Numbers 36:5

Numbers 36:5 says, And Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of the LORD, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph hath said well.  Moses commanded the children of Israel that according to God's word, the sons of Joseph had said well.  We need to make sure that as followers of Christ that whatever we say today is according to God's word, and not according to what we want.  Verse six adds, This is the thing which the LORD doth command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them marry to whom they think best; only to the family of the tribe of their father shall they marry.  God said that the daughters of Zelophehad could marry whomever they thought best, as long as he was from the tribe of their father.  Today, we may hear Christians say that they should be free to marry whomever they choose to marry, but it must be within God's guidelines and with His blessing.  Verse seven continues, So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe: for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.  This was to ensure that the inheritance of the land was to remain in the tribe that it was given to.  Verse eight states, And every daughter, that possesseth an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers.  This was a restatement of the fact that any daughter in the people of Israel who had an inheritance was to marry within her tribe to keep the inheritance within the particular tribe.  I believe that we as Christians should never marry another Christian simply because we want what to claim what his or her family has for our own at the expense of his or her family.  Verse nine adds, Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.  They were not to attempt to claim the inheritance that God gave to another family as their own, and neither should we.  Verse ten continues, Even as the LORD commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad:  The daughters of Zelophehad did as God commanded through Moses, and so must we today do as God commands as followers of Christ.  This doesn't mean that we are to do as everyone who professes to be a leader of God's church today says, but that we are to do so if we know what they say is God's word, which must be consistent with His written word, the Bible.  The people of Israel were not to obey Moses because he was Moses, but because he was God's chosen leader.  Even then, his word had to be what God said and not what Moses himself wanted.  Verse eleven says, For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married unto their father’s brothers’ sons:   The five daughters of Zelophehad were married into their tribe as God had commanded.  Verse twelve adds, And they were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.  They were from the tribe of Manasseh, one of Joseph's sons, and their inheritance remained with the tribe of Manasseh.  When we know what God is saying to us, we must obey Him.  Verse thirteen concludes, These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.  This concluded the commandments from God to Moses before the people of Israel entered the Promised Land.  We today as Christians have God's written word to guide us with the help of the Holy Spirit.  We must always seek God's guidance even as we study His word and should never attempt to make His word endorse what we want.