Zelophehad’s daughters

“Then came …Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah.

And they stood before Moses …saying,

…Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father.

…And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, The daughters of Zelophehad speak right.”

Number 27:1-7a [KJV]

I’ve recently been reflecting on the role of single women in the church. As part of my studies, I began listing all the single women mentioned in the Bible. Some of them are familiar to us, such as Miriam, Mary and Martha, or Anna, who we looked at in the last blog post. Some appear to have never married, others are widows, and some later married. Yet we can learn much from their single years that is relevant to Christian women at all stages of life.

As I was writing my list, I came across five single women who I had almost forgotten. Numbers 27:1-7 record, “Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, …Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah. And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the LORD in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons. Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father. And Moses brought their cause before the LORD. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren.”

The way these women approached Moses – and ultimately God – in their plea for justice teaches us much about prayer.

Firstly, they came with faith.  Their actions echo the heroes of faith recorded in Hebrews 11, including those, who “not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them” (v13). It’s easy for us, with centuries of hindsight, to minimise the faith of Zelophehad’s daughters. But put yourself in their place for a moment. Life in a tent, wandering the wilderness was probably the only life they knew. The Jordan River was uncrossed, Canaan’s warrior nations unconquered, and the division of lands to the tribes well in the future. From a purely human perspective, someone might have said, why worry about a possession in a land you’re not in and might never be in?

But these young ladies believed the promises of God. He had pledged the land to Abraham, Issac and Jacob generations earlier (Genesis 35:12), and repeated the promise to Moses, “And I am come down …to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites” (Exodus 3:8). Zelophehad’s daughters were not like the apostle Thomas, who demanded physical proof before he would believe. Instead, they were those of whom Jesus said, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). They were like Abraham, who was “fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:21) and their faith pleased God, who said, “The daughters of Zelophehad speak right” (v7, see also Hebrews 11:6).

Secondly, their faith led them to come with a specific request seeking a specific answer. Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah could have agreed theoretically that God would give Israel the land and left it at that. Instead, they publicly staked their reputations and futures on God’s promises (Numbers 27). Let’s not underestimate the consequences of their request either. While they might gain an inheritance, it would come with conditions. It would be allocated by lot and could not be sold. They would not be able to choose the location, but would be obliged to live there rather than pursuing other income streams or places. Additionally, it would drastically narrow their marriage prospects, since a later ruling required heiresses to marry within their family line (Numbers 36). Yet they came and asked for God’s judgement in the situation, leaving the details of the outcome to God.

Specific prayers (as distinct from selfish prayers) can be hard to pray. General prayers for unspecified needs, the salvation of the lost or for God to “help missionary so-and-so” can be much easier to pray. But specific prayers require both faith and surrender. They expose whether we’re willing to actually trust God, and obey what He will tell us to do, about the specific need, desire or circumstances. James says, “ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:2). Are we holding on to something, screaming ‘Mine!’ like a toddler, when God wants us to let go so He can give us “exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20)? Prayers on specific needs also encourage direct answers – yes, no or wait – that help us comprehend God’s will for our lives. Jehoshaphat prayed specifically and received divine help (2 Chronicles 20). Paul prayed specifically for healing, and God gave him grace sufficient for his needs instead (2 Corinthians 12:9). We gain, through God’s answers, better understanding of His will, which in turn aids our prayers, because “if we ask any thing according to his will, He heareth us” (1 John 5:14b).”

Thirdly, Zelophehad’s daughters came with a respectful attitude. They honoured not just their father’s memory, but the established complaints process, and Moses’ authority to take requests to God on the people’s behalf (Exodus 18:22). Deuteronomy 18:15-18 tells us that Moses was a prophet who pictures Christ, so the appeal of Zelophehad’s daughters is an illustration of how we pray to God the Father through the advocacy of God the Son. Hebrews writes, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God …Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (4:14-16). When we try to come to God in any other way, including through vain repetitions (Matthew 6:7) and self-centredness (James 4:3), God will not hear us, because we are not asking according to His will. But when we ask in Jesus’ name, according to His will, the Father will answer us (John 15:16) – just like He did for Zelophehad’s daughters. God praised their faith (Numbers 27:7), and Joshua 17 records that when the now-conquered land was allocated to the tribes, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah each received one of the ten lots given to the tribe of Manasseh over Jordan. In addition to the direct benefit to the young ladies and their future spouses and descendants, their appeal set a legal precedent allowing women to inherit in the absence of sons, blessing other Jewish women in the following centuries.  

When we consider Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, let’s be encouraged to pray with faith, to pray specifically, and to come respectfully in God’s appointed way, through our advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ.