Today we begin Numbers Chapter 36.
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“Here is what Adonai has ordered concerning the daughters of Tz’lof’chad: ‘Let them be married to whomever they think best, but they must marry only into a family from their father’s tribe.”-Numbers 36:6
Recall in an earlier chapter in the Book of Numbers we dealt with a problem situation involving the daughters of Zelophehad.
The problem was that Zelophehad died leaving no sons.
In this case, Moses ruled that the daughters would still be entitled to their land inheritance because this was a rare situation of their father not having any sons.
But this ruling created another potential disaster just waiting to happen.
If one of the daughters married a gentile, the land would be lost to the goyim (foreigners).
This would be a big no-no!
Hence, it was decided that if a daughter of a father who had no sons married outside of Israel, she would have to forsake her land inheritance and be grafted in with the gentiles (this should NEVER happen by the way).
Well, we’re encountering a similar situation here in Numbers 36.
However, it doesn’t have to do with a daughter of Zelophehad marrying a gentile.
The concern is what to do if a daughter of Zelophehad married another Israelite from another tribe.
For example, what do if a girl who has a land inheritance in Canaan from the Tribe of Judah decided to marry a guy from the Tribe of Benjamin?
In this case, would the girl’s land inheritance be transferred from her original tribe to the new tribe she had just married into?
If this happened, it would throw a serious monkey wrench into God’s original territorial allotment and would upset the balance of power among the 12 tribes.
God’s solution was as simple as it was direct.
In verse 6, He says…
“Let them be married to whomever they think best,
but they must marry only into a family from their father’s tribe”
Notice it says the daughter must marry “only into a family from their father’s tribe“.
This is actually referring to a “clan” and NOT a “tribe“.
In other words, if a daughter of Zelophehad wanted to keep her father’s land inheritance, she not only had to marry within her own tribe, she had to marry with their own extended family.
So what did the daughters of Zelophehad end up doing?
We’re told the following in verses 11 and 12…
“For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah,
and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad,
were married unto their fathers brothers’ sons:
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.”
The daughters of Zelophehad decided to obey the Lord in the matter and married what would be their first cousins.
It is interesting to note that the family unit the Israelites cared the most about was their close clan rather than the whole tribe.
We gotta remember in these times, power equalled abundant land and livestock.
There was no such thing as a lone wolf orphan like Steve Jobs inventing some technology and becoming a billionaire.
Understand that this isn’t the last time we’re going to be given careful instructions concerning the use, ownership and transfer of territory inside the Promised Land.
If there’s one important lesson we should take away from this lesson is that to God, HIS LAND IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.
Heck, it’s a key ingredient to His overall plan of salvation for Israel.
The land of Canaan and its boundaries as defined in Scripture has been specifically set aside for Israel.
This will NEVER change, EVER!!!
When studying Torah, we can see that God leaves no stone unturned in making sure it’s crystal clear that Canaan is to never to leave the possession of His People.
Unfortunately, we’ll see that there were times in Israel’s history when they did lose possession of the land due to their apostasy.
And another unfortunate thing is that once Israel entered their Promised Land, they became negligent in following God’s instructions concerning taking possession of Canaan.
For one, they failed to completely eliminate all the native Canaanites in the land as HASHEM commanded.
We read the consequences of that decision everyday as the news reports yet another terrorist attack in the Holy Land.
In addition, the ignorance of the UN and governments all around the world concerning what Scripture says about who owns the land of Israel astounds me.
The popular 2-state solution is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what God instructed in His Torah.
You’re never gonna solve the problem of violence in Israel by giving away land to the descendants of the very people God ordered to be expelled from the land.
Alrighty, I can’t believe it but this is it for Numbers Chapter 36.
The next time we meet, we begin Deuteronomy, the final book of the Torah.
I can’t wait!!!
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER ONE
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