Numbers 36

THE MARRIAGE OF AN HEIRESS.

The unfolding of human necessities is the occasion for a progressive divine revelation. In chap. 27 we have seen the brotherless daughters of Zelophehad sueing for natural justice the inheritance of their father’s estate. But now the immediate division of the land suggests a difficulty. The daughters who inherit their father’s lands may marry out of their tribe, and their estates pass out of their ancestral tribe and be permanently annexed to the allotment of another tribe. The legislation of this chapter forestalls this difficulty by limiting the marriage of heiresses to their own tribe. See Introduction, (1.)

CONCLUDING NOTE.

We find in this chapter not only an illustration of the truth that “he that asketh receiveth,” but also an example of the principle that God’s laws were enacted as human needs required. In this instance, the fact that the giving of the new statute hinges on a human petition does not prove that it was an afterthought with God, as some have intimated, but rather that he would put honour upon prayer, and teach his people that they should learn his will on some minor points as emergencies arise. Says Calvin: “God designedly withheld his decisions until they naturally arose out of the circumstances of the case. He allowed himself to be interrogated familiarly in regard to doubtful points of no primary importance in order that posterity might recognise his reply as a proof of his fatherly indulgence. Meanwhile, let us bear in mind that if heavenly things are the subject of as much anxiety to us as earthly things were to the children of Manasseh the rule that we should observe will always be made clear to us.”