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Now here's today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzk.
Now, just remember, I'm taking you back a few studies in this Overlook series. Remember, we talked about Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses? Remember what Jethro told Moses to do? He said, Moses, you're meeting people all day long. You can't handle all these people.
They can't handle you. You're going to get tired. They're going to get tired of you.
So get 70 men. who can oversee all these little petty disputes and they'll bring the hard cases to you, right? This is one of those hard cases. Maybe they met with an intermediate leader, one of the 70, but now they're taking this directly to Moses for Moses to get God's.
Well Yeah.
Now I think you need to know this because it sort of stuck out to me as I was studying this, and I'm reading commentaries, I'm reading articles, and I'm going online.
Some people Want to make these five women into the first feminists. And I can't tell you how many articles And books that have kind of cast them as the first feminists. One source Says This is a defining and revolutionary moment of early women's rights and civil courage. Another source. Said this made the first crack to shatter the glass ceiling.
In ancient Israel, that phrase glass ceiling, breaking the ceiling, comes from the 1970s. Were the idea of breaking barriers that would prevent women from advancing in society, breaking the glass ceiling.
So that's what some are saying about this.
Well That's not true. After all. They're concerned with what? They're concerned with the name of their Father So, this is not an issue of women's rights, this is an issue of family rights. This is an issue of our Father's name and our Father's place.
going forward in Israel. And did you notice that these women bring up the issue that dad wasn't a part of Cora's? Gig. His rebellion.
Now let me refresh your memory on that. That's back in Numbers chapter 16. There was a guy named Korah who didn't like Moses all that much, and he got 250 other rebels with him to go against and challenge Moses' leadership. And you remember, God had a response. God grounded them.
He opened up the ground and swallowed them whole. He grounded them. And so she wants to point out, or these five gals, He wasn't a part of that, but notice they say he died in his own. Sin. And all that means is, he was a part of the normal, sinful generation that all died in the desert.
They all died. Because of their disbelief, they wandered for 40 years. All of that generation, except two. Joshua and Caleb, they all died. He was just a part of that natural.
generational death he died in his own sin. But we get something from this text. We infer that the rebels with Korah, Korah and his 250. not only lost their lives in the judgment, But that there. Uh their survivors Probably lost the land.
That would have been given to them in Israel as well.
So, feminist, no. Courageous, yes. Very courageous, unafraid to stand up for the right reason, and willing to challenge the status quo with a holy courage. for their own future's sake. Ernest Hemingway said, Courage is grace under pressure.
We are seeing grace under pressure. Actually, I like it put this way: courage is just fear that has said its prayers. You might go into a situation and you are fearful. That's okay. Courage is where you harness that.
Courage is just fear that has said its prayers. You know, if you think about it, courage is a lot like a tea bag. You never know how strong it is or how good it is until you put it through some hot water. Courage is like that. It's like a tea bag.
You put a person through some hot water and you see what comes out.
So these five are courageous. They have a gutsy faith. They come boldly before Moses and Eleazar and the leadership. They knew that things would never change. in Israel unless they seize this moment.
So the crisis is followed by their courage. The third phase is The confirmation that is given by God Himself. Verse five.
So Moses brought their case before the LORD. And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, The daughters of mister Z Speak what is right. You shall surely give them a possession of inheritance. Among their father's brothers, and caused the inheritance of their father. to pass to them.
And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a man dies and has no son, Then you shall cause his inheritance. to pass to his daughter. If he has no daughter, And you shall give his inheritance To his brothers. If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers. And if his father has no brothers, Then you shall give his inheritance to the relative closest to him in his family, and he shall possess it.
And it shall be To the children of Israel A statute of judgment. just as the LORD commanded Moses. They bring it to Moses. Moses brings it to God. I love that about Moses.
He wasn't one to say, well, okay, I'll figure that out. I can come up with my own ruling here. He seeks the Lord. He knows that God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And so we ask God, and I love this, God validates.
The five women. He confirms Their hunch. God didn't say, you go tell those five gals, they have to live with this. That's just the way things are done here. God said, No, they're right, Moses.
They're right.
So you give the legal right to the land to the daughters. And make that a law. From now on. and if there's no daughters, then the next of kin.
Now, let me put a little fine point on that. The only caveat to this law, and we don't get it here, we get it in chapter 36 of this book. I'm not going to have you turn there, but there is a caveat. And the caveat is. The girls to keep the land Have to marry within their own tribe.
So they're from the tribe of Manasseh. They've got to marry some guy from the tribe of Manasseh. But if uh If, let's say, Hogla or Milka or Tirzah sees some cute guy from Judah and marries him. then the tribe of Judah gets that land. Or if one of these gals sees this handsome hunk from Issachar, And they hook up and get married.
Then it's going to go to the tribe of Issachar.
So the caveat is you got to marry within your own tribe. for this law to be in effect. But this is a very, very important ruling. Why? Because there are about two million people.
In the children of Israel at this time. Which means there's lots of families with no sons. Only daughters.
So they bring it to Moses, Moses brings it to God, and they wait for the answer. They wait for the answer. They will accept. And submit to whatever answer the Lord gives back to Moses to tell them. Winston Churchill said, Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak.
But courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. And they did both, didn't they? They stood up and they spoke. They voiced the concern. And then they waited to get the response.
They sat down and they listened. But here's what I love about this whole story. God doesn't overlook anybody. The very people that are overlooked, God does not overlook. Even in a patriarchal society dominated by firstborn males, God doesn't overlook anybody.
The very people we overlook are often the very people God looks over. looks after. Superintends. God sees you. God knows you.
He knows what you're dealing with. He loves you. He does not overlook you. Every society has overlooked people, marginalized people. People who aren't Thought about.
They are not overlooked by God. One of my favorite stories that comes from World War II is we had our soldiers. Fighting in the war in on European soil. And uh This group of friends, one of them was shot in battle. The friends in mourning the loss of their Fallen friend wanted to give him a decent burial in a church cemetery.
They found a local church, I think it was in France somewhere. They went to bury him in the churchyard in the cemetery. The priest said, I'm sorry, unless he is A member of our faith. He can't be buried inside the church artist. It's the rules.
I can't change the rules.
Well, they were sad about that, and they buried him just outside the cemetery, outside the fence. They dug a shallow grave, buried their friend, said some prayers, put a little cross on it. and went away for the night. The next morning they got up, wanted to visit the grave one last time before they went back to battle. And they couldn't find the grave that they dug.
They looked everywhere outside the fence, went all around it a couple times. They said, we cannot find it. Then the priest shows up and he kind of hung his head. And he said, well, last night, I was unable to sleep.
So I got up. And I moved the fence. to include Your friend. And when I read that story years ago, I thought that's the heart of the gospel, right? Jesus always is moving the fence to include more people.
He moves the fence. He moved the fence for me, he moved the fence for you. He includes you. He doesn't overlook you. This is Connect with Skip Heitzig.
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Now here's more from Pastor Skip.
So that's the crisis and the courage and the confirmation now by God. I want to close this by giving you the correlation. how this relates to us. These five ladies present and provide an example for us. And based on what we read in these eleven verses.
I think we should do three things based on what they do. We should do three things. Number one, We should come boldly. We should come boldly. just as they boldly approached Moses.
And Eleazar, and the leaders. At the door of the tabernacle in that formal kind of a manner. Just as they came boldly.
So we should also approach God. told to do that. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly. To the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Come boldly. is the invitation. And then James puts a fine point on this idea when he says. You have not. Because you Ask not.
So ask.
So come. And come boldly. Oh, I can't come boldly. I'm just, you know, I'm flesh and blood, and He's God.
Well, He said, come boldly. This is not arrogance, this is confidence. This is not a call to being arrogant. It's a call to being confident. Be confident in God, in His character.
It's assurance in the character of God. He invites you to come. You have access to his compassion and strength. You may remember in Luke chapter 18. The chapter begins, Jesus spoke this parable unto them.
that men ought always to pray. and not lose heart. Men ought always to pray and not lose heart. Then he gives this wild. analogy of a judge in a town who's a rascal.
An unjust judge. And this woman came to the judge for justice, and she had an issue, and the judge didn't want to hear about it because he didn't care. He was a rascal. But she kept coming and kept coming and kept persisting. And finally, the judge said, all right.
I'll do what you want, not because I want to do it, but because you keep bugging me. And Jesus uses that example. To say if an unjust, just rascally judge. Would do that for a woman who keeps coming, who didn't lose heart. How much more will a good and gracious, compassionate, loving Heavenly Father do?
For his children.
So men ought always to pray. and not lose heart. People who persist in prayer are people who do not lose heart. People who lose heart are people who do not persist in prayer.
So Come Boldly. Second, live expectantly. Live expectantly. These Five ladies, along with all of the children of Israel. They were not yet in the promised land.
This is important. They were still out in the wilderness on the other side of the. Jordan River. They weren't in the promised land. Yeah.
But they knew they would be one day.
Soon enough, they're going to cross that Jordan and be over in the Promised Land.
So They're living As if They're in the land now. Right? They want this ruling done. There's no land to occupy yet. But they'll be there soon.
So here's the application. Learn to live in the tension of the not yet. Not yet. We're not there yet. Live in the tension of the not yet.
And I would say parents have to do this all the time with kids. Because kids don't have the patience that a parent has.
Some parents don't have patience, but. Kids definitely don't. When you go on vacation, you're driving down the freeway, what's the question your kids ask you? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
And you say, We're not there yet, but soon, hold on. You know, you're right, you give them a little bit of hope. But they keep asking, are we there yet? Not yet. But soon.
We are not yet in heaven. We are not yet enjoying our eternal reward. We are not yet in that full unveiled presence of God. We are not yet in glorified bodies. We are not yet ruling and reigning with Christ.
But we will soon. And we can be Living in the tension of the not yet by preparing for it. Jesus said, Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven. You can do that now. Paul said, Seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
So come boldly. and live expectantly. Third and finally, plan. generationally. Plan generationally.
These five gals Pass the torch of blessing. To the next generation. The ruling that they will see on this day will have ramifications for other families going forward in future generations. And part of our task. is to set the next generation up for success.
Rather than for failure. If you're a parent or a grandparent, that is one of your primary tasks. Set the next generation up for success and not failure. It has to come a time in your life where it's not about you anymore. It's about them.
So We have looked. for eight weeks at Eight overlooked people or people groups. All who are vital to the story. all of which encourage our hearts. And I want to close this whole series out with one of my favorite stories.
And it's been several years since I've brought this out, so I think I'm safe bringing it out. Again, this is a little piece written by Peter Marshall. I don't know if any of you recognize that name, Peter Marshall. Was, I think, Scottish. He was a.
Not from this country, but he became the Chaplain to the United States Senate. Very distinguished role. He wrote a little piece called the keeper of the spring. He said, Once there was a quiet forest dweller who lived high above an Austrian village. in the mountains.
He was hired. To clear away debris from the pools of water up in the mountains that fed the spring. that was flowing through their town. With faithful, silent regularity, listen to that again. With faithful.
Silent. Regularity He patrolled the hills, removed the leaves, took away the branches and the silt that would otherwise choke and contaminate the fresh flow of water. The village became a popular attraction for vacationers. Swans floated along a crystal clear spring, businesses located near the water, farmlands were irrigated, and the view from the restaurants was picturesque. beyond description.
Can you see it? But one evening The town council met. for a semi-annual meeting.
Now the government gets involved. As they reviewed the budget. One man's eye caught the salary figure being paid this obscure keeper of the spring. the keeper of the purse. The Secretary.
Said, who is this old man? And why do we keep him on year after year? Nobody ever sees him. For all we know, this strange roamer of the hills is doing us no good. I don't think he's necessary any longer.
So there was a unanimous vote. to dispense with his services.
Well For weeks Nothing changed. But then the fall came. And the leaves, the trees shed their leaves. Small branches snapped off and fell into the pools. Hindering the rushing flow of sparkling water.
And one day someone noticed the yellowish-brown tint in the spring. Days later. The water was much darker. And within a week, a slimy film along the banks and a foul odor was detected. Water wheels moved slower and some finally Stopped.
The swans left. The tourists left too. Embarrassed, the town council called a special meeting. Realizing the error of their ways, they hired back the keeper of the spring. And within weeks, The water cleared up.
What the keeper of the spring was to that village. Baruch was to Jeremiah. Jethro was to Moses. Mordecai was to Esther. Onisiferus was to Paul.
And these five women were to the nation of Israel. Remember that phrase, faithful, silent. Regularity. Overlooked. Overlooked.
Vitally important. If you feel overlooked, You're only overlooked by some people. God does not overlook you. He looks you over, sees your advantage. Sees your gifts, has given you those gifts, wants to engage you for his purpose.
You are vital to the kingdom. And finally. If you're one of those people who does not yet know Christ, He is willing to move the fence again. to include you in his company. if that's what you're willing to do.
Yeah. We're so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heidzig. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more this month, we'll send you Expound Colossians as our thanks. This encouraging verse-by-verse study will help you discover why Christ is enough, how to stand firm in God's truth, and how to live each day with confidence in Him. Your support helps keep this Bible teaching ministry reaching people around the world with the life-changing truth of God's Word.
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