The Bible’s Number 4…
#4-Wilderness-Trials, creation, men, earth, time days, things and actions in the world.
Learning About Number Four: Creation/Wilderness Wanderings The fourth step in God’s Redemption Pattern is to understand our position as men and women in His creation. Since the fall of Adam and Eve we have been doomed to wander and struggle, wi th our lives ending in death. Or if we trust God and follow His ways, we can have life through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the “living bread” that came down from heaven. In the fourth step we each personally realize our weakness and helplessness to save ourselves and hopefully then become ready to give up our own ways, accept God’s son, Jesus, as a gift of salvation and enter God’s Promised Land—the process that begins in the fifth step.
Things associated with number four
- Four is a number related to all the aspects of God’s creation in which we exist.
- The Earth–The fourth position in our solor system counting the sun as number one
- Days, time, dates People, groups, places, things
- The Wilderness
- the elements—fire, air, water, and earth; the seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter
- the parts of a day—night, morning, afternoon, and evening
- the cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west
- four dimensions we are most familiar with — three spatial (height, width, and depth) and the fourth is time
The theme and subthemes of four are about things of creation and events and actions happening to these things. They include dates, time, earth, heaven and stars, plants, animals, and, most importantly, man.
Numbers, the forth book of the Bible, is about the wilderness and hopeless wandering because of failure to trust God. The forty years (4 x 10) reflects times of testing and trials that help prepare us to finally realize that whatever we try on our own eventually fails and leads to death. When we finally see our sins, weaknesses, and limitations, we are ready to cry out to God again to deliver us, and at this point God has prepared us to desire to live in the land He has chosen for us and consider the hard choices we must make to enter it. We are then ready to move on to the fifth part of God’s Redemption Pattern.
Example verses
Following are some example verses that have strong content pointing to the theme of one:
The following examples demonstrate some of the different ways the number four follows its theme in the Bible.
Tourth point of these most-well-known sections of the Bible clearly fit the theme for number four:
- Fourth Commandment: Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy
- The fourth part of the Lord’s Prayer: “…On earth as it is in heaven.”
- The fourth verse in the 23rd Psalm: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil…
FOUR IN CREATION: In Genesis 1:4 we read that God separated the light from the darkness. “God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4). Later, in verse 14, we see that the fourth day of creation begins and God creates time, days, and dates, as well as the four seasons. “God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years….”
FOUR IN WILDERNESS WANDERINGS: It is not until the tenth chapter of Numbers that the pillar of cloud moves, signaling the beginning of the wilderness wandering. Amazingly, this is the 4,000th verse, making it one of the most compelling theme verses for number four.
Numbers 10:11 “Now in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth of the month, the cloud was lifted from over the tabernacle of the testimony wilderness wandering begins….”
Jesus had His own wilderness experience when the devil led him into temptation. This same verse is found in like-referenced 4:1 verses in Matthew and Luke.
Matthew 4:1 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Luke 4:1 “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness.”
Other wilderness experiences are often found associated with verse fours.
Lamentations 4:14 says, “They wandered, blind, in the streets.” Notice that these verse fours in 1, 2, and 3 John all refer to our “walking” in our world.
1 John 4:1 “…false prophets have gone out into the world.”
1 John 4:4 “…greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”
2 John 1:4 “…children walking in truth….”
3 John 1:4 “…children walking in the truth.” FOUR IN OUR LACK OF TRUST IN GOD:
Numbers 14:4 “So they said to one another, ‘Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.’”
Ezekiel 2:4 “I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children.”
GROWTH THROUGH SUFFERING: A major reason for our wilderness wandering and time on this earth is to learn the things of God, and He reminds us this will teach us not to sin.
1 Peter 4:1 “…since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin….” We become productive for the kingdom by walking with God and seeking to do His will.
John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither {can} you unless you abide in Me.”
RELYING ON GOD AND GOD RESPONDING: In Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 Jesus makes the same statement: “…MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE….” In Matthew 15, the 944th chapter, Jesus feeds the 4,000 who came up to meet Him on the mountain. These 4,000 had been in the wilderness three days.
Matthew 15:32 “…I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry….”