Our name for the fourth book of Moses, Numbers, did not come from the author but from the Septuagint title in the 3rd century BC. Numbers is one of those parts of the Old Testament that tend to pose a problem for Christians looking for theological and practical edification. The structure of the book is difficult to follow, and there is often a puzzling mixture of regulations and stories.1 Many of the details do not seem relevant to our lives in the twenty-first century. Biblical theology,