A day or two ago I stumbled upon an unfamiliar story in the Bible. It was set during the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt around 1400 BC. Five young sisters approached Moses and stood in front of the whole community. In my imagination, I see them as the original ‘Spice Girls’. They must have been young as none were married and each was an individual – emphasised in the text because each was named – Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. These women had seen men swallowed up as clefts opened in the earth as punishment for rebelling against God’s instructions, so they were brave to petition the assembly.
Their father had died of natural causes without a son to inherit his land. Up to this point, Hebrew law only allowed sons to inherit. These sisters came to ask that the law be amended giving them the right to his lands so that his name would live on. From the text in Numbers, it seems that they reasoned their case with Moses and he listened to their rationale. Moses took their case to God. God ruled in favour of the daughters. From then on if a man died with no sons, his property would go to his daughters, then to his brothers. This was a radical break with tradition. How much heartache and tragedy would have been avoided if this had been allowed throughout history, rather than royalty always looking for a male heir?
I started to wonder if there are any traditions or rules that I would like to see changed in order to benefit others. It’s easy, especially in Christian circles, to carry on with things because that’s the way it’s always been done ; no-one wants to rock the boat. Sometimes the origins of tradition are lost in time and the reasoning behind the habit needs to be reviewed to see if there are better ways of doing things that would reflect more closely the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father. Are we willing to listen to arguments for change? Would we support radical U turns to our traditions if God called on us to do so?
Unchanging God,
You cannot change. You are love and mercy and stand for justice. However, our world has changed – what was once acceptable may not be now. Some things have never been right, but people didn’t realise or were so blinded by other interests that they ignored the calls for justice. Now is the time for us to speak out and right those wrongs. Give us the courage to act. Amen