Scripture: Topics: Numbers in the Bible
Numbers in the Bible. This is episode nine. This is going to be a very exciting group of numbers. We're going to be dealing with fourth, one fifth, or the fifth part, 300, tenth, third, one half, 7000, and 12,000. Quite a few numbers. We're going to see how they're used in the Bible.
I am Michael Pearl and you are at The Door tonight, located in Lobelville, Tennessee.
We'll start with the number 300. 300 in the Bible is war. How does this benefit us? It's just interesting when you're reading along and you come across the number 300. You know it's going to be the subject of war. I think they even put out a movie recently about 300 people, some kind of war movie about the 300 Spartans or something. It is a number that represents war in the scriptures. There's 26 cardinals, that are 300. 19 of them are definitely, without question, in the context of war. Let's look at some of them. We open up our Bible.
Esther 9:15 "For the Jews that were in Shushan, gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan. But on the prey they laid not their hands." That's definitely war.
Judges 7:6-7 "And the number of them that lapped," that is, they bent over and picked the water up with their hand, "putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men." Why is this war? Because these are warriors about to go out and kill a whole lot of people. "But all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink, and the Lord said unto Gideon, 'By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you and deliver the Midianites into that hand and that all the people go, every man, unto his own place.'" These 300 were selected to be the warriors against thousands, and with God's aid they defeat them.
2 Samuel 23:18 "And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief among the three, and he lifted up his spear against three hundred and slew them."
There's lots of numbers in the Bible, but this 300 is the number of war. Isn't it interesting? You have to read the Bible a lot and get to be familiar with the whole thing and then all of a sudden you start, without knowing it, you start expecting 300 to be in the context of war. The only benefit is it just shows us God's fingerprints on the Bible. That it's a supernatural book.
2 Chronicles 9:16 "And the three hundred shields made he of beaten gold." This is Solomon. "300 shekels of gold went to one shield and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon." These were war shields, 300 of them.
Here's an incidental. There are always some incidentals, that is the number does not fit that common meaning. It's a number that, look at this one.
1 Kings 11:3 "And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wife turned away his heart." On second thought, that may be war. It could be that when God was writing that, tongue in cheek, he thought, " Oh Yeah, 300 of them." And definitely there'd have been war in the house. Listen, only if one concubine or one extra wife, there'd been war at my house with my wife. One or both of us would've died.
Now we come to the number 7000, which is remnant. Remnant is that part that's left over. The 11 cardinals, no ordinals. And seven of them are definitely, without question, remnant. We open the scriptures to look at them.
1 Kings 19:18 "Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel." See the word left? That's those that remain, the remnant. "All the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, every mouth which hath not kissed him." God counted the people left in Israel that were faithful and had not worshiped the false God Baal. With two or three million people, there was only 7000 faithful left, and God knew exactly who they were. He had their number. He knew where they lived, had their address. Does God have your address? Which list are you in? Just bypassing.
1 Kings 20:15 "Then he numbered the young men of the princes of the province, and there were two hundred and thirty two. And after them he had numbered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand." That's how many were left.
2 Kings 24:15-16 "And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon." I don't know. Why would you name your kid something like that? "And the king's mother and the king's wives and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.” Notice these all people are being carried away because Babylon has conquered Jerusalem, and these are the ones that survived that end up being made prisoners and slaves in Babylon. "And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen, and smiths a thousand, and that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon." That's definitely a remnant. Isn't it amazing how that number's used so consistently for remnant?
1 Chronicles 19:18 "But the Syrians fled before Israel and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand Footmen and killed Shopach the captain of the host." Again, remnant. This is an incidental possibly.
I'd like to show you both.
1 Chronicles 18:4 "And David took from him a thousand chariots and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand footmen. David also houghed all the chariot horses but reserved of them a hundred chariots." These are the ones that, in conquering, these are the ones David took captive, he took back with him. You might say that's a remnant too. It's the ones that were left over from the battle that he carried back with him.
Here is an incidental, definitely three times of these four incidentals, this is three of them.
2 Chronicles 15:11 "And they offered unto the Lord the same time of the spoil which they had brought seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep." Again, this is spoil. This is what left over after they killed and destroyed. Again, it could be remnant. It's just not as bold and as strong as the other passages. You have that mentioned, 7000 sheep, three times, just like that. Won't look at all of them.
Here's the book of Revelation. The remnant just appears, I think, two or three times in the New Testament.
Revelation 11:13 "And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell. And in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand , and the remnant were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven." This might be incidental in that the remnant are not the 7000 who were slain. I'll let you decide on that one.
Here's Romans 11:4-5 "But what sayeth the answer of God unto him? I've reserved to myself," he's quoting the passage we read earlier where all of them had worshiped Baal except 7000. This New Testament reference to it. "I reserved to myself seven thousand men who've not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so, there at this present time, there is a remnant." There's the word linked to it. Twice it's linked directly to the number, "according to the election of grace." God said "just as there was a remnant in that day," he said, "Now here in the New Testament, I have a remnant as well." Are you part of the remnant?
Now we come to the number 12,000, which is nations. 12,000 is nations and war. It's interesting, the number 12,000 being nations and war.
What's the book of Revelation about? Nations and war. That's the theme of it. The antichrist, the seven different heads all coming together, the war, the final battle, Christ conquering by war. Wonder how many words there are in the book of Revelation? In your King James Bible it is exactly 12,000 words. No more, no less. Very fascinating. We're going to cover that maybe next time. Nations and war.
There's 23 cardinals covering this 12,000. Old Testament nations and wars, 10 times, 10 references. 12 is the number sealed of every tribe who are all killed. It's the nations. One is the size of the new Jerusalem. So only one could be incidental. The other 22 are definitely, clearly, nations and war. Beautiful. I love the Bible. It's a great book.
Numbers 31:5 "There were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war." These are the tribes of Israel, the nations. There's 12,000 of them and they're armed. There's your war.
Joshua 8:25 "And so it was that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand. All of them men of Ai." That nations and war?
Judges 21:10"And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them saying, 'Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword with the women and the children." 12,000 in war.
2 Samuel 17:1 “Moreover, Ahithopel said unto Absalom, 'Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise in pursue after David this night.'" Again, nations and war. He went pursuing him to kill him.
Here's the New Testament where 12,000 appears 12 times.
Revelation 7:5- "Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben, were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand." Jehovah's Witness like this passage. "Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zebulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand." That's 144,000 in all, and every single one of them is killed in the final world war.
This passage speaks of that, Revelation 12:17 "And the dragon was wroth with a woman, and went to make war with a remnant of her seed." Here are the ones that were left that he's making war with and kills them.
Revelation 13:7 "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and overcome them and powers given to him over all nations and tongues and kindreds." All kindreds, nations, and tongues, and nations are something you can unscramble that.
Revelation 21:16 "And the city lieth foursquare. And the length is as large as the breadth, and he measured the city with a reed twelve thousand furlongs." The length, the breadth, the height of it are equal. That is the new Jerusalem, what we call heaven. And it gives us the size, 12,000 furlongs. That's over a thousand miles. That is not nations and war. But at this point the Bible's already told us God has made all things new. It could be that the numbers are not, but that's one out of 23. Yeah, 23.
Now we come to fractions. Do you know what fractions are?
Tenth part found 11 times. And then tithe, which is the same Hebrew word for tenth part, is found 40 times. They're same meaning. Tithe is the same word as tenth part.
"That which is taken from the whole to be dedicated to God," is the way tenth part is found throughout the Bible. Obviously, with the tithe that would fit that definition perfectly, that which is taken from the whole, from everything you've got. One tenth of what a Jew had was dedicated to God. This was a tax. It was a law. It was required for them to give it, just like we're taxed here, the Jews were taxed. I wish our government only taxed us 10%, we'd be a whole lot better off.
Let's open the Bible and look at this 10 and tenth.
Leviticus 27:30 "And all the tithe of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the land, is the Lord's. It is holy unto the Lord." That which is taken from the whole to be dedicated to God is the tithe. We won't look at a lot of these because they're quite obvious.
Malachi 3:8"Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings." It's a sin for Christian to tithe. He's supposed to give from the joy of his heart. But Jews were absolutely required to tithe. "You're cursed with a curse for you've robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye the tithes into the storehouse." You know what a storehouse was? It was not a bank. A storehouse was a place where you kept wheat in sacks, and dried fruit and vegetables, and grains and stuff like that. You know why? Because the Levites, one 12th of the nation, ate out of the storehouse. It was used to take care of the poor. It was their benevolence fund. What they were tithed was the crops that they had. They tithed their food, their grain, their seed, their nuts, and their herbs even. They tithed them. It was an obligation for them to give it because that's the way the nation was supported. The political and the religious system was supported by that tithe.
Look at the rest of the passage. "And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts. If I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." See, he promises to bless with rain and sunshine and prosperity with their crops.
Tenth part is used 11 times. This is more interesting because the tithe is so innately inherently that which is taken from the whole. Whereas the tenth part found other places is more revealing.
Numbers 18:25-26 "The Lord spake unto Moses, 'Thus speak unto the Levites. Say unto them, "When you take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given unto them of your inheritance, then you shall offer up an heave offering of it to the Lord. Even a tenth part of the tithe."'" That would be one 100th.
Revelation 11:13 "And the same hour was there a great earthquake and the tenth part of the city fell." This is what's extracted from the whole and given to God. This is God's judgment in the Book of Revelation, where one tenth of the city falls and comes under judgment.
We come to fourth part, found 15 times in the Bible. Seven of the 15 are God-ordained sacrifice. God-ordained sacrifice, without question.
Numbers 15:5 "And the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering, shalt thou prepare with burnt offerings, our sacrifice for one lamb." Notice the sacrifice. God-ordained sacrifice is the meaning of fourth part in the Bible.
Exodus 29:40 "And with one lamb, a tenth deal of flour," that which is taken from the whole dedicated to God, "mingled with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil." God-ordained sacrifice. "And the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering." It's offered on the altar to God.
Nehemiah 9:3 "And they took up in their place and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, one fourth part of the day. And another fourth part, they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God." Here's God-ordained sacrifice. The people are sacrificing, to stand and listen to the word of God being read, and then confessing their sins. Three hours reading, three hours confession, and then they worshiped God. That was a busy day.
1 Samuel 9:8 "And the servant answered Saul again and said, 'Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver. That will I give to the man of God to show us our way.'" This is a heathen man, a man that's not part of God's program directly. He just out of the blue offers a fourth part of a shekel, a piece of money, to find out his direction. It seems that when God is doing something, or is working through his prophets, he uses the numbers with their specific meaning. But sometimes when it's off the cuff, out of the way, incidental, and is not directly part of prophecy or part of God's program, then you can find those references that are not part of the meaning.
Here's another incidental.
1 Kings 6:33 "So also made he for the door of the temple post of olive tree, a fourth part of the wall." This is a measurement, a decoration on the wall.
Revelation 6:8 "And I looked and behold a pale horse," I'm going to teach you on Revelation here one of these days. "And his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him. And power was given unto him over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with a sword, with hunger, with death, and with a beast of the earth." That certainly fits our definition as well.
Here's third part, found 35 times, and it is sacrifice and judgment. Sacrifice and judgment.
Ezekiel 4:1-2 "And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard, then take the balances to weight and divide the hair. Thou shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city." God is making that prophet bald headed and bald faced in judgment. "The days of the siege are fulfilled and thou shall take a third part and smite about it with a knife." He's going to chop on his hair too. Shaves it off. He lays out there in the middle of the street where everybody can see him. He burns. You know how stinking hair is when you burn it? That would draw attention.
The prophets, God would give them an assignment, might last a year or two. They would be out there every day on the street prophesying, preaching, and usually doing some kind of strange antic which got attention. It stirred the whole nation up. Was aware of this prophet, what he was doing. He was on CNN every night. "And smite about it with a knife. And a third part thou shall scatter in the wind, I'll draw out a sword after them." He's talking about the sacrifice and the destruction, the judgment, that's going to come on the nation of Israel. This is a prophecy that the prophet is doing.
Here's Ezekiel 5:12 "A third part of these shall die with the pestilence, and with the famine shall be consumed in the midst of thee, and a third part shall fall by the sword roundabout thee and will scatter a third part into all the wind. I'll draw out a sword after thee." Destroyed, and sacrifice, and judgment.
Zachariah 13:8-9 "It shall come to pass that in all the lands, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die. The third part shall be left therein. I'll bring the third part through the fire." Sacrifice and judgment. "I'll refine them as silver is refined." Sacrifice and judgment.
All 14 third parts in the Book of Revelation, without exception. We're going to look at them. Revelation 8:7-8 "And the first angels sounded, there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth. The third part of the trees was burnt up and all green grass was burnt up." That's sacrifice and judgment. "The second angel sounded. There was a great mountain burning with fire and cast into the sea. And the third part of the sea became blood. And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died." Sacrifice and judgment. Destroyed. "A third part of the ships were destroyed. A third angel sounded and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as if it were a lamp. And it fell up on the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of water." Sacrifice and judgment. "And the name of the star is called wormwood. A third part of the waters became wormwood, and men died of the waters because they were made bitter."
You see, when you read the Book of Revelation, and you've never heard anything about the numbers, that third part, third part, third part jumps out and you begin to associate it with judgment and sacrifice and destruction. And that's the way it's used throughout the Bible. Beautiful.
Revelation 8:12 "And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, a third part of the moon." That's why it's not fourth or half. It's third. "Third part of the stars. Third part of them was darkened, but they shown not for a third part of it, the night, likewise." I mean, isn't that an excessive, a lot of third parts?
Revelation 19:15-18 "And the fourth angel was loosed, which was prepared for an hour, a day, a month, a year to slay the third part of men. These three was the third part of men killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.”
Revelation 12:4 “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven did cast them to the earth." That's the one third of the angels that sinned with Lucifer when he sinned.And God prepared hell for the devil and his angels. They are going to end up, every one of them, in hell.
And now we come to the number half, like one half, 0.5. 136 times it's found, and it is divided. Don't need to show you any of those. Half is always divided. It's naturally divided by math, by science, in any culture, in any language written by anybody in any book. Half is divided. We won't even go into the passage on that. But it is interesting if you want to take the time.
Three tenths is found eight times in the Bible. Three tenths. That's 30 out of a hundred. See, I'm mathematically minded. Unanimously, it's burnt offerings, all eight times that three tenths. Unanimously. There's no incidental usages of it. Every single time it's used, it deals with burnt offerings. I'll give you an example.
Leviticus 14:10 "And on the eighth day, he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil." That's a burnt offering. I won't give you any more of those. Every one of them are the same.
13 times fifth part is found, and it is assessed and given in obligation to meet one's responsibility. It is assessed by someone outside beyond you, someone to whom you must submit. It's assessed, and it's given, it is an obligation to give it, to meet your responsibility, your duty. 13 times, fifth part.
This is a good one. Genesis 41:34- 35 "Let Pharaoh do this. Let him appoint officers over the land and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years." That was a taxation by Pharaoh upon everyone. They had to give a fifth part of everything. That'd be 20% of everything, all their crops. They were placed into a storage bin for seven years. That'd been 350% of a year's crop, all placed in the storage bin and preserved for the seven years of famine that was coming.
Genesis 47:26 "And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priest only." Those were the elites. They were the government men, they were the Democrats, so they didn't have to pay the tax. "Except the land of the priest only, which became not Pharaoh's." He couldn't touch it. Sound like England there when the Church of England had control of everything. It's assessed and given an obligation to meet one's responsibility.
Leviticus 5:16 "And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part there into, and give it unto the priest." He's assessed this as a penalty, "And the priest shall make an atonement for him with a ram of the trespass offering, and he shall be forgiven him." This one assessed, atonement. "And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto." He pays back, plus one fifth. That was his penalty.
Until next time, that's it. Everybody's happy, right? Oh, what happened? I guess we went too long for him. All right. See you next week.