Wisdom by the numbers

Revelation: [17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

[18] Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

If Israel’s going to have wisdom in the stand against the Antichrist, one of the things they have to do is count the number and the number is six hundred and sixty-six, says Richard Jordan.

I sat down one day and thought, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to count all the six hundred and sixty-sixes in the Bible." You ever found the six hundred and sixty-sixth verse?

The six hundred and sixty-sixth chapter in the Bible is Ecclesiastes 7.

Verse 25: [25] I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:

By the way, the Book of Ecclesiastes is a book written to prepare that “little flock” of Israel in the “last days” to be able to identify the lie program; the philosophy that carries the lie program of the Adversary, that man of sin, the son of perdition, that you read about in Revelation.

Proverbs gives them the wisdom they’ll need to serve the Lord and Ecclesiastes gives them the information they’ll need to stay away from the thinking of the satanic policy of evil, personified in the Antichrist.

What did Revelation tell you to do if you wanted to seek out wisdom? It was to count the number.

So you come down to Ecclesiastes 7:27: [27] Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:

Somebody’s counting—“One, two, three”—and when he does, he’s seeking out wisdom. It’s just a point of interest to me that in the Scripture, counting numbers and the use of numbers is something that’s associated with getting some wisdom.

Now, I realize this is sort of like climbing up the tree, going out on a limb and getting waaay-waaay out on the limb and then handing somebody at the trunk of the tree a saw and saying, “Betcha can’t saw me off.”

They don’t have to, you’re out there so far that nobody else wants to go up there with you. But the way you get up the tree is just keep believing the verses. The way you get out on the limb is you just keep believing the verses and pretty soon you’re out way over here . . . you look like you’re out on a limb that’s fixing to crack out from under you because the dude on the ground was too scared to climb up the tree to start with. That’s sort of the way it is with these number kinds of things, but it is fascinating.

It's fascinating that the number 17 is associated with change; a transition from the old to the new in the Bible.

The first 17 in the Bible is Genesis 1:17: [17] And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

That’s the seventeenth time in the text the term “God” appears. It’s in the same verse.

Genesis 6:13: [13] And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

He’s going to bring an end to the humanity in the earth and then He’s going to replace it with Noah and his family. There’s going to be an end to the old and the beginning of the new.

That expression, “God said,” is the 17th time that expression occurs in your Bible.

Genesis 7:9: [9] There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

When it says “as God had commanded Noah,” that’s the 17th time that the name Noah appears in the text and it appears in connection with the ending of the old world and the salvation of life to go into the new world.

By the way, when it says, “God had commanded Noah,” come to Matthew 7:28: [28] And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

That’s the seventeenth time the name “Jesus” appears in Matthew. What did He do? He “ended these sayings.”

When Noah’s name occurred the 17th time it was because God had commanded him, both connected with the Scripture.

In John 2, Christ’s first miracle is where He turns the water into wine, and that chapter happens to be the 70th chapter in the New Testament. So you begin to see these connections that go on.

Earlier, I was looking in the concordance for the terms “agape” and “phileo” and in one Greek concordance they missed the number of a verse; they didn’t have it listed.

Strong’s Concordance, which is the standard and has been for 150 years, has a number of verses that wind up being missed. You can understand since they were doing everything by hand and the compilations and all that would have just been staggering that they got as close to right as they did.

Genesis 7:11: [11] In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

The world ended on the 17th day of the seventh month. That’s when the rain started.

Genesis 8:3: [3] And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

Seventeen is associated with changing from the old to the new and over and over when you find the number in the Bible, that’s what it gets associated with—the transition.

Genesis 8: [11] And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

That’s the symbolism that told him the new earth was there. One is the dove and what is a dove a picture of in the Bible? The Holy Spirit. When Jesus was baptized and the Father speaks from heaven, the Spirit descends upon Him in the form of a dove.

What’s the olive tree a symbol of in the Bible? The nation Israel. It’s the spiritual life that God the Holy Spirit’s going to give to the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham and the nation Israel.

What we’re looking at is how new life is going to be established in a new world. It’s going to be the Holy Spirit working through, ultimately, the nation Israel and it’s connecting all of it.

The old world’s over  and the new world and God’s purpose in man through the nation Israel is in the future.

One of the ways you can help identify the thrust behind a number is look at Genesis as 50 chapters. Most of the chapters will kind of clue you into what that number is about and will give you some help in understanding the thrust.

You find out that in Scripture some of the numbers are very clear. Like 13 is the number of rebellion. Three and seven are divine numbers of perfection. Twelve is Israel’s number. Those numbers are real easy. Nine is the number of fruit-bearing. Eight is the number of a new beginning.