Say “Za,” which rhymes with baa and cha, cha, cha. Say “loaf,” like a loaf of bread. Say “ah,” like opening your mouth at the dentist. Say “had,” like I just had to eat my veggies. Put those four sounds together and what do you get? Ze-loph-e-had! Who is that, and what’s his story? Well, his story starts at the end of his life. He dies. That’s sad. And he had no sons. Which is also sad, because, in those days, after a father died, his son would inherit his land. Zelophehad had no sons, so his family would lose their land. But he did have five daughters—Mahlah, Noah (yes, it can be a girl’s name too!), Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. They were the sort of girls who knew how important God’s promises were. They knew God promised his people land, and they weren’t going to stand by while their family lost their share of God’s blessing.

So here’s what happened. These girls stood before Moses and said, “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not part of Korah’s rebellion. But he was a sinner, and he died because of his own sin. He had no sons, but he did have daughters. We think we should inherit our father’s land. What do you think?” Moses didn’t know what to think. So he did what all of God’s people should do when they don’t know what to do. He went to God for help! And God helped. Here was his decision: “The daughters of Zelophehad are right. Give them the land as their inheritance. Then let the people of Israel know about this new rule: ‘If a man dies and has no son, then give his inheritance to his daughter. If he has no daughter, then give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, then give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. And if his father has no brothers, then give his inheritance to the nearest relative’” (see Num. 27:7–11). Whew! That was a lot of ifs. And all of this was to make sure that none of the families in Israel missed out on God’s blessing. The promised land would be divided fair and square.

Most people don’t know this little story in the Biggest Story. It is a little story, but an important one. It is important because it teaches us that God wants all of his people to know his blessing. The promised land would be divided fairly, regardless of whether you had lots of sons or no sons. It was wise of Moses to look to God, and we should look to him, too, when we don’t know what to do.