Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20120916.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Numbers: Lessons From Spiritual Casualties And Conquerors
Part LIII: Considering Others Versus Living Selfishly
(Numbers 36:1-13 with 27:1-11)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Many people today want to make personal fulfillment their chief goal in life, a goal largely popularized by my Baby Boomer generation. However, such a goal has often produced great problems, a fact we can easily illustrate (as follows):

    (1) Derek Thompson's piece in The Atlantic on the unsettling decline of men in the work force was cited in the September 10, 2012 nationwide paper, USA TODAY, p. 10A. He noted the cause behind this drop is the drive for personal fulfillment in men, writing that "two . . . forces pulling down men's participation" are the "rise of women and the growth of the safety net. Dual-earner households have allowed men to either choose not to work or to retire early . . . But, perhaps even more importantly, the increase in Social Security payments, plus Medicare and Medicaid, have allowed older men to stop working."

    (2) In his letter to the editor in the same paper, Timothy Allard of Grand Rapids, Michigan, wrote out of concern about this personal fulfillment issue, noting: "The current national question in the presidential race -- Are you better off now than four years ago?" -- is too shortsighted and self-serving. A better question the voting public should consider is: Have the past four years shown improvement in the legacy we're establishing for our children and grandchildren?' Let's move the national discussion from what's in it for me to the stewardship duties incumbent upon a responsible society!"

    (3) Windsor Mann, editor of The Quotable Hutchens: From Alcohol to Zionism, wrote the op-ed, "Politicians, enough about those helpless children" in the same paper, p. 11A. He observed that politic ians use children to make the case for their own elections, noting: "Politicians . . . love invoking children, whose existence gives them an excuse to act on their behalf . . . Their dependency is what makes them so appealing politically. Children have no voice of their own, and their problems are permanent. The more problems they have, the more solutions' politicians can give them."



    So, we ask, "If many make personal fulfillment their chief goal in life only to see it create problems, how should we live?!"

    Need: "If many make personal fulfillment their chief goal in life, only to see it create problems, how are we to live?!"

  1. We before learned that Zelophehad's daughters asked Moses if they could CONSIDERATELY maintain their father's name by inheriting his land and bearing heirs in his name, Numbers 27:1-4:
    1. Zelophehad had no sons, and the Numbers 26 census God had Israel take in their day to distribute the Promised Land would erase his name from record if his five daughters wed and had sons so that their sons were reckoned in the lines of their husbands, Numbers 27:1-4a.
    2. These ladies then asked Israel's leaders to give them land to pass to their heirs in their father's name to preserve his name, Num. 27:4b.
  2. God upheld this request, making a rule that if a man died and left no son, his land would go to his daughter, then to his brothers, then to his father's brothers and finally to his next of kin, Num . 27:5-11.
  3. However, this arrangement LATER led to a TRIBAL problem:
    1. The leaders of the tribe of Manasseh to which Zelophehad's daughters belonged explained to Moses that if these ladies wed men outside their tribe, these men would inherit their wives' land, thus compromising Manasseh's tribal territorial integrity, Numbers 36:1-3.
    2. Even if men in Manasseh redeemed the land from these husbands of Zelophehad's daughters, restoring it to Manasseh, the Year of Jubilee would force it to revert back to the ownership of these ladies' spouses, compromis ing Manasseh's tribal territorial integrity, Numbers 36:4.
  4. Thus, GOD directed that SINCE Zelophehad's daughters would inherit land to pass on for their father, they HAD to LIMIT their CHOICE of a SPOUSE to that of their FATHER'S TRIBAL CLAN:
    1. God supported this concern by Manasseh's leaders, Numbers 36:5.
    2. Accordingly, He directed that though Zelophehad's daughters could wed whomever they chose, they had to LIMIT the POOL of spousal selection by NOT marrying OUTSIDE their father's clan, Numbers 36:6: the KJV word "family" ["clan" NIV, ESV] is mishpaha, and it was a subdivision of a tribe, but one that was larger than one's immediate household, Theol. Wrdkb. of the O. T., v. II, p. 947.
    3. God then made this ruling a statute in Israel, Numbers 36:7-9.
  5. In GREAT SELF-SACRIFICE, the daughters of Zelophehad each married a COUSIN on their father's side, Numbers 36:10-11:
    1. Scripture claims all five daughters of Zelophehad heeded God's Word and married "their father's brother's sons," Numbers 36:10-11 KJV.
    2. To appreciate their choice, we note that the Hebrew word rendered "father's brother" is dod, the technical Hebrew word for "uncle," B. D. B., A Hebrew-Engl. Lex. of the O. T., p. 187. Thus, each of Zelophehad's daughters married a cousin, a man she had known since childhood, though he would likely not seem as "romantic" a choice to her as would be a man from the larger pool she knew, Num. 36:12-13.
    3. The GREATNESS of these ladies' SACRIFICE becomes apparent if we note the HUGE pool of "eligible" bachelors they KNEW:
      1. The Numbers 26:1-65 census shows that, after the death of the faithless generation that had been over 20 years of age when Israel rebelled back at Kadesh in Numbers 14:29, the tribe that had since seen the greatest increase in men -- and as the census was of men, this increase would be mainly young, "eligible" bachelors -- was Manasseh, these ladies' tribe! It had grown by 20,500 young male contemporaries of their generation, Numbers 1:1-2, 35; 26:34.
      2. Then, when the tribes camped around the tabernacle, next to the tribe of Manasseh was the tribe of Benjamin (Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 218), and it had also increased by 10,200 mainly young, eligible bachelors since Israel's first census, Num. 26:41; 1:37.
      3. Ephraim that camped on Manasseh's other side (Ibid.) had seen a decrease of 8,000 young men (Num. 26:37; 1:33), so if we deduct that number of "eligible" bachelors from the total these ladies knew, they likely knew 22,700 young men their age, with their beliefs and their heritage, a huge pool of "eligible" bachelors!
      4. [The Gershonite clan of Levi with its bachelors camped between Manasseh and the tabernacle (Ibid.), but they were not numbered.]
      5. With so many "eligible" bachelors and these ladies knowing each other meant there must have been a significant number of young men who were attracted to these ladies, and they to them!
      6. Yet, Zelophehad's daughters wed their cousins, selflessly limiting their choice of a spouse for the sake of their father and his tribe!
Lesson: Zelophehad's daughters were so selflessly considerate of their father and of his tribe's territorial integrity that they heeded God's will in sacrificially greatly limiting their pool of bachelors for spousal selection.

Application: May we (1) trust in Christ to become a child of God and be indwelt by the behavior-controlling Holy Spirit, John 3:16; Romans 8:9b; Galatians 5:16-23. (2) May we then rely on the Holy Spirit to live CONSIDERATELY of OTHERS, 2 Corinthians 5:15.