Numbers, chapter 27, comments: a special rule for inheritance

 

Numbers 27:1 ¶  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. 2  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, 3  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. 4  Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father. 5  And Moses brought their cause before the LORD. 6  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 7  The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them. 8  And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter. 9  And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren. 10  And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father’s brethren. 11  And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the LORD commanded Moses.

 

Provision is made for inheritance through daughters or other near relatives when there are no sons to keep the inherited land within a tribe and in spite of the fact that the father died in his own sin whatever that was although it was certainly not in the rebellion of Korah. The complication we will learn in chapter 36 is that if those daughters marry outside of their tribe the inheritance goes with them to the other tribe as the heads of the tribes understood the rule but God clarified that the inheritance was not to change tribes and that a daughter must marry within her tribe. We’ll discuss this more when we get to chapter 36.

 

Numbers 27:12 ¶  And the LORD said unto Moses, Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. 13  And when thou hast seen it, thou  also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered. 14  For ye 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.

 

Now, God is going to deal with Moses, who will not enter the Promised Land. Sufficient water for a large number of people was always going to be a problem. But, God would and did provide for them. Still, Moses and Aaron were told to speak to the rock in the passage in Numbers 20 but they elected to do something more dramatic and strike the rock. Paul tells us that that Rock was Christ. Perhaps this is a metaphor or perhaps God allowed Himself to be bruised for the transgressions of the Hebrews as a type of His sacrifice for all mankind to come.

 

1Corinthians 10:1 ¶  Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3  And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

 

Let’s recall another incident where the rock was to be struck and not merely spoken to, back in Exodus.

 

Exodus 17:1 ¶  And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. 2  Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? 3  And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 4  And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. 5  And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 6  Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7  And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

The wilderness or desert of Zin was along by the border of Edom.

Numbers 34:3  Then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the coast of Edom, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward:

The wilderness of Sin was between Elim and Sinai.

Exodus 16:1  And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

The argument is also made that both are the same location which is a contradiction of what the Bible clearly says in the list of wanderings in Numbers 33:12 and 36.

 

Numbers 27:15 ¶  And Moses spake unto the LORD, saying, 16  Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, 17  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. 18  And the LORD said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him; 19  And set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight. 20  And thou shalt put some of thine honour upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient.

21  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.

22  And Moses did as the LORD commanded him: and he took Joshua, and set him before

Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation: 23  And he laid his hands upon him, and gave him a charge, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.

 

A spirit, lowercase s, is the mind, the heart, the talents, the animating part of who we are, that which allows us to act in the world. The God of the Bible is the God of the spirits of all flesh as it says in Numbers 16. This spirit, it is suggested, goes back to God at death and is eternal according to Solomon’s great question.

 

Ecclesiastes 3:21  Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

 

As per Moses’ request God now ordains Joshua to lead the children of Israel after Moses’ demise.

 

Laying hands on someone to impart authority or a task was also practiced in the early church. Paul noted that Timothy was to build up the gift he had in him by staying on track, not neglecting it, a gift that was imparted to him by the laying on of hands by the presbytery, the body of elders.

 

1Timothy 4: 13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 14  Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. 15  Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. 16  Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.