In the
Bible there are significant numbers which witness about key realities in God's
revelation, in His historical plan of redemption, and in His own nature and
character. For example, if I just mention the number three, we right away think
of the Holy Trinity. If 12, the 12 tribes of Israel, and the 12 apostles, and
the 12 gates in the New Jerusalem. If 1, the fact that there is only one God.
There are
other numbers that convey special meaning in the biblical narrative. But I want
to say a word of warning: We Christians do not practice numerology, which is a
kind of occultism. We don't seek secret, hidden revelations in all numbers and
quantities that show up in the Bible or other spheres of life. That is
inadmissible.
But when
God Himself, not in a hidden way but openly, invests significance in some
number so that it consistently speaks of something God has done or who He is,
then of course we need to pay attention—all the more so as God brings that
number back again and again in various contexts. In fact, the repetition of a specific
number in Scripture, in such a way that it reminds us again and again of the same theme, even though it is showing up
in quite different biblical
contexts—this tells us that a single and specific theological lesson about God
and His ways is developing, like a thread of thought, through all these
different parts of biblical history.
Today we're
going to look at a single place in Scripture—that is, a single event in
history—where not one, not two, but three such significant biblical numbers
play important roles together, in perfect
harmony. This is something unusual. Perhaps the "collision" of three
such fateful numbers in one event testifies how the event itself overflows with
the most intense theological revelation and historic, redemptive meaning.
But before
we look at that place in Scripture,
we'll take a quick look at Genesis 1:31-2:3 (read).
For six days God worked, and everything He made, everything He did, was good. Whatever God created,
fashioned, intended, desired, appointed, established, whatever God accomplished over these six days, and whatever was
designed to come of what God did, was good. There was categorically nothing that was not good. The "not-good" didn't exist. So you have six days of
the creating of everything that isn't eternal, the creating of everything that isn't God Himself, the
creating of everything that the eternal God, in the superabundance of Love,
deigned to make and bless. And
"to bless" means to bestow blessedness, the ultimate bliss and
gladness.
On the
seventh day God rested. Not because God is able to get tired, but because the
work of creation was done; also because there was something else to do. Notice that the Bible doesn't say that God did nothing on the seventh day; it only
says that He stopped creating. So, what does God do when He is not creating?
Well, in
the first place the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that God is unceasingly maintaining all things, that
is, realizing their continued existence, by His mighty word. So, for one thing,
God was doing this on the seventh
day. The Scriptures tell us, too, that God is love. On the seventh day God
didn't stop being love. On the
seventh day, as well, I believe God, in all the majesty of His eternal love and
grace, was contemplating His creation and by this contemplation, by this very
gaze, was blessing it—because to be contemplated by God is the supreme
beatitude. The seventh day is a gift of the Father to His creation: a day of
meeting, contemplation and love, a day of exultation.
For six
days, God alone creates. The seventh day means the enjoyment of the fruits of
the divine act.
Six, and
seven.
Now we'll
look at one more place in Genesis: 7:13-17 (read), also verse 23 (read).
For forty
days the flood increased, until everything that breathed upon the land
perished, with the exception of Noah and his family in the ark. The number 40
speaks of God's wrath, of a period of trial, of the power of God and the fear
of all flesh before Him.
In Moses'
time, when the Israelites rose up against God, God announced the punishment:
for forty years, until all the present generation passes away, the nation will
live in the desert. While the Israelites knew very well, of course, the way to Canaan—that
was no secret!—the point was that the Promised Land was forbidden to them until
God said it was time. Before that: a time of testing, purging, preparation for
a new day and order of life. 40 days, 40 years. And we all know that the Lord
spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting and overcoming the devil's temptations,
even as He was being tried and proven by His own Father in heaven. There in the
desert Christ manifested the perfection of faithfulness and obedience, and
emerging from the desert Jesus Christ began proclaiming a new order of
things—the Kingdom of God.
And now,
let's open Exodus 24 and read verses 12-18 (read).
What sort
of moment is this in the history of the nation? Well, God has already led the
people out of Egypt and has sealed a covenant with them stipulating that they
will be His people and He their God. But now, here at this moment, the
Israelites are entering a deeper level of consecration to God. Here they have
promised to observe God's holy law; indeed it may be said that at this stage
the nation is committing to be God's collaborators
(imagine the honor that means!), wholly devoted to the accomplishment of God's
will on the earth. And in response God is now, if I may put it figuratively,
"fixing to come down" from the mountain, to "live" in the
holy tabernacle His people will build according to the plan they received from
Him, and reside in the midst of the Israelite nation forever—as long as they
stay faithful to Him.
This was an
unprecedented moment in history. There had never been anything remotely like
this, unless you count the fellowship Adam and Eve knew with God in the Garden.
God will come down from the mountain, "move in" to the Tabernacle and
permanently live with His people! Now, we know that heaven and earth cannot
contain God, but that truth cannot
contradict the powerful symbolism of
what's happening here and the statement
God Himself is making through it. Yes, heaven and earth cannot contain God, but
neither can heaven and earth stop God
from specially revealing His presence and power, uniquely and gloriously, anywhere He wants and for any purpose He wants. Here in the desert, at
the mountain of Sinai, God unveils an unprecedented order of things, a new basis
for relationship between God and a holy nation all His own. I will even dare to
say that, only after the incomparable, ultimate feat of Christ Himself, this
event in the desert is the most
significant and powerful in the historical unfolding of God's redemptive work.
It is a foreshadowing, too, of that day when God will descend to dwell with His
nation, in the very Person of His beloved Son Jesus Christ and in His
omnipresent glory in the eternal kingdom and a new creation.
Pay very
careful attention, therefore, to the precise sequence and the symbolic
connotations of this event:
(Read verse
16 again)
Six days.
That is the term of the divine work and accomplishment. For six days God
creates; this is the duration of His labor. Notice that during these six days
the Lord doesn't invite Moses into
the cloud. It's because God alone is Creator, and we get the impression that,
there in the cloud, hidden from human eyes, something of surpassing glory is
being made ready, something no human may
take part in creating. And then, only on the seventh day, on the day of rest, God summons Moses to enter. It's
paradoxical that precisely on the day of rest
God commands Moses to do something,
to act. Yes, the "day of
rest" doesn't mean "the day
of doing nothing". The day of rest denotes our entrance into God's rest, into His peace and gladness; we
contemplate His works and majesty; we contemplate the love of Him who
condescends to contemplate, and bless, us. And so, the seventh day, though the
last of seven, is always the first
day of something new. When the six
days of creation ended, something new appeared
on the scene: a day of rest, God's rest.
And as if
to underline that fact, God kept Moses there on the mountain for forty days. That's the term of testing,
purging and preparation for an entirely new order of things. During these 40
days God was showing Moses the heavenly blueprint for the tabernacle, the image
of the holy place in which God's glory would dwell.
Six, seven
and forty. These three meaningful
numbers all testify that it is God Who first
realizes—makes real—everything
necessary for our blessedness. The deed, the act, the feat, is His only. Then
He invites us to enter His peace and
rest, like Moses entering the cloud on the mountaintop, where we may
contemplate Him. And it is in the sphere of this spiritual rest that He
commands us to serve Him as faithful stewards of what He has made real.
Here there
is a whole picture of our salvation in Jesus Christ, inasmuch as He
accomplished everything Himself when we were totally helpless and incapable,
dead in sins. And once He had done, forever,
the perfect work, He summoned the
children of His love to enter freely, "Peace I give you, my peace I leave
you". And it is beginning with
peace, beginning with rest, that we
enter into, and launch out onto, our "forty days", days of trial and
preparation, not to earn what the works of the flesh never could, but to grow
into the faithful collaborators of Christ Himself in joyful devotion to His
Lordship.
And He is
worthy of this devotion, because (Heb. 3:2-6)"He was faithful to Him who
appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted
worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has
more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder
of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for
a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was
faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our
confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end."
And
therefore, (Heb. 4:7b-11) "…Today if you hear His voice, do not harden
your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of
another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as
God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no
one will fall through following the same example of disobedience."
