The daughters of Zelophehad showed up. Their father was the son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Makir son of Manasseh, belonging to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. The daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.”
Numbers 27:1 MSG
I was at a retreat just this last weekend and during one of the sessions, the moderator made a remark that stuck with me.
As a backdrop to the retreat session, we were playing a game to mention the names of Bible Characters based on how a representative of our team described them. During the game, we realized that some people had names in the Bible and some people were just described by what they did.
For instance, Potiphar’s wife and Lot’s wife, we never got to know their names, we only know what they did; however, people like Rahab the prostitute who saved Israel’s spy, her name was not only mentioned and what she did, she was also listed in the genealogy of Christ; same as Ruth, Tamar and Bathsheba.
Suggested Read: The Women of The Resurrection
It is amazing that these women whose stories you wouldn’t have thought were deserving of Grace were the ones whose names were listed in the genealogy of Christ. (See Matthew chapter 1)
This brings me back to my initial story about the daughters of Zelophehad: I had read about them while growing up and the story of how they showed up and stood up for their father’s inheritance even though it wasn’t the norm has always been an inspiring one. However, I didn’t know until today that their names were mentioned (all 5 of them).
Knowing how every part of the Scripture is inspired and nothing was written by mistake, leaves me with a lesson and a question: How do I want to be remembered? Is it by my name and the inspiring acts God helped me to live out? Or to just be known as someone’s friend or someone’s wife with nothing credible to say about her?
What do you want to be known for? If another Bible were to be written about our times, would your name be known for Kingdom impact?
I’m writing this post in a way that I hope will help you get more lessons than the ones I pointed out. I hope the stories of women gone before: the “undeserving” who found grace, the “courageous” who fought for their rights and opened the doors for other women to get their inheritance, the “unfazed” who denied the king’s order to kill newborn babies, and many other women inspire you to show up in your world today.
Like Numbers 27:1 read: The daughters of Zelophehad showed up.
Will you also show up in our world today? Will you rise to your fullest potential in God? Will you open yourself up to be used by God for your generation? How do you want to be remembered?
Remember, no matter where you are in your journey, you can still surrender yourself to God’s will and become one of the women who show up.
May you be a woman who shows up. Amen.
Love and Light Always,
Esthitude