Numbers is a book of data and laws. Significantly, though, it ends not with rules and figures, but with words of mercy for people caught in difficult circumstances.

While it’s tempting to consider the portrayal of God in the Old Testament as being arbitrary and inflexible, passages like today’s remind us of God’s willingness to listen to the needs of his people and even to change his mind.

The Old Testament view of women is inconsistent, and today’s reading has both extremes. We see girls being considered as plunder just one chapter away from a surprisingly progressive take on financial autonomy for women in many cases.

A list of holidays may not sound like it has much to teach us, but what we memorialize as a society shapes who we are. This deliberate pattern of recollection was intended to keep the people aware of what God had done and commanded.