"The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying"
Numbers 1:1
That providentially constituted and preserved nation God in time brought out of Egypt and on its way to the Promised Land; and, having first begun to deal with a man, Abraham, He now begins to deal with the seed of Abraham, this great multitude, called Israel, accord- ing to promise.
The nation begins to be disciplined at Sinai. It receives the law; it receives the whole elaborate system of sacrifices; it receives the cloud and the fire to lead it and guide it. Then, having received the whole institution of the tabernacle and the sacrifices, they were ready to move on, because God's plan for, and promise to, Abraham was to give him the Promised Land, so that, eventually, in the fullness of the time, having been established there, they might produce the Promised Seed, the Saviour of the world. The mystery of the Incarnation is the culmination of the drama begun in the call of Abraham. Unless we see that the Christmas story is integrally related in this way to the book of Numbers, there will be no kind of relevance in our study. But when we do see it, the study of Numbers becomes tremendously important as vital living truth from beginning to end.
Numbers, then, is the next instalment, so to speak, of the story of God's dealing with His people, the continuing discipline of Israel and the shaping of the vessel in the hand of the Potter.