Numbers 27:5-7So Moses brought their case before the Lord. And the Lord replied to Moses, “The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You must give them an inheritance of land along with their father’s relatives. Assign them the property that would have been given to their father.” One of the men who had died in the wilderness only had daughters. When land was being doled out among the tribes, it generally went to the men of the tribe and their sons. But this man had only daughters, and because of that, they would get no land. So, the decided to petition Moses to have land assigned to them. And, God said that they were right and that in the future, any man who died without sons would have his inheritance go to his daughters and so on. A couple of cool things – first, they were brave enough to ask. It’s not clear to me if their father died of natural causes or was one of the men who was killed in one of God’s plagues or what, but whatever happened, they came and asked. And God gave them what they asked for, and in the end, it benefited all the women in Israel. Sometimes we need to remember to ask. Be brave enough to come and ask. I tell my students all the time that if they don’t ask me, I don’t know they need something. Granted, God knows what we need before we ask, but He wants us to come to Him and ask. It helps us remember that we need Him and can’t do it on our own. In a book I read by a woman who used to be an anchor at CNN, she says that the worst thing someone can say is “no.” And what does that hurt? So, I try and remember to be brave enough to ask. It doesn’t hurt anything, and there’s a good chance that you will get what you ask for. But you’ll never know if you don’t ask. Second, their request gave women some ability to own land. That doesn’t seem very important, but in a society that was so male-centric, women didn’t get land or property. She lived with her father, then with her husband or his family. If she had sons, she lived with them if her husband died. But, if a man only had daughters, his name would die out and his daughters, traditionally, got nothing to survive on. This request changed all that. God said that if a man died without sons, the inheritance should go to his daughters. If he had no daughters it would go to his brothers, and so on. I think this is part of the law that Ruth called on when she asked Boaz to redeem the inheritance of her husband. Anyway, God loves the daughters as well as the sons, and changes the law to give them a way to survive if there was nobody left to care for them. God’s good like that.