Numbers 36 Commentary
Zelophehad’s formidable five daughters would easily headline this chapter. We are here because of their request. Why shouldn’t women inherit land from their fathers? Of course, the LORD fixed this problem by introducing a law in favor of Zelophehad’s daughters.
But there was a problem. The new law introduced another complication. What happens when the daughters marry men from outside the tribe? If this happens, the family would lose the land to the tribe of the men the daughters marry. The tribe will have lost land!
It’s the “land” and the complication around it, or the land and the need to preserve it as a special and all-important gift that headlines this chapter.
Chapter 36 closes the Book of Numbers. The theme of this chapter, “land”, is an appropriate term as Israel’s long trip is all about land. Israel must settle. Israel must occupy the Promised Land. It is a picture of God restoring the Garden of Eden to humanity.
Land must not be lost. Keep it in the family! But this requirement is potentially undone by God’s new law. To ensure this potential scandal doesn’t pop up, the LORD God orders Moses to pen down another Law: Zelophehad’s daughters’ marriage market is reduced and confined. They can only marry from within the clan – their cousins.
To preserve one’s inheritance, the saint must marry within the household of faith! We cannot be casual about this Law!
Israel needed to keep this Law. Don’t intermarry with the Canaanites! Israel’s inheritance was at stake! It was the right time to underline this Law for Israel otherwise they risked losing God’s special gift to them.
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