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Question: My subject matter concerns the Biblical use of numbers. Any Bible student can see a recurring use of certain numbers throughout scripture. Seven seems to represent things holy; 40 seems to be a period of temptation, etc. On and on.

I guess the first impression is that the author of the Bible is ONE and that all things were preordained; which is fine. However it sometimes gives me a feeling that God is playing number games with His creatures, such as how a child would deal with a lowly creature such as an ant or butterfly.

For example, the Israelites were 400 years in slavery only to be freed to spend the next 40 years wondering in the wilderness. The Biblical explanation for that episode was that it was to test their allegiance to God.

The New Testament says that those were for our examples and perhaps the whole Old Testament with its laws and ordinances was nothing but a primer to teach us enough to proceed to a higher level and perhaps those O.T. stories only occured for prophetic reasons. To futher that belief, even the Prophets were given strange and demanding activities to perform by God in an effort just to illustrate future events.

It just seems that God is in no hurry and can use thousands of years to DEMONSTRATE His message by USING many generations of people, unknowing to them. I just wondered what your thoughts are concerning these Biblical activities which seem to be built around numbers and how they reflect God's personality.

Answer: First of all, it seems your question has less to do with the Biblical significance of numbers per se than it has to do with God's basic personality, as you say; or, actually, His character. And, somehow, you are looking for a clue to this in the numbers. But, probably your question goes much wider than that, and could be rephrased: "If God is so precisely in control of things, as evidenced by how often events and epochs in the Old Testament involve 40 days of this or 40 years of that (or 7 items, or 12 people, or whatever,) then is God truly good and warm, or is He playing some sort of heartless 'numbers' game with His creatures?"

Now, is it fair to assume that it is really the strict regularity and/or organized precision implied by these numbers that is bothering you? Transposing this to the human plane for a moment: if someone told you that they knew of a person who insisted on ALWAYS eating dinner at 6:00 P.M. every evening (not 5:59 P.M. or 6:01 P.M.,) no matter what else was going on around them - and that's the only thing you were told about the person; then you would probably conclude (quite fairly and reasonably) that he or she was a 'mechanical' perfectionist, and likely not a very generous, warm-hearted, or flexible person; also very likely not someone you'd be eager to meet, much less have (6:00 P.M.!) dinner with. After all, such people are ones who bend everything and everyone to their rules and schedules, and usually there's little or no element of mercy or love in their personalities or characters. Or, if there is any such inkling, the perfectionism always breaks through and wins the day. Because it is order for the sake of order - and not order for the sake of harmony.

But, God's perfection and perfect ordering of things is not cold, mechanical perfectionism. As the epistle of 1 John so eloquently tells us, the foremost characteristic about God (and His true children) is love. In fact, 1 John 4:16 goes so far as to say, "God is love." It's the most defining and 'saturating' aspect of His essential nature, surrounding and imbuing all of the others, as it were - such as His justice, perfect goodness, immutability ('unchangeability',) perfect wisdom, zealousness and holiness.

By holiness, is meant that God is set apart from His creation - but not in an aloof way (for that would deny or go against, for example, His love and zealousness); and that the purpose in His creation to which He is dedicated, in time and eternity, is to both reveal and serve His own glory, exhibited through each and all of these character attributes working together in perfect harmony.

So, only because God, unlike man, is so infinitely powerful could there then also be such precision in the numerical patterns that are evident in especially the Old Testament, as God moved in history - yet not impassionately or disinterestedly, but always with great care, concern and zeal (cf. Genesis 1:31 and 2:18, Isaiah 46:4, Jeremiah 32:41, Isaiah 59:17-18, 2 Kings 19:31-35; Isaiah 9:6-7). That God could move with passion and compassion, yet also with such 'numerical precision' is a clue to His awesome omnipotence and wisdom - and serves further to give Him glory.

But, God's highest purpose - and that which gives Him the most joy and glory - is to exhibit His love and mercy, while at the same time not denying His righteousness and justice. A helpful several verses in this regard are: "I have no joy in the death of the wicked," says God; and: "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9); yet balanced by the warning: "The Lord works out everything for his own ends - even the wicked for a day of disaster" (Proverbs 16:4).

Again, the numbers you refer to are a subtle but clear form of 'underlying evidence' that God is able to act very precisely (in addition to zealously!) in individual human hearts - as well as on a global scale involving whole nations and civilizations - to bring about both salvation to the repentant and disaster to the impenitent. But, yes, in the mix of these, sometimes the godly have to suffer with the ungodly for a season or even for a life-time (but never for eternity!) - just like righteous and believing Joshua and Caleb also had to wander in the wilderness for forty years, along with of the rest of (mostly unbelieving) Israel. In effect, those two men had to share the nation's chastisement for unbelief (see Numbers 14.)

(Yet, the big difference for the Believer is that God's grace sustains him or her in all that trial, and makes very real and 'kneads into the soul' the promises in His word of ultimate triumph and safety and bliss. The wicked have no such comfort.)

Now, God is not really concerned with numerical externals - just as He is not in the faintest a cold formalist (as we could see in the verses several paragraphs above, having to do with His zeal and concern.) No, God is concerned with heart - and heart-felt relationship. And His heart and character were most perfectly revealed to us in His Son, Jesus Christ, who said "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9 ). Also, the many symbolic things in the Old Testament which God ordained, including the priestly rituals, temple designs, Sabbath and religious festival observances, and numerical patterns, etc.; and which He used there to reveal facets of His character, will and glory; these "...are but a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality however is found in Christ" (Col. 2:17).

So, if we want to meet and come to know God, we have to find Him in and through Christ as our Savior and Lord. Only then will God also give us His Holy Spirit so that we can begin to understand the things of God - and also experience His wonderful peace, joy, love and fulfillment inside of us.

Sure, we can study and arrange numerical patterns in the Bible with great fastidiousness - but it'll really be a bit like taking apart and counting the various letters in a poem - a rather futile exercise. A poem is meant to be taken in and experienced - and so is God. But, only through first receiving and following Christ as Savior and Lord.

Now for a closing warning regarding numerology - "the study of the occult (i.e. hidden) significance of numbers": Don't get involved with such attempts at divining so-called 'hidden knowledge' or foretelling the future, whether or not ostensibly linked to patterns in the Bible. In fact, shun this sort of thing like you would AIDS-infected blood - because God calls all such divination an abomination and something that is totally despicable to Him (see Deuteronomy 18:10-12.)

No, the most important and fundamental form of wisdom to have is the fear of the Lord, which the Bible defines as the beginning of all wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10); and which wisdom, if you have it, will lead you to Christ as Lord - and away from every occult practice.

Fellowship with Christ will give you salvation and peace: peace with God, and peace in your soul. But, occult studies will only lead you into vain speculations, fear and bondage, and you will be no better off or wiser than you were at first. In fact, you will be far worse off for having disobeyed God - and you will spin into a cursed spiral of demonic deception and insane addiction to occultic things.

In fact, the Bible says that those who are caught in such a spiral of deception and delusion are suffering a form of punishment actually sent by God Himself as retribution for their rebellion against the simple and wonderful truth of the Gospel, just as will be the case with those who follow the Anti-Christ's lying witchcraft signs and wonders. Of these it is said: "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness" (2 Thes. 2:11). And that kind of warning also recalls the sober truth: "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31).

It is also good and prudent to realize that there is a limit to human wisdom, and that we can stretch too far in trying to understand 'the Divine scheme of things,' as it were, and by trying to peer into a future that God firmly insists that we leave to His wise, just and loving care. For, Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever...." And Christ is God's revelation to us; the wonderful One to whom we are invited to belong, and the One who holds our future firmly in His grip!

Finally, as an aid towards helping us humbly and happily accept our Divinely assigned limitations, we will all do wisely to make the Psalmist's following plea our own:

"My heart is not proud, O Lord, and my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore" (Psalm 131:1-2).

Numerology will lead you to fear and bondage; Christ will lead you to perfect rest and peace!


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