The book of numbers gets its name because twice in the book the children of Israel were numbered. Once in the beginning of the wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness and once before they came into the Promised Land. Less people came out of the wilderness then came into it. Of the various tribes there were chief men, and Moses and Aaron took these men. They were chiefs because they were expressed by their names. Elezer means my God is a rock, v6 at peace with God, a diviner, v8 a gift of God, v9 my God is father, my God has heard, v10 my God is a rewarder, v12 brother of help, v13 event of God, v14 God addeth, etc.. these names were of the chiefs or leaders of the various tribes. Then all the tribes are numbered, all twelve tribes. They would see the cloud and would be reminded of the centrality of the people, how important that a nation is to have God as its centrality. When people lose this centrality then that nation is in decline. America was founded on God and the founding fathers were bringing a recognition of the need of God. In God we trust is even on the coins for America, which has become somewhat of a hypocrisy.
