Sisters: The Five Daughters of Zelophehadနမူနာ

This promise of ‘rest’ toward us is so powerful. Yet many of us don’t know how to enter into God’s rest for our souls. You see, it’s more than sleep or a nice tropical holiday. What I’m referring to is a calm, Shalom peace. It’s living in God’s grace for our lives. And as I think about our Zelophehad sisters, I think about the peace they would have had to activate during their time waiting for their rightful inheritance. They had to wait until Moses had died and Joshua became their new leader.

The five sisters make their final appearance as the Israelites settle in Canaan. The promised land allotments are being given out, and the women remind the leaders of Israel that God had granted them the right to inherit along with their uncles. The sisters stood their ground.

In reading some of the Jewish studies, it is confirmed that the women waited with joy. I wonder, do you have joy when life feels unfair? In our situations, justice is not always prompt and sometimes does not come. Yet, we can still wait with hope for God to work out all things for good.

In the New Testament, Matthew records the statement from Jesus about the rest He offers. The words ‘come unto me’ are from the Greek word ‘duete,’ and it literally means ‘come now, I am inviting you to come!’ It’s the heaven exchange, an exchange of chaos for peace, weakness for strength, joy for heartache.

The word ‘labour’ in Greek is the word ‘kopiao’ which describes a person who has become completely exhausted due to nonstop, continuous work. This sounds like a woman to me! And here we have Jesus, beckoning every person who feels like this to come to Him. Most times, these loads are not physical but emotional, a load that weighs our souls down. The word ‘rest’ means to invigorate, refresh, to rejuvenate. Without this type of replenishing rest, our souls become weak. This is actually when we can also find ourselves making foolish and hasty decisions.

It’s funny that when things feel out of control, the hardest thing to do in the natural is to wait and trust. We want to help God out and move things along. But trusting God means waiting when you cannot see the end. Trust has everything to do with waiting. And Jesus won’t force Himself onto us. He always waits to be welcomed. That’s why deliberately leaning into our God is such a worshipful response to Him, and in that place of surrender, we hear Him speak, fuelling us for yet another day.

Time is the most precious commodity we have on earth, so even though you may think you have no time to just wait on God, it’s in the waiting that you’ll find strategy, answer, resolve, and peace for the journey.

CONCLUSION

Take some time to reflect on your personal expression of joy in the waiting. Do you find your joy wanes amid the waiting? Lingering in the presence of God is the best way to fill up the space between your request and God’s response. No time with Him is wasted, and He promises to give you the power to endure as you seek strength in Him.