The Neighborhood Podcast
This is a podcast of Guilford Park Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina featuring guests from both inside the church and the surrounding community. Hosted by Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing, Head of Staff.
The Neighborhood Podcast
"The Daughters of Zelophehad" (July 6, 2025 Sermon)
The courage of five sisters from ancient Israel offers us a blueprint for navigating unjust systems today. When the daughters of Zelophehad approached Moses about an inheritance law that would leave them destitute after their father's death, they weren't just seeking personal relief—they were challenging a fundamental injustice in their society's structure.
What happens next is remarkable. Rather than facing punishment for questioning established law, God affirms their petition with surprising clarity: "The daughters of Zelophehad are right." This divine endorsement leads to an immediate change in inheritance law, creating protections for women throughout Israel. The story reveals a God who listens to the marginalized and validates their concerns, while establishing that sometimes challenging unjust laws is exactly what faithful people should do.
Drawing parallels to modern challenges, we must ask ourselves: When do we follow rules, and when do we break them? Like the characters in the children's show Bluey navigating their "Shadowlands" game, we need both those who respect boundaries and those willing to question them. The story warns against automatically assuming laws passed by "our side" are just, while those from political opponents are evil. No political party has a monopoly on harmful policies—our moral compass must be guided by justice and compassion rather than partisan loyalty.
Perhaps most powerfully, these ancient women teach us about meaningful compromise. When concerns arose about property leaving their tribe, they agreed to marry within their community while maintaining their inheritance rights. They demonstrated that standing firm on core principles while finding reasonable middle ground isn't weakness—it's essential for community flourishing. What rules in our society need challenging today, and how might we work together to create systems where everyone belongs?
Listen now to explore how five forgotten women from Scripture might guide our response to today's challenging social and political landscape.
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Listen for the prayer for elimination. Your word, o Lord, is our inspiration, our light and our motion. Your word, o Lord, is power, is wisdom and is comfort. Guide us today as we listen to the word read and proclaimed, and fill us with understanding and with the desire to change. Speak, lord, your people listen, Amen. Our scripture reading today comes from Numbers, chapter 27, verses 1 through 11. And please forgive me, I do not know Hebrew very well, so pronunciations of all these names will be what I can do. So listen for God's word.
Speaker 1:Then the daughters of Zelophehad came forward. Zelophehad was son of Hephar, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, of the clans of Manasseh, son of Joseph. Son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were Mala, noah, hogla, melka and Tirza.
Speaker 1:They stood before Moses, eleazar, the priest, the leaders and all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting, saying our father died in the wilderness. He was not among the congregation of those who gathered themselves together against the Lord in the congregation of Korah, but died for his own sin and he had no sons. Sin and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son, give to us a possession among our father's brothers.
Speaker 1:Moses brought their case before the Lord and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying before the Lord and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying the daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they are saying. You shall indeed let them possess an inheritance among their father's brothers and pass the inheritance of their father on to them. You shall also speak to the Israelites, saying If a man dies and has no son, then you shall pass his inheritance on to his daughter. If he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers, and if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman of his clan and he shall possess it. It shall be for the Israelites a statute and ordinance, as the Lord commanded Moses. Holy wisdom, holy word. Thanks be to God.
Speaker 2:Friends, let us pray, o Lord. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, o Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen, all right y'all. I understand that it's been a while since I included a bluey reference in one of my sermons, so I'm going to change that today.
Speaker 2:As I was preparing for this sermon, an episode from the show's first season came to mind. It's one of my favorites. It's called Shadowlands and it centers around a playground game played by Bluey with two of her friends a black and brown dachshund you see on the screen there, named Snickers, and a pink poodle named Coco. The game is also called Shadowlands and it is simply one where the kids attempt to cross from one side of a park to the other, while only stepping on shaded areas and avoiding all of the sunlit parts, which are, of course, alligator-infested waters. The game begins harmlessly enough as the three navigate the playground, stepping only in the shade, and they have to get kind of creative, even crossing a sunny, open area by following the shadow of a moving bus. Everything is going well, everything is going smoothly, until Bluey's mom calls from the other side of the park announcing that she has cupcakes for all of the children. And the promise of these delicious treats adds a new sense of urgency to Bluey, snickers and Coco's game.
Speaker 2:And this is where a divide forms amongst the brave trio. Bluey is nothing if not a rule follower. For her, the waiting cupcakes are tempting, but not enough to break the rules for them to get to them faster. Coco, the pink poodle, however, is more driven by her taste buds and she believes that it is perfectly fine to bend the rules a little bit to get to those cupcakes more quickly.
Speaker 2:Snickers, the dachshund, with his so-called tiny little sausage dog legs, assumes a neutral stance between these two philosophical viewpoints. But then, as they debate the ethical merits of each argument, the stakes rise. When Bluey's mother yells one of the most savage threats any parent can make to a child in this situation, she shouts if you don't get here soon, I'm going to eat your cupcake. Panic ensues amongst the children and they must work together to preserve the fun of their playtime while not missing out on the promised desserts before they disappear into their mother's mouths. So I will not give you all any spoiler alerts. You just have to watch the episode for yourself to figure out how it ends how it ends, but I share this to illustrate a sometimes exaggerated way of categorizing people, and that categorization is this In this world, there exists rule followers and rule breakers.
Speaker 2:And when these two types of people come together, it can create for some pretty interesting stories, also some pretty significant conflict. The truth is, I don't believe the world is just a binary where half of us follow the rules and the other half breaks them. I think most of us fall somewhere in the middle of that, on that spectrum between the two. But the reality is rule followers and rule breakers need each other just as Bluey needs Coco and vice versa to compromise and to grow together as friends and as playmates.
Speaker 2:We need to be in conversation with each other, because rules are important, as is interpreting them, as is revisiting them when we develop and, hopefully, progress as a society. Because the rules, the laws we establish have consequences far beyond that of an innocent playground game between three cartoon dogs. But they also affect how we order our lives together, such as the legislation that was passed this week in Washington DC that will have profound effects on so many of our neighbors' access to affordable health care via Medicaid. And so this week, as I held the newspaper in one hand reading the political news and the Bible in the other hand, reading this story that Eleanor read for us from the 27th chapter of Numbers, couldn't help but marvel at just how scripture is so relevant to speak to our current context today, about the importance of knowing when to follow laws and when to challenge them. Our conversation partners today are five sisters by the names of Mala, noah Hagla, milka and Tirsa. The names of Mala, Noah Hagla, milcah and Tirsa. Their father, zelophehad, died without having any sons.
Speaker 2:We have to understand that in Israelite culture, which was what we call patrilineal means, that property could only be passed down from a father to his sons and, according to the law of the day, if that man died without sons, the property defaulted to other male family members further removed. Well, the daughters of Zelophehad viewed this rule as deeply unjust. To be clear, they knew the laws. The daughters understood that this rule was established precedent within the Israelite community and, additionally, these women must have known that this law was, at the beginning, given by the divine voice of God. Yet yet they chose to challenge it. Yet yet they chose to challenge it Because, in a culture where owning property was the only real social safety net, the daughters of Zelophehad recognized it was wrong for women in their situation to be overlooked, reinforcing a system of inequality that was stacked against them. And so they approached Moses in public and petitioned for that law to be changed. This was no quiet backdoor negotiation. The women approached Moses at the entrance of what was called the Tent of Meeting, which was where all of the Israelites got together to worship and to discuss current events and order their lives together. So this alone was an act of great risk.
Speaker 2:Elsewhere in the book of Numbers, people have suffered severe consequences for speaking out in protest or critique. For instance, the Israelites were struck with a plague when they complained to God they had no meat in Numbers 11. Elsewhere, miriam and Aaron questioned whether God could speak through people other than Moses, and Miriam got leprosy. Curiously enough, aaron did not, even though he did the same thing. Finally, three individuals elsewhere in Numbers 16 questioned Moses's leadership and were swallowed up by the very ground beneath their feet.
Speaker 2:Therefore, now, in chapter 27, I think it's safe to say that the daughters of Zelophehad must have known what was at stake when they approached Moses and by, by comparison, god, to challenge the law that they thought was wrong. And then remarkable things happen. The daughters do not get leprosy, they do not get cast out, they do not get swallowed up by the earth beneath their feet. Rather, moses hears the testimony of Mala, noah Hagla, milcah and Tirzah testimony of Mala, noah Hagla, milcah and Tirzah and then promises to take their case to God for some divine feedback before making a decision. And God's response is surprisingly brief. God simply says they're right, says the daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they are saying. God agrees with the women and tells Moses not only to grant them an exception but to change the law itself, so that women in the future who might find themselves in their situation won't have to fight for their dignity and well-being as they did.
Speaker 2:I love this story because my reading of the text and that is one reading of the text among many, but my reading of the text leads me to make the following theological conclusions. First of all is this God listens to the cries of the oppressed. There are, of course, many other examples in Scripture that support this fundamental theological truth. The daughters of Zelophehad stood up for their dignity and their well-being and God listened. Then God spoke and Moses listened. And then Moses spoke and the Israelites listened, and they changed the law for a more just society.
Speaker 2:Secondly, and sadly, this story reminds me that too often those who are vulnerable stand alone. We'll certainly give Moses credit for obeying God's command and changing the law, an act that I suppose must have ruffled the feathers of some men in the community who stood to benefit from the status quo quo. But what we don't see in this passage are other men who support the daughters of Zelophehad and advocate for them, which makes me wonder how might this story have been different if the daughters didn't have to stand alone? What if they had approached Moses with a diverse coalition of women and men working together for a fairer neighborhood? And finally, I think this story suggests that not only do you and I have divine permission to challenge unjust laws, but we are also obligated to do so when we encounter laws that harm the vulnerable among us. The daughters of Zalapahad remind us today that just because something is legal doesn't make it right.
Speaker 2:In 2018, the Attorney General of the United States infamously cited an oft-quoted verse from the 13th chapter of Romans, which which suggests that us Christians should follow the law of the land without question, because God ordains such laws. He used this to justify a federal policy that separated children from their families in immigrant detention centers. At the time, I, along with many other clergy around the country, disagreed with the selective interpretation of scripture simply because it could be used to justify any sort of harmful legislation, because nowhere in scripture do I see that God calls us to abandon our sense of moral compass just because something is lawful. Slavery was lawful, segregation was lawful, prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying was lawful, but these policies were wrong then and they're wrong now, and these laws all changed because people like Mala and Noah and Hagla and Milka and Tirsa the daughters of Zelophehad had the courage to stand up and peacefully and non-violently say this is wrong and this needs to change. I believe that this is an important cultural moment to remember our duty to challenge unjust laws.
Speaker 2:In our highly polarized political climate, we are often tempted to assume that if a law is passed by our side of the aisle, that it must automatically be just and, conversely, we may see legislation from the other side of the aisle as automatically evil, legislation from the other side of the aisle as automatically evil Neighbors. Listen to me no political party in this country has a monopoly on harmful laws, but we should act from a place of justice and mercy and compassion, not because we belong to a particular political party, but because we're Christians, and that's what Jesus would have us do, amen. I want to make one last observation. This day, about nine chapters later in the book of Numbers, the topic of this change of law comes up again.
Speaker 2:This topic that now allows property to be passed down to women comes up with some concerns of a geopolitical nature. Some Israelites ask a legitimate question Now that the law has changed and that women can inherit property, what if they marry outside of our tribe? This is a legitimate question because many Bible scholars believe that the original intent of only allowing property to be passed along to sons or other men was to keep that property within a particular tribe. The logic was that if women were given property and then married men outside of their tribe, then the property of that tribe and the security and the influence that comes with it would again would disappear. So therefore, the daughters of Zalapha had agreed to a compromise. In return for becoming the lawful heirs to their deceased father's property, moah I'm messing up these names now Mala, noah, hagla, milcah and Terza make a compromise. They agree to marry, eventually, only men within their tribe, to keep that property within the ownership of the larger community.
Speaker 2:Linjapinga notes that skeptical readers might conclude that once again, women did as they were told. They won justice for their father at the cost of their freedom to marry any man in Israel. The women were indeed willing to compromise, said, but they had actually been given a radical freedom. Moses told the women to marry quote whom they think best, which allowed them an unusual amount of choice in a culture where women were usually given and taken without regard to their preferences. End quote. So I say this because this is a story about a group of women demanding justice for themselves and for others like them, and it's also a story of a community that aims to address their real concerns while finding a compromise that protected both their interests and those of the wider community.
Speaker 2:Imagine that that raises a crucial question for us today how do you and I stand firm in our moral convictions while being open to reasonable compromise to protect the vulnerable and serve the greater good of the wider community?
Speaker 2:I hope we can learn from the daughters of Zelophehad.
Speaker 2:I hope that you and I, that we as a community, as a nation, can find a way forward that respects the needs of the vulnerable around us, just as they did, while remaining open to reasonable compromises that move us forward together. Of course, I must say there are situations where talks of compromise can be forms of gaslighting. There are situations where talks of compromise can be forms of gaslighting. How do you compromise between someone who says two plus two is four and someone who says two plus two is five Raises the question should we compromise on fundamental issues like the inherent dignity of every human being? So I think it's important to acknowledge that reasonable and compassionate compromise only works when everyone is operating from the same shared reality, which seems increasingly rare these days. But in ways, big and small, I think we can learn from these women and stand for justice. So perhaps you know what it's like to be a daughter of Zelophehad, or maybe you'll find yourself in a moment when God will call you to stand with the daughter of Zelophehad.
Speaker 2:So, as you and I live together on this playground called life, maybe you're a bluey who believes that the rules must be followed no matter what. Maybe you're a cocoa who thinks that the rules should be changed to serve the greater good, or maybe you're a Snickers who just sits in the middle and wants everybody to get along. But whatever character you most relate to, know that God calls us to be in community with one another, and may we never forget that we are called to build a playground where there is room for everyone. In the name of God, the creator, redeemer and sustainer, may all of us, God's beloved children, say amen.