Today I have the blessed opportunity to preach at the church my wife and I are attending here in Carrollton. (That's why I set this to come up later in the day than normal, so as not to ruin the surprise of the sermon for her since she will be hearing it today.) The text I have chosen for this sermon is Numbers 36:1-12. This sermon is the first in a two part series dealing with inheritance. Next week I will be preaching on Ephesians 1:3-14. Because my sermon will be approximately 40 minutes in length I have broken it into 3 parts for the sake of posting it here. Parts 2 and 3 will follow in the next couple of days.
Numbers 36 is the culmination of nearly 500 years of history. 470 years prior to the events taking place in the text God made a promise to a lone man, an 85 year old who had no children, Abraham, that his descendants would possess all the land in the area. 40 years earlier, God heard the cried of his people, and he sent a lone man, Moses, to deliver his people from Egypt, and to bring them into the land they were preparing to enter. Yet, though God had been faithful to deliver his people from Egypt after 430 years, and though he had destroyed the army of Pharaoh, and had done amazing works in the sight of the children of Abraham, the Israelites, they saw the inhabitants of the land that had been promised to them, and they doubted. For 40 years, those who rejected the promises of God, who doubted his faithfulness and had no faith in his word, wandered in the wilderness, until every member of that Generation, save Joshua and Caleb, died out.
Thus, the first thing we see as read this text, is that these men who have come to Moses with this legal dispute are men of faith. These are men who believe in the promises of God, the victory of God, and the commands of God. It is important that we note this because this idea is the foundation for the rest of the text, and what it teaches us today. The faith of these men is what drives them to come to Moses to seek the word of the Lord in regards to what may seem to us a minor issue, at best.
I noted that these men had faith in three things in particular, the promises of God, the victory of God, and the commands of God. I want to unpack that. First, I want to show what I mean by saying that these are men who have faith in the promises of God. These are men who believe that what God has said he will do, is exactly what he will do. They believe that because God has promised them the land, he will deliver it to them.
You see, these men have not even crossed the Jordan yet. Moses is going to die soon, God will not bring him into the promised land, and the fact that Moses stands to answer these men shows that, as of yet, these men have not entered into the land they are discussing. Yet, God promised to Abraham 500 years before that the land would be given to his descendants. These men, preparing to cross the Jordan and enter into the land promised them only have the promise of God to trust in that they will ever see the land they are concerned over. These are men who have faith in the promises of God.
Likewise though, these are men who have faith in the victory of God. 40 years ago their fathers saw the vengeance of God on the Egyptians. God worked 9 wonders in the land of Egypt, blotting out the sun and killing the first born of Egypt in order to deliver his people. And, when that wasn't enough, God even destroyed the army of Pharaoh by drowning them in the Yom Suf. God did all of this, yet their fathers feared to enter into the land, lest the people in the land should kill them and enslave them.
These men though, the ones who came to speak with Moses and the rest of the leaders of Israel, they have wandered 40 years in the wilderness. They were not there to see the wonders God did in Egypt, or, if they were, they were small and it was a long time ago. But, they have seen the mercy of God for 40 years, following after the cloud of dust by day, and the pillar of fire by night. These men have walked in sandals that have not grown old, and worn clothes that have not fallen apart for 40 years. And now, as they prepare to enter into the land of promise, they have faith that God will be victorious over those who live in the land, and will lead his people to victory.
But not only do these men have faith in God's promises, and his victory, they have faith in his command. Their concern is that when the Jubilee comes, the land given to daughters of Zelophehad would transfer to another tribe. The law of Jubilee said that on the 50th year all the land that had been sold and traded had to return to the possession of the family who had ancestral claim to that land. In the case of these women though, when they married into another tribe, the land that belonged to them would pass into the hands of the sons of that tribe. Thus, their sons would inherit a tribal identity (or a clan identity) from their fathers, but they would inherit the property of their mothers (and fathers).
This issue of inheritance presented a problem, because that would mean that on the year of jubilee, 50 years down the line, that land would permanently be joined to the new clan, because the sons of that union would now have right to claim that land. If the Israelites lived according to the law this would create a situation where the inheritance promised to one clan would pass to another clan. If you are wondering what that is a problem, it is because the land was promised to one clan, according to God's decree the inheritance had been allotted to the tribe of Manasseh. To join that land then to the tribe of Judah, or Issachar, or Simeon, or any other tribe, would create a significant problem. (Let's not even get into the multiple issues that would arise from one of the daughters marrying a man from the tribe of Levi, because the Levites weren't supposed to have any "land" possession beyond certain cities lying within the realm of each clan.)
The fact that the men were concerned about this though shows that these were men who had faith in God's commands. They saw God's commands as being good, and they sought to obey the commands of God. Think about this: the best biblical evidence we have indicates that the year of jubilee was never kept. (2 Chronicles 36:20-21; Leviticus 26:34-35; Jeremiah 25:11-12) Yet, despite the fact that perhaps they, and definitely their children, would go on to act faithlessly in regards to the law of the Lord, here they demonstrated that they really had faith that the commands of God would be fulfilled. The tragic result of history says that the people of Israel were not faithful to God, yet those who appeared before Moses were men of faith, who sought to do what was right in their own generation, and whose concern was upon the command of God to them and their families.
What are we to make of this then? What does any of that matter to us today? Please, understand me when I tell you that these are the very same issues that face us today, and we would do well to learn from the example that these men set forth. Let us be people who have faith in God's promises, God's victory, and God's commands. If we have faith in these things, it will change how we live our lives.
If we were a people who had faith in the promises of God, we would recognize that this current economy should not be our primary concern. Politics, poverty, possessions, none of these things are of tantamount importance to those who believe in the promises of God. For God has said that he works all things for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) God has said he will never leave us nor forsake us, if we do what he has called us to do. (Deuteronomy 31:8) As we hold to these promises, we are reminded also of God's victory.
But, God's victory is not just limited to this world, for we have the testimony of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that even death has been defeated. For this reason Scripture tells us, "Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Corinthians 15:54) Yet, we do not see this victory completed yet, thus we must be those who have faith in God's victory. We must trust that one day we will be set free, because death will be destroyed. But, even now, we can celebrate that we are no longer enslaved to death, we are those who have been set free, because of the victory of Christ, and because of the victory we will one day experience through him. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
And, as we live in delight of the promises of God to us, celebrating the victory which we look forward to, we are able to live by his commands. For, because we are free from the bonds of death, we are also free from that which divided us in life, we are able to come together as a family, obeying Christ's command to love one another. (John 13:34-35) And not only can we love one another, but we can also put away the things which we used to love, we can live without sin hindering us any longer. (1 Peter 1:14) Thus, we who have faith in the promises of God, and the victory of God, can also have faith in the command of God. We can be sure that the one who has given us a command will be with us to complete that command, so that he will be glorified. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)
This is what we should aspire to be: A people of faith, who love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We must have faith in God's promises, trusting that he who has called us will do that which he has promised us he will do. We must have faith in God's victory, for only he is strong enough to overcome our enemy, and he has done it, and will do it again, to the joy of we who wait on him. And we must have faith in God's commands, knowing that they are good, seeking to be obedient to the one who called us, not because we under the Law of Moses, but because we are free to live by the law of faith. Are you living up to that ideal? I bet if you examine your heart you aren't, there are some things you just are trusting God with, whether it be his promises, his victory, or his commands, there is room for continued sanctification. I pray you would go to God and seek to determine where he would change you, for his glory.
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