Wednesday, January
16, 2019
One day a petition was presented by the daughters of Zelophehad—Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. Their father, Zelophehad, was a descendant of Hepher son of Gilead, son of Makir, son of Manasseh, son of Joseph. These women stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the tribal leaders, and the entire community at the entrance of the Tabernacle. “Our father died in the wilderness,” they said. “He was not among Korah’s followers, who rebelled against the Lord; he died because of his own sin. But he had no sons. Why should the name of our father disappear from his clan just because he had no sons? Give us property along with the rest of our relatives.” So Moses brought their case before the Lord. And the Lord replied to Moses, “The claim of the daughters of Zelophehad is legitimate. You must give them a grant of land along with their father’s relatives. Assign them the property that would have been given to their father. “And give the following instructions to the people of Israel: If a man dies and has no son, then give his inheritance to his daughters. And if he has no daughter either, transfer his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. But if his father has no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan. This is a legal requirement for the people of Israel, just as the Lord commanded Moses.” Numbers 27:1-11(NLT)
Our Federal Government partial
shut-down is approaching one month since the furlough of non-essential
personnel began. Frankly, it’s a lot
easier to say personnel than men and women who have families to feed. It’s a lot easier to look at rosters of those
who fall above or below a line-item in the budget manual, than to look in the
eyes of someone who’s nervous about this month’s mortgage payment on the family
house.
Israel’s form of government was
appropriate for desert wanderers that had stumbled into the Promised Land, and
were about to settle-in. Leadership had
fallen to Moses, and he responded to needs of the powerless with fairness.
(Incidentally, Ruth Bader Ginsberg
would have been proud of Mo. This was a
landmark victory for women’s rights in a day when women and children were
considered little more than part of the family’s herd of oxen and donkeys).
Someone[2] once
made a statement about government that you can tell a lot about the design and
foundation of a government by the way it treats the powerless. Using that rule as a baseline for
understanding the heart of governance, we can trace the sunbeam back to its
source in Moses’ day. The Lord cared for
the widows and the powerless, even though humans had a hard time not being hard
toward each other. That hardness
is a development of the sinful nature each of us has inherited from Adam and
Eve. It is the source of all that is
death to humanity. And that is why God,
who is love, mercy, grace, and peace did something unmatched to save us from
ourselves:
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) Ephesians 2:4-5(NLT)
Our system of government is not
perfect, nor were the hearts of the founding fathers of this nation. The ideals and basis, however, which permeate
our founding documents (Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights)
are a derivative of the liberty and life we crave, because that’s how God
hard-wired humanity.
And therein is the basis for an
outcry against the political machinations of elected officials who dabble with impunity
in power. Their gamesmanship with who’s
got the power today sends ripples of uncertainty to the masses, and,
in the wake of that uncertainty is the certain hardship forced-upon government workers
and their families as they labor without a paycheck.
I was always under the impression
that my country was better than this, holding its integrity and compassion hostage
over a squabble on how to keep the power, while tens of thousands of families
suffer the consequences of broken promises.
For You Today
It’s easy enough to sit back and
do nothing if you’re not affected by this shutdown. But what will you do tomorrow when they come
for your paycheck?
Go to VIDEO
[2] Source unknown
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