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….”

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