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Wednesday 26 May
Claiming their rights

Read Numbers 27:1–11

You shall also say to the Israelites, ‘If a man dies, and has no son, then you shall pass his inheritance on to his daughter.’ (verse 8)

You may have never heard of the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013. Let me tell you a bit more about it. This is a law which changed the sequence of members of the British Royal Family who are in line to the throne. Before this law came into force in 2015, only male heirs were allowed to inherit the throne directly. So, a younger son could displace an elder daughter in the line of succession. After the act became law in 2015, women were allowed to become direct heirs too.

This change in the law has interesting parallels with the five daughters of Zelophehad – Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. They stood before Moses and asked for their inheritance – even though property rights, money and possessions would have traditionally only been inherited by men. This would have caused uproar – but Moses said yes.

Even if you’ve never heard of these women before, they are to be celebrated and remembered for taking a stand and calling for change. And a pat on the back for Moses too – he asks God for wisdom and acts on what God tells him. It would have been so easy for him to say, ‘Sorry – we can’t do this – it’s just not done,’ but he was willing to make a bold decision. Although much of the male inheritance line still existed in Moses’ ruling, the women were able to take their rightful place and inherit from their father.

† Listening God, today we pray for all those who work in the legal profession, that you might give them wisdom to uphold the law and courage to know when to challenge it. Amen