Numbers and their deeper spiritual meanings
Biblical numbers
TW Tramm
[Shared with permission]
IN the Bible, numbers are used symbolically to convey deeper spiritual meanings and concepts. They essentially act as a coded language that reveals truths about God’s plan.
With this in mind, it is fascinating to consider some correlations between “Strong’s numbers”—the index numbers assigned to every word in the original Greek/Hebrew Scriptures—and various counts of Sabbatical weeks, the seven-year cycle by which God reckons time:
#457/456 – WORD TO REBUILD
In Daniel’s Weeks Prophecy, a “word to rebuild Jerusalem” initiates a count of Sabbatical weeks to Messiah (Dan. 9:25). According to chronologists, King Artaxerxes issued a word to rebuild Jerusalem in 457–56 BC.
Strongs #457 Greek, anoixisis, means “to open” one’s mouth to speak.
Strong’s #456 Greek, anoikodomeó, means “to rebuild” something that has been razed to the ground.
#69 – MESSIAH APPEARS
Per Daniel’s Weeks Prophecy, Messiah appears 69 weeks after the word to rebuild Jerusalem (Dan. 9:25).
Strong’s #69 Greek, agrupneó, means “to be watchful” for the Lord’s appearing.
Strong’s #69 Hebrew, eben, means “stone,” as in the “stone cut out without hands” that symbolizes Jesus as the coming Judge and Ruler (Dan. 2:34, 35).
Significantly, there are two rebuildings of Jerusalem from which to count the 69 weeks:
Counting from the rebuilding of Jerusalem in 457–56 BC, we arrive at the year Jesus was baptized Messiah, AD 27–28.
Counting from a later rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls in AD 1540–41, we arrive at the latest/current Sabbatical year (see graphic: https://tinyurl.com/522fwdht).
#27 – MESSIAH BAPTIZED
When Jesus was baptized Messiah in AD 27–28, God the Father adjudged Him His “beloved Son,” in whom He is well pleased (Matt. 3:17).
Strong’s #27 Greek, agapétos, is the above word translated “beloved.”
Strong’s #27 Hebrew, Abidan, is derived from two Hebrew words that mean “father” and “judge.”
#285 – THE REMNANT SAVED
From Jesus’ baptism in AD 27–28, to the latest/current, Sabbatical year is 285 weeks.
Strong’s Greek #285, ammos, means “sand,” and is a metaphor for the innumerable people of Israel, of whom only a remnant will be saved during Daniel’s 70th week (Dan. 9:24; Rom. 9:27, 28).
#70 – RAPTURE TIMING
The Rapture precedes the 70th week, and coincides with Isreal’s 70th Jubilee.
Strong’s #70 Greek, agrupnia, refers to a state of “wakefulness” or “watchfulness.”
Strong’s #70 Hebrew, oben, refers to either a birthing stool or millstone. Both definitions are fitting because the Rapture is likened to a “birth” that occurs while people are “grinding at the mill” (Isa. 26:17–2; Matt. 24:41).
#354 – RAPTURE IMAGERY
From the start of Daniel’s Weeks Prophecy in 457–56 BC to the latest/current, Sabbatical year is 354 weeks.
Strong’s Hebrew #354, ayyal, refers to a “stag, or male deer.”
Strong’s Greek #354, analémpsis, refers to “a taking up” to heaven.
That the Hebrew and Greek words associated with the number 354 refer to a stag and a taking up to heaven is striking because in the rapture allegory in Song of Songs, Jesus is pictured as a young stag who comes suddenly to gather up His Bride: “My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag …. My beloved speaks and says to me: Rise up, my love, my beautiful one, and come away” (Song 2:9, 10).
Bolstering the #354–rapture connection, since a biblical/lunar year consists of 354 days, and the moon is a symbol of the Church, 354 denotes the fullness of time related to the Church.
#372 – NO REST
From the destruction of the First Temple, Israel’s punishment for not observing the Sabbatical years of “rest,” to the latest/current Sabbatical year is 372 weeks.
Strong’s Greek #372, anapausis, means “rest,” or “cessation from labor.”
#279 – UNREPENTANT ISRAEL
From the destruction of the Second Temple, Israel’s punishment for not “repenting” by accepting Messiah, to the latest/current, Sabbatical year is 279 weeks.
Strongs #279 Greek, ametanoétos, means “unrepentant,” and appears in verses that speak of God’s wrath being stored up against the stubborn or hard-hearted.
#289 – FIG TREE JUDGED
From Jesus’ birth in 3 BC, to the latest/current, Sabbatical year is 289 weeks.
Strong’s Greek #289, ampelourgos, is translated “vinedresser” in the parable in which Jesus (the vinedresser) appeals to God (the landowner) to spare the fruitless fig tree (unrepentant Israel) “one more year,” before cutting it down (Luke 13:8, 9).
Since, per our Strong’s correlation, the latest/current Sabbatical is the year of the vinedresser’s appeal, the fig tree’s cutting down is imminent.
#861 – CULMINATION
From biblical Creation in 4004 BC, to the latest/current, Sabbatical year is 861 weeks.
Strongs #861 Greek, aphtharsia, refers to the state of “incorruptibility” or “immortality” attained at the Rapture (1 Cor. 15:52, 53).
Strong’s #861 Hebrew, attun, means “fiery furnace,” as in the furnace heated “seven times hotter,” which foreshadows Daniel’s 70th week (Dan. 3:19; Zech. 13:8, 9).
#366 – BABYLON’S TWO FALLS
From the fall of ancient Babylon in 539 BC to the latest/current, Sabbatical year is 366 weeks.
Strong’s #366 Greek, ananéphó, means to “become sober" or “regain one’s senses”
Strong’s #366 Hebrew, ayom, means “terrible” or “fearsome,” particularly in the context of a divine judgment or the presence of God.
The definitions are uncannily fitting because on the night that Babylon fell to the Persians, her king was having a drunken party to honor the gods, when suddenly the finger of a human hand appeared and wrote on the wall a message that left him sober and terrified:
“God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end…” (Dan. 5:26).
Babylon fell that night.
Fast forward to the present. According to the Book of Revelation, history will repeat when the figuratively drunken “Mystery Babylon” likewise falls suddenly (Rev. 17:6; 18:7). While opinions vary as to the identity of Mystery Babylon, a compelling case can be made that she represents New York City, the financial capital of the world’s most powerful nation—the US—which, like ancient Babylon, is home to the largest diaspora population of Jews.
Much suggests that the US is ripe for judgment:
• The American solar eclipse of 2024 completed a giant ‘X’ across the nation.
• The US is ramping up pressure on Israel to make peace, via land concessions (1 Thess. 5:1–3; Joel 3:2).
• The US and its new president are number one on the Iranian (Persian) hit list.
• The latest/current Sabbatical year marks 70 years (counting weeks) since Israel was reborn in 1948, and 70 Jubilees since she first became a nation in 1407–06 BC. This is significant because ancient Babylon was judged after “70 years” (Jer. 25:12–14). If the pattern holds, Mystery Babylon will likewise face judgment after 70 years.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Since God uses numbers to convey His plan, it is no surprise that Strong’s numbers correlate to various counts of weeks on His calendar.
Significantly, all of the above correlations point to the latest/current Sabbatical year, suggesting that it is the pivotal one that precedes the 70th week and Jubilee.
The likelihood that the Jubilee, the 50th year of deliverance, is upon us brings up a final Strong’s correlation:
Strong’s #50 Greek, agnoeó, means to be “ignorant” or “unaware.”
Strong’s #50 Hebrew is a proper name, Abishua, which means “my father is rescue,” or “father of deliverance.”
According to Scripture, those who are ignorant of God’s plan will be caught unaware when the day of deliverance arrives:
“Be not ignorant of this one thing … the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Pet. 3:8, 10).
“In the days before the flood … people were unaware of what was happening …. That is how it will be when the Son of Man comes” (Matt. 24:38, 39).
And so, now is the time to sound the alarm that the day is near. If the Strong’s correlations are any indication, it is near indeed.
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NOTES:
God measures time in seven-year increments called Sabbatical “weeks” (Lev. 25; Dan. 9:24–27).
Also worth noting, Strong’s #456 Hebrew is the proper name Elichoreph, which means “God of harvest.”
Because biblical dating is not an exact science, there is a degree of uncertainty as to the Sabbatical year reckoning. Ben Zion Wacholder reckons 2022–23 (Tishrei) the latest Sabbatical. Others propose 2023–24 (Nisan or Tishrei). However, the one-or-two-year discrepancy does not affect the overall counts of Sabbatical weeks.
The Rapture is expected to coincide with the 70th Jubilee because “70” denotes the completion of God’s redemptive plan (Dan. 9:24). It is also significant that from the year the Israelites were told to begin counting the 49-year cycle, to the present is 70 Jubilees: 1407–06 BC + 70 Jubilees (3,430 years) = 2025.
The First Temple was destroyed because Israel failed to observe 70 Sabbatical years (Lev. 26:27–39).
The Second Temple was destroyed because Israel rejected her Messiah (Matt. 23:37–39).
New York City as “Mystery Babylon,” by T.W. Tramm:
https://tinyurl.com/2n7vxsdj2024 American eclipse, by T. W. Tramm:
https://tinyurl.com/28mw7kyh
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*Visit the author’s website: www.theseasonofreturn.com
IMPORTANT MESSAGE: No one knows the day or hour of Jesus’ return (Matt. 24:36). However, a convergence of biblical signs and timelines suggests that it is near. To escape the judgment reserved for a God-rejecting world, one must know Jesus as Lord and Savior. If you have not yet done so, call on His name and believe that He is the Son of God who died for your sins and was raised from the dead, and you will be saved (Rom. 10:13).
TW Tramm
