Today’s Scripture Reading (October
29, 2019): 1 Kings 10
Numbers.
We use them throughout life. The ability to understand numbers is incredibly
important if we want to be able to pay our bills or buy a quantity of something
from a store. A Facebook post argued that it was the greed of the wealthy that
was the root cause of poverty. The post was unequivocally wrong. Nothing forces
us to buy the products that make others rich. The root cause of poverty, at
least in developed nations, is either our inability or lack of desire to count.
Everyone has within them, at least in the world that I live, the ability to
become millionaires. But that means sacrifice and a lifetime devotion to
counting.
But it
is not just for counting that numbers are essential. Sometimes numbers mean
power. How many seats are needed to win an election? Of course, counting is
involved, but for the winner there is so much more than just a number that is
being reported. How the government responds to crisis is all tied up in that
final count of numbers.
And,
sometimes, numbers carry meaning. Matthew 1 contains an unusual genealogy of
the lineage of Jesus. It is strange, at least according to modern understanding,
because it is wrong. There have been kings purposefully left out, and probably
others that we cannot as easily verify that have been omitted from the list, all
so that Matthew can make this statement; “Thus there were fourteen generations
in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and
fourteen from the exile to the Messiah” (Matthew 1:17). The reason is that
“fourteen” is a powerful number. It is two times seven, and seven is a perfect
number; it is also the number of God. So our modern interpretation of Matthew
1:17 might run something like this. “God placed Abraham in a place of influence
in Canaan. And when the time was right, David, Abraham’s child was placed by
God in that same seat of influence. And when the time was right, the exile took
the people of Israel to Babylon. And then, when the time was right, Jesus the
Messiah was born. All of this took place with the perfect understanding of God”
(Matthew 1:17, my paraphrase.) The meaning is in the numbers
Another number that has significant
meaning to Christians is 666. Six is the number of the human race, and three
sixes have long been associated with the end times dictator that we sometimes
call “the Antichrist.” I have friends that have refused to take license plates
that contained the offending three sixes. My treasurer once considered shorting
an expense claim I submitted because the amount came to $666.00. (No, the
number was not exact, some cents were involved that I don’t remember now. But
the dollars were 666.)
And 666, according to John’s
Revelation, is the number of a man. And that man might have been Solomon. Why?
He is the only other person in the Bible associated with the number 666. Maybe
it is arbitrary; it is just a weight that is presented in this verse. But
numbers in the Bible often mean something. Solomon was a King that started good
and ended bad. And some believe that attributing the number 666 to the
Antichrist, might mean that this person, too, will start good, but somewhere
along the line become corrupted by wants and desires and become bad.
And if you think you might have heard
this story before, you probably have. In the Star Wars Saga, this is
essentially the story of Darth Vader. Anakin Skywalker started good but became
corrupted by desire. He is an excellent illustration of the predicted
Antichrist. Who knew that “Star Wars” was so biblical?
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2
Chronicles 9
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