There's an ongoing controversy in certain churches over the role of women in the Church and ministry. In this lesson, we read about a man who had no sons and what Joshua did for his daughters:
Now Zelophehad son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Makir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons but only daughters, whose names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirzah. They went to Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the leaders and said, “The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our relatives.” So Joshua gave them an inheritance along with the brothers of their father, according to the Lord’s command. Manasseh’s share consisted of ten tracts of land besides Gilead and Bashan east of the Jordan, because the daughters of the tribe of Manasseh received an inheritance among the sons (Joshua 17:3-6).
It seems that God has less of a problem with women coming in their own than some of the Church does as we see in these verses when an exception was made to the rule for inheritances. We saw this same principle earlier in this Old Testament study:
Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. Miriam sang to them (Exodus 15:20-21).
God made, and Israel recognized, Miriam as a prophet. If that was true, then there's no reason to believe God would hesitate to assign women the role of a prophet or any of the other roles in His Church, in which He is free to give gifts as He chooses. If there are no sons with the needed gifts, then the daughters are eligible for the job.
If you are a daughter of God, are you hesitant to embrace and express your purpose or creativity? Will you side with tradition that says you should not do so, or will you accept that God knew you were a woman when He gave you your gifts and ministry? Can you accept that not all will recognize what God has done in your life, but that you will know you're in the right place when people see and accept you for who you are?
The body of Christ has often tried to play with half of its team on the bench. It's time for the sisters to get in the game and play according to who God created them to be instead of who the Church allows them to be.
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