Book of Revelation (7)
Numbers and the book of RevelationIn Revelation numbers have meanings! In general, throughout the Bible when you read of a man having five sons or that someone traveled nine days you can be sure the man had five sons and the traveler traveled nine days. In the book of Revelation (and other apocalyptic material) you occasionally come across numbers which have no special significance but that’s unusual. Usually the numbers are giving us a message. I’ll illustrate this as we go along.
Some lover in ancient Pompeii scribbled this on a wall. "I love a girl whose number is 545." That wasn’t her phone number or "vital statistics". In ancient languages the letters of the alphabet were also numbers and (presumably) the lover in Pompeii was scribbling her initials. Recently the number "10" has become common in our vocabulary to rate the looks or figure of a girl. In gymnastics it is the number of a flawless performance. The ancients did similar things with their numbers depending on their background and experience. The Hebrews certainly did.
What follows is a brief glance at some of the more important numbers used in biblical texts—numbers that carried messages in them. Sometimes it’s possible to make sense of how the numbers came to suggest the "message" and at other times we only know they have that significance but we don’t know how they came to get it.
The number seven The number seven speaks of completeness, perfection and fullness. It relates to that which lacks nothing but it’s all there. Seven describes the totality of a thing and it’s probably the most prominent number in Revelation. When John wants us to know that Christ dwells in the entire church he has his walking amidst "seven" churches (1:12,13,20 and 2:1). Christ’s fullness of power is described in terms of "seven horns" (5:6 horn is another symbol—of strength and authority) and when he is said to have the fullness of the Spirit and God’s gifts, without limit, we’re told he has "the seven spirits of God" (5:6, compare Isaiah 11:1-3). His complete wisdom and vision is described by saying he has seven eyes (5:6). Seven seals perfectly conceal the book and ripping off seven seals is a full revealing of its contents. Seven trumpets are a full warning (8:2) and seven outpoured bowls are the full wrath of God (15:1, 16:1). When Christ calls his people to forgive "seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:22) he calls for forgiveness without limit.
The power and authority of the beast is described in terms of seven heads. Not only does that speak of seven actual emperors and hills (17:9,10) it says that as a bestial kingdom he is full of power. There’s no suggestion that he has power equal to Christ only that within his own sphere he is full of power.
It isn’t difficult to see how "seven" could come to stand for completeness. It was after six days of work that God rested on the seventh because his creative work was completed. The seventh day completes a week. Seven and its multiples came to stand for a condition, a state of affairs, a situation that speaks of "that’s all!"
The number three and a half
Christ’s power and authority is symbolized by seven and when contrasted with Christ’s the beast’s power is three and a half. Three and a half is a broken seven. Three and a half is said to be a time, (two) times and half a time (12:6,14). The equivalent phrase is 1,260 days (12:6), forty-two months (11:2 and 13:5). The Jews worked on a thirty day month and added an inter-calary month to bring their years up to a solar year.
Twelve hundred and sixty days is forty-two months and that is three and a half years or time, times and half a time. We know these to be interchangeable for several reasons. In 12:6 we’re told the Woman flees to the wilderness for 1,260 days and in 12:14 we’re told she’s there for time, times and half a time. The beast is given authority for forty-two months which is 42 X 30+1,260. The armies of the beast tread down the temple for forty-two months though they are unable to take the citadel and during that period the two Witnesses preach for 1,260 days (11:3). When the Witnesses are slain they aren’t dead for a full week (a seven) but for three and a half days and then they live again (11:9).
If someone asked you to describe Christ’s power and authority with a number, in Revelation terms you would say it was a seven. When you describe the beasts power and authority as limited and not complete you’d describe it with the number three and a half. Three and a half speaks of limitation! The Woman is really troubled but it’s only for 1,260 days (three and a half years). The Witnesses wear sackcloth (a symbol of mourning and suffering) while they preach but it’s only for 1,260 days or forty-two months or three and a half years (11:3,9,11). Three and half speaks of limitation! It speaks of a state of affairs where the people of God are troubled but they are triumphant, they suffer but are supported, they are down but they are never out.
In 1 Kings 17 we have the story of the drought that lasted for three and a half years (see James 5:17 and Luke 4:25). During that time God preserved his prophet and fed him in the wilderness via ravens, a poor widow and God’s miraculous provision. So you have both the trial and the provision. This story no doubt contributed to the use of three and a half years in the way we see it here. (It’s the kind of thing that happened to the number forty.) Be sure to look again at Lesson 3 and refresh your mind about the Woman and the Witnesses.
The number 6 The number six stands for Man. The number seven functions as perfection and six falls short of that (see Romans 3:23). Man was created on the sixth day (Genesis 1:26,31). In Revelation 13:18 John gives the beast’s number as "six, six, six". The whole world is afraid of the beast and worships him. He claims godhood and professes to be unstoppable, lord of the eternal city. But the people of God are assured that there’s nothing to be afraid of and there’s certainly nothing to be worshiped! The beast is human and evil. In Daniel 7:17 it is one of four that rises "from the earth" in contrast to the Son of Man who rides on the clouds of heaven and goes to the Ancient of Days who gives him his authority (713-14). Those kingdoms are bestial and he is human. They are of the earth and his kingdom is the kingdom of heaven. They are anti-God and he is the Servant of the one true God.
When John describes the beast’s power he says it’s three and a half and when he describes the beast nature and character he says he is six, six, six. The tripled six may well be because Rome is present in a threefold way—sea beast, earth beast and prostitute (city).
The number of the beast, he tells us (13:18) is "man’s number." He doesn’t mean a man, as in a specific person. There is no indefinite article in Greek and only the context determines whether we should supply one or not. Here six, six, six is not the number of a man, it is the number of Man. You can see this illustrated in Galatians 3:15 where "even if it is a man’s covenant" doesn’t mean a particular person—it means "even if it is a covenant that humans make" (he’s comparing it with a covenant God has made). And take a look at Revelation 21:17.
The number one thousand
Like seven there is the notion of fullness and completeness in the number 1,000 but it appears that the number 1,000 deals with that concept on a larger scale. Psalm 50:10 has God claiming that the cattle on a thousand hills are his. What about the cattle on hill 1,001? There his too but he doesn’t need to go around saying, "And that’s mine, and that too and those over there." Claiming to own the cattle on a thousand hills is a claim to all of them. He claims to be faithful to a thousand generations (Exodus 205 and Deuteronomy 7:9 and elsewhere). What about poor generation 1,001? He’s faithful to them too because his faithfulness knows no limit. One thousand may well mean one thousand in many texts but the context usually makes that clear since it will occur in historical books rather than poetic or apocalyptic. When it’s carrying a message it speaks of what is unreserved and complete, without limit. Hitler used to say he would establish a kingdom that would last a thousand years. Presumably it added nothing to go higher than that.
When we read in Revelation 20:1-3 of the Devil’s defeat as lasting one thousand years we’re not being given chronology or a date on a calendar. A thousand generations was not offering a cut-off date and a thousand years in Revelation 20 isn’t either. Remember Revelation tells its message in symbols and signs. When it describes the beast’s limited authority it calls it a three and a half-year authority. When it describes the Devil’s defeat or the victory of the saints it calls them "a thousand year defeat" or a "thousand year reign" (20:4-6).
The death of the Witnesses is robbed of its power by being called a "three and a half-day" death (11:9-12) but the death of the beast’s allies is hammered home by being seen as a "thousand year death" (20:4-6). This has nothing to do with dates on a calendar!
Here’s the question: when the smoke has cleared from the battle in chapter 19 has the Devil been defeated in his use of Rome? Yes! Or has he just lost a skirmish in that battle? No skirmish! In that phase of his defiance of God—using Rome as his tool—he was not only staggered he was thoroughly beaten! How does John say those words I just uttered? He paints a picture of chains, a hole in the earth and a thousand-year incarceration.
When the smoke from the battle in chapter 19 has cleared have the People of God triumphed over the beasts and the Dragon that used them? Yes! Or was it just that they had gained an edge and the brawl wasn’t done? They didn’t gain "an edge". They triumphed unreservedly! And how does John say the words I just said? He paints a picture of saints sitting enthroned with Christ for 1,000 years.
As far as his use of Rome is concerned Satan was decisively and utterly defeated. But might there be other enemies through whom he would attack God by attacking his People? No doubt but Satan’s future failure and utter loss is assured. How is that said? First the image of 1,000 years is allowed to run its course so that the truth it has to tell is not obscured and then another image is presented. A "little season" (as distinct from 1,000 years), Satan gathers an army of staggering proportions, attacks the people of God, God’s judgement falls and the lake of fire receives the Devil and all his allies (20:7-15).
The number eight
The number eight is the number of a new beginning. It’s the day that begins a new week after seven days. It’s the Jubilee years that follows forty nine years and when everyone gets a new start, when all debts are cancelled and all property goes back to the original owners. It’s the day of circumcision when the child enters into a new relationship with God. Early Christians called it the first day and the eighth. Christ was raised on the first day of the week. The New Covenant people began on Pentecost day, on the first day of the week. Early churches built their baptisteries with eight sides stressing the truth that the penitent believer had now risen to live again in his new and resurrected Lord. In the Sibylline Oracles Christ’s is given the number 888. The number of resurrection.
In Revelation 17:11 the sea-beast has an eighth head. It is Domitian, the emperor in whom persecution of the Christians began again. Nero has persecuted God’s people and died (see 11:7, 13:3,11 and 17:11). With him the beast died but with Domitian it came alive again. Remember these are pictorial ways of telling truths. The images are not literally fulfilled! With the death of Nero persecution of the saints ceased but in Domitian Nero (as it were) is risen from the dead. Tertullian in the 2nd century calls him a limb of the bloody Nero. In the 3rd century Eusebius calls him the successor to Nero.
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