The three kings of Israel, Saul,* David,+ Solomon,‡ each reigned for 40 years. Egypt was made utterly waste and desolate for forty years.§ Moses was 40 years old when he visited his brethren, and was 40 years a stranger in the land of Madian; each term representing full worldly completion, and the two make him 80 years old, the resurrection or new life number x the complete 10 when the exodus took place. = 4 x 12 48 should represent spiritual completion, and yet something worldly; it is therefore a number seldom used; the only instance in the Bible being in the number of cities given to the Levites or Priests.¶ 7 x 1070 should represent perfect completion in the world. The final dispersion of the Jews is for seventy weeks,** and their captivity in Babylon was for seventy years. We are to forgive until seventy times seven.tt The days of a man are seventy years: when they are completed he has lived long enough. Jesus is the seventy-seventh generation from God.‡‡ 10 × 12 = 120 represents perfect spiritual completion in the world. And the Lord said, "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years;"§§ i.e., 120 years to that generation till * Acts xiii. 21. + 2 Sam. v. 4. || Acts vii. 23-30. ++ Matt. xviii. 22. §§ Gen. vi. 3. 1 Kings xi. 42. ¶ Numb. xxxv. 7. Luke iii. 23-28. = 120 × 50 = 6000 the flood, but also 120 jubilees years as the life of the world. Moses, the prophet like Christ, was 120 years old when he died, his life being divided into three great divisions of 40 years each, 40 years with Pharaoh, 40 years an exile, 40 years a prophet and leader. The number of priests were 120.* At the time of the ascension the disciples were 120 in number.t 10 x 10 = 100, and more fully 10 x 10 × 10 or 103 = 1000 represents divine completion. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.‡ Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.§ They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.|| God keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.T The number of the angels was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.** The cases in which the thousand multiplied into some other number represents the sense of divine completion, superadded to that number, are too numerous to quote. It is easy to see that the law is followed in such, but I will only give four, being instances in which 1000 is combined with the complete numbers 3, 7, 10, and 12. "Then they that gladly received his word were * 2 Chron. v. 12. § Dan. vii. 10. + Acts i. 15. || Rev. xx. 4. 2 Peter iii. 8. ¶ Deut. vii. 9. baptized; and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”* "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him."+ "And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents."+ The number of the sealed was twelve thousand from each of the tribes of Israel."§ Finally, the Apostles' Creed is a curious combination of numbers: it is individually complete, being divided into three parts; the first of which is also a complete three, relating to the individual God, viz., the Almighty Father; the second part, relating to the Son who came into the world and became man, has ten clauses; and the third, which relates to the Holy Ghost, has the holy completion number of seven clauses. Have I given enough instances? Some, perhaps, will say I have given too many, but if there had been fewer, many might have denied my conclusions for want of proof. Those who are still unconvinced may study the Bible, and in it alone they will find instances enough; and if they extend their researches into the sciences, they will find the examples so numerous, that they must admit that there is a law in numbers unchangeable as God Himself, for it emanated from Him. *Acts ii. 41. Matt. xviii. 24. + Kings ix. 18. § Rev. vii. CHAPTER X. (ON NUMBERS-continued). THE AGE OF CHRIST. ON considering Christ's age and ministry, I was led to ask myself, why did Christ live the time He did, and not thirty-five, forty, or any other number of years? by what rule was the length of His life fixed? God does everything by rule and order; in this matter, as in all others, there can be no caprice—there must be a rule, if I can only discover it. Surely, I thought, this term must be some proportion of the world's life 6000; and God's time 360. The former represents the six days of creation multiplied into the Divine complete 1000; it represents the Divine will putting an end to evil; the latter is equal to 3 x 10 x 12 representing all completion, individual, worldly, and spiritual; it is 6× 6 × 10, or the full completion of evil; it is 9 × 40 or 32 × 4 × 10, representing the completion of this world and the completion of the second stage of individual existence. Will not terms so important as Christ's life and ministry be found to be some multiple of these numbers? Let us see. This will never do; had He only lived 16-6 years, He could not have carried out His heavenly mission on earth; moreover, His holy life can never be represented by the constant recurrence of the evil number 6. Again 6000 The world's life -66.6 years 90 or time = This is still more objectionable; to have kept the Son of God on earth for sixty-six years, would not have been of use to man, and would have been an unnecessary torture to himself; and, moreover, His life would have been represented by nothing but sixes, a never-ending repetition of the Satanic number. But 6000 or The world's life 180 The dividing of time 33.3 is the very best number we could fix upon. At that age He had lived long enough to become a man. By His thirtieth year He had had sufficient time to increase in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.* A young man, yet fully arrived at man's estate, He was old enough to have influence over other men of any age; but He was only just old enough, so that His time of degradation upon earth could not have been shortened. "The dividing of a time," is a remarkable term used in prophecy; "a time, times, and the dividing of a time" is the term when "all these things shall be finished,"+ but a quarter of a time" is never spoken of. The number 180 being 3: 6 x 10 represents the completion of the individual in the evil world; whereas in the form 5 x 3 x 12, it shows the incompletion of the individual in heaven until He is united to † Dan. xii. 7. * Luke ii. 52. |