Double Numbers
“Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men?” (Luke 13:4)
EIGHTEEN IN SCRIPTURE
One way to emphasize a point is by repetition. In Scripture, there are some conspicuous cases of the repetition of numbers that seem to indicate there is a spiritual point in them. One example occurs in Luke chapter 13. The text heading this article refers to eighteen people who died at the Tower of Siloam. Then only seven verses later there is mention of “a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself” (Luke 13:11, 16).
What makes this pair of mentions so notable is not only the close proximity of them, but also the absence of the number eighteen in the entire remainder of the New Testament. In all of the New Testament, this number appears only in this single chapter, in these two sequential narratives about the Tower of Siloam, and the woman bowed over with infirmity.
The lesson Jesus makes about the eighteen killed by the untimely fall of the Tower is that the ones who perished there were not worse than others, but simply part of the condemned world, which experiences accidents of this sort. By one means or another death comes to all men. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5). In other words, those eighteen were merely representative of the condemned race of Adam.
The woman bowed down with infirmity “could in no wise lift up herself” (Luke 13:11), and Jesus described her as one “whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years.” Jesus loosed her from this bond on the Sabbath day (verse 16). Here is a repetition, the same lesson exhibited by a different person, this time a woman, perhaps to show that both men and women are under the condemnation of Adam. None of us can in any wise lift ourselves up from this curse, incurred as a consequence of Satan’s deception of our parents in Eden.
But why this number, eighteen, associated with the cursed world? Recall that Revelation 13:18 makes a decided point of a triple six to mark the Papal beast as a sinful and foreboding system. Six is deficient, being one shy of the perfect number seven. It is used in double form in Daniel chapter three, where a gold-covered statue measured 60 cubits by 6 cubits, and here in Revelation in triple form, 600 plus 60 plus 6. The statue in Daniel probably refers in picture to the “image of the beast” from Revelation 13:14, and the 666 in Revelation applies to the full version of the beastly Papal system.
So perhaps the use of eighteen, which is also a triple six – 6 plus 6 plus 6 – is a clue that the subject of the lesson is the race of Adam which has been cursed from the beginning.
The six sons of Keturah also represent the world of mankind, born in sin and shapen in iniquity, which during the Millennium will be rescued, restored, elevated. That elevation out of the curse is represented by the children of Keturah, born to her when she was yet a concubine (1 Chronicles 1:32), becoming elevated in status when Abraham took Keturah to be a full wife after the passing of Sarah. Then her children became endowed with the full privileges incident to her elevated status – as the world will be elevated in the Kingdom.
In other words, the number six is applied to indicate that Adam’s race was cursed. And even though in the Millennium the curse will be relieved, mankind redeemed, the number continues as a reminder of their former state.
So with the triple six of Luke chapter 13, repeated for emphasis. The eighteen shows our unclean condition during the 6000 years of sin and death. But during the Millennium, when the world is lifted out of the curse, the number still applies by way of identification – that this is the class that was formerly condemned.
We find this also in the closing verse of the book of Ezekiel. Chapter 48, verses 30-35, describe the city which represents the world of mankind, restored out of the Adamic curse, and ever afterward the subject of God’s grace and favor. The measure assigned to it is conspicuous. “It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, Jehovah is there” (Ezekiel 48:35).
This, by the way, is the only use of the number eighteen in all of the 48 chapters of Ezekiel (and it does not appear in any of the remaining prophets of the Old Testament).
TWELVE IN SCRIPTURE
There is another example of repeated numbers earlier in Luke, in chapter eight. The passage begins at verse 41 with the account of Jairus, ruler of the synagogue, whose daughter was very ill, and subsequently died. Verse 42 gives her age as “about twelve years,” but Mark 6:42 removes the ambiguity – “she was of the age of twelve years.” She was his only daughter.
As Jesus turned with Jairus to attend to his emergency, a woman in the crowd came from behind and reached out to touch the edge of his garment, trusting that even a brief contact with this wonderful teacher and healer would cure a problem she had endured for twelve years. She had “spent all her living,” unsuccessfully, to cure an uncleanness of blood, but in that moment of contact she could feel within herself that her health was restored.
After an interchange with the grateful woman, word came to Jairus that his daughter had died and that he need not trouble the Master further. But Jesus had the cure even for death. He went with Jairus to his home, put out all the naysayers, took the child by her hand, and life pulsed again within her.
In each of these episodes the number twelve is specified. The problems Jesus cured were uncleanness and death. Probably the twelve is intended to identify the twelve tribes of Israel, who were unclean through trespasses, or in another metaphor, dead in their sins. In this case, the two episodes in Luke chapter eight refer to Israel, and the two episodes in chapter thirteen refer to the Gentiles.
JEWS AND GENTILES
These two classes comprise the whole of mankind – quite uneven numerically, of course. But because Israel was the chosen people of God, the distinction between them and the Gentiles is a significant one. Ephesians 2:14-17 makes a point that from these two parts come a unified single entity constituting the body of Christ. “He … hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us … to make in himself of twain, one new man … you which were afar off [Gentiles], and … them that were nigh [Jews].”
Paul says the same thing with other words in Romans 4:16, “The promise [is] sure to all the seed [of Abraham]; not to that only which is of the law [Jews], but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham [who believed before he was circumcised, as Paul notes in verses 10-12, just as Gentiles believe without needing fleshly circumcision].”
TWO LAMBS
Probably this is also the point of the two lambs which constituted the daily burnt offering, that is, to represent that Christ’s death would accomplish redemption for both classes, Jews and Gentiles. Those two lambs, slain daily in the Tabernacle, and thereafter in the Temple, morning and afternoon, represent Jesus who was put on the cross mid morning and died mid afternoon. Being put on the cross was necessary to redeem the Jews from the curse of the Law. But his death, by whatever means, was necessary to redeem Adam from the curse of death.
Jesus was put on the cross the third hour of the day (Mark 15:25), the same hour the holy spirit later came to the believing Jews on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:15). Jesus died for the sin of Adam at the ninth hour (Mark 15:34), the same hour of day that Cornelius later received a visitation by an angel when he was to receive salvation (Acts 10:3).
TWO WAVE LOAVES
Two wave loaves, baked with leaven, were offered on the day of Pentecost according to the Law of Moses. When it came time for the fulfillment, in calling the members of the body of Christ, this call went out to two groups, Jews first and later Gentiles. Each one has sin inherent within them, thus the inclusion of leaven in the baked loaves. That there were two loaves suggests the two parts of the mystical body of Christ mentioned by Paul in Ephesians and Romans.
TWO PILLARS
When the Temple of God was constructed by Solomon, there were two notable pillars set upright at the front of the Temple, perhaps 30 feet or so in height, perhaps six or seven feet in circumference, hollow, about three inches thick. They were very imposing, and even names were assigned to them – Jachin, “he shall establish,” and Boaz, “in it is strength” (1 Kings 7:21).
These two pillars represented the durable strength of the temple, whose purpose was to bring people to God and reconcile them to Him. Perhaps in these two pillars – as in the two lambs, and the two loaves – we have an indication of the dual purpose of the Spiritual Temple (the Church class) that God is constructing during the Gospel Age.
That purpose is to bring both Jews and Gentiles back into accord with God. The work begins now by developing the elect from those two classes, and continues through the Millennium by bringing all remaining Jews and Gentiles into the Kingdom of God.
With this in mind, notice the dimensions of the pillars, given in cubits, in Jeremiah 52:21. “And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it.” Notice, eighteen – that rare number – and twelve. These are the same two numbers so conspicuously repeated in Luke. Eighteen is a symbol of the world, and twelve is a symbol of Israel, composed of 12 tribes.
– Bro. David Rice