Contentment and Discontentment with Numbers
September 20, 2026
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Discussion Questions
Have you ever read through the book of Numbers? Skim across the chapters now. What stories pop out to you? Where in your life do you struggle with visible numbers? What numbers stir the most discontentment? Why?
We chose this series to help us with the church goal of finding contentment in the Lord. Do you feel like this is a need in our culture? Our church? Why?
Benjamin made three statements about where contentment is found. Which one challenged you the most? Which one encouraged you the most?
Look again at the catechism question about God’s ownership of us. How is being owned by God better than us owning our own lives? How does God purchase us?
Scripture Reading
Numbers 1:20-47
20 The people of Reuben, Israel's firstborn, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: 21 those listed of the tribe of Reuben were 46,500.
22 Of the people of Simeon, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, those of them who were listed, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: 23 those listed of the tribe of Simeon were 59,300.
24 Of the people of Gad, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: 25 those listed of the tribe of Gad were 45,650.
26 Of the people of Judah, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 27 those listed of the tribe of Judah were 74,600.
28 Of the people of Issachar, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 29 those listed of the tribe of Issachar were 54,400.
30 Of the people of Zebulun, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 31 those listed of the tribe of Zebulun were 57,400.
32 Of the people of Joseph, namely, of the people of Ephraim, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 33 those listed of the tribe of Ephraim were 40,500.
34 Of the people of Manasseh, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 35 those listed of the tribe of Manasseh were 32,200.
36 Of the people of Benjamin, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 37 those listed of the tribe of Benjamin were 35,400.
38 Of the people of Dan, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 39 those listed of the tribe of Dan were 62,700.
40 Of the people of Asher, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 41 those listed of the tribe of Asher were 41,500.
42 Of the people of Naphtali, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war: 43 those listed of the tribe of Naphtali were 53,400.
44 These are those who were listed, whom Moses and Aaron listed with the help of the chiefs of Israel, twelve men, each representing his fathers' house. 45 So all those listed of the people of Israel, by their fathers' houses, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war in Israel— 46 all those listed were 603,550.
47 But the Levites were not listed along with them by their ancestral tribe.
Since we’re doing a sermon series in the book of Numbers, we thought it would be good for the Scripture reading to give you what you might have expected the book to be: a long list of numbers. The book is actually much more than this, but it certainly has numbers in it. This morning I think we’ll see that the lists and numbers are much more meaningful and much more preach-able than you probably first expect. Let’s pray together as we begin.
“Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
I’ll start with a confession: I struggle with contentment. And I’m sure I struggle with contentment in ten areas, but the one that feels most real and relevant lately relates to what I’ve been calling my automotive fleet. Yes, I own a fleet of cars; four of them, to be specific. We have two adult drivers and three teenage drivers, so having multiple cars for our circus is helpful.
But before you start thinking, That sounds impressive, I’ll mention that until very recently, if you had added up the age of each car, the total age of my fleet was 76 years old. Also, and perhaps even more impressive, is the total value of my four cars. All four cars, when added together, were worth well under $10,000—not each but total. I think 10k is a lot of money, but the discerning listener should hopefully realize that cars this old and cheap probably need constant fixing. The maintenance number is what’s impressive.
I recently took over for my own personal use the worst car in the fleet because I typically drive the least number of miles and also because I’m a dad, and having the worst car feels like a dad sort of thing to do. If someone is going to get stranded on the highway, I figure it should be me. And, to be honest, it might be me.
I parked it at Sheetz on Thursday, and an eighty-year-old man saw my car and said, “She’s a beaut; don’t hate on age.” I said, “Thanks.” True story.
But what that man didn’t know is that the car’s air conditioning quit working, which means I get out of my car for every church meeting, covered in sweat. Also, the muffler seems to be making a sound much louder than any muffler should. Also, the plastic paneling started falling off the inside, exposing wires. And if you must drive on the highway, you hope for a downhill entrance ramp so you can get up to speed more easily. I’ve decided the only maintenance we’ll do to the car is put gas in the tank and air in the tires. I’m on the fence about whether to change the oil.
I’ll finish here in a moment with the last detail of my confession. So, I’m on the highway the other day, on a twenty-minute drive. And in a particularly low, discontented moment—also known as a sweaty moment with the windows down—I think to myself, “Let’s play a game.” The name of this game becomes, “Can I find a car anywhere on this highway in the next half hour that is worth less than my car?” That’s the name of the game. A car passes me, and I think, “Hmm, is that car worth less than my car? Or what about that car? Or that one?” Nope, those are most certainly worth more, I think.
I play for like five minutes, and guess what: playing that game was not very helpful on my soul’s journey to find contentment in the Lord. In fact, having those numbers so visible in my mind—believe it or not—stirred quite a bit of discontent.
I say, “believe it or not,” but you do believe me. You believe me because when you play this same game, the game of focusing on visible numbers and how you compare and where you rank, your soul also finds contentment in the Lord hard. I bet it was also hard in ancient Israel. So that’s what we’ll talk about this morning.
We’ll talk about the way numbers can stir discontentment. That is the first point. The second point is what we can and should do to find contentment in the Lord. So, we’ll talk about discontentment and then contentment.
But because we’re at the relative beginning of this journey through the book of Numbers, let me start with a few minutes to provide some context for the book. I want to help you understand what you’re reading when you read the book of Numbers.
Quick Context…
Genesis is the first book of the Bible, followed by Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis tells the story of God creating the world from nothing and creating a people from nothing, beginning with a pagan man named Abraham. His family eventually moves to Egypt. Exodus tells the story of how they leave Egypt. When they leave, they first go to Mount Sinai, where they receive the 10 Commandments and remain through the rest of Exodus, all of Leviticus, and the beginning of Numbers.
So, when we open the book of Numbers, we’re reading about a large group of people camped at the base of a mountain receiving marching orders. You can divide Numbers into thirds: a third at the base of the mountain, a third on the way to the promised land, and a third on the edge of the promised land. With that in mind, I’ll read vv. 1–4.
1 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, 2 “Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head. 3 From twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them, company by company. 4 And there shall be with you a man from each tribe, each man being the head of the house of his fathers. (Num. 1:1–4)
Our English Bibles call this book Numbers. But you can see the Hebrew title in those first lines. The Hebrew title is called “in the wilderness.” Since the book has a lot of numbers and the book has a lot of wildernesses, both titles are good. And, as you might expect, both the numbers and the wildness make contentment hard. That’s the context: God loves his people, saved them out of Egypt, and now commands them to take a census of the people, as v. 2 says: “Take a census of all the congregation of Israel.”
To get to our discussion of discontentment and contentment, I’ll ask an important question: Why would God want them to take a census? A census, for those who are younger, simply means counting every person and adding up the totals. So why would God want them to count themselves? Don’t skip quickly past this question.
Let me make the question more pointed. If God is all-knowing, if God knows the number of hairs on the heads of everyone in this group, if God knows the number of their days, and if, before any of them even speaks a word, God knows their thoughts, then why would God command a census? Why does God want the people of Israel to count how big they are? It’s not so God can learn something. It’s so his people can learn something. What are we supposed to learn? We are invited to move toward contentment; I’ll explain how at the end. But before they reached contentment, I bet they had to work through how visible numbers often stir discontentment.
How numbers can stir discontentment…
I know we read the census already, but let me read two sections again. The reporting of the results begins in v. 20.
20 The people of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: 21 those listed of the tribe of Reuben were 46,500.
22 Of the people of Simeon, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers’ houses, those of them who were listed, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go to war: 23 those listed of the tribe of Simeon were 59,300. (Num. 1:20–23)
And the passage continues, visibly listing for all the world, for all time, the size of each tribe. Finally, at the end, the Levites are described. They are not counted because they are set apart to the Lord and to the service of the Lord’s stuff.
When we first read the census results, we probably don’t see any struggle of the heart. We read it and think, “Okay, good to know.” The list feels benign. But let me tell you this: The size of the tribe indicated its prominence, or lack of prominence. The size of the tribe indicated its perceived power, or lack of power. So, if you look at Judah (v. 27), we see it’s the largest, most powerful, most prominent tribe. If you look at the tribe of Benjamin (v. 37), you see it’s the smallest, least powerful, least prominent. Simeon (v. 23)? Well, he’s average; he’s mid. Do you see the heart struggle with discontentment?
Let me be more helpful. Next month our staff will go to a church conference with all the churches in our denomination that are on the East Coast, like 130 churches. Now, what if I told you that at the conference, in the packet they hand out when you arrive, they include a list of all churches and list their average attendance?
Of the people of Community Evangelical Free Church, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers’ houses… those listed of the tribe of Community were 350.
Of the people of West Shore Evangelical Free Church, their generations, by their clans, by their fathers’ houses… those listed of the tribe of West Shore were 3,500.
I love West Shore, by the way. I’ve preached there before and love to do it again. I love Pastor Trent, their lead pastor. He’s become a good friend and ministry buddy. But West Shore Church is literally ten times larger than our church. If our denomination printed all the numbers, I might feel a little weird. Maybe Trent would too.
Let’s leave the church conference and come inside our church. What if we printed our church membership roster and, next to each person, listed total income and total money given to the church? That would be weird, right? We won’t do that. I don’t know either. But visible numbers would stir pride, envy, grumbling—all forms of discontentment.
Now, you might be saying, But, Benjamin, would this really have been a struggle for the tribes of Israel as they looked at the list? Fair question. Do you remember how they all got to Egypt at the end of Genesis? Before they were huge tribes, they were just one family with twelve sons. One of those sons, Joseph, was the father’s favorite, and he got a special, colorful robe. The other brothers hated him so much for it that they pretended to kill him and sold him into slavery, which got him to Egypt. Now, it didn’t help that Joseph was a jerk about it, including bragging about his special dreams. But I think it’s safe to assume that the visible numbering would stir discontentment.
When framed this way, it’s easy to see how much we also struggle with visible numbers. I talked this week with an accountant who used to attend our church but moved away. I officiated his wedding years ago, and we got coffee to catch up. I’ve been thinking about numbers, and since his work is all about numbers, I asked for his thoughts. He said it can be hard to know what everyone in the company makes, to have their salaries so visible. He makes more than some but less than others, which can stir pride in one direction and envy in another.
I talked to my father this week about all this, and he gave me twenty minutes of brilliant reflections, which I wish I could share. My father’s been following the Lord for fifty years. He’s now retired, but he ran huge factories for years and years. And in factories, as you might guess, a ton of performance numbers get generated. He would tell you, “I’m a numbers guy.” And he means that as a good thing. “But,” he told me, “if you stare at numbers long enough, they are never enough.”
Are your grades enough? Is your salary enough? Is your fleet of cars enough? Is your house’s square footage enough? Is the amount you have in your retirement account enough? Can you do enough push-ups? Is your waist thin enough? Is the tribe of Judah big enough? Thankfully, this passage in Numbers offers us more than guilt.
How numbers can stir contentment…
Let’s go back to the central question from the passage. If God knows everything, if God knows the number of hairs on their heads, if he knows the number of their days, then why would he need the people to count themselves? God is not learning something; his people are. And what can we learn?
First, contentment comes when we retell the longer, spiritual story—not from simply looking at this moment and asking whether God loves us. When they retold their longer, spiritual story, what would that mean for them? It would mean remembering that in Genesis, Israel’s family, with his twelve sons and all their wives and children, totaled just seventy people (Gen. 46:27). This means that the number of people who went into Egypt could fit in the basement of our church and watch the livestream.
Think about that. One man named Abraham becomes a family of seventy. And seventy becomes a number you can’t fit into the stadium for a Penn State football game. God promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars and as many as the grains of the sea (Gen. 12, 15, 17, 22). And note that God brought this growth not in some greenhouse with pristine conditions, but in the iron furnace of Egypt. God wanted these numbers to force them to tell the longer, spiritual story.
For us, we tell the same long, spiritual story, and more. We don’t find contentment from looking around at our circumstances and asking if God loves us. To find contentment, we retell our long spiritual story of slaves of sin saved by grace. We retell what we read in Romans 5:8: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We find contentment knowing God loves us and gave himself for us. And we trace that story forward to its conclusion in the new heavens and the new earth, an even greater promised land. If we stop telling that story and focus only on the numbers, we’ll never know the contentment God offers us.
What else do we learn? Second, contentment comes with God at the center. If you look at the next chapter, this census begins the ordering of locations around the camp. One tribe would go here and another there. And the Levites would be near the center. But they were only near the center. Who was in the center? The numbers of all the tribes were centered around God. Any prosperity, any blessing, any joy, any health, any friends, any family, any church, any truth that the people of God experience radiates from God.
Some of you need to put God back in the center. It can start this morning. Much of your discontent might be because you’ve moved God from the center. And when you move God from the center, no number is ever enough. Church attendance and church tithing, as simple as they are, help with this: they tell your heart that the first part of the week belongs to God and the first part of our salary belongs to God.
What else do we learn? Third, contentment comes when we’re owned by God. God commanded the census so they would know he owns them. A lot of contentment comes in knowing God owns you. You see, we count things we own. I might count my money. I might count my fleet of cars. I might count baseball cards or shoes. This is why, later in the Bible, when King David takes a census, it comes off all wrong, and he’s punished severely for it. In David’s census, he thinks he’s counting what he owns (2 Sam. 24).
But, here, when God tells the people to count themselves, it’s so we would know that this people are owned by him. Which is a great comfort. There’s an old catechism question we sometimes quote around here. It goes like this:
What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 1)
The cross and the census teach us the same thing: that we are owned by God. What is your only comfort in life and in death? That you are not your own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He bought you when he paid for your sins. And knowing this makes contentment possible.
So, I’ll repeat. Contentment comes when we retell the longer, spiritual story. Contentment comes with God at the center. Contentment comes when we’re owned by God.
This was not merely some academic idea for them. Contentment in the Lord wasn’t about making life a little better; for them, it was life or death. Note in the census results the repeated mention of “all who were able to go to war.” Kind of ominous, right? They are not counting those who like watercolor or those who can sing. They are counting warriors. Why? They needed the artisan. Now, they will need warriors when they go into the promised land.
This detail carries a sobering warning for us. We know, of course, because this book is over three thousand years old, that everyone named in the book is dead. That’s unremarkable. But did you know that everyone named in this census dies before the end of the book? We’ll cover that story later, but basically, they forget their longer, spiritual story. They forget God at the center. They forget they are owned by God. And they perished in the wilderness.
Our hope is that, by God’s grace, this fall we can find greater contentment in our modern wildernesses. You can leave your children and grandchildren a legacy of a million dollars, which would be quite special. But if we don’t leave a legacy of contentment in the Lord—retelling our long spiritual story, keeping God at the center, knowing he owns us and we don’t own ourselves—then a million dollars will never be enough. You’ll always play a game called, “Do I have more than that person over there?” But if we learn contentment in the Lord, and pass along contentment in the Lord, then we’ll leave a legacy that will always be more than enough.
By God’s grace, may we leave a better legacy and inherit the true and greater promised land. Pray with me as the music team returns to lead us in closing songs. Let’s pray . . .
