Time to make a stand and bring about change in 2011

Yes, you may be challenged to break the status quo. This is what the daughters of Zelo-phehad did.

Back in Bible days, women could not own property. They were the property. A woman’s sole purpose was to cook, keep house, and bear children for her husband. She was as valuable as her womb was productive.

Numbers 27:6-8: 6 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

7 The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.

8 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.

In the text there were five daughters of Zelophehad who were about to change life, as all others knew it to be.

Their father had no sons, but he had land. The children of Israel were about to cross over into The Promised Land, and as things stood the family lineage of Zelophehad was about to vanish because he had no sons and no male relatives to give the land to as an inheritance.

Here is where the women stepped into a place never seen before. Their father had been honourable, had not been a part of the rebellion of Korah, and therefore they thought it only right that his land should be given to them so that his family name would be continued.

Unheard of! Women owning land! Those women could have left the matter alone.

After all, no one before them had done that. Yet, for the sake of their father’s honour, they pursued the matter.

The five sisters ended up in front of Moses and the priest, and they shared their plight.

That challenged Moses and the priest who did not know what to do.  Never before had women approached them in such a way. Moses took the matter to God, and it was at the Word of God that Moses came back to inform the priest that the daughters were right.

The move of those women opened up a way whereby women could own land. That is, the law was changed or amended, so that if a father had no sons, he had the right to will his land to his daughter(s).

The Law of Moses had just received an upgrade. In other words, it must be noted that the Law of Moses did not speak to every situation existing or every situation to come.

Those women paved the way for the women of today. Why, because they did something about their situation, rather than wallowing in a place of self-pity.

Rather than complaining about the unfairness of a thing, they met the situation head-on. They dealt with it.

We need more women like these daughters. Indeed, Bermuda needs more people like these daughters.

At the end of the year 2010, I pray that you will consider your current state and, if need be, address situations that need to change.

You may have to make your position known to those in authority. You may have to stand “shaking in your boots”. Just stand!

This past year, far too many sat and watched things happened. This past year too many just let things go — go too far and go too wrong.

Why take the complacent attitude of 2010 into a brand new year? Make a change and give the year 2011 an opportunity to be different.

It matters little that others before you did nothing. You have within you the ability and choice to do something.

To sit back and accept the same failures of 2010 is to pave the way for certain failure in 2011. Don’t settle for the same old same old. Make your next choice a radical one of change that will benefit generations to come.

The daughters of Zelophehad did and you can too. Is there not a cause? Believe in your cause! Stand up for the cause and cause your life to be different from what it was this year. Respice finem.

Dr. Maria A. Seaman is the Pastor of Shekinah Worship Centre, located at 98 North Shore Road, Hamilton Parish CR 01.