Biblical Suffragette's (The first real women's right movement)/ Numbers 26-27 part one

Biblical Suffragette's (the first real women's right movement)

 

Numbers 27:1-7New International Version (NIV)

 

Zelophehad’s Daughters

27 The daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah. They came forward ² and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders and the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said, ³ “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among Korah’s followers, who banded together against the Lord, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. ⁴ Why should our father’s name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father’s relatives.”

⁵ So Moses brought their case before the Lord, ⁶ and the Lord said to him, ⁷ “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and give their father’s inheritance to them.

 

HOT TOPIC:

• No matter where you are or who you discuss this with, this topic gets a reaction. There are men and women in every facet of life who are effected by this issue and all of them have something to say.
•  
•  As a woman  who grew up in the church and now works in the banking industry, as the mother of seven who homeschooled before it was popular in Portland I have heard and seen some very passionate responses to this topic, I have experienced this first hand.
•  
• The "how dare you's" come from all direction. How dare you suggest that I have a problem with women? How dare you call me a feminist/ How dare you suggest that women can do any job a man can do/ How dare you suggest that women should submit to men/ how dare you suggest they shouldn't?
•  
• The age of the person you are speaking to usually indicates the generation they were influenced by, and even if it's unintended will often shape their view. Let's face it if you are from Texas a "little lady" or two, might slip out, even if you're not a misogynist. you're just repeating what  you've heard since you were a child.
•  
• If you put passion aside and are honest, you have feelings, large or small, that might influence your opinion on the subject of women's right;. The kind of father or mother you had, the type of church you grew up in or didn't, whether you are dealing with past or present abuse (verbal or physical) to yourself or someone you love, the era and influences in our life, all these things shape your view of and responses to the opposite sex.
•  
• The truth however is not based on feelings past hurts or the face you put on all men or women. Your hurt and anger matter to God, and only He, knowing your mind and heart through the Holy Spirit, can heal you from the inside out. However, until you allow him to do that you are using your emotional gun to shoot innocent people in the dark, and unintentionally fueling the fire of misconception in both genders.
•  
• The love and forgiveness extended to each of us, is not earned, it is given by grace, through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay for the sins of ALL mankind. Therefore our love of others should not be extended to only those who we feel have earned it. God calls us to; love God and love others, based on the love that was extended to us. Pride and  indignation don't fit into that equation. This by the way applies to men and women equally.
•  
• Does that mean to be boundary-less? Not at all. Being without boundaries is the cause of whole new set of problems! If you know people that are unsafe, love them from the distance their actions dictate, love them, but don't choose to have them in your closest circle, or possibly even your outer circle. However do that person the courtesy of telling them the reasons for the distance, because you love them (after asking God to give you his love, wisom and strength to do it); not reacting to their hurtful attitudes, which by the way are not about you at all, you just happen to be the person they chose to shoot, because, you are there. In other words, choose not to be there to take the blast, but tell them why.
• Side note: I am not giving martial advice in this case, that is whole different ball of wax, and I will leave that between you and God with a side of Godly advice. I will say that not being in the vicinity of a person that needs their attitude changed does not translate to divorcing them. That would be angry advice. You can however get out of harms way, in a variety of ways. Seek mature, Godly advice and take one step at a time. Make wise, slow decisions, giving God time to do His work.

 

• Mosogynism and Feminism are often associated with angry people, whether on not it is true. The Bible has a lot to say about men and women and how they should deal with each other. Most of it is blows these angry attitudes out of the water, because any bias that is based in pride is wrong, man or woman. You can't love people and want to "put them in their place" at the same time. Vengeance is meant pay others back for the pain that you feel they caused you. There is no love, or truth in the recipe. Since God has called us to love each other, and Matthew 6 and 7, are pretty clear on how we should deal with those that have hurt us, anything else would be a wrong motives and needs God's help to correct it.

 

• James 4:17 ¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
• If your attitude stinks and you aren't asking God to change it, you might want to get on that. It's not between you and the opposite gender, it's between you and God. He can renew you mind not matter who or what screwed it up in the first place. Romans 12:2New International Version (NIV)
• ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

• In the society that these 5 sisters of Numbers 27, lived in, they were taking their lives in their hands by boldly going against what the culture dictated. They did not stage a walk in, or stir up the women of the day to make signs stating "burn you burka". They respectfully appealed to the person God had placed in authority, asking him to do the right thing. They recognized that they were appealing to God through Moses. The old law was still in place, however God's attitude toward women has not  changed; He said "give them what they are asking, what they are asking is right" 

 

• Men throughout the Bible did terrible, things and women throughout the Bible did terrible things as well. Not much has really changed. We as people love to put others down, and keep them in their place to feel powerful; men, women, parents and children....  

 

• God's system is always the opposite of our, evil permeated, hearts.
• We use the Bible to back our thinking up and walk around acting like little Pharisees in our own religious kingdoms, but God over and over challenges the rules and shows that He is all about what's happening in your hearts over any actions we take. If your attitude and motive are wrong than your actions are as well

 

• So wherever you fall on the issues of biblical leadership, husband and wives, gender definition or not, remember your questions should be directed and dealt with through the truth of  God and His word, not a person, or group of people. In the end you are His disciple and the example He set for us is so much higher than either race or person could ever hope to reach, there is no time to be wasted judging or trying to fix each other. We are all broken messy sinful people, we need to lead and speak in humility always keeping that fact in mind.

• For more study on what the Bible has to day on this subject see the following passages; In Ephesians 5, we have a passage on husbands and wives,  In Genesis 3, we see the crushing results of the fall, In Timothy 2 we see the guides for worship, 1 Corinthians 7 has all kinds of things to say 1 Corinthians 11:11-12 and many other verses give us a lot of food for thought. We can't just take the verses we like, we have to deal with it all, looking for the overall purpose being communicated. We have to look into history and context, this takes time and a desire for truth.

• If truth is what we want we need to look at how God has dealt with men and women and follow his example. We can't use and force the Bible to fit our broken minds and back up our agendas. We have to submit to Holy Spirit as he renews our mind through understanding His words.

• Numbers 27 is not about land. God chose to have this recorded for us in His word to show much more than how to disburse land in a one off situation.  God demonstrates how He wants us to view other people, over and over again in example after example.

 

For instance;

• In Deuteronomy 23:3  He says "no Moabite shall enter the assembly or Israel " then generations later He draws Ruth, clearly a Moabite, from Moab to travel with Naomi to Israel to marry Boaz. God chooses this lineage to bring us King David and then Jesus Christ. Why does He do this? Why Rahab in Joshua 2? why Tamar  in Genesis 38? why the woman at the well in John 4? why the widow and Elijah 2 Kings 4:8, and many, many more. These are not accidental entries in the Bible to be skipped over. God wants us to be like Him in everything we do, both genders!
•  He give us these lessons to take these  and use them like weapons in  a battle against other genders anger and pride. We (men and woman) in humility and with a servant heart are to do what God has called us to do, not for our own sake but for His glory, Colossians 3:14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 1 Corinthians 10:31 Do all for the glory God.
•  
• I am not here to tell you to think like me, and I am not going to tell you where I fall in my understanding of this issue in the Bible. I would much rather have you go to God's word and challenge you to dig and pray, read (the Bible), pray, read some more and pray again. God will not fail you if you seeking Him and His truth with all your heart.

Ephesians 4:13-15

 

¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. ¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.

Philippians 2:1-8

2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature^[a] God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

⁷ rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!