Purpose: To show that the inheritances of the LORD must be
preserved intact.
Num 36:1-12: // Num 27:1-11. The proposed division of the land
-- suggested by the census in Num 26 -- brought up a special question of
considerable importance to Israel. Zelophehad, of the tribe of Manasseh, and of
the family of Gilead, had died -- not in any special judgment, but along with
the whole generation that perished in the wilderness. He had left no sons, and
his daughters were anxious to obtain a "possession," lest their father's name
should be lost among his family. By Divine direction, which Moses had sought,
their request was granted, and it became a judicial statute in Israel ever
after: that daughters or -- in their absence -- the nearest kinsman should enter
upon the inheritance of those who died without leaving sons, and should if
possible raise up that would carry on the name of the one who had
died.
In all such cases, of course, the children of those who
obtained the possession would have to be incorporated, not with the tribe to
which they originally belonged, but with that in which their "inheritance" lay.
Thus the "name" of a man would not "be done away from among his family." Nor was
this statute recorded merely on account of its national bearing, but for higher
reasons. The desire to preserve the name of a family in Israel sprang not merely
from feelings natural in such circumstances, but was connected with the hope of
the coming Messiah. Until he appeared, each family would desire to preserve its
identity, and its legitimate claim to its own special portion of the Land of
Promise.
Num 36:8
EVERY DAUGHTER WHO INHERITS LAND IN ANY ISRAELITE TRIBE
MUST MARRY SOMEONE IN HER FATHER'S TRIBAL CLAN, SO THAT EVERY ISRAELITE WILL
POSSESS THE INHERITANCE OF HIS FATHERS: The laws of inheritance meant that
the land went with the man who had married the daughter who had inherited from
her father -- like the daughters of Zelophehad. Thus the requirement to marry
within the tribe would ensure that no marriages would destroy the Divinely
appointed division of the land.
The counterpart in our ecclesial life is that our marriages
should not upset the equilibrium of the ecclesia. So marriages to the
unbeliever, for example, are totally unacceptable.