Big Idea: God raises up new leaders for his people.

Understanding the Text

The decision allowing the daughters of Zelophehad to inherit land (Num. 27:1–10) is an appropriate occasion for God to remind Moses that he will not enter the promised land. Moses instead must appoint a successor in leadership. Moses is thus instructed about how he will soon die after viewing the land from atop the Abarim mountain range in Moab, though this foretelling is not immediately fulfilled. Moses still needs to convey the remaining laws of the book of Numbers and to deliver the speeches of Deuteronomy before his final acts on the mountain. But the time of Moses’s death is quickly approaching. So in Numbers 27:12–23, at the prompting of God, Moses formally makes Joshua the heir and successor of his leadersh…