Moses to Joshua - Numbers 27, 28, 29 & 30

There are two main concepts in chapter 27, the first being a interestingly progressive inheritance policy. Some women came to Moses because their father had died and had no sons to inherit his land. They still aren’t in the land of Canaan so I don’t think that there’s any actual land to inherit at this point but there is the promise of land when they settle and the daughters want to make sure that they have a place when the time comes. They also specify that their father wasn’t involved in the rebellion of Korah, which must have been because of their heritage. I assume that this issue is brought to Moses because the policy at the time was that only male heirs could inherit the land and there were no male heirs of this man so the women asked why couldn’t the land go to them. Moses takes the issue to God who agrees with the women that they should be able to inherit the land owed to a man if he dies without any sons. I think that this is a pretty progressive policy at the time so it’s another proof to me that Jesus is the champion of women. There are several verses of what to do if there are no children at all, male or female, then who gets the land, out several iterations, but the point is that women can inherit their father’s land if there is no male heir and that’s a big deal, I think.

The second concept is that Moses has been banned from entering the promised land, but he’s not banned from seeing it. God tells Moses that it’s time for him to go up into the mountain and see the promised land, which I think it a euphemism for it was time for Moses to die, up in the mountain just like Aaron. Before Moses goes up to the mountain for the last time, the Lord tells him to take Joshua and have Eleazar anoint him to set him apart as the new leader of Israel. It’s important to note that even though Joshua took over Moses’ job, he didn’t take over the role completely. Many times Moses was a mediator for the people, but Joshua didn’t take over that role, he was just the political and military leader of Israel who worked with Eleazar who was the spiritual leader of Israel.

Chapters 28, 29, and 30 all just go over sacrifices, events, vows, oaths, and other things that we’ve already covered in depth, so I’m going to skip them.