SCIENTISTS will tell you that number is stamped on creation in a very wonderful way. The celebrated Herschel pointed out that every law in nature tends to express itself in terms of arithmetic. The astronomer will tell you it is stamped on the stars. The botanist will tell you it is stamped on the vegetable kingdom. The zoologist will tell you it is seen in the animal kingdom. Even the very frozen crystals on the window pane will tell the same tale.
Take the number three as one instance. In the case of the bee the following phenomena are striking.
In three days the egg of the queen bee is hatched.
It is fed for nine days (3 x 3)
It reaches maturity in fifteen days (5 x 3)
The worker reaches maturity in 21 days (7 x 3)
The drone matures in 24 days (8 x 3) Under the body are six wax scales with which the comb is made (2 x 3) It has six legs (2 x 3)
The antenna consist of 9 sections (3 x 3)
The sting has nine barbs on each side (3 x 3).
Is this design or mere chance? We see the wisdom of the Creator in this, especially as we could furnish numberless examples just as striking as the illustration we have chosen. If this is true in the realm of nature, we are not surprised to find Scripture stamped with design in number.
We propose to consider the way the number three is presented in Scripture. There are two thoughts connected with it.
First, it stands for what is solid and substantial. Two dimensions can only produce lines, which you can trace on the paper, or on other material. But give three dimensions, length, breadth and depth, and you have a cube, something of solidity and substance.
Second, we are told in Scripture that “in the mouth of two or three witnesses every, word may be established” (Matt. 18:1616But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. (Matthew 18:16)). This sets forth the thought of full witness, or ample manifestation.
Let us look at a few Scriptural instances.
There are three Persons in the Godhead —Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Till the Lord Jesus revealed the Father by His coming into this world as the Son sent of the Father, God was not known in His fullness. Moreover, it waited the advent of the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost to complete the fullness of the revelation in the apprehension of the believer, for the Holy Spirit is the power by which these things are known and enjoyed.
There are three attributes in the Godhead—Omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence—unlimited power, unlimited knowledge, unlimited presence.
There are three offices the Lord sustains —Prophetic, Priestly and Kingly—Prophet, the One who can bring the conscience into the presence of God; Priest, the One, who can sustain the worshipper in the presence of God; King, the One, who will uphold the rule of God in this world.
In 1 Corinthians 15, that great resurrection chapter, He is presented as the One (1) who died for our sins, (2) who was buried, and (3) who was seen by many witnesses, proof of His resurrection, proving the character of His death and His object in dying. Here we have three things again, full testimony to Christ in His work for the believer.
Again He is described as the “Lord God Almighty, (1) which was, and (2) is, and (3) which is to come” (Rev. 4:88And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. (Revelation 4:8)), taking the three divisions of time to affirm the eternity of the being of the Lord. Again in the same verse the living creatures say three times, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” surely once for God the Father, once for God the Son, once for God the Holy Spirit.
Three times over did our Lord in the wilderness quote Scripture in His conflict with the devil. “It is written” (Matt. 4:4, 7, 104But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)
7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. (Matthew 4:7)
10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. (Matthew 4:10)); and with these three cuts of the sword of the Spirit defeated the enemy.
These three quotations repelled the threefold temptation that Satan knows so well how to yield, viz., “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:1616For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:16)), temptation to which our first parents yielded in the Garden of Eden, and to which every child of Adam has succumbed since. This was the first time that Satan was absolutely foiled.
The inscription on the Saviour’s cross was written in three languages, “It was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin” (John 19:2020This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin. (John 19:20))— Hebrew, the language of the Jews, to whom the Lord was sent; Greek, the language of commerce in those days, of the cultured and artistic; Latin, the language of the Roman, under whose iron sway lay the whole civilized world. Evidently the message was to be sent in its fullness of testimony to mankind wherever found.
It is the three parts of man, spirit, soul and body, “that the Apostle Paul prays” may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians verse 23); whilst the three enemies of mankind are the world, the flesh, and the devil—the World, that which is spread out before us to tempt us to sin and luxury and self-seeking; the Flesh, that which is marked by inward passions and lusts; the Devil, that crafty foe, who never tires of waging his warfare against Christ’s interests in this world, the King and Organizer of the underworld of infernal wickedness.
There are three witnesses to the believer, “the Spirit and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one” (1 John 5:88And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. (1 John 5:8))— the Spirit, the One who works in sovereign grace in our hearts, who takes the divine initiative in His approach to our souls; the Water, that application of the word of God to our souls that cleanses our ways; the Blood, that which cleanses our sins away from the eye of God.
Lastly there are the three great Christian virtues extolled in 1 Corinthians 13:13,13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Corinthians 13:13) “And now abideth faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest [here we get one of the three comparisons of the adjective] of these is charity [love]”— Faith, that gives the vision of things beyond the reach of the natural eye; Hope, that gives us quietness in waiting for the glorious future that lies before the believer; Love, that divine quality that will exist forever; for faith will yield to glorified sight, and hope will pass into glad realization, but love, the very nature of God, will abide forever. Hallelujah!
So we might go on and a volume might be written; and yet blind men will tell us that the Bible is not inspired! If it were not inspired we should soon exhaust its contents. On the contrary the deepest student of God’s Word is conscious that he has only touched the merest fringe of the mighty ocean of revelation. Thank God, for the Scriptures of truth!
A. J. Pollock.