Hello Reader,

One of my greatest joys in studying the Bible is experiencing those "aha" moments. Whether I am studying myself or teaching others, those moments when the Bible seems to come alive or open up in a new way are gracious reminders of why I do what I do.

I have been working on understanding the numbers in the Bible because I want you to have those "aha" moments too. I want you to be able to approach the Bible with confidence and expectation, not with anxiety and fear.

I don't understand everything I read. I still have to sit with some passages for a long time before the Spirit makes it clear what is going on. However, I have frequent moments of delight and excitement when I open the Bible. I want to continue to share what I have learned so that you can have more of those moments yourself.

In this issue, you get a sneak preview of one of the most important chapters in my upcoming book, Count the Stars. In it, I look at how God often repeats numbers and how we can learn to understand the core meaning of those numbers.

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Finding the Center

We are tempted to read the Bible as a set of disconnected texts. The way our Bibles are set up unintentionally encourages this practice. There are several (mostly) blank pages sitting between the Old and New Testaments. Each of the sixty-six books is separated from the others. Headings, chapters, and verses have been added throughout the centuries. While these have, in many ways, made it easier to read and find things in the Bible, it has also, in many ways, made it harder to read it as intended. The Bible is one book, a cohesive whole. Though written over many centuries by many different human authors, the same Holy Spirit was at work in and through each of them. Seeing each verse isolated from the others cuts us off from one of the greatest resources for understanding the Bible — the Bible itself.

Seeing connections between passages of the Bible is a crucial skill for growing in understanding the Bible. While we are focusing on repeated biblical numbers in this book, these connections are in no way limited to numbers. However, just because there is a connection between two passages does not mean we know what it means.

How do we know what a number means?

There are three main places we should look for the central meaning of a repeated biblical number: the first instance, the Exodus, or Jesus. For some numbers, the first time it appears in the Bible is huge clue about how we are to understand it every other time it appears. For others, God’s work of salvation in bringing his people out of Egypt is the central passage which echoes both backward and forward throughout the Bible. While all of Scripture finds its fulfillment in Jesus, some numbers find their central meaning in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many numbers will continue the same theme or meaning almost every they appear in the Bible.

Determining the central story for the meaning of a biblical number is more a matter of wisdom than technique. Some numbers will be obvious, while others will require significant time wrestling, studying, and praying before God reveals an insight. Let’s look at each of these three places where numbers can find their central meaning and then work through some examples.

The First Instance

One place we look for the central meaning of a number is the first time it appears in the Bible. We then can read the other instances in light of its meaning in this first passage. As we have already seen in the previous chapter, seven is one of the most common and repeated numbers throughout the Bible — appearing from Genesis to Revelation. Understanding the significance of the number seven within the Bible will open up new insights and depths of interpretation for a variety of passages.

“Seven” is an example of where the first time it shows up in the Bible is key for grasping its overall significance. The very first story in the whole Bible contains the number “seven.” In Genesis 1, God spends six days making the heavens and the earth. He creates light and darkness, sea and sky, fish and birds, plants and animals. At the pinnacle of the sixth day, God creates human beings. “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). However, the capstone of the entire creation account is not the creation of humans, but the seventh day. God created in six days, but the creation account is seven full days.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation” (Gen. 2:1-3)

Creation was completed by God resting. It was not finished until God chose to cease from his work and declare the work complete. Rest as the pinnacle of creation has a lot to say to us about the role of sabbath in the life of faith, but this story gives “seven” a particular significance. It symbolizes creation that is “finished” or “complete.” Because God completed creation in seven days, seven is a complete number of something in the Bible. Whenever “seven” is mentioned, it not only refers to a literal number of things, but communicates that the amount is complete, perfect, or full.

With this idea that seven means “completeness,” many of the other sevens in the Bible start to come into focus more clearly. Every seven days, the people were to celebrate the sabbath by resting from their labors (like God did on the seventh day — Ex. 20:8-11; Dt. 5:12-15). The sabbath was not a break from activity so that you can recharge for work, but it is the fullness or completion of the week. Rest completes work. Every seven years, the land and people were called to rest and people were released from the debt (Lev. 25; Dt. 15:2). This represents the fullness of years and people are to be given complete freedom. It also ties closely to the sabbath principle of rest (and freedom) as the pinnacle of the work of creation. Whether the seventh day of the week, or the seventh year, seven represents a fullness or completeness of time.

Pharaoh dreams of seven fat, sleek cows being eaten up by seven poor, ugly, and thin cows, then of seven good ears of grain being swallowed up by seven thin ears (Gen. 41:14-24). Joseph interprets these as referring to seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. In both cases, seven is both literal and symbolic. Egypt has seven years of plenty, but they also experience complete abundance. “So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance — like the sand of the sea — that he stopped measuring it; it was beyond measure” (Gen. 41:49). Yet, Egypt also experienced seven years of famine — a complete and utter famine. “Moreover, all the world came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine became severe throughout the world” (Gen. 41:57). Both plenty and famine were experienced in their fullness.

Naaman is told to wash in the Jordan river seven times (2 Kings 5:10). In this way, he was told not just to wash once, but to wash completely. Jesus casts seven demons out of Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2). He removes a full set of demons from her and completely sets her free. The book of Revelation is full of the number seven and the whole book shows the fullness of God’s plan for the end of all things, when creation and all God’s purposes will finally be complete. Therefore, the seven churches represent the fullness of the church (Rev. 1:12-3:22). This is why their various experiences, challenges, encouragements, and rebukes are as much for the church today as in the first century. The lamb has seven eyes, because it sees completely (Rev. 5:6). There are seven trumpets, seven bowls, and seven seals because these represent the completion or fulfillment of God’s will and judgment upon the earth. Each of the sevens in the book of Revelation is symbolic of something experienced completely or in its fullness.

The Exodus

The next two places to look for the central meaning of a biblical number are the two central salvation stories of the Bible — the Exodus and Christ. The Exodus, which is the great saving work of God in the Old Testament, points to and prefigures the greater saving event of God in Jesus Christ. Because of how deeply connected these two events are in the Bible, sometimes there is slippage between the two when trying to discern the center of meaning. However, we will look at two examples of key numbers that find their meaning primarily in the Exodus — forty and ten.

After God delivered his people from Egypt, they spent forty years in the wilderness. This forty year period was both a time of trial and wandering from God (Ps. 95:7-11) as well as a time of deep intimacy with God (Jer. 2:1-3). Israel grumbled against God, but it was also like their honeymoon after the marriage on Mount Sinai. These twin experiences are held together throughout the forty years — closeness to God and struggle, trial and renewal, intimacy and purification.

These two themes carry over when we think about the other instance of forty in the Bible. When God saw that “the wickedness of humankind was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5), he sent a flood upon the earth. For God said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created” (Gen. 6:7). This flood came in the form of rain for forty days and forty nights. The flood was a judgment upon the wickedness of humanity, but it was also a purification and cleansing of creation. Like the forty years in the wilderness was a process of cleansing Israel from its time in Egypt, the forty days of rain cleansed and purified the creation. Yet, both periods of forty were also places for renewal. On the other side of the flood is God’s covenant with Noah and Noah worshipping the Lord (Gen. 8:20-9:17). There are problems on the far side of the flood (Gen. 9:20-29), but it was a time of renewal and purification.

Moses’ life can be divided into three periods of forty years. He spends forty years in Egypt (Acts 7:23), then forty years in the Midian tending his father-in-law’s flocks (Acts 7:30), before his final forty years with Israel in the wilderness (Acts 7:36). Moses spend forty days and nights on Mount Sinai (Ex. 32). These periods share the same themes as before — purification and renewal, intimacy with God and trial.

These themes become even more pronounced for Elijah and Jesus, both of whom spend forty days in the wilderness. Like Israel before him, Elijah grumbled and wanted to give up on the mission that God had given him. He seemed alone and it all felt like too much. But then he was fed miraculously in the wilderness (like manna?) and was strengthened for forty days and forty nights and then came to the mountain of God (1 Kgs. 19:4-9). Here, God told Elijah to stand before him and Elijah beheld the presence of God in sheer silence (1 Kgs. 19:11-18). For Elijah, his wilderness time of forty days and forty nights was one of trial as well as intimacy with God and renewal of his calling and mission.

The same is true for Jesus. Following his baptism by John in the Jordan, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness (Mt. 4:1-11). This is a period of trial for Jesus, where he is tempted by the devil three times. In each instance, Jesus relies on the Word of God to resist the devil, who eventually flees from him. Among other things, these temptations from Satan are a trial for Jesus, determining whether he will follow through on his mission when it becomes difficult. However, unlike Israel, Moses, and Elijah, Jesus does not grumble in the wilderness. He experiences trials and difficulty, but they come from outside of him, not from within himself. Where the periods of forty before Jesus were times of trial and struggle (and, occasionally, failure), Jesus emerges victorious.

Jesus: The Center of Everything

The most important event in the history of the world is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. One of the best ways to understand a biblical number is to see what it means in stories in the life of Jesus. We will look at only two examples, since many of the others will show up in other places in this handbook.

Jesus died on the cross and rose again on the third day. Many instances of three in the Bible points to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The most prominent was named by Jesus himself — Jonah.

“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to him, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ But he answered them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was for three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.” (Mt. 12:38-40)

Jonah’s three days in the belly of the fish symbolize the three days Jesus spent in the tomb. Just as Jonah was delivered out onto the shore, Jesus Christ rose up from death. There are select references to three that may hint at the three persons of the Trinity (Gen. 18:1-11, though this is debated), the majority should be read in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There is some slippage between the Exodus and Jesus on the number twelve. There are twelve sons of Jacob who form the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen. 35:23-26). Many of the twelves in the Old Testament are clear references to the twelve tribes. Jesus selects twelve disciples (Luke 6:12-16). This is intentional. These twelve disciples constitute a renewed and reformed people of God. Just as the twelve tribes (and the number twelve) previously symbolized the people of God, the twelve disciples (and twelve in the New Testament ) symbolizes those who follow as disciples of Jesus Christ. In both cases, twelve refers to the covenant people of God, but in the Old Testament it refers to the covenant people of Abraham (by birth), and in the New Testament to the covenant people of Abraham (by faith in Jesus). These are related as promise and fulfillment and the symbolism overlaps.

One of the most common and most important tools for understanding the numbers in the Bible is to look for where a specific number repeats elsewhere in the Bible. However, that is not enough. We must know what that number means in the Bible more generally in order to see its significance in the particular passage we are studying. We have looked at examples of three different places to look for the primary meaning of a biblical number: its first appearance in the Bible, the exodus from Egypt, and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Once we determine the central meaning, we will be better equipped to see its significance everywhere.

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Writing Updates, or "How I accidentally wrote a book"

I finished the first draft of Count The Stars in mid-February and sent it off to be edited. I spent a couple weeks with my writing time focused back on translating Ursinus' commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism.

In March, I started the month outlining a book on the Reformed Confessions that I am looking to co-author with a friend who is a respected church historian. We both have other projects in the works right now, but are excited to create an accessible introduction for the church. I haven't put out as many videos in the past month because instead, in the span of a couple days, I accidentally wrote another book.

I know. When I told one of my friends about it, they immediately asked, "How can you accidentally write a book? In three days?"

We elect new elders and deacons in May and one of the most frequent requests from our consistory has been for increased training as more new people are elected and ordained to these offices. I have been hearing this not only from my own church, but from others as well. While my family was gone on March Break, I began working on a Consistory Training Manual that I had previously outlined (thinking of making it into an online course). The book is a combination of a training manual for the learning to be an elder or deacon and a resource book that you can continually refer back to as you serve as an elder or deacon.

At first, I thought I would a little bit done and plug away at it so that it would be ready for the new elders and deacons in June. But then the words started flowing. I had written 8000 words on Tuesday. 6000 on Wednesday. By the time the dust settled, I had 33,268 words, close to 150 pages.

Maybe you don't have these kinds of problems.

I have shared the Manual with my current elders and deacons and I am looking for individuals or churches that might be interested in trying it out and giving some feedback on areas that are too long, need work, of frequently asked questions for consistories. If you are interested, please send me an email. For the record, this is designed for training elders and deacons within the Reformed Church in America, so it draws from particular parts of that denomination, but it will probably have value within the broader Reformed tradition of Christianity.

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