Prime Number

Today is May 7th, 2023 – or 5-7-23. Those are all PRIME numbers, which means you can’t divide them by 2, 3, 4, or anything else. Primes are numbers that can only be divided by themselves and 1. Now, I’ve never given much thought to “prime” numbers, but there is an entire discipline of mathematics that seems to get real excited about them. Believe it or not, (in the math circles that are dedicated to prime numbers) there’s a “Prime Number Theorem (PNT)”; “Twin Primes”; “Goldbach's Conjecture”; “Palindromic Primes”; and the “Riemann Hypothesis” – every one of those dealing with PRIME numbers. Now, I don’t understand any of that - and you wouldn’t care - but at the thought of prime numbers the mouths of various mathematicians water.

But you don’t have to be a mathematician to get excited about numbers. There are people who Gamble and buy lottery tickets who swear by their “prime numbers”… they call them “lucky numbers.” But, of course there are no lucky numbers, and gambling’s not a very good idea but people can talk themselves into about anything when it comes to their lucky numbers.

And then there’s a group of cultists (people who say they can predict your future) based on the power of numbers that they call Numerology. They teach that Numbers have “power” and creative energy. Each number even has its own “color” (7 is the color violet). They go so far as to say the letters of your name can be translated into numbers and those numbers can be used to predict your future. But Christians shouldn’t do that! We shouldn’t do horoscopes or palm readings or Tea Leaves or Numerology. God hates all that! So I wouldn’t do that!

But there are numbers that God considers “prime” and you see a lot of in Scripture. For example, the number 40 is popular with Him. During Noah’s flood it rained 40 days and 40 nights; and when Moses went up on the Mountain to receive the Law, he was gone for 40 days; then Israel wandered in the wilderness 40 years; and of course, Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights after His baptism.

Twelve (12) is also a popular number with God. There were the 12 tribes of Israel, and the 12 Apostles. Revelation talks about the New Jerusalem having “a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:12 & 14) God really likes the number 12.

Then, the number three (3) shows up a lot as well. Throughout the Old Testament we read these three names over and over again: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And in the New Testament Jesus had 12 Apostles... but He also had His inner circle - Peter, James, and John. They show up a lot. And then there are several places in New Testament we have the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit repeated together - the ultimate 3. Most importantly, Jesus was crucified and buried and He rose from the dead on the… THIRD day. God likes the number 3 a lot.

In fact, God likes all kinds of numbers. In fact, He likes them so much that there’s an entire book in the Bible called… “NUMBERS”.

So, God likes all kinds of numbers, but is there a prime number that God likes better than others? Well, I think there is. In fact, I think the number God likes the best of all is the number ONE! Ephesians 4:4-6 says “There is ONE body and ONE Spirit — just as you were called to the ONE hope that belongs to your call — ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, ONE God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

God REALLY likes the number ONE! But why? Well God likes the number “one” because Ephesians 4 sums up what God had planned ever since the dawn of creation. Everything in Scripture pointed to the coming of the Messiah, and when Jesus came His objective was to take lost and broken people and bring them together into ONE body called the Church!

When some people here the word “Church” they think a building – but that’s not the ONE body. When other hear “Church” they think of the denomination they’re part of – but that’s not the ONE body. The ONE body is the body of Christians who’ve surrendered themselves to Jesus. There’s something we MUST understand this: we are the lost and broken people Jesus came for. When we became Christians, we became His! In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we’re told “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”