God’s Word for You
Numbers 27:8-11 To be redeemed
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, December 28, 2021
8 You are to tell the Israelites, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you are to have his inheritance pass down to his daughter. 9 If he has no daughter, then you will give his inheritance to his brothers. 10 If he has no brothers, then you will give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. 11 If his father has no brothers, then you will give his inheritance to his closest relative from his clan, and he will take possession of it. This will be a legal statute for the Israelites, just as the LORD commanded Moses.’”
The Lord now passed along a law to Moses, “a legal statute” to be included with the law, regulating what would happen to a man’s estate if he died without sons or heirs even beyond the point brought forward by the five daughters of Zelophehad. Another way of understanding the phrase “a legal statue” is “a statute of judgment (mishpat)” or “of right,” which is a law or statute determining who has the right to a man’s inheritance. The structure is clear:
1, His son(s) (Numbers 27:8)
2, His daughter(s) (Numbers 27:8)
3, His brothers (Numbers 27:9)
4, His father’s brothers (Numbers 27:10)
5, The closest relative from his clan (Numbers 27:11)
This is a list of priority, with each degree having priority over everything that follows it. So if a man died with no son but one daughter, his brothers had no say in the property, which would go to his daughter. And so on. We see an application of this in the account of Ruth, where Boaz admits, “Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I” (Ruth 3:12). When that nearer kinsman refused, Boaz was able to marry Ruth (Ruth 4:6,10).
How does this statute of rights affect our salvation? The structure is even more clear. Who can redeem us?
1, Christ
And there is no one else. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). He redeemed us by his great strength and his mighty hand (Nehemiah 1:10). Since the whole world is a prisoner of sin (Galatians 3:22), there must be one redeemer for the whole world who could release us from the power of sin. “I call to the Lord and I am saved” (Psalm 18:3). The Lord, Jesus Christ alone, is our Savior from sin. Anyone who rejects him removes himself from the one possibility of being saved. As Ezekiel warns: “If you warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin” (Ezekiel 33:9). Why? He has rejected Christ working through his people to proclaim law and gospel for the salvation of souls. But the salvation was earned once for all by Christ. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, for on Mount Zion there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls” (Joel 2:32).
It is clear that there is no salvation, no redemption, no forgiveness of sins, apart from Christ. Paul said: “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law… There is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith” (Romans 3:28,30). To make the point that is clear in the Greek, Luther added “alone” (“a man is justified by faith alone apart from observing the law”), which, though not in the Greek, accurately reflects the meaning of Paul’s sentence and the Bible’s theology.
In Israel, no land or inheritance was to go unredeemed. Under the love of Christ, none of us needs to go unredeemed. It is sad that some people reject him, and therefore they leave us with the ridiculous comparison of a tract of land, perhaps forty acres, suddenly standing up like a strange land-man, and running away from its new heir, leaving nothing but a gaping hole in the earth where it once sat. Do not run from Christ, O Adam of the soil (Genesis 2:7), but be rescued, be saved, be redeemed by God the one and only (John 1:18). His love endures forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.