The conduct of the daughters of Zelophehad, as recorded in the opening section of this chapter, presents a striking and beautiful contrast to the unbelief on which we have just been commenting. They most assuredly belonged not to the generation of those who are ever ready to abandon divine ground, lower the divine standard, and forego the privileges conferred by divine grace. No; those five noble women had no sympathy with such. They were determined, through grace, to plant the foot of faith on the very highest ground, and, with holy yet bold decision, to make their own of that which God had given. Let us read the refreshing record.
“Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph: and these are the names of his daughters; Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah. And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, ‘Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons. Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family because he hath no sons? Give unto us, therefore, a possession among the brethren of our father.’” (Ver. 1-4.)
This is uncommonly fine. It does the heart good to read such words as these at a time like the present, when so little is made of the proper standing and portion of God’s people, and when so many are content to go on from day to day and year to year without caring even to inquire into the things which are freely given to them of God. Nothing is more sad than to see the carelessness, the utter indifference, with which many professing Christians treat such great and all-important questions as the standing, walk, and hope of the believer and the Church of God. It is not, by any means, our purpose to go into these questions here. We have done so repeatedly in the other volumes of the series of “Notes.” We merely desire to call the reader’s attention to the fact that it is at once sinning against our own rich mercies, and dishonoring the Lord, when we evince a spirit of indifferentism in reference to any one point of divine revelation as to the position and portion of the Church or of the individual believer. If God, in the aboundings of His grace, has been pleased to bestow upon us precious privileges, as Christians, ought we not to seek earnestly to know what these privileges are? ought we not to seek to make them our own, in the artless simplicity of faith? Is it treating our God and His revelation worthily to be indifferent as to whether we are servants or sons—as to whether we have the Holy Ghost dwelling in us or not—as to whether we are under law or under grace—whether ours is a heavenly or an earthly calling?
Surely not. If there be one thing plainer than another in Scripture, it is this, that God delights in those who appreciate and enjoy the provision of His love—those who find their joy in Himself. The inspired volume teems with evidence on this point. Look at the case now before us in our chapter. Here were those daughters of Joseph—for such we must call them—bereaved of their father—helpless and desolate, as viewed from nature’s stand-point. Death had snapped the apparent link which connected them with the proper inheritance of God’s people. What then? Were they content to give up?—to fold their arms in cold indifference? Was it nothing to them whether or not they were to have a place and a portion with the Israel of God? Ah! no, reader; these illustrious women exhibit something totally different from all this—something which we may well study and seek to imitate—something which, we are bold to say, refreshed the heart of God. They felt sure there was a portion for them in the land of promise, of which neither death nor any thing that happened in the wilderness could ever deprive them. “Why should the name of our father be done away from among his people because he hath no son?” Could death, could failure of male issue, could any thing, frustrate the goodness of God? Impossible. “Give unto us, therefore, a possession among the brethren of our father.”
Noble words!—words that went right up to the throne and to the heart of the God of Israel. It was a most powerful testimony delivered in the ears of the whole congregation. Moses was taken aback. Here was something beyond the range of the law-giver. Moses was a servant, and a blessed and honored servant too; but again and again, in the course of this marvelous book of Numbers—this wilderness volume, questions arise with which he is unable to deal, as for example, the defiled men in chapter ix, and the daughters of Zelophehad in the section before us.