HSBC Coffeebreak

“Why should our father’s name disappear from his clan because he had no sons? Give us property among our father’s relatives.”
Numbers 27:4 NIV

During my young formidable years, I was surrounded by the women’s liberation movement. I didn’t grow up learning God’s Word and wasn’t able to counter the lies of the culture. I seemed to mix a little of what I heard everywhere and came up with my own belief structure - one that was very confusing and unstable. When I trusted Christ as my Savior, it still took me a few years before I started to grow and learn about God and Truth. Once I began to learn, I was like a sponge. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn and life began to make some sense. Some sense.

It is easy to get the idea that women are of no significance. The world tries to tell us that and it can seem as though the Bible sends the same message. Let’s face it, women aren’t even listed in the genealogies. That seems to send the message that they weren’t even worth counting. Rules against slavery were more protective of men. How about when Aaron and his sister Miriam grumbled against Moses’ leadership and it was Miriam whom God struck with leprosy? Even the punishment for infidelity is much more severe towards women.

I was desperate for understanding of the female role. I wondered how to have a voice and at the same time, how to always submit. As I studied the Bible, I would find passages that lent to understanding and others that added to my confusion. Over time I realized that I had to trust God, even in the places that I did not have the understanding that I longed for. I must choose to believe that God is good even when it doesn’t feel like it. One day, while reading in the book of Numbers, I came across a gem that ministered to my heart. Zelophehad only had daughters. As the people were to enter the Promised Land, these women would not inherit any land. In that culture, if you didn’t have land, you didn’t have anything, as that is how you made your living. These daughters were about to get left out, overlooked, and were not to be provided for. If there was any struggle with feelings and how they should respond, it is not recorded. We get the bare facts. The daughters came boldly to those who were in authority. They stated their case. Their closing statement was, “Give us property among our father’s relatives.”

Moses heard these women’s concern and took it before the Lord. This started the whole process of making policies dealing with inheritances that have been useful and practical from that day forward. If these women would have thrown a pity party, they may have been so stuck on themselves that they personally remained without and nothing would have been established for the future benefit of others. I am sure they faced the possibility of rejection by going to the authorities and making such a bold request. But they went anyway. They left their feelings behind, spoke in simple straightforward terms and trusted God for the outcome. Their example of bold confidence while submitting to the authority structure is surely worth following!

Lord, may we find liberty in the midst of your perfect will and never apart from You. Amen

Written by
Liz Anderson