The Bible’s Number 12 — Organizational perfection, laws, regulations, rules, courts, justice, 12 jurors… It seems the number 12 is related to things that are good and right and done well and done according to God’s ordinances. Things established by God as the way things are to be done. Twelve tribes, twelve thrones, twelve disciples, twelve months of a year, twelve hours for day and twelve hours for night…. Twelve is also related to wisdom, authority and the decision we must make about salvation.
I suspect 12 is related to the number three – One is a number for God and two is a number for Jesus and three is a perfect number of the trinity. The third book of the Bible, Leviticus, is about the holiness and righteousness of God. Twelve can be seen as 1+2=3 and it seems to fit that 12 being a number of organizational perfection and justice is likely directly related.
Some verse examples for number 12 – Exodus 28:21 “The stones shall be according to the names of the sons of Israel: twelve, according to their names; they shall be like the engravings of a seal, each according to his name for the twelve tribes”. This 21st verse (another number of perfection and salvation- 7+7+7), associates these twelve sons of Israel with a seal or sign of authority. We also see this in Exodus 39 verse 14 –“The stones were corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they were twelve, corresponding to their names, engraved with the engravings of a signet, each with its name for the twelve tribes”. In 1Kings 4:7 we see “Solomon had twelve deputies over all Israel, who provided for the king and his household; each man had to provide for a month in the year”.
In the numeric map we find these themes for 12 as well. Job 12:12 “Wisdom is with aged men, With long life is understanding“. In the following verse we might associate the number 12 in the chapter and verse with time, or hours in a day, or with the spirit of God – Luke 12:12 “for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say“.
There are many twelve’s in the Bible but one of the most interesting is associated with Jesus, the Tree of Life – Revelation 22:2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations”.