An Even Dozen (30.10.02)

We in Queensland, Australia may, regrettably, take the magnificent beauty of the Great Barrier Reef for granted. Our Creator has tucked away some of the most exotic majesties of His handiwork under the seas which cover almost 80% of the planet. As a result, billions of landlocked human beings from Beijing to Budapest will not only never ever glimpse the ultimate of divine artistry, but sadly, never even have an inkling of what they missed!

And so it is with the Bible. It's all there for all to explore, but few there be who will comprehend all its beauty and all its depth.

Let's just take the number 12.

Those who search the Scriptures and compare the hidden things in all their detail, have found that the Almighty has used ordinary numbers with an amazing display of meaning. And, I might add, we owe much to countless of the original Jewish sages for this.

The number 12 is used consistently as a God-ordained group of people or community who have been selected for a specific function or purpose. Most of the time the purpose is for good, but not necessarily so.

First of all, there are the 12 Tribes of Israel who were ordained to plant a foundation for God's morality and eventual redemption of the entire world.

And then there were the 12 princes of Ishmael (Gen 17:20 and 25:16) destined from their onset to mirror a counter reaction to the ultimate course of redemption.

And of course there were the 12 disciples chosen by our Lord to reflect His message to the offspring of those 12 Tribes of Israel, and who were then promoted to be known as the 12 Apostles, who were to carry that same message on to the very ends of the earth.

There were 12 spies chosen to enter Canaan, and there were references numerous times to 12 stones, 12 pillars and even the baking of 12 loaves of bread to be placed before the Lord in His wilderness tabernacle.

One of the most fascinating discoveries I made when I studied biblical Hebrew was a short-sighted translation of Jonah 4:11 which all English translations render as, "120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left". Unfortunately, that's not exactly what it says in Hebrew. Hebrew says "12 times 10,000 people" which has a deeper meaning than just a large finite number. The "12" signals a group that is God-ordained, while the 10,000 symbolically reflect the largeness of the group. The better translation would have been: "Jonah, I have a huge multitude of My own hand picked people in that city who at the moment still are very naïve (to right and wrong), but whom I have slated for redemption."

Obviously, that carries an additional meaning of pre-planning beyond just a specified population of 120,000.

But there's even a lot more extraordinary meaning hidden away with the number 12, which is jumping out at us with new relevance as we approach the return of our Messiah.

Have you ever wondered why there were exactly 24 elders bowing down before the Throne in Rev. 4:4, and mentioned again at least 5 times throughout the book of Revelation? Where did they come from? Why not 20? Or 70? And what's with this mystical 144,000 number that appears in Chapter 7 and again in Chapter 14 of Revelation? Where did that one come from and why?

Let's have a look at Revelation Chapter 21 where the New Jerusalem comes down from the heavens to be established on earth. In verses 12-14 we learn that the Celestial City has 12 gates. On the gates themselves are the names of the 12 Tribes of Israel. On the foundations of the gates are the names of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb. Twelve and twelve are 24! There is equal representation around the Throne from both the redeemed arising from the original promise to the offspring of Abraham, and the extension of that promise to the entire gentile world through the Lord Jesus. The advent of Jesus the Messiah never cut off the promises to the Jewish people but doubled it!

And the 144,000? More of the same. This is hardly a finite number as can be programmed into a computer, as some cults would have us believe. Rather looking back to our eye-opening gates, it is 12 integrated with 12-or 12 multiplied by 12-times a multitude, which again underscores the symbolic parallel redemption of Jew and gentile planned from the beginning of time. And if we look at Rev 7:9 that follows just a few verses after the initial mention of the 144,000, indeed we do not have a finite number, but exactly what we have just said, "…a multitude that no one could count".

Here we have another undeniable representation of parallel ethnic participation of a God-ordained Jewish foundation beneath and a gentile covering above (see Rom 11.25). And in between roof and foundation is a temple of living stones (1 Cor 3:16; Eph 2:18-22 and 1 Pet 2:5) with God's Chief Cornerstone being the central focus of it all.

(OPTIONAL) Victor Schlatter is a former Bible Translator from Papua New Guinea and currently the director of the South Pacific Island Ministries, Inc. and the author of two recently published books: "Where Is the Body?" and "Showdown of the Gods", both available in most Christian book shops.