Happy Women’s Day: Getting Your Inheritance Back

"The Men have held the instruments of power under false pretense”

The Case of the Daughters of Zelophehad vs the JEWISH LAW of inheritance (Num 27:1-8)

The Christian Bible records a story in the book of Numbers 27:1 – 8 where girls challenged the rigid Jewish tradition of passing family inheritance (in this case land) to boys only when a father dies.

The book of Numbers recounts a case of a Jewish family man Zelophehad who only had daughters and died without a son. Therefore, without a son in the family, the daughters were to forfeit the inheritance to another family there being no heir in Zelophehad’s family tree according to the prevailing law of the land. This was a Jewish traditional system of inheritance no matter how unfair it was that the people lived under for decades as a norm.

However, a day of reckoning came when the so called traditional norm of inheritance was challenged by Zelophehad's surviving daughters could not take that norm lying down and were determined to challenge the status core. Why? These women realized that without an inheritance (land) they will be destitute and without any land, their families will have no capital with which to attain any economic value for their families in that time which in essence meant they will be poor forever. Without an inheritance, the system suggested that they did not have the right to think but only look forward to a husband who should do the thinking for them and eventually provide for them

With this economic disadvantage in mind (Num 27: 3), the girls went and confronted the Jewish lawmakers through Moses and demanded for their inheritance from their father's estate. By this petition, the girls were asked Moses why girls should continually lose their father’s inheritance just because there was no son in the family at the death of a father. To cut the story short, it is reported that Moses went before the Lord to enquire on the matter and the Lord told him that the girls were right in their request and should be given the inheritance. That day the Jewish law was changed and girls become heirs also to their father’s inheritance just like boys.

Let’s break this down a little, this unfair Jewish law; was it God’s law or it was man’s creation designed to favor men for selfish reasons. I pose this question because when Moses goes before God to enquire, God says the girls are right in their demand and instructed Moses to give them their possession. This tells us that God was not the author of this law but it was the selfish man’s scheme to defraud girls of their future. Are you catching the drift here? This should also help us challenge some of the religious norms we believe are from God. Women should not do this or that and why should it be only women who should be at the receiving end. Are these laws from God or man anyway 

 

Let’s now bring the message home ladies, let’s travel back in time and enter the High Court where the daughters of Zelophehad have brought the case titled “The Men have held the instruments of power by false pretense” Claiming back the Inheritance:

The High Court judge his honor Moses asked the question of why the women have brought up a petition to challenge God’s law (the constitution) that does not give them the right to their father’s land if the family has no son as an heir according to the law. In other words why the ladies were demanding for equality with men.

And the girls opened their arguments and the following is the verbatim: Your honor this law that only allows boys to be heirs presupposes that all wisdom and intelligence is bestowed in sons or boys and are the ones who can turn the fortunes of a family into a prosperity of some sort. But can the law truly fathom the true extent of anyone’s ability, potential, or skill? The answer is No, laws are simply written texts with no intelligence of their own except in the mind of the drafter. Therefore, if the conceiver of the law is biased, then the law follows that path. But we put it to you that all you presiding judges are here today because there was a woman who gave birth to you and protected you from harm, she gave up her life and needs so that you can become Moses the great or the great men you consider yourselves to be. Should mothers become irrelevant or second-class human beings just because men become leaders, presidents or business owners? Why should the law talk about sons as if the sons simply drop from heaven without regard to the women who brought them forth into this world? Why should women be relegated to the kitchen as if their brains are made of pots, cooking sticks, and pans. If this were the case why would God allow Deborah to be a judge to lead the Israelites? Why would God choose Esther to be the conduit of help for Israel? Why would God allow Oprah Winfrey to have the wisdom to create jobs, why would God allow Angela Merkel to lead Germany, why would God allow Kamara Harris to be the Vice President of the USA the most powerful nation in the world? Why would God allow Inonge Wina to be the great Vice President of Zambia? Can anyone explain how a girls’ secondary school in Choma in the Southern province of Zambia, final year students obtained straight ‘A’s in the final exams beating the boys’ celebrated technical schools pants down? Is the court of tradition suggesting that these girls have modified brains? If the argument is that women talk too much! Who doesn’t? if society has a problem with women’s talk content, then send them to school so that the profession they gain forms the larger portion of their talk. But we submit to you that it’s not that women talk too much, they just have too much to share with others. If anything it's the talking gift that has enabled them to help children under their care to learn to talk and communicate while the fathers are 90% absent.

 

May the Court of Tradition be informed that the world is replete with women who have made a significant difference. Nancy Johnson invented the Ice maker in 1843, Ada Lovelace invented the Computer Algorithm 1843, Sarah Mather invented the Submarine lamp and telescope, Margaret A. Wilcox invented the Car heater, Stephanie Kwolek invented the Bullet-proof fiber in 1966, Hedy Lamarr invented Wireless Transmission Technology in 1941, Maria Telkes invented Thermoelectric power generator in 1947. The list goes on and on..

 

All the men reading this, I request that you look at the daughters under your care. Please they are not pieces of meat for sale. Groom your daughters to bring out the passion that God has invested in them by encouraging them to pursue and bring out their talents. Women are generally designed and equipped with the potential to carry others, hence, they are the only ones with the ability to carry a child through pregnancy and when everything goes down in life she will do everything to protect and support her children’s survival because she is able to feel their pain. When you look around, women are the majority trying to sell something for their children’s welfare. Probably you owe your success to such a resilient mother who never abandoned you. She may even have withstood both emotional and physical blows so that you can have a life you enjoy today. Women are our greatest heroes

Therefore, if tradition deprives the girl child a seat at the table of decision making and her equal inheritance, the tradition will be depriving the world of God’s deposit of Himself that he planned to manifest through women to impact society