BIBLE NUMERICS

The Number TWO

Now we get to Two. The number Two in the Bible is used like it is used

anywhere, and of course the number Two immediately implies division.

Amos chapter 3, verse 3, "Can two walk together, except they be

agreed?" Why, in Genesis 2 Adam has his side divided; he's cut open.

The unity is marred of his body and out comes a woman, Two. The Bible

says in Genesis 2 that no help meet was found for Adam, so Adam became

two in Genesis 2. You say, "Well, that's kind of stretching it." Yes,

it is. Isn't it strange, though. You don't suppose the King James

translators knew that when they put the chapter and verse markings in,

do you? No, of course they didn't. We find the same phenomenon in

other places in two's in the Bible. But two doesn't need a great deal

of expounding on. Two plainly gives division. Now, the wise man says

in the book of Ecclesiastes that "two is better than one," referring

of course to a man and woman; but even though those are two they're

said to be one, and there should be no division between them. If there

is, that isn't an ideal situation, and it's not a scriptural

situation. Two, as it stands, implies division.

Isn't it strange that the division of the tribes of Israel began way

back there in the book of Numbers and continues right slap on through,

clean up to the time of Christ? Do you realize that there are two

spies that came back in the book of Numbers, and ten of them were not

faithful and two of them were and that divided the camp right down the

middle? It was divided again under Rehoboam after Solomon; into two

southern tribes and ten northern tribes, and so help me if James and

John (two brothers!) didn't come to Jesus and say, "Grant us that we

may sit at your right hand and your left hand in the kingdom."

Do you realize the Old Testament is divided, and the main division is

between the law and the prophets? Jesus speaks about the law and the

prophets and the Psalms in His exact division, but where Paul is

speaking before his witnesses and gives the divisions he simply says,

"the law and the prophets." That is the usual division. I realize that

technically there are three divisions: the writings, and the law, and

the prophets; but we find very often the expression "the law and

prophets," just the two given as the main divisions. The main

representatives of the law and the prophets, of course, are Elijah and

Moses. That's division. Elijah divides off the prophets; Moses divides

off the law. As a matter of fact, with three sections in the Old

Testament, there are two dividing marks in them. One demarcation is

between the law and the prophets; the other demarcation is between the

prophets and the writings. The two men who stand in these two

divisions are Moses and Elijah. Isn't that a strange thing? I guess

you realize when Moses and Elijah come back before the Second Coming

of Christ, they'll herald the Second Coming of Christ, and when Christ

returns (Zech. 14), the Mount of Olives shall cleave in Two. The word

Two clearly implies division. As a matter of fact, a schizophrenic is

a split personality, implying two people in one person or two

personalities in one person.

It was two angels who came to Sodom and got Lot out of town. That

split his family up pretty good, too, if you'll remember. He had two

daughters. We find two daughters a lot; Laban had two daughters.

There is a superstition, of course, among natives that twins are no

good, and they are to be buried or killed. In many African tribes

twins are still killed, and so is the mother killed. Why? Two is

division. Two is division. And this is clear. You don't find many good

meanings on the word Two.

The first time the word Two occurs in your Bible is Genesis 1:16. God

made two lights, a reference to the sun and the moon. You know what

the Lord said they were for? They were to divide, brother, to divide

the day from the night, the light from the darkness. One was Lord of

the daytime, the sun; one was Lord of the night, the moon. Two then

clearly stands for division, and most any place you find it, that will

be the basic idea behind it. One is unity, Two is division.


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