The Daughters of Zelophehad [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

You are heirs, and you have a rightful inheritance, and you didn't earn it, and you didn't merit it, and you don't deserve it. But since it has been proclaimed to you, you might as well claim it. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today and the series titled, God Used Who?

And you may just be surprised, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I wanna make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. I heard of a wealthy man who, he left an inheritance for his children, but he was also just wanting to cover his bases in case there was something about the afterlife that he would be surprised by, and maybe you could take it with you. And so, after crafting his will, he brought in also his doctor, lawyer, and minister, and he said, I want you each to take this packet, and inside of it was $100,000 in cash in each one. And he said, at the time of my funeral, I want you to walk by my casket before the service, and please just insert this into the casket just in case.

I want to have some cash to go with me. So the time of his death arrived, and sure enough, a doctor, a lawyer, and a minister all went by this casket and discreetly put an envelope into the casket. And afterwards, the doctor, and the lawyer, and the minister were talking to one another, and they said, well, that was the strangest thing ever, what? And they said, yeah. It grew quiet, and finally the doctor said, I just have a guilty conscience.

I have to just admit. I wanted to get my wife a new car, and I just put $50,000 in, and I kept $50,000. And the minister said, well, I have a guilty conscience also. It seems so ridiculous to me that I just put $25,000 in, and I kept $75,000 out for the homeless shelter. And the lawyer said, I am appalled. They said, what? You put it all in there? He said, absolutely.

I wrote a personal check for the whole amount to put it in there. Are you ready for some good news? You have a spiritual inheritance in Christ that is so vast that Paul sums it up by saying, we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Every spiritual blessing in Christ. It is to say that we are heirs of God himself. So Charles Spurgeon said, if you're heirs of God, what it means is if God has it, it's yours. If God has peace, then you're an heir of that. If God has joy, you're an heir of that joy. If God has everlasting life, you are an heir of everlasting life. You are heirs, and you have a rightful inheritance, and you didn't earn it, and you didn't merit it, and you don't deserve it.

But since it has been proclaimed to you, you might as well claim it. We're learning about unheralded women in the word, some of whom you may not even have known of, and it's a fitting time to be preaching on women in the word in the midst of culture right now in which we're seeing many different thoughts and public opinions, and it's good to see what the word has to say about God's attitude towards women and the vastness of his love, and really what people don't understand is that for the culture that Jesus came along in, he was radical in his inclusion of women. We'll see more of that, but I'm not preaching this series primarily to see what God has to say about women. I'm primarily preaching it to see what the lives of these women have to say about God, and this story is marvelous. It is a story I honestly didn't even know was here except my wife taught on it one time in Awakenings, and she told me about it, and I said, is that really there?

It is. Numbers chapter 27, the daughters of Zelophehad. It's a gospel story tucked way back in the old covenant. All you read about in chapter 26 is a census that was taken, and all the people were counted, and all the clans because they were preparing to make plans for dividing up all of the land and the promised land.

How would they apportion all the land? Well, verse one of numbers 27, then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Heifer, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were Malah, Noah, Hagla, Milcah, and Terzah, and they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest, and before the chiefs and all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting. That was the portable tabernacle traveling with them, and they said, our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord and the company of Korah, but died for his own sin, and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father's brothers. Well, Moses brought their case before the Lord, and the Lord said to Moses, the daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them, and you shall speak to the people of Israel saying, if a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.

And then at verse, after further clarification, at verse, second part of verse 11, and it shall be for the people of Israel a statute and rule as the Lord commanded Moses. I've always been curious, interested reading the interesting stories of inheritance and how people have done strange things in their wills. Maybe none stranger than that of a wealthy man who lived the turn of the century, the 20th century. He was a Canadian lawyer and financier. His name was Charles Millar, and he was known for practical jokes, and so in his will, people were not surprised that he said, this will is necessarily uncommon and capricious because I have no dependence or near relations, and no duty rests upon me to leave any property at my death, and what I do leave is proof of my folly and gathering and retaining more than I required in my lifetime.

Well, what follows is just hilarious and playful bequest. For example, three men who were known to despise each other were granted joint lifetime tenancy in Millar's vacation home in Jamaica. Seven prominent Toronto Protestant ministers and temperance advocates were to receive $700,000 worth of O'Keefe Brewery stock, a Catholic business, only if they participated in its management. Three fervid anti-horse racing advocates were to receive $25,000 worth of Ontario Jockey Club stock, stuff like that, but the funniest was that his main bequest was in the largest by far and strangest, the 10th clause, said that after 10 years, all of his assets were to be converted to cash and given to the woman in Toronto, had to be a resident of Toronto, who had had the most births in the 10-year period, and so it began what was known as the Great Stork Derby, and women all over Toronto trying to have babies as fast as they could. It grew into a major fortune during that 10 years, and two women shared the bulk of it. They both had had nine children. There were two others that had also claimed to have nine children, but their claims seemed a little dubious, so they just kind of settled with them for a smaller amount, but all told, there were at least 36 children that were, in a sense, fathered, even though he was dead, by Charles Millar. Strange inheritance stories, but none that is more interesting or powerful than the daughters of Zelophahad, who were in a strange position. Their father had died in the wilderness and had no son, and all of the customs of inheritance in Israel at the time were that inheritance always flowed from fathers to sons, but if these daughters received no inheritance, no portion of the land, then the father's name would just as if be blotted out and not remembered anymore, and of course, these daughters would be left without an inheritance, and so they did a very bold thing and approached Moses himself and the priest Eliezer, and they came to the tent of meeting there at the sacred tabernacle where God's glory would rest, and they made their appeal, and Moses essentially said, well, I don't make the rules, but I will talk to God about it, and the mediator Moses went to God, and he said yes.

He said these daughters should receive an inheritance, include them in the apportioning of the land. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears.

You've believed it in your mind. Now experience it in your heart with Alan Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like. For any woman who has searched for true love, what you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages, says the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy his embrace, revel in his love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Alan Wright. The Gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. When they portioned the land out, the daughters received it as a lasting statute. And it was clarified that if a father had no sons, that the inheritance would go to the daughters. It is a wonderful story and it ties into the overarching theme that we see running throughout Scripture of inheritance.

One of the ways that you can read the Bible for deeper understanding of the Gospel is to pay attention to themes that run through the Scripture. The principle of the Scripture is that God's people are set free, but they're more than just set free. They're given an inheritance. We see this starts out with God speaking to Adam and Eve and telling them that they have dominion in the earth. So in a very real sense, God who owns everything makes Adam and Eve stewards of the earth. You name the animals, you tend to the garden, it's yours.

It's yours. So it's like an inheritance in that sense. And the drama then begins to develop as this serpent comes in and tempts Adam and Eve.

You see this drama that develops. Are they going to appropriate and keep their inheritance or are they going to forfeit it? And when they sin, they forfeit it.

And they're put out from the garden. And so it is that sin has entered the world and humanity is living in a condition of forfeiting the glorious inheritance that God has arranged for them to have. And so we begin to see this whole drama. How will the people ever be able to reclaim an inheritance that now they've rightly rejected? Well, God calls a man named Abram later called Abraham. And we don't know much about Abram, except that he's come from an area called Ur of the Chaldees. And God speaks a unilateral blessing to Abram and speaks an inheritance to him. And he says, you're going to have an heir. In fact, you're going to have so many heirs.

Look at the stars of the sky. If you could count them, so numerous will your descendants be. But Abram and Sarah were old and childless, beyond childbearing years. But God promised them a miracle. And He promised that the inheritance would flow down and the promise of land and the promise of this great nation and that I'll make your name great, that all of this will continue on because you will bear a son. Well, time went by and there was no son. And so it was that Abram at first came to the Lord and he said, it's obvious I don't have an heir. I'm going to make my servant my heir. And the Lord said to him, no, Abram. He said, you are going to have an heir and it's going to be your own son.

Well, more time went by and they said, well, maybe we're supposed to do something about this. So they brought in Hagar, a maidservant, a slave woman in their home. And she and Abram had this child together, Ishmael. And they thought, well, maybe Ishmael is going to be the heir.

But God was faithful. And He brought about a miraculous son to Abraham and Sarah, whose name was Isaac, which means laughter because Sarah laughed out loud at the hilarious nature of the grace of God. And yet now they had Ishmael, the slave woman's son, and they had Isaac. And technically Ishmael was the firstborn who technically should receive the double portion of inheritance. But Sarah one day, seeing how Ishmael was interacting in the family and he was called a wild donkey of a man, she told Abraham, I want you to get rid of the slave woman and that son.

And so Abram sent them out. And so it was that Ishmael didn't get the inheritance, Isaac did. Do you see the drama that's developing so early on in the scripture? It's all a battle about inheritance. Now, Isaac had these twins, Jacob and Esau, but Esau was the firstborn and deserved to get a double portion of the inheritance according to the customs of primogeniture. But Jacob was a conniver and a deceiver, the younger of these twin boys. And he deceived Isaac one day into thinking that Jacob was Esau so that he would bless Jacob rather than Esau and release the inheritance to Jacob, which he did. And Esau realized that his brother had stolen his blessing, had bitterness towards him, and eventually Jacob had to flee. Esau wanted to murder him and it was all about the inheritance. It was all about the father's blessing.

You see how it continues to grow. And so we see all throughout the scripture there is this amazing picture of a battle, of a longing, of who's going to get the inheritance. Will the inheritance be claimed?

Will it be forfeited? Well, all of this grows until the people are slaves in Egypt for a long time. And when God comes to set them free, Pharaoh is so stubborn. And if you ever start worrying about what God was cruel to Pharaoh, you got to remember Pharaoh was an evil, evil tyrant.

Think of just one of the worst terrorists, the worst evil tyrants you can imagine. This was the way Pharaoh was interacting. And these people have been wrongfully enslaved for all these years. And God sent Moses to go and speak to Pharaoh on God's behalf and say, let my people go. And Pharaoh wouldn't do it. So a series of plagues came against the people of Egypt. Well, this series of plagues culminated with the 10th plague. And the 10th plague was that the firstborn of the Egyptians would perish on this woeful night, except the Hebrew parents who put blood over their doorposts, their firstborns would be spared. And so on a dark night, the destroyer came through Egypt. There was loud wails and shrieks of terror on this night as there was judgment against Pharaoh in all of Egypt. But the Hebrew firstborn were spared.

Pharaoh said, go. And the people were set free. And it's very important to the narrative of what happened with the Hebrew people and to your understanding of inheritance to remember this. The firstborns of all people should have died, except there was one thing that was different. There was a revelation given to the Hebrews to put the blood of an innocent lamb over their home.

And wherever there was the blood, it was reckoned as though that blood counted. And so the firstborn was spared, which goes far to explain why then God told Moses to tell the people from this time forward, you will always have to bring your firstborn to me because the firstborn belongs to me and you have to redeem the firstborn. And so there was a whole system in Israel wherein when you were a farmer and you had a firstborn lamb, you would have taken offer it to the Lord. But if you had a firstborn son, this was the custom that developed and according to the laws of God, you would bring your firstborn and present him to the priest. And also you could present five shekels and the priest would take the son as if this son belongs to the Lord.

This son, like all the others, should have just died amongst the firstborns of God's judgment against sin in the world, but instead was spared by the blood of the lamb. And so they bring him to the priest and they say, here's the firstborn and here's five shekels. And the priest would say, do you want the five shekels or do you want your son? You say, I think I'll take the son and you give him the five shekels. And it was called the redemption of the firstborn son.

And so this was a practice. So you have to understand that this is all part of the narrative that is shaping the whole mentality of the people of God and the nature of what redemption is all about. So God set the people free and they come out of Egypt in their freedom and God doesn't just set them free, but he says, I want to give you a land.

You're going to be heirs. So in other words, to be in the people of God is not just to have freedom from slavery. It is to have ownership of a land.

It is not just to be forgiven. It is to be an heir. And so the people were to come and take possession of a land that God has said, I have prepared for you. It is your inheritance.

Go and take it. But they sent 12 spies in and 10 of them came back with a fearful response and said, they're giants in the land and we feel like grasshoppers. And so the people shrunk back in their fear. And instead they wandered in the wilderness until a whole generation died out. There were two spies who had faith that they could take the land in the first place, Joshua and Caleb. And so it was after that generation died out that Joshua led the people into the promised land to take their inheritance. His name was Yeshua.

Allen Wright, and I don't care how timid you are or what you think that you have not accomplished, you can know with certainty that you are valued and that you're an heir. And that's a good word for today. We've got the conclusion coming on the next edition, The Teaching the Daughters of Zelophehad. And Allen's here in the studio back in the moment with additional insight on this for your life and today's final word. God's love. You've heard about it with your ears.

You've believed it in your mind. Now experience it in your heart with Allen Wright's beloved book, Lover of My Soul. The Bible is a love story from beginning to end. You are the spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bridegroom. The Bible tells about a God who has gone to unimaginable lengths to woo you, to win you, and to walk with you hand in hand. For any man who has fallen in love with a woman, you've tasted the sweetness of what God's love for you is like. For any woman who has searched for true love, which you long for can only be found fully in God. Gary Chapman, renowned author of the five love languages says, the incredible reality that God pursues us in love comes to life in Lover of My Soul. Ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart. Accept Christ's proposal, enjoy his embrace, revel in his love.

After all, it's a match made in heaven. It's Lover of My Soul by Allen Wright. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastorallen.org. Allen, so as we've talked about already today, we're finding there's unheralded women in the Bible, and that's what this series is about, God used who. We're also looking at some of our own deeds, which have been sinful and not glorifying God. And so yet, can God use me?

Can I walk boldly in confidence? Well, I think that's part of the say, God used who? You know, if you look back and especially you're looking at these unheralded women, it's not so much we're looking at those that were sinful women, we're looking at ones that you might not even know their name. And yet, God put the gospel on display in their lives, and that's what we're learning about. But these daughters of Zelophahad, five women whose ancestors were slaves and who were by every natural thought in their culture, not in a position to receive an inheritance in the promised land. And yet, through this deep stirring of faith, they really believe God would want them to be heirs along with everyone else. And so that's our story, right? It's unlikely we who once were slaves would have any spiritual inheritance, but through simple childlike faith, we receive and faith that we could become heirs, even though it didn't line up with existing mores, didn't line up with existing existing rules and laws. And so that's what our story is. We are the ones who have become heirs of every spiritually rich blessing in Christ. And that's why the daughters of Zelophahad is a wonderful picture for us. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.