Numbers is the fourth book of the Bible.  The book recounts Israel’s journey from Mount Sinai (which they reached in Exodus 19 and where they remained through the rest of Exodus and Leviticus) to the plains of Moab on the border of Canaan.  Thus, Numbers is the story of a people on a journey through the wilderness – a journey as the LORD’s redeemed people (see Exodus 1-15) towards all that the LORD had promised them (see Genesis 12).  Tragically, it was a journey that ended up taking over 40 years as the generation who the LORD saved out of Egypt rebelled against him and so he raised up a new generation with new leaders to whom he would give the land.