“Don’t you know your Bible?” These words were said with a hint of hubris by a third grader on Grandparent’s Day at our local Christian school. My mom (the grandparent) had answered a Bible question wrong. Who shut the door on the ark? My mom replied, “Noah,” but the correct answer is God. Neither my mom, nor I, will forget that bit of Bible trivia.
I have been a Christian for a very long time. I’m married to a theologian and I spent my teen years on a Bible quizzing team. Even after completing a read-through-the-Bible challenge, I was stunned when a girlfriend mentioned an Old Testament story about five orphaned sisters inheriting land. Wait. What? How had I missed the story of the daughters of Zelophehad?
Later that night, I scoured the book of Numbers and found the account of how five orphaned sisters changed history by asking Moses if they could inherit their deceased father’s land. Moses sought the counsel of God instead of chastising these bold girls, and God said these girls were right. If a man died without a son, his daughters could inherit his land. Why hadn’t the bravery and boldness of these sisters been championed in every church? Certainly, this is a story worthy of Vacation Bible School.
With the release of my novel “Lioness: Mahlah’s Journey,” and my subsequent books which follow the daughters of Zelophehad into the Promised Land, I hope a lot more people will be familiar with Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. The account of these historic and groundbreaking daughters deserves to be shouted from the tent tops. Don’t miss a question about these famous daughters on your next Bible quiz.
Are you familiar with daughters of Zelophehad?
You can find out more by reading: Numbers 26:33, 27:1-11, chapter 36 and Joshua 17:3-6
