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.

While most of Numbers has been about laws that affect the whole community, today we read of how Moses and God take seriously the concern of five sisters at risk of losing their inheritance in a male-oriented culture.

The Bible often equates adultery with unfaithfulness to God. Today we read of how relations with foreign women caused Israelites to stray into idol worship.

While we know Balaam best for his talking donkey, he is also an example himself of God using unexpected channels to speak his word.

Jesus spoke of the time that Moses lifted up a bronze snake to save his people. Today we read about that event.

The time in the wilderness was an in-between time, when the familiar was gone and the Promised Land was not yet visible. Those can be some of the most stressful times of life.