Hello Reader,

One of the best things I ever did for myself was to learn to look for connections when reading the Bible. It changed my entire experience of reading Scripture. Reading the Bible no longer felt like a duty, but was a delight. Instead of approaching the Bible with anxiety, I approached it with anticipation.

I know it might seem like a small thing -- look for connections -- but if I can help one person avoid the fear and confusion that comes with challenging passages in the Bible, I'm here for it. This is one of the reasons why I wrote my new book, Count the Stars: A Handbook on Biblical Numbers. (If you have been following us for a bit, yes, I finally have a title!). I wanted to help people experience the joy and wonder of discovering how God has woven together the Bible.

I just finished the first draft of Count the Stars last week, but I am so eager to share it with you, I wanted to give you a sneak peak this month. Below, I have include the entire second chapter of the book, just for you.

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Haven't I Seen that Somewhere Before?: Repetition in the Bible

Learning to Question Well

When Jesus was twelve years old, he went up to Jerusalem with his family for the Passover. It was likely a large family group that travelled like this every year, but something different happened on this trip. As they packed up and headed back to Galilee, the family assumed that Jesus was with them. They travelled for a whole day before they realized that he was missing. Distraught parents raced back to Jerusalem and spent three days looking for Jesus. They found Jesus sitting in the temple, talking with the teachers. Exasperated, Mary and Joseph tell Jesus how worried they have been. Jesus’ response already tells us that he knows something of his identity as the Son of God, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke. 2:49). In this passage we learn about more than just what Jesus thought about himself. We also learning what it means to be a student of the Bible.

As Jesus stayed behind in the temple, he sat among the teachers. These were experts in the Bible, people who devoted their life to understanding and teaching God’s Word. Jesus’ time in the temple was spend “listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:46-47). Jesus asked really good questions. The depth of his understanding was seen in the kinds of questions he asked.

One of the ways we grow as students of the Bible is learning to ask good questions. Good questions help us pay attention to the right details and listen for the right information. Good questions fit the passage we are studying and don’t lead us off in unhelpful directions. In this chapter, we will look individually at the four key questions we should ask whenever we are studying the Bible and come across a number of any kind:

1. Where else does this number appear in the Bible?

2. Does this instance continue or reverse the themes found in other instances of this number?

3. If this number does not repeat, are there other numbers associated with similar events?

4. Why was this number included in this passage?

Jesus demonstrated his understanding by asking good questions. With these questions in hand, our understanding of the Bible will grow and, Lord willing, we will grow as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Question 1: Where else does this number appear in the Bible?

The best place to look to understand the significance of a specific number in a bible passage is that bible passage itself. When Paul was performing miracles in Ephesus, there were a group of Jews who were going around trying to drive out evils spirits in the name of Jesus (even though they did not know Jesus). In Acts 19:14, it says that “Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.” Why does Acts record that there were seven sons of Sceva? The simplest answer is that this is what happened. A man named Sceva had seven sons and all seven of them were trying to cast out demons in the name of Jesus. Even as we try to delve deeper into the significance of the numbers, we should not miss the fact that these numbers are recorded because they are true.

However, God is sovereign over all and the Holy Spirit was active in inspiring the writers of Scripture. There are no accidents in biblical history or in the biblical account. So we can begin to ask some important questions: Why did God make it so that this man had seven sons? Why did God believe we needed to know he had seven sons (instead of just saying, ‘the sons of Sceva’)? Once we start to ask these questions, we are often moving beyond the specifics of one passage of the Bible. We are on safer ground looking for an internal reference for a specific number than an external one. In short, we are better off asking the significance of the number seven in the Bible than exploring the role of the number seven in the broader culture of the Ancient Near East. As always, there can be value in considering the results of archaeology and cultural study, but we are proposing a method that allows the everyday Christian to read more confidently without requiring specialized knowledge. Therefore, we should consider the significance of a particular number within the broader scope of the Bible. This leads us to our first key question: Where else does this number appear in the Bible?

Repetition in the Bible is an invitation to pay attention. Papyrus was expensive to produce and maintain. Many towns and synagogues could only afford one copy of the Scriptures for the whole community. Because of the incredible expense, there was no wasted space in the Scriptures. So if something was important enough to repeat, there was a reason. When we begin to look, we will see that the number seven is repeated throughout the Bible and in some very significant places. Here are a few:

• There are seven days of creation (Genesis 1:1-2:3).
• God himself is said to rest on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2-3).
• Every seven days, the people of God were to remember the Sabbath and rest from all their work (Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:12-15).
• The lamp stand in the temple had seven lamps on it (Exodus 25:31-40).
• Naaman is told to wash in the Jordan river seven times (2 Kings 5:10).
• Jesus casts seven demons out of Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2).
• Jesus feeds the four thousand with seven loaves (Mark 8:1-10).
• In the book of revelation, there are seven spirits before the throne of God (Rev. 1:4).
• John is told to write letters to the seven churches after seeing seven golden lamp stands which are the seven churches and seven stars which are said to be the angels of the seven churches (Rev. 1:12-20).
• The lamb in Revelation has seven horns and seven eyes (Rev. 5:6).
• In Revelation, there are seven seals (Rev. 5-8).
• Seven angels with seven trumpets (Rev. 8-11).
• John hears seven thunders (Rev. 10:3-4).
• The dragon has seven heads and seven crowns (Rev. 12:3).
• The beast has seven heads as well (Rev. 13:1).
• There are seven bowls of God’s wrath (Rev. 16:1).
• A whole study could be made just on the number seven in the book of Revelation (seven heads of the second beast are seven hills as well as seven kings — Rev. 17:9-10).

Therefore, there must be some significance to us being told that Sceva had seven sons. In the next chapter, we will explore where to look for the central meaning of a biblical number. For our purposes here, simply note that when a number is repeated, it is a clue for us. Once we understand what the number seven tends to convey in the Bible, we will be better equipped to see what it means in the particular passage we are studying.

Seven is not the only number that is repeated regularly throughout the Bible. Nahor has twelve sons (Gen. 22:20-24), Ishmael has twelve sons (Gen. 25:12-18), then Jacob has twelves sons who become the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. 35:23-26). Jesus chooses twelve disciples (Luke 6:12-16). During the flood it rains for forty days and forty nights (Gen. 7:12), Moses spends forty years in Egypt, forty years tending sheep, and then leads Israel through the wilderness for forty years (Acts 7:23, 30, 36). Elijah spends forty days in the wilderness (1 Kings 19:8). Jesus spends forty days in the wilderness after his baptism by John in the Jordan (Mt. 4:2).

Abraham has two sons (Gen. 25:9; 1 Chr. 1:28), Isaac has two sons (Gen. 20:24-26), and Jesus tells a parable of a man who had two sons (Luke 15:11-32).

Three thousand are killed after the golden calf incident in the wilderness (Ex. 32:28). Three thousand are saved on Pentecost (Acts 2:41).

Jonah spends three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish (Jonah 1:17). Jesus spends three nights in the grave (Matt. 12:40; 1 Cor. 15:4; Luke 24:7).

These examples barely scratch the surface of all the repetition in the Bible. Not only are these numbers accurate, but they are providentially ordered by God to communicate something as well.

While there are tools that will help us find these repetitions — bible software or concordances will give you all the instances of a given word in the Bible — this way of reading the Bible is best developed as a skill through regular reading and, if possible, memorizing of parts of the Bible. The more you become familiar with the details of the Bible, the more these connections will come to you naturally.

Question 2: Does this instance continue or reverse the themes found in the other instances of this number?

However, simply knowing that a number is repeated throughout the Bible is not enough to understand its significance. Yes, there are a lot of “sevens” and “twelves” and “forties” in the Bible, but what exactly does that mean? First, we must determine the central meaning of a number within the context of the whole Bible. It is the burden of the next chapter to describe how to we do just that. Then, we need to look at the particular passage we are studying and ask whether the usage of that number here continues the theme or pattern we see elsewhere or does it reverse the pattern. For instance, Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness continues the pattern of wilderness periods for Moses, Israel, and Elijah throughout the Old Testament. It builds upon the existing theme. However, Jesus’ command to Peter to forgive “seventy times seven” times (Mt. 18:22) reverses what we see from Lamech in Genesis 4, where he claims that those who injure him will receive “seventy times seven” fold vengeance (Gen. 4:24). Just because a number repeats does not mean it is doing the same thing. In particular, since the Bible is the story of God redeeming people out of sin and bondage, some stories are specifically redemptive reversals of previous stories, which are highlighted by the repeated numbers. We will explore these reversals more fully in chapter 4.

Question 3: If this number does not repeat, are there other numbers associated with similar events?

Sometimes we come across a number in the Bible that doesn’t seem to repeat. Perhaps it is the census data of the book of Numbers (e.g. Numbers 26). Each tribe is listed with the amount of people in it, but these numbers don’t tend to repeat elsewhere in the Bible. Perhaps it is the dimensions of the temple or tabernacle — a long list of lengths and widths and numbers of pillars and hooks and twisted linen. In sections of the Bible where numbers don’t seem to repeat, we need to change strategies from looking for repetition to looking for comparison.

We should look at similar passages in the Bible and see if the numbers are larger, smaller, or the same. God tells the Israelites how to build the tabernacle in the wilderness (Ex. 25–31). Solomon builds a temple (1 Kings 6). After that temple is destroyed and the people return from exile, they build a second temple (Ezra 3–6). Ezekiel is given a vision of the heavenly temple (Ezek. 40). In each of these instances, the exact dimensions described are different. The number of sacrifices used to dedicate the structure are different. Instead of asking the significance of the numbers themselves, we can ask why one temple was larger or smaller than another. We can ask the significance of the relative size and what God might have intended it to communicate.

Something similar can be done with the size of the tribes of Israel. There are twelve tribes, but each has a different number of descendants in the census. This is not only a fact of history, but we can begin to ask why it would be important for us to know these exact numbers and why some tribes were bigger or smaller. How does their size connect with what they would be in the future or what God had promised about them in the past (Gen. 49:1-28)?

Our first instinct when we come across a number in the Bible should be to look for repetition in other passages in the Bible. However, when this doesn’t yield much fruit, we should turn our attention to similar situations in the Bible and look to compare the numbers. Why bigger? Why smaller? What might it mean? We will look at some examples of comparison in chapter 6 and develop some skills for making sense of them throughout the Bible.

Question 4: Why was this number included in this passage? What is God trying to tell us through it?

This last question is the most important. The goal of our study of biblical numbers is to read the Bible more faithfully and with greater confidence when encountering more difficult and confusing passages. However, faithful reading is about more than comprehension. Studying the numbers in the Bible is not about being clever or uncovering secret information. Rather, it is about paying attention in a new way so that we can grow to love God, love his Word, and love his people more faithful. Faithful reading involves following the God who reveals himself in his Word. As Paul says, “knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). We can gain all kinds of knowledge about God’s Word, but if we do not then turn around and follow what it says, then this knowledge has not truly transformed us. We might have listened to what the Bible says, but did not truly hear it.

As we study these numbers in the Bible, we will be listening with an ear for why God included these numbers here. As we have stated, there are no wasted words in the Bible. Every details was included for a reason. Frequently, when the Spirit could have inspired the authors to write “many” or “few,” they instead included specific numbers. In each of the subsequent chapters, we will wrestle with the meaning of these numbers, but also with their purpose within these passages.

At the heart of these handbooks is 1 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.” The goal of our study will not only for us to see clearly how God directed and inspired these numbers in history (and to be included in the Bible), but how they are useful for our faith in Christ. A deeper understanding of the numbers in the Bible should lead us deeper in our journey of discipleship to Jesus Christ.

So in addition to all the questions that illuminate the biblical numbers directly, we must always end our study with pausing and thinking through the practical implications of these insights for our walk with Jesus.

Conclusion

Even at twelve years old, Jesus demonstrated his understanding by asking good questions. As disciples of Jesus, we grow in our understanding of the Bible when we learn to ask good questions. In this chapter, we looked at how repetition is a clue to pay attention by asking, “Where else does this number appear in the Bible?” But we also saw how it is not enough to know that a number repeats, for we need to see whether this passage continues or reverses themes seen elsewhere in the Bible. We also looked at what questions to ask when looking for repetition seems to fail. We saw that comparing different numbers in similar situations can lead to surprising insights. We ended our questions by recognizing that studying the Bible is not just about growing in knowledge, but about growing in faithfulness. We must keep our walk with God front and center whenever we read, so that the understanding we can would impact our life of faith.

Updates

Most of my writing over the last month was geared toward finishing Count the Stars. My original goal was to finish Draft 1.0 by February 28, but I beat the deadline and got it done on February 13. After a short break to do some review of other projects, the next month will be focused on getting Draft 2.0 completed before I send it to editing.

I was also able to publish several Youtube Videos over the past month.

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Thank You

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From the desk of

Stephen C. Shaffer

Author, Pastor-Theologian

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