By Pastor Tom Fuller, Lake Shore United Methodist Church, Jacksonville, Florida, USA (our beloved pastor from our home church!)“This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty six.”
-Revelation 13:18
Some numbers are more famous, or perhaps infamous, than others, and for a variety of reasons. Many consider the number seven to be lucky. And everyone knows about the number thirteen. Just this past week, I was riding an elevator in a twenty story building that curiously had no thirteenth floor. Of course it really did have one, even if it was marked as fourteen. And the number thirteen is particularly troublesome if it happens to fall on Friday.
The Bible has several prominent numbers that pop up repeatedly, and seem to have significance beyond simple math. One of those numbers is twelve, from the twelve tribes of Israel to the twelve apostles, and at least twelve dozen more in between. The number forty is another. It rained for forty days and nights during the great flood. The children of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years, on a journey to the promised land that would typically take eleven days on foot. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for forty days, and he also appeared after his resurrection for forty days. The number three, in addition to its association with the trinity and the three days between the death of Jesus and his resurrection, shows up in the Bible well over four hundred times.
But hands down, the most famous biblical number has to be six hundred and sixty six. Just the sight of “666” tattooed on somebody’s arm or printed on a black t-shirt or perhaps spotted on a movie poster is enough to elicit visions of devils and demons and all kinds of evil. Not long ago, I made a purchase in a local convenience store, and my total came out to be $6.66. The poor cashier suddenly had a look of horror come over her face. She said, “Oh my goodness, six, six, six! Do you want to buy something else?” I said, “No, that will be fine,” and just for fun gave her the best sinister stare I could muster. This week, we will see the arrival of the sixth day of the sixth month in the sixth year of this century. Who knows what evil will rear its ugly head on such a day!
Actually, the number 666 is not presented in the Bible as evil in and of itself, although it is no doubt an important and revealing number. When the Bible was written, numbers did not as yet have their own symbols. Various letters of the alphabet were assigned numerical value. Most of us are quite familiar with Roman numerals, which are letters of the Latin alphabet that have numerical value. Greek, the language John used to record his Revelation, also had numbers assigned to the letters. It was revealed to John that the numerical value of the letters of the name of the beast in his vision, when added together, would total six hundred and sixty six. This beast is undoubtedly an evil and violent deceiver who stands in opposition to God and everything good. The number of his name, on the other hand, is presented as a code provided for the benefit of the people of God.
John made it a point in this chapter of his Revelation (can you believe it, chapter 13?) to call for the use of wisdom in regard to this particular prophecy. To a large degree, his plea has been ignored. Over all however, the message is clear. The path of sinful human history will lead to catastrophe, but to those who receive Christ and are faithful to his gospel, there will be salvation and deliverance.
We never know what a day may bring, and in that regard, June 6, 2006 is certainly like any other day. The most significant day for any of us is today, because this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice, and be glad in it.
