Bereansearching Bible Studies

Introduction

Myriad misperceptions abound on the role of numbers as they are found in the Bible. Nonetheless, it can be observed that God does apply the use of numbers in a consistent and meaningful way, which have the effect of conveying spiritual truths, as this post attempts to show. The numbers in the Bible, just like the words in the Bible (in the original languages), are integral to the Spiritually crafted text in an inerrant, infallible, and consistent manner/pattern. We should also be aware that “numbers” are also unique words in themselves, in that (unlike other words) they are the only means of human communication which can be universally understood. 

Note to the Reader: This post is an excerpt from another longer post entitled: Numbers in the Bible Convey Spiritual Concepts.

The “276” souls saved in the shipwreck with Paul coming to the island of “Melita” (“Honey“) highlight the Prime Number “23”

We also know that the promised land (typifying Heaven) was frequently described in the Bible as a place flowing with “milk and honey”^H1706.  And it should be noted here that when Paul was shipwrecked, that the “certain island” that Paul prophesied about in Acts 27:26 was named Melita (now known as “Malta“) in Acts 28:1.  Melita means “Honey”, and it was also used in this true historical account to portray “Heaven”*… to where all 276 souls on the ship were saved, although the ship that carried them was completely destroyed (because it represents the apostate corporate church just prior to Judgment Day). We read in Acts 27:37, “And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.“ and then later inActs 27:42-44, that the centurion in charge of the Apostle Paul, ”commanded that they which could swim should cast [themselves] first [into the sea], and get to land: And the rest, some on boards, and some on [broken pieces] of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.”  

The ship was completely destroyed, yet every soul was saved. That is the plain, literal, and historical understanding, for which there is no argument to that point. But why did the number of souls total exactly “276“? Could there be some kind of spiritual meaning Iinked to that number as was the case of the 153 fish? YES, Indeed there is!

When we look at the original Greek language translated into English by the King James translators, we find that the number presented as “two hundred threescore and sixteen” (“276“) is διακόσιοι (diakosioi) ^G1250 (“200“), ἑβδομήκοντα (hebdomēkonta) ^G1440 (“70“), and ἕξ (hex)^G1803(“6“).Each of those numbers has spiritual significance. 

The number “two hundred” (2 x 10 x 10) is representative of the church (“2”, like the two witnesses) in totality (“10” squared).  Mark 6:7, “And he called [unto him] the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;“

“Seventy” as a Perfection of Time Indicator

The number “seventy” is a perfection of time indicator, as we know from the 70 years of desolation of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity during that same seventy year period (Daniel 9:2 and Jeremiah 25:12, Jeremiah 29:10). Then there are the 70 weeks of years (490 years) in Daniel 9:24 prophesying the exact time in the future that Jesus would arrive to make Atonement, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” Also Isaiah 23:15, “¶And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.” 

Sometimes “seventy“ can have a positive connotation (for the Believers)

We also know from Exodus 1:5, “And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt [already].” In the New Testament, we read where Jesus appointed seventy men as new Apostles as we read in Luke 10:1, “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” and then in Luke 10:17, “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.” Significantly, Jesus told those seventy men in Luke 10:20, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” Those 70 men were appointed by Jesus and were granted entrance into Heaven. Seventy years was also the time period of captivity after which Jerusalem would be restored, picturing the end of time when the New Jerusalem would be revealed.

Sometimes “seventy” can also have a negative connotation (for the unsaved)

2 Samuel 24:15, “¶So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.” In Ezekiel 8:11, there were, “seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel,” who were doing abominations back in the Old Testament. 1 Chronicles 21:14, “¶So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.” Judges 9:56, “¶Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:”

Finally the number “six” (“6”). The number six is most closely aligned with both man and work.  God created man on the sixth day (Genesis 1:26-31). That was God’s “Work”.

So then, using this understanding of how God has used these specific numbers in the Bible, we can see that it involves the Eternal Church when God will finish His Work of restoration at the end of time leading to the era of the New Jerusalem in Heaven.

The Number “23” Is Also in View

But there is more to the spiritual implications of this historical account than that. The number 276 can also be divided into 3 x 4 x “23“. As was indicated earlier above, the number “3” represents “the Purpose or Will of God”, while the number “4” represents “Global” or “Universal” (like the four points of the compass, again please the Appendix). The number “23” (please see the Appendix) is another “prime number”, which cannot be divided any further and it represents God’s Judgment, particularly in “the Final Tribulation“, which occurs just before Judgment Day, when God’s wrath is poured out on the apostate church and the abomination of desolation takes over because God looses the devil as we read in Revelation 20:3&7.  The giant storm “euroclydon“, a form of God’s Wrath, was sent by God against the ship. 

276 Is a Unique Number Which Also Highlights the Number “23”

And just as we learned above how the number 153 was unique, so too is the number 276 unique! 
In the case of the number 276, the prime number that is highlighted is the number “23” in the same unique manner as was “17” highlighted in the number 153. If we add 1 +2 +3 +4 +5…up to and including +23, then we find that the sum of all the numbers equals 276!  The number 23 is therefore uniquely highlighted in two different ways that no other number besides 276 will be capable of doing. So then, the spiritual meaning that God has crafted into this historical account is that the Jesus (represented by the Apostle Paul, as a “Type” of Christ) would bring the souls of all of the believers into Heaven (those who were previously in the corporate body, the church during the last days after it is destroyed by God for its becoming apostate during in the Final Tribulation. 

Scriptural Evidence to show the number “23” points to “Judgment”, particularly in the context of punishing the corporate church for its apostasy during the “Final Tribulation”:

1. It was stated that the temple would be trodden under foot for 2300 (“23” X “100”) days to signify the period of the Final Tribulation when God judges the corporate church for its apostasy. Daniel 8:13&14, “¶Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain [saint] which spake, How long [shall be] the vision [concerning] the daily [sacrifice], and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? ¶And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.“
2. 23,000 (“23” X “1000”) Israelites were killed in one day in the plague in the Sinai wilderness as we read in 1 Corinthians 10:8, “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.“
3. It was in the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign when Judah was completely destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah 52:30, “In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons [were] four thousand and six hundred.” (And please note that the 4600 is 2 x 2300)!

* The fact that all of the 276 souls made it safe to the Island of Melita is also significant, because it also reinforces a spiritual concept, because it is also a “Geographical Parable”. A Geographical Parable is a real “earthly” physical place, which serves to represent a real “spiritual” place and thereby conveys a “spiritual” meaning. “Melita“, from the orginal Greek Μελίτη (melitē)^G3194, means “Honey“. The Island of Melita, as God applies it in the Bible, is described more fully in a longer post entitled Biblical Insights: Geographical Parables, Part 7: The Island of Melita, A Portrait of Heaven. We also should remember that the “Promised Land” (typifying Heaven) is frequently described in the Bible as a land that is flowing (or floweth) with “milk (חָלָב (ḥālāḇ)) ^H2461and honey (דְּבַשׁ (dᵊḇaš))^H1706“(see for example Exodus 3:8). The phrase “milk and honey” is actually found 20 times in the Old Testament.  Is it not interesting that both milk and honey are related to this Creation of God, and, hence are not reliant in any way on the work of man? They are also dependent on green grass and flowers to be produced, but they result in a means of sustenance for man. Only those who are the chosen of God can enter into that land of rest (from work), a land that is flowing with milk and honey, hence that land of milk and honey (hence also “Melita”) is an earthly picture of the Spiritual Heaven wherein mankind can have eternal rest and sustenance for that which it cannot labor.

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