In Numbers 33 Moses has recorded every step of Israel’s journey from Egypt until they are beside the Jordan. They were never in the same place long. Imagine the time it would take to set up camp, pack up camp, and travel to the next campsite! These people were constantly on the move, and now had arrived at the edge of what would become their home.
Looking back over their stops along the way was more than a travel log. These places represented events. Sometimes Moses even adds a few words to help them remember. He says Elim had twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. Elim must have been a beautiful place. On the other hand, he says Rephidim was where there was no water for the people to drink. Can you imagine the different reactions when looking back at those two spots on the list? One would look back at Elim and rejoice at how God had provided so abundantly. One would look back at Rephidim, from the edge of the Promised Land, and wonder how could there have been so much complaining and doubt?
There are numerous spots listed in Numbers 33, but one in particular catches the eye, Terah. Remember that name from Genesis 11? Terah was Abraham’s father who had set out to bring his family to Canaan but stopped short in a town called Haran where he died. Could this city be named after Abraham’s father? In a sense, then, Israel is back where they started, but it would be different this time around!
Take time, like Moses, to remember where you’ve been. It may be surprising to see all the ways the Lord has been good and faithful to you and where He has brought you now!
Gee, I'm glad that Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah were okay with the final decision of the leadership of Israel (and God Himself!) regarding who they would be allowed to marry!
ReplyDeleteI like their story. They show a lot of courage to appeal the inheritance system. Even though there is a temptation to think that they are pretty strong leaders to call for a reconsideration of the inheritance RIGHTS for women, the REAL reason that they ask for the matter to be considered is NOT that they are concerned for their own rights, or the rights of women, but that they want their father's name to be honored and not forgotten! "There should be land in our father's name even though he never had any sons!"
I think it's interesting that in a patriarchal culture, and in the Bible where so many of the women remain unnamed, that Zelophehad's daughters' story is repeated so many times. I looked up Zelophehad in my Strong's Concordance and I count five times!* Maybe this honoring of the generations before us: the stories, wisdom, mistakes and victories, the things our fathers and mothers and grandparents STOOD FOR--maybe in our culture we foolishly lose our moorings when each generation chooses to live as if no history existed before it? I am so blessed to have Christians for 2 generations back, and at least one of the 3rd (beyond that I don't know). And the great men and women who have loved Jesus Christ in our church history--how often do we study some of their stories?? I think Zelophehad's daughters understood something that is pretty much a foreign idea to us today.
I think God must have liked these young women too! (And I'm glad that there were five men from Manasseh who made good husbands for them!)
*Numbers 26:33; 27:1; 36:2,6,10+11;
Joshua 17:3; I Chronicles 7:15