See note 1 Tim. 4:14^4c.

When God brought His people into the wilderness, He spoke to them through Moses (Num. 12:6-8a); but Joshua, Moses’ successor, was to receive guidance not from God by His direct speaking but by the Urim and the Thummim on the breastplate worn by Eleazar the priest (see note Exo. 28:30¹, note Exo. 28:30^2a, note Exo. 28:30³). God’s government among His people was a matter not of autocracy or democracy but of theocracy, carried out through the coordination of the high priest, who received God’s instructions, and the leader, who executed these instructions. After Moses, throughout the generations in the Old Testament the divine government depended on the two persons of the high priest and the leader, the only exception being the time when David served as both the leader and the priest wearing the ephod (1 Sam. 23:9; 30:7). When the children of Israel came back from captivity, a later Joshua was the high priest, and Zerubbabel, a royal descendant, was the leader (Hag. 1:1). See note Deut. 16:18¹.

At the end of this chapter the children of Israel had become a new people formed into a new army with a new theocracy.

Moses was concerned not for himself but for God’s people, realizing that after his death they would need a shepherd.

See note Num. 16:22^1b.

Meaning the strife of Kadesh.

See note Num. 20:10^1b and note Num. 20:12^1a. Although Moses could not enter into the good land because of his failure (Deut. 3:23-27), he will nevertheless be in the millennial kingdom (Matt. 16:28; 17:1-4).

In typology, the good land signifies Christ (see note Deut. 8:7¹), and the inheritance of the good land signifies our enjoyment of Christ. The statute of judgment in vv. 8-11 typifies that the possession of the enjoyment of Christ is based on the relationship in life. In order to execute our right to enjoy Christ, we must be in the church, signified by the father’s household (Num. 26:2; Eph. 2:19), with the relationship in life, the fellowship of life, among the saints (1 John 1:1-3).

The five daughters were given an inheritance among their father’s brothers, provided that they did not marry outside their tribe (Num. 36:2-3, 6-7). Likewise, in Christ we have the right to inherit the divine things. However, we should not marry outside our “tribe,” i.e., outside Christ and the church (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14).

In typology, the desire of the daughters of Zelophehad to possess their father’s inheritance signifies the desire to inherit God’s grace, i.e., to inherit Christ as the grace given to us by God (Col. 1:12; John 1:17). Such a regard for the divine inheritance is pleasing to God.

In the Bible inheritance is determined according to genealogy, according to the source of life and the fellowship of life. The fact that the daughters of Zelophehad were of one of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph indicates that they were in the life and the fellowship of life of the proper origin. This indicates that in order to inherit Christ as our good land, we must have the proper origin of life; i.e., we must be born of God to be His children (John 1:12-13).

The father’s family signifies the church (Eph. 2:19). If we would enjoy Christ as our inheritance, participating in His riches, we must also have the church life. If we give up the church life with the fellowship of life, we will spontaneously lose our right to inherit the enjoyment of Christ.

The five daughters of Zelophehad typify all the believers in Christ, who are females, weaker ones (1 Pet. 3:7), in the sight of God. Hence, their request (v. 4) is for us all. In order to keep their father’s name and his inheritance within their tribe, the daughters of Zelophehad took the way of fellowship by contacting their stronger kinsmen (v. 4). The same principle applies to the keeping of the enjoyment of Christ by the weaker believers in the church life.