WHAT DOES THE NUMBER 4 MEAN IN THE BIBLE?
What does the number 4 mean in the Bible and prophetically?
Four is a number that repeatedly appears in the Holy Scriptures, sometimes with a symbolic value. In fact, the number four appears 305 times in the Bible. These are some examples:
Ezekiel had a vision of the cherubs. There were four in number. Each had four faces and four wings. In Revelation, the same four cherubim are called “living beings” (Revelation 4). The first living being was like a lion; the second, like a calf; the third, like a man; and the fourth, like an eagle flying.
Just like the river that came out of Eden to water the Garden of God, and which was divided into four (Genesis 2: 10-14), the Gospel, or the good news of Christ, comes from the heart of God to reach the world and say to men: “God so loved the world . ” We have the four presentations of that, a Gospel in Four Gospels. Why four? Because it must be sent to the four extremes or to the four parts of the world.
He “wants all men to be saved …” (1 Timothy 2: 4). Matthew’s Gospel is primarily for the Jews; Mark’s is for the Romans; Luke’s for the Greeks; and that of John for the Christian Church. Christ is presented to all men as the King in Matthew; in Mark as the servant of God; in Luke as the Son of man; in John as the Son of God. The nature of the Gospel can, therefore, be compared to the cherub of Ezekiel’s vision and that of Revelation 4; in Matthew the lion; in Marcos to the calf; in Luke the man, in John the eagle flying.
• In Genesis 1: 14-19, it is explained that on the fourth day of creation, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars and with it the day and the night.
“Then God said:« Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night; Let them signs to mark the seasons, days and years. May those lights in the sky shine on the earth »; And that’s what happened. God made two high lights: the largest to rule the day, and the smallest to rule the night. He also made the stars. God put those lights in the sky to illuminate the Earth, to rule day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that this was good. And the afternoon passed, and the morning came, so the fourth day was fulfilled.”
• In Genesis 2: 10-14, the river of the Garden of Eden is mentioned, which branched off into four arms.
“And a river came out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it was divided into four arms. The name of the one was Pisón; this is the one that surrounds all the land of Havila, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; there is also bedelio and onyx. The name of the second river is Gihon; this is the one that surrounds all the land of Cus. And the name of the third river is Hidekel; This is the one that goes east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates .”
• According to the prophet Ezekiel, the Holy Spirit is over the whole Earth, and he mentions four winds, where each one corresponds to a cardinal point.
“Spirit, come from the four winds and blow. “(Ezekiel 37: 9)
• We all know the four gospels that narrate the life of the Son of God on Earth. They are the gospels, according to Saint Matthew, Saint Mark, Saint Luke, and Saint John.
• In Mark 4: 3-8 in the parable of the sower, Jesus mentions that there are four types of land: that which is next to the road, that which has many stones, that of thorns, and finally the good Earth.
“Hear: Behold, the sower went out to sow; and when sowing, it happened that a part fell by the wayside, and the birds of the sky came and ate it. Another part fell in stony, where there was not much land, and it sprang up soon because it had no depth of land. But the sun came out, it burned; and because it had no root, it dried up. Another part fell among thorns, and the thorns grew and drowned her, and she bore no fruit. But another part fell on good ground, and bore fruit, for it sprouted and grew, and produced thirty, sixty, and one hundred and one.”
Five numbers of the Bible with a powerful meaning
The Bible, the most read book of all time, hides multiple codes and secrets. The Bible is full of numbers that do not express a real amount but are the symbol of something that goes beyond. Among the Semites, it was reasonable to transmit keys or ideas through numbers. Although at no time is explained what each number means, scholars have found out what many of them symbolize.
This does not mean that every time a number comes out in the Bible, it has a hidden meaning, it will usually indicate a real amount, but sometimes it is not. Join us to know five numbers of the Bible with a powerful meaning.
Five Bible numbers with a POWERFUL meaning
1. The number ONE symbolizes everything that has to do with God. It represents the divine realm. We see it, for example, in this passage from Deuteronomy 6: 4: “Hear Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is One.”
2. THREE is the whole. The present, past, and future, the three dimensions of time, means “always.” We see it, for example, in Isaiah 6: 3 “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole Earth is full of his glory.” By saying the Holy three times, it means that it is forever. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (3) form the Trinity. Jesus Christ rose on the third day, and three times were the devil tempted him. There are many appearances of this figure with a meaning that transcends the purely numerical.
3. SIX is the imperfection number. As we will see below, SEVEN is perfect. As “not perfect,” it is related to the human being: God created man on the sixth day. 666 is the number of the devil; The most imperfect. Away from perfection and enemy of the chosen people, we find Goliath: a 6-foot-tall giant wearing six pieces of armor. In the Bible, there are many more cases in which six applies to the imperfect or contrary to the good.
4. SEVEN is the number of perfection. God created the world, and on the seventh day he rested, this is a clear reference to the perfection and completion of creation. There are many examples in the Old Testament, but where the symbology of this number is most strongly seen is in the Apocalypse. In it, St. John tells us of the seven seals, the seven trumpets or the seven eyes, for example, symbolizing the fullness of the secret, punishment or divine vision.
5. The TWELVE means “chosen” or “chosen.” When one speaks of the 12 tribes of Israel, it does not mean that they were only 12, but that they were the chosen ones, just as the apostles are 12, even if they were more, they are the “chosen ones.” Twelve are the minor prophets, and in Revelation 12, they are the stars that crown the Woman or 12 are the gates of Jerusalem.
Other numbers of the Bible with symbology are, for example, 40, which represents the change (the flood lasted 40 days and 40 nights) or 1000, which means multitude.
