The Shepherd's House

The Kingdom Key of Prayer from the Daughters of Zelophedad - Numbers 27:1-11

by Pastor Moh |  May 12, 2025

Sometimes, when we have needs, we turn to God and ask for help. College isn’t going to happen without a scholarship, or a loan. We’re desperate for a job. A close friend is sick or injured, and things could go either way. And we pray, and everything...turns out okay. It all works out. When that happens, it feels like God is close, like He cares about us, and He’s really listening.

But sometimes, instead of things working out, everything seems to fall apart. The loan is denied. The firm hires the other guy. Our friend...doesn’t make it. And a million different things go through our minds as we’re left picking up the pieces. One reaction I sometimes have is to ask myself: was there more I could have done? Something else I was supposed to say or do? I don’t mean that I blame myself. But I just can’t help wondering, if I had prayed a little differently, or more intently, if I’d found the right words, would my prayers, just maybe, have worked? Now I don’t think any human being – will ever understand God’s mathematics in our prayers and petitions; how and when He decides to answer our prayers and petitions. That’s beyond you and me. But I do think it’s possible for us to make our prayers better, and more effective. Because sometimes, in the Bible, we find stories of people who make requests of God and seem to be given the things they ask for. So – maybe – if we study those stories and cases, look carefully at how the people in them made their requests, we might discover what made them special, and bring that into our own prayers to make them stronger (Matthew 7:7).

On Mother’s Day, May-11-2025, we will look at one of these cases, of God fully granting a request in the story of the daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:1-11). And when you read the text carefully, the boldness, the audacity of the request on the one hand, and the enthusiastic response of God on the other hand, is fascinating. Here is the summary: as the people are getting ready to enter Israel, the leaders of the nation divide up the land in advance, and it’s given to each family. Zelophehad had five daughters, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah; he had no sons. Zelophehad is part of the generation of Israelites who departed from Egypt under Moses’ leadership and died during the forty years in the wilderness. His five daughters belong to a new generation who would enter and possess the promised land. Now according to the Law at the time, only each male head of household would get an allotment of land, which he would then pass on to his male children. And that presented a problem for the five daughters of Zelophedad.

Their father had passed away, and they had no brothers. And that meant the Zelophedad family plot would go to someone from outside of his immediate family. The family name would be wiped off the map – literally. And his daughters didn’t want that to happen. Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah come forward to appeal this regulation, stating their case in front of the sacred tent of meeting in the presence of Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders, and indeed the whole community (Numbers 27:2). So, they come to Moses, and they say to him: “Why should our father’s name be left out, why should it disappear from his tribal family, just because he didn’t have a son? It’s not right. Give us, his daughters, a plot of land among our father’s brothers!”

Now this might not sound all that audacious at first but stop and really think about what they’re saying. They’re asking for God to make an exception in the laws of inheritance. They’re saying that the way things stand now isn’t right and things need to change.

God answers them thru Moses. God grants their request, makes an exception to His own law to let them inherit their fathers’ land. That in and of itself is just astounding. But here’s the thing: God goes further: He issues a proclamation, and institutionalizes it, makes it an everlasting part of the laws of inheritance. This is way beyond God saying yes – this is a ringing endorsement of the petition of the daughters of Zelophehad. But why? What was so great about their request for family land, to get this unprecedented level of approval from God? There’s another place in the Torah– where a request is made of God, and He doesn’t just say yes, but codifies that “yes” into law. And maybe if we look at that story alongside the story of the daughters of Zelophedad, we may be able to understand why God took to these requests so much, what was so special about them.

So, this other story is a small little story, tucked away earlier in Numbers 9. It’s about a group of people who were ritually impure during Passover, and because of that, they couldn’t offer the Passover offering. But that didn’t sit well with these believers. So, they approached Moses for help. Now, let’s look at what they say, and see if anything sounds a little familiar. 

Numbers 9:6-11 “And there were certain men who were unclean through touching a dead body, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day, and they came before Moses and Aaron on that day. And those men said to him, “We are unclean through touching a dead body. Why are we kept from bringing the Lord’s offering at its appointed time among the people of Israel?” And Moses said to them, “Wait, that I may hear what the Lord will command concerning you.” The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean through touching a dead body, or is on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the Lord. In the second month on the fourteenth day at twilight they shall keep it. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.”

Doesn’t that sound familiar? God, not just giving these believers what they want, but issuing a proclamation to the whole nation, establishing a new law to address their Passover problem? It’s exactly what happened with the daughters of Zelophedad.And if we look deeper, there’s more that these two stories share with each other.

Think about the problems the believers in Numbers 9:6-11 and the daughters of Zelophedad in Numbers 27:1-11 faced. All the Israelites would get to participate in something – in one case, Passover, in the other, inheriting the land. But in both cases, there’s a small group of people who, due to circumstances beyond their control, are being left out – marginalized! And they both approach God and say, we don’t want to be left out.

And there’s one more thing BOTH these stories share. If you look closely at the requests – those pleas to not be left out – they BOTH share the same language – why should we be left out? It’s virtually identical wording, and it’s not used anywhere else in the entire Torah of Moses.

So, it seems these parallels are no accident. The Torah is drawing our attention to the similarities between these two requests, maybe even telling us that they’re the same in some fundamental way. Maybe that fundamental idea can explain what made God so excited to answer them with a YES – and maybe it’s something that can inform our own prayer life too. But what is it?  Here is an example from my life…I taught an Undergraduate Course in Electronics at Northeastern University in Boston many years ago, and homework assignments were one of the most important learning experiences for the class. And for many of my students, one of the most important skills involved in solving engineering problem sets was also figuring out how to get an extension. No matter how fair or reasonable you think the deadlines you set might be, undergraduate students will always need more time and have all sorts of ways of asking for it.
Now imagine two students come to me asking for an extra week to finish up an assignment. I try to keep an open mind, and I ask them why. Here are the two “petitions” in front of me:

1. The first student – let’s call him Steve – tells me that there just isn’t enough time after class. He has lab homework and chemistry homework, and a ton of reading for American History. But when I push him a little more, I learn that he also spends a hefty portion of his free time playing video games - Call of Duty.
2. The second student – let’s call him Samuel – explains that halfway through his problems solving, he realized that one of his main physics formulas he was using was flawed. He’d misunderstood the chapter and the formulas, and because of that, most of his homework needs to be redone. And he could put something together by the deadline, but it wouldn’t be well done, and the analysis would be superficial. Samuel tells me, “I don’t want to lose out on the chance to understand the chapter in electronics theory. So, how can that happen if I don’t hand in my best work?I think we can all agree that Samuel is getting that extension, and NOT Steve. But WHY?

What is the purpose of Education? What was the purpose of my homework assignments? The whole point of assigning homework was to help students grow as engineers; to see what their skill level was and give them the feedback they need to help them advance in engineering. So, if a student comes and points out that his/her growth will actually be greater, he or she will learn more, if I just bend the rules a little, well, then being a stickler for rules makes no sense. The purpose of the homework assignments was to actually LEARN the subject matter. But if I stuck to the letter of the law, then the letter of the law would be doing the very opposite of what they’re supposed to do. If I stuck to the letter of the law, then Samuel will not have the best learning experience.

So, bearing this in mind, let’s go back to Numbers 9:6-11(Passover Believers).  Look at what they say:
Why should we lose out? We want to bring God an offering!  [We want to celebrate this momentous occasion with the rest of the Israelite people!]

That’s not a request coming from being overwhelmed, or being neglectful, or self-interest. That’s a request coming from a desire to follow God’s will! A belief in the importance of the Passover, and a feeling of loss at the prospect of missing out on it. The rules are preventing these people from participating in the Passover. And they want to thank God properly. They want to participate. And they’re asking if there’s any way for the rules to get bent to make that happen. And God said YES!

And I think the same thing is happening with the daughters of Zelophedad in Numbers 27:1-11:
Before the Exodus even began, God proclaimed His vision for the Israelites to be His holy people, living in His Promised Land. And throughout the 40 years in the desert the people rejected the land and yearned to go back to Egypt, expressing a total lack of concern for God’s vision. But the daughters of Zelophedad, they were asking for a place in that land – for their family to have an everlasting legacy among one of God’s chosen tribes, to be a part of His holy nation. That’s not self-interest – that’s wanting what God wants them to want. And God said YES!

When the Daughters of Zelophedad use the phrase – why should our father’s name be left out – its linking this story in Numbers 27:1-11 to Numbers 9:6-11 and telling us that same zeal to follow God’s will – that same sense of loss facing the prospect of missing out – that’s where the Daughters of Zelophedad were coming from. And that’s why God gave them such a strong YES to their petition.
What Prayer Points Can We Learn from Zelophedad's Daughters?

The laws of the Bible are expressions of the values God wants us to hold. Values like love, truth, justice, compassion and holiness. And when the Passover believers in Numbers 9:6-11, and the daughters of Zelophedad in Numbers 27:1-11 made their requests, they weren’t trying to appeal a law they thought was unfair. They were trying to align with the value underneath the law. A value that, because of their specific circumstances, the law prevented them from expressing. And that kind of request – the kind where what you want, is what God wants you to want – that’s the best kind there is. It is about upholding the “Spirit of the Law.”

And maybe that’s the lesson about prayer and petition – and, really, about life – that we’re supposed to take out of these stories. God gave us the Bible and showed us the values He wants us to have. And we’re here to internalize those values, and to embody them by His Holy Spirit. And if I turn to God and say in a selfish and self-centered way that it would also be great if I could get a scholarship to grad school or get a promotion, then I haven’t really given Him much of a reason to say yes. But when I start with myself; consider whether my plans fit with what I know about God’s values, and I want to follow His will for my life thru this prayer and petition? And if I then say to God, to the best of my knowledge, getting that scholarship or job or house – or whatever it is I’m asking for – will help me do what I think You, the Lord, want me to be doing. That’s a whole different kind of prayer and petition.

Am I promising that God will grant every request framed this way? Of course not. Do I have statistical evidence that God-aligned prayers get answered at a higher rate? From my life experience, I would say, probably yes! And I do know that when my prayers come from a place of wanting to do God’s will (no matter how painful it may be to me) and purpose, then I’ve given Him a reason to say yes.
If our prayers are NOT selfish or self-centered BUT they are aligned with doing God’s will on this earth through our family, our finances, and our professions – then the probability for Matthew 18:18-20 happening in your prayer group is higher.

Matthew 18:18-20, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

That is perhaps what the Apostle John meant when we wrote in 1 John 5:13-15, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
 
Reference: Adapted from https://members.alephbeta.org/playlist/zelophehads-five-daughters-lesson