Daughters’ Request for Possession of Their Father’s Inheritance Unchallenged

Numbers 27:1-11

God does all things in His own time and way to accomplish His purposes. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. ⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

The old generation of Israelites had mostly died out, and now the new generation was being prepared to enter the long-awaited promised-land. God ordered Moses and Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, to take a census of the entire congregation of Israel twenty years old and up that were able to go to war (26:1-2).

Five sisters, who clearly exemplified faith and courage: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, daughters of a deceased man named  Zelophehad who had no sons, stood together before Moses, other leaders, and all the congregation of Israel and made their request known (vv.1-3). The old adage says “together we stand; divided we fall.” Scripture says “ye have not, because ye ask not.” These sisters asked, “Why should the name of our father be removed from among his family because he had no son” (v.4)? So “Moses brought their case before the Lord” (v.5). The first step to accomplishing anything is to take it to the Lord; God does answer prayers. Their request for the possession of their father’s inheritance was unchallenged; they were granted the desires of their heart. In every generation God has used women to impact change against all odds.