Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. He breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people.

• Genesis 25:17

The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord. For the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

• Joshua 5:6

I was “cleaning up” the other day and I found a couple of old DVDs.  I still cannot find my flash drives, and it is funny that you are “cleaning up” but the work area is more in a mess now than it was before you started, but, hey, a few things went into the trash.

One of the DVDs was of my computer-based training (CBT) Bible lessons.  The platform that my employer maintained worked on older personal computers, but nothing since about Windows 7 or 8.  Luckily, I saved an unencrypted copy of the Bible Study data files.  Over a couple of years in the late 90s, I used the lessons as a guide to do in-class lessons on the Bible, only having gotten through Jeremiah.  I was thinking of extracting the research that I made on the Psalms, but then I saw the first lesson – Fun with Numbers.  I have no theological point here, but I thought you might enjoy my lists for the numbers 1-40.

This is not exhaustive at all.  It was me going from memory, probably written before Biblical search engines were available on the internet.  I am sure you can find things that I missed.

The way the list was set up was: Commandment, day of creation, book in the OT, book in the NT, Hebrew months, Sons of Israel with mother in parenthesis, and Plagues of Egypt.  This is followed by other things that I could think of.  If anything is learned here, it proves I had free time on my hands in those days, and I did not know my numbers that well.  A good search engine could probably find one hundred references to “thirty.”  I think my brain was getting tired by then.

Zero (0) – In the beginning, the earth was void. Thus – Zero.

 One (1) – First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before thee.
                   Day of Creation – Creating light and dark
                   Genesis
                   Matthew
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Abib
                   Son of Israel – Reuben (Leah)
                   Plague in Egypt – Water into Blood
One God, A man with one wife (requirement for deacon), Dinah (only daughter mentioned of Israel); Thieves that went with Jesus to heaven; husband and wife become one flesh

Two (2) – Second Commandment: Do not make or worship idols.
                   Day of Creation – Separating waters above the expanse from the waters below the expanse
                   Exodus
                   Mark
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Ziv (Iyyar)
                   Son of Israel – Simeon (Leah)
                   Plague in Egypt – Frogs
Sons born of Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah; Dreams of Joseph; Dreams Joseph interpreted in prison; Dreams of Pharoah; Thieves crucified with Jesus; Number of fish that fed the 5,000; Cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant; talents and sets of clothing exacted by Gehazi from Naaman; Sons of Isaac and Rebecca; Nations from Abraham

Three (3) – Third Commandment: Do not misuse the Name of the Lord.
                   Day of Creation – Separating the land from the waters and creating vegetation
                   Leviticus
                   Luke
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Sivan
                   Son of Israel – Levi (Leah)
                   Plague in Egypt – Gnats
Christ’s Resurrection; Patriarchs; Days Jonah was in the Fish; Years of Jesus’ Ministry; Crosses on Calvary; Sons of Adam; Sons of Noah; Men put in Furnace; women who bore sons for Abraham; gifts from the Wise Men; Days of darkness during ninth Egyptian plague; Saul was to meet three men, one with three goats and one with three loaves of bread; David’s punishment for doing the census, 3 choices, 3 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing from enemies, or 3 days of a plague

Four (4) – Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
                   Day of Creation – Creating sun, moon, and stars, seasons, days, years
                   Numbers
                   John
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – (Tammuz)
                   Son of Israel – Judah (Leah)
                   Plague in Egypt – Flies
Gospels; Women who bore Israel sons; Sons of Leah before the mandrake incident; layers of coverings over the tabernacle (linen, goat hair, rams’ skins, sea cow skins); Men seen in Furnace

Five (5) – Fifth Commandment: Honor your father and mother.
                   Day of Creation – Creating animals for the water and sky
                   Deuteronomy
                   Acts
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – (Ab)
                   Son of Israel – Dan (Bilhah)
                   Plague in Egypt – Livestock
Books in Pentateuch; Number of Loaves of Bread that fed the 5,000

Six (6) – Sixth Commandment: You shall not murder.
                   Day of Creation – Creating animals for the land, including man
                   Joshua
                   Romans
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Elul
                   Son of Israel – Naphtali (Bilhah)
                   Plague in Egypt – Boils
Days of Creation, Days that we’re allowed to work; Sons of Leah; Teams of Disciples sent out in Mark 6; wings of the seraph described by Isaiah

Seven (7) – Seventh Commandment: You shall not commit adultery.
                   Day of Creation – God rested
                   Judges
                   1 Corinthians
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Ethanim (Tishri)
                   Son of Israel – Gad (Zilpah)
                   Plague in Egypt – Hail
Years of Plenty; Years of Famine; How often is the year of Jubilee; Hills on the Beast; Number of Loaves that fed the 4,000 and basketfuls of broken pieces afterwards

Eight (8) – Eighth Commandment: You shall not steal.
                   Ruth
                   2 Corinthians
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Bul (Marcheshvan)
                   Son of Israel – Asher (Zilpah)
                   Plague in Egypt – Locusts

Nine (9) – Ninth Commandment: You shall give false testimony.
                   1 Samuel
                   Galatians
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Kislev
                   Son of Israel – Issachar (Leah)
                   Plague in Egypt – Darkness

Ten (10) – Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.
                   2 Samuel
                   Ephesians
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Tebeth
                   Son of Israel – Zebulun (Leah) – Dinah was next
                   Plague in Egypt – First Born
Egyptian Plagues; linen curtains on the tabernacle

Eleven (11) – 1 Kings
                   Philippians
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Shebat
                   Son of Israel – Joseph (Rachel)
Goat hair curtains of the tabernacle

Twelve (12) – 2 Kings
                   Colossians
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Adar
                   Son of Israel – Benjamin (Rachel)
Sons of Israel; Disciples; Apostles; Basketfuls of broken pieces gathered after the 5,000 ate; stones on the breastpiece worn by the high priest, stones taken from the dry river bottom of the Jordan

Thirteen (13) – 1 Chronicles
                   1 Thessalonians
                   Sacred Sequence Hebrew Month – Second Adar or (Adar Sheni) (Every three years)

Fourteen (14) – 2 Chronicles
                   2 Thessalonians

Fifteen (15) – Ezra
                   1 Timothy

Sixteen (16) – Nehemiah
                   2 Timothy

Seventeen (17) – Esther
                   Titus

Eighteen (18) – Job
                   Philemon

Nineteen (19) – Psalms
                   Hebrews

Twenty (20) – Proverbs
                   James

Twenty-one (21) – Ecclesiastes
                   1 Peter

Twenty-two (22) – Song of Songs (Solomon)
                   2 Peter

Twenty-three (23) – Isaiah
                   1 John

Twenty-four (24) – Jeremiah
                   2 John
Elders on thrones sitting around the throne in Revelation 4

Twenty-five (25) – Lamentations
                   3 John

Twenty-six (26) – Ezekiel
                   Jude

Twenty-seven (27) – Daniel
                   Revelation
Books in the New Testament

Twenty-eight (28) – Hosea

Twenty-nine (29) – Joel

Thirty (30) – Amos

Thirty-one (31) – Obadiah

Thirty-two (32) – Jonah

Thirty-three (33) – Micah

Thirty-four (34) – Nahum

Thirty-five (35) – Habakkuk

Thirty-six (36) – Zephaniah

Thirty-seven (37) – Haggai

Thirty-eight (38) – Zechariah

Thirty-nine (39) – Malachi

Forty (40) – Numbers of days that it rained; number of days that Jesus was in the wilderness, during which He was tempted by Satan.

Praise the Lord for search engines.  In looking over this list, it got very skimpy after twelve.  I can think of many that I missed.  I commented before the list that a good search engine could possibly come up with one hundred references to “thirty.”  There are 124 mentions of “thirty,” but Genesis 25:17 is one of those.  Ishmael lived 137 years.  Spelled out, you could find “thirty” and even “thirty-seven,” but that is in the number 137.  But of the 124 mentions of “thirty”, I counted 54 that “thirty” was simply part of a different number, such as 33, 130, and 30,000.  And even then, many of the Gospel references to “thirty” were the “thirty” pieces of silver given to Judas (which slipped my mind when writing the list back in the late 90s), so maybe only about fifty references for “thirty” specifically.  Search engines are great, but you have to interpret what the results really mean.

If you enjoyed this list or the list frustrated you due to not having mentioned your favorite story containing a number from 0 to 40, please comment.

But the only important “number” is that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the father but by Him.  And having Jesus in your heart means that you get to be with Jesus forever.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.