“The daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph.
The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah. They came forward and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leadersand the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said, ‘Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among Korah’s followers, who banded together against the Lord, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. Why should our father’s name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father’s relatives.’ So Moses brought their case before the Lord, and the Lord said to him, ‘What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and give their father’s inheritance to them.’” Numbers 27:1-7
Throughout the Torah we can see it was normally the sons who received an inheritance from what the father left behind when he died. However, these women showed that the focus on the sons getting an inheritance would be a problem for their family because their father didn’t have any. They didn’t just assume “well, because when we look at Scripture we see a pattern of the inheritance being given to sons and not daughters that that must means it is God’s plan for women to be excluded” and just accepted it. They questioned this system and when they did even God confirmed that they had a valid point and should be able to get something too, although it may not have been in harmony with the culture at the time.
However, many believers make the mistake of assuming that because a practice was common among God’s people in Bible times that it was God’s will, or that because something was not mentioned in the Bible that it must be wrong. Just because something wasn’t mentioned by God before is not proof that God won’t allow it. But that is not the correct way to read the Bible. Not everything done in the Bible was Biblical (polygamy for example). We need to actually study the Torah and ask God what His will actually is in order to know what is okay for us to do and not assume things based on tradition alone. Just because God often used men doesn’t mean God can’t use women. God is often more open to change than we are but God works with us where we are and He is not going to force us to learn. We need to question things and ask God for ourselves. God may surprise you by pointing out that what you assumed was Biblical was traditional.
Picture originally found here
