Torah Portion: Numbers 30:2-36:13
Matot / Masai ('Tribes' / 'Journeys')
Relationships between a man and his wife and between a father and his daughter begin this week's Torah portion. It ends with Zelophehad's daughters, whose portion was to marry within their own clan, Manasseh, so that their inheritance was safeguarded. The chapters between likewise centre on God's care for His people in making provision for their needs.
The land He had given was to be distributed among the tribes of Israel. A larger group would receive a larger inheritance and a smaller group a smaller one, according to their ancestral tribes. The Lord told them to drive out the inhabitants of the land and destroy all their pagan idols and shrines. He said, “Take possession of the land and settle in it for I have given you the land to possess” (Num 33:53). He warned them that if they didn't, those that they allowed to remain would be as barbs in their eyes and thorns in their sides. Clear boundary lines were also established, that each tribe could live securely within their own allotment of land and find their own patterns of life. The importance of this is clear in that half of chapter 34 is given over to the names of the men who were to assign the land.
Family Inheritance
Through the directions we read in the Lord's book of life, we understand the boundaries He has given for family life today, and from there, for the wider community. Tribes and clans and ownership of whole areas of a country are no longer the pattern of life these days in the Western world, for the most part, yet we still find our inheritance largely within the family structure. This can be materially but also in many other ways.
In ancient Israel, as once in Britain, children usually learned a trade or skill from parents. This was a means to a livelihood and also a key source of perspective on life. The Industrial Revolution changed all this. However, even now the children of parents involved in a trade or profession will naturally imbibe something of that perspective on life as parents talk together at home and interpret the world to their children. Speaking personally, it was a long time before I realised how much I had gained having grown up in a family with a long history in education and engineering.
Eternal Inheritance
Furthermore, sometimes it is helpful to have someone close to us identify a particular talent that we may be unaware of ourselves. Equally, when others find it difficult or are unable to do what comes naturally to us, perhaps it is because God has given us skill in that area through the inheritance of family life.
Our sovereign Father God certainly knew what He was doing when He created family and inheritance and order and assigned boundaries of life to us through His word. And yet we have a much greater and more wonderful inheritance:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5)
Author: Sally Denton
