Numbers 36:1-13
1 And the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spake before Moses, and before the princes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel:
2 And they said, The LORD commanded my lord to give the land for an inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother unto his daughters.
3 And if they be married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then shall their inheritance be taken from the inheritance of our fathers, and shall be put to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall it be taken from the lot of our inheritance.
4 And when the jubile of the children of Israel shall be, then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they are received: so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.
5 And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well.
6 This is the thing which the LORD doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them marrya to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.
7 So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for every one of the children of Israel shall keepb himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.
8 And every daughter, that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers.
9 Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.
10 Even as the LORD commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad:
11 For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married unto their father's brothers' sons:
12 And they were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.
13 These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
Now in chapter thirty-six you remember this ERA movement. These daughters of Zelophehad, the guy had seven daughters, no sons. And they said, "Hey, it isn't fair that we don't get an inheritance in the land just because there are no boys in the family. Our family should have an inheritance just like everybody else, and thus the girls ought to be able to have an inheritance just as much as the boys". Moses took it before the Lord, he said, "Those girls are right. You know, they shouldn't be cut off just because they're girls, so give them the inheritance too within the land. When you come into the land those girls are to get an inheritance in the land."
Well, they were from the tribe of Judah and some of the other fellas in the tribe of Judah came to Moses and they said, "Now look, this thing could create some real problems. What if these girls marry guys from say the tribe of Benjamin or the tribe of Manessah and all? Then after the year of jubilee when everything reverts back to the original ownership, it means that the part that is allotted to Judah will also be given partially to Manessah or to these other tribes that these girls have married into. So they can get into all kinds of trouble. Our portion could be divided out to other tribes because these gals want an inheritance here". So Moses said, "All right. This is the rule; the girls, the daughters of Zelophehad, they have to marry fellas from the tribe of Judah otherwise they don't get their inheritance." And so all the girls married guys from the tribe of Judah rather than marrying outside the tribes.
And that became the law of the land when the inheritance went to a girl, in order to have the inheritance she had to marry within the tribe that she was from so their wouldn't be dividing of the lands between the tribes. But they all, the tribes had their definite defined borders and there wouldn't be a mixing up of the land by marriages and so forth. So whenever the girls inherited the land, then it was necessary for those girls to marry someone from that tribe in order to keep the inheritance of the land. Otherwise it was to be given away to those other tribes so that the land would not the borders within the land would not become all confused.
Now these are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. (Numbers 36:13)
So this is the end of the road for Moses. He's brought them as far as he can. These are the commandments and now Moses is to lay down the rulership and Joshua is to take over to lead the people into the Promised Land. But now as we go into the book of Deuteronomy, the word Deuteronomy means the "second law", and so it is sort of a summation of that which we have gone through. In Deuteronomy just a sort of a summation now and we're gonna go rapidly through the things, pretty much, that we've already covered as we go through the second law of the book of Deuteronomy. And then we come back to the same point at the end of Deuteronomy, where at the same point of history that we are right here.
And then, so, you think in our minds traditionally we think chronological order, you know, because the Deuteronomy, the book of Deuteronomy follows Numbers that it took place after Numbers, but the Bible doesn't always follow the culture or tradition of the western mind. Quite often the Bible lays out a whole scene and then it comes back and fills in the details. That's why people oftentimes have difficulty with the book of Revelation because it doesn't always follow a set chronological order like we're used to thinking of in our own western minds. And so, Deuteronomy, we're gonna now jump back and come back through it again very rapidly and then when we get into Joshua we then start moving ahead in a chronological order again. So, next week we'll take the first ten Chapter s of the book of Deuteronomy.
Shall we stand?
And now may the Lord help you to assimilate that which we have studied and may He bring to remembrance those things which He has commanded. And may you be enriched in the knowledge of God and His will and His plan for your life. May the Lord be with you to bless you, to guide you, and may you be kept by that power of God through faith and trust in Him, in Jesus' name. "