Genesis is great, and the first part of Exodus is exciting, but the last half of Exodus and all of Leviticus are all about the rules of the new nation, including, but not limited to, minute measurements for the tabernacle, what to do when people have grievances, and the many, many sacrifices and holy days required to keep the people focused on God. The medical and dietary details we now know were to keep people healthy, and the sacrifices were to try and keep them clean before God. There are many (read A TON OF) lists of names and numbers that I have to say, I scanned at best.
In Numbers, the talk moved to how the Promised Land would be divided. God told Moses, and Moses told the people. Again, there were more names and numbers, which I again skimmed but did not commit to memory. Some of this seems easy to skip through, though I know it was important for the time.
Then, in Numbers 27, something huge happened. The daughters of Zelophehad – Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah – (see what I mean about the names?) came to Moses, and so go God, to ask for provision. To give context, in this culture women were cared for by their fathers, brothers, or husbands. They did not have rights or property of their own.
These women’s father died in the wilderness, and they had no brothers or husbands, which probably means they were young. The Biblical text has them aged older than children, but not yet full adults. As the land was being divvied up, they knew because of their status as women alone they would have none coming to them and would have nowhere to live or land of their own to farm.
They asked Moses to ask God to provide for them, to give them land, as they had no father to get the land for them.
Here’s what we need to know about this. This was not their first stop. There was a line of judges they had to go through before they got to Moses. Four other judges had heard their pleas and were not able to answer or provide for them. The daughters persevered and got all the way to Moses. Moses went to God and God said their claim was legitimate. They received land, with a couple of stipulations, which they followed, and were rescued from being homeless and destitute.
I’m trying to imagine the relief these women felt when they got the answer they needed from God. I bet they were ecstatic. I bet they cried.
When I think about the people helped by the organizations we support, I bet for many of them, this is not their first ask for help, either. It’s not their first call or their first request. These are people who, in the midst of suffering, have to make many calls, do a lot of legwork and paperwork and asking, to get the relief they so desperately need.
They do it for the same reason Zelophehad’s daughters did. They believe, or desperately hope, that someone will eventually help. The daughters believed the judges, or Moses, or God would hear their distress and help them. The people we support through the charities we gift believe we will help, even though they don’t know us or what we do. They believe someone cares enough to help.
We get to be those people. From the example set by God, by Jesus and by each other, we get to help ease the suffering of people asking for what we probably already have – housing, protection from abuse, food, advocacy, or diapers.
Every quarterly meeting, three worthy charities speak to us about what they’re doing for struggling people in the world, and we commit to putting $100 toward one, and, if we can, a bit extra toward the other two. We listen, we pray for the organizations and the people they help, and we give. We can’t do the work they do, we can’t be everywhere at one time – we can, though, learn more about the charities in our areas doing good work, and give toward their efforts.
What a blessing that we can support the help so desperately needed.
I’m sure we share this feeling with every check we write, at every meeting we attend, or with every dollar we send/
We don’t have to do this. We get to do this.
Praise God, praise God.
Contributed by Shannon Plate