The book of Numbers ends with this odd little account of a legal problem about the tribal inheritance of the land. With no male relatives left alive, the inheritance of Zelophehad was to pass to his five daughters, but the laws of inheritance meant that if they married out of their tribe, their tribal inheritance would pass to the tribe of their husbands on their death. This was against God’s plan that each tribe should keep its own inheritance and have it restored to them during the year of jubilee.

The solution to this legal problem required a great deal of obedience and sacrifice from the five daughters of Zelophehad. It meant that they would have to restrict their choice of future husbands only to those who were from the same tribe as they were. That way, the land would remain within the tribe.

And so it is that this account of the story of the second generation of the Israelites ends, after all the rebellion and disobedience and hardship, on a positive note. Because Zelophehad’s daughters were obedient to the Lord. They understood that the Lord’s plans were more important than their personal wishes. They married within their tribe and secured their tribe’s inheritance.

There are very few women mentioned in the book of Numbers, yet, as we reach the end, we see that these five women are given as an example of the type of sacrificial obedience that the Lord honours. As the people prepared to enter into the promised land, the choices of Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah set the standard for all the people to follow. Their stories were told as an encouragement towards righteousness for God’s people then, as they are today.

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