Community Class BLog

*This blog had a very special contributor, Michael Hardin, my handsome husband. 

The Text:  Numbers 27:  1-11 

27 The daughters of Zelophehad showed up. Their father was the son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Makir son of Manass*eh, belonging to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. The daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.  ^2-4 They came to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. They stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and before the leaders and the congregation and said, “Our father died in the wilderness. He wasn’t part of Korah’s rebel anti-God gang. He died for his own sins. And he left no sons. But why should our father’s name die out from his clan just because he had no sons? So give us an inheritance among our father’s relatives.”  ⁵ Moses brought their case to God.  ^6-7 God ruled: “Zelophehad’s daughters are right. Give them land as an inheritance among their father’s relatives. Give his inheritance to his daughter. If he has no daughter, give it to his brothers. If he has no brothers, give it to his father’s brothers. If his father had no brothers, give it to the nearest relative so that the inheritance stays in the family. This is the standard procedure for the People of Israel, as commanded by God through Moses.”

My Takeaways

I cringe at any text that starts with the word Numbers.  I almost didn’t graduate college because of literal numbers, College Algebra.  Turns out the book of Numbers is not about actual numbers.  It is about five brave women, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.  They like Naomi and Ruth find themselves in the middle of grief, and making a way to survive.  Their father Zelophehad had died. In the ancient world woman had no rights.  Their survival was based on a man.  Zelophehad had no sons. Their inheritance and property went to their fathers’ brothers, not his daughters. 

This did not sit well with these women. They took on the patriarchy.  It took courage for them to go before these powerful men.  They pled their case.  It was short and to the point.  Most importantly, it was passionate.  These women got what they were due;  land, and inheritance. They changed the law going forward for other women.

Give credit where credit is due.  Moses listened to these powerful women.  He acted and made the needed change.  My imagination believes Moses reflected when his mother and sister gave him life.  You see, Moses was born a “special baby”.  Exodus 2:1. He was born in a time when a very bad Pharoh wanted to kill all the male babies.  “Every boy that is born, drown him in the Nile.”  Exodus 1:22. That’s a bit complicated for a mother who wants to protect her child.  Mom hid Moses for 3 months.  Then she couldn’t hide the special baby any longer. 

So, she puts him in a waterproof basket and sends him down the Nile River.  Miriam his older sister “found herself a vantage point a little way off and watched to see what would happen to him.”  Exodus 2:4. The Pharoh’s daughter shows up.  She saw the baby crying.  “This must be one of the Hebrew babies.”  Exodus 2:6 Miriam jumps into action.  “Do you want me to go and get a nursing mother from the Hebrews so she can nurse the baby for you?”  Pharoh’s daughter says, sure.  She later adopted the baby as her own. 

The Moses story is a bit complicated. It involved murder, a burning bush, slavery, and a whole lot more drama. You can read about that in Exodus.  This story is not about Moses. It’s about the women who made the Moses story possible. 

These women are channeling Naomi.  You see, Naomi lost her husband and both of her sons.  She rises to the occasion and makes a way when there doesn’t seem to be a way. You can read more about that in my first blog post. 

I could go on and on about the female heroes in the bible.  Mary, mother of Jesus, Rahab, Esther, and Mary Magdalene. These are stories often not celebrated but hidden.  There are other stories of women that are not told today.  However, they are still there and must be told. I have permission to share the stories below.

I asked my friend what he thought made his grandmother was a social justice warrior. They said, “My grandmother kept a big old bible.  She never went to church.  She grew her own food. She had well water. She would climb to the top of the house, rip out bird nests, and adjust the tv antenna.  She picked cotton. Her husband died when she was young.”  I asked my friend, “What spoke to you about your grandmother?”  They said “I was taught that was not what was supposed to happen. You gotta have a man to survive. Women can’t live on their own. She did. She lived by herself. I think she even slaughtered a bear or two. She was a tough woman.”  What a beautiful story.  Once again, another woman finds herself grieving and still survives without a man. 

I had another conversation with a friend. I ask them who is the woman in your life that was a social justice warrior and what makes them so? “It’s the woman that goes against the norm.  Mine was my Aunt Flossy.  She was the shortest of the sisters.  She worked during World War II.  She and her sister were like Rosey Riveters, and they were part of the movement.  They worked in the Army Corp of Engineers.  After the Army, she and her sister bought a house.  She was a spit fire.  She drank little pony beers.  Watched baseball.  She crocheted.  She was always cutting up. She would say, come sit next to me.  She would tell you all the gossip.  She never got married.  I have her dining room furniture. Certain things you don’t want to get rid of.  It’s connected to my family and brings backs memories.”  Aunt Flossy sounds like someone I’d love to hang out with.  She didn’t let others define who she was and how she should be. 

So, who is my social justice female hero?  It is my mother.  She was always inviting every wounded and struggling kid into our home.  Sometimes it was a family member, other times, a neighborhood kid struggling with a dysfunctional family.  She taught me that you stand up for the least of these, those who don’t have a voice, agency, or just the ability to thrive. I don’t always live up to my mother’s call.    But I do try. 

If our heart is telling us this feels wrong, perhaps we need to say something and do something.  Especially when we are on the upside of privilege.  Malala Yousafzai said it this way, “I raise up my voice—not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard… We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back”