to God that the end result was a precious Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, the eternal Son of God, born of woman, born under the law, and born to redeem lost and helpless sinners. Whatever their failures, we know that they were instrumental in bringing salvation to our doors.