Prophetic Numbers in the Bible Yet to be Fulfilled
There are prophetic pre-set numbers found in the Bible that when correctly interpreted point to the logical conclusion that Mashiach (Messiah) will not come until they all have been fulfilled. Which are these numbers yet to be fulfilled, and what do they mean to us?
We will explain to the best of our ability the matter of the prophetic numbers waiting to be fulfilled in the following vein.
There were nine censuses of Israel found in the Bible (Exo 30:12, Num 1:2, Num 4:46-48, Num 26:2-4, Jdg 20:15-17, 2Sa 24:1-4, 1Ch 5:17, 1Ch 9:1, 2Ch 25:5, 2Ch 2:17, Neh 7:5), and there will be the tenth counting (Jeremiah 33) that is yet to come. The tenth and last counting will take place at the restoration of His people, when YHVH Elohim will turn back the captivity of both houses of Yehudah and Israel, and will rebuild them in the Land as at the first.
There is an allusion to this in these two verses of Jeremiah 33,
In this place which is dried up, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, there shall once again be a home of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the low country, and in the cities of the South, and in the land of Binyamin, and in the places around Yerushalayim, and in the cities of Yehudah, the flocks once again pass under the hands of him who counts them, declares Yehovah. (Jer 33:12-13)
The medieval Tanak commentator Rashi (Shlomo Yitzchaki, 1040–1105) said in this regard,
Because they [Ed. the children of Israel] were dear to Him, He counted them often. When they left Egypt, He counted them (Exo 12:37); when many fell because of the sin of the golden calf, He counted them to know the number of the survivors (Exo 32:28); when He came to cause His Divine Presence to rest among them, He counted them. On the first of Nissan, the Mishkan was erected, and on the first of Iyar, He counted them (Num 1:1-2).
The Sovereign of the universe counts those whom He dearly loves. Whenever His children sin, He counts them. Why, to know how many have remained? No, He counts them because His children matter to Him, and because He wants to tell us “great things, and hidden, which we have not known”,
Call unto Me, and I will answer you and will tell you great things, and hidden, which you have not known. (Jer 33:3)
It is remarkable that those great and hidden things are indeed hidden in the Apocrypha (from Greek apokryphos, “hidden, obscure, hard to understand”). Learn more about Apocrypha here: Is the Apocrypha part of the Bible? – Time of Reckoning Ministry
In the second year after the Exodus from Egypt, YHVH spoke to Mosheh to take a census of all the people of Israel. We read,
Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, by their polls; (Num 1:2 JPS)
Literally, this verse reads as follows:
Lift head of all the congregation of the sons of Israel by their families, by the house of their fathers, in the number of names, all male by their skulls. (Num 1:2)
What does the phrase above to “lift head” mean? The phrase “lift head” is always translated as “take sum” or “take census”, but literally the Hebrew word נָשָׂא nassa, means “to lift” and רֹאשׁ rosh, means “head”, hence “lift head” for counting the numbers of people.
It is important to note here that the word rosh is in the singular, not the plural, as might be expected if it were simply referring to all Israelites as a sum comprised of many heads. According to Nachmanides, this peculiarity is reflected in the Hebrew word פָּקַד pakad “to count”, which also means to “visit”, “care for”, and “remember”.
Therefore, the literal rendering of the verse means that when YHVH counts members of a group, no one individual counts more than the other. Thus understood, the census expresses an apparent paradox: it implies that each individual is significant, but from the other hand it also implies that each individual counts for no less and no more than “one”.
Hence, YHVH repeatedly commanded Moses to count the children of Israel to emphasize both their individual and collective worth—the fact that everyone is needed as an individual and equal to the others.
With that being said, we are coming to the subject of our study: the prophetic numbers in the Bible that are yet to be fulfilled.
The total number of the world population
Elohim created man and every human being after him in His own image, but it would have been impossible for the human race to propagate had not one of each sex been created. And He created a helper for him, and said to them,
Be fruitful and increase, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over all creeping creatures on the earth. (Gen 1:28)
And Elohim blessed them, and 6,000 years later the current world population reached 7.9 billion as of July 2021. [source: World Population Clock (worldometers.info)]
The current trend of the world population shows growth that started with the industrial revolution around 1800 to reach one billion. The second billion was reached in 1930, the third billion 30 years later (1960), the fourth billion in 15 years (1974), and the fifth billion in only 13 years (1987). For comparison of the accelerated growth, during the 20th century alone, the population in the world has grown about four times: from 1.65 billion to 6 billion.
While the world population is increasing tremendously to reach 7.9 billion, the annual growth rate is declining and will continue to decline in the coming years, due to low birth rate, wars, terrorism, and pandemics in addition to the natural death.
Simply said, the world population took a giant leap in the last hundred years and will continue to grow in this century, but at a much slower rate. But until when will it grow?
The prophet Baruch (Baruch the son of Neriah was a disciple of Jeremiah) said to YHVH Elohim,
For Thou alone art able to sustain all who are, and those who have passed away, and those who are to be, those who sin, and those who are righteous [as living (and) being past finding out]. For Thou alone dost live immortal and past finding out, and knowest the number of mankind. (2 Baruch 21:9-11)
To which YHVH replied,
I remember those who are appointed to come. Because when Adam sinned and death was decreed against those who should be born, then the multitude of those who should be born was numbered, and for that number a place was prepared where the living might dwell and the dead might be guarded. Before therefore the number aforesaid is fulfilled, the creature will not live again [for My spirit is the creator of life], and sheol will receive the dead. 2 Baruch 23
Note: The Book of The Apocalypse of Baruch the son of Neriah, translation from the Syriac by R. H. Charles (Oxford University Press, 1913). The words of his epistle (aka 2 Baruch) Baruch sent to the nine and a half tribes of Israel, who dwelled across the River Euphrates (2 Baruch 78:1-2).
According to the Book of Jubilees, the sin entered the world after the completion of the seventh year of the Creation,
And after the completion of the seven years, which he had completed there, seven years exactly, and in the second month, on the seventeenth day (of the month), the serpent came and approached the woman, and the serpent said to the woman, “Hath God commanded you, saying, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Jubilees 3:17)
Note: The Book of Jubilees, translated from the Ethiopic text by R. H. Charles, D.LITT., D.D., Canon of Westminster; British Academy, 1917.
After seven years in the Garden of Eden, the first man sinned and Elohim sent the man[kind] out of the garden and placed keruvim at the gate to guard the way to the tree of life, for “the man[kind] has become apart from us, to know good and evil”, said Elohim.
According to the prophecy in the Apocalypse of Baruch, the Sovereign of the universe set a number for the total world population that was to be born after Adam.
For our study we will use the term “total number of the world population” which comprises the number of people that had lived since the creation of the first humans, the number of the current world population of 7.9 billion, and the number of those yet to be born until the return of the Messiah.
After the sin Elohim prepared a place for the new generations where they should dwell and die in, according to their number. That place was called “Earth”: a place outside of the Garden of Eden. It was decreed that men should till the ground of the Earth with hard work until they die and return to it. And the place where the dead should return to was called sheol, Hebrew for “underworld” but more properly a place where all dead rest.
So, there are three new things Elohim created in the eighth year of the universe: a certain number of people that should be born, a place wherein the people should live, and a place where the people should return to after death.
Where it is said: “before therefore the number aforesaid is fulfilled, the creature will not live again”, the Creator decreed that no living creature would be resurrected, or come back to life by any means before that pre-set number had been fulfilled. In plain words, it was decreed that every human being was unique and destined to live only once.
And where it is said, “for My spirit [Ed. Ruach] is the creator of life”, the Breath of the Creator became the soul of man, and the soul of man therefore is nothing but the breath of his Creator. And when man sinned, it was decreed that the Breath of the Ruach of life was taken out of him and he became mortal, according to what is written,
All in whose nostrils was the Breath of the Ruach of life, all that was on the dry land, died. (Gen 7:22)
Please, read what we have written in the article Nephesh, Neshamah, and Ruach of the Soul – Time of Reckoning Ministry concerning the creation of life.
The Babylonian Talmud Yevamoth 62a further states,
The son of David (Ed. Mashiach) will not come before all the souls in Guf* will have been disposed of. *Literally, “body”, the region inhabited by the souls of the unborn.
And on the same line of words:
The Messiah, son of David, will not come until all the souls of the body have been finished, i.e., until all souls that are destined to inhabit physical bodies will do so. As it is stated: “For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit that enwraps itself is from Me, and the souls that I have made” (Isaiah 57:16). According to Rabbi Yosei, in order for the Messiah to come in the end of days, it is necessary for the future generations to be born. Avodah Zarah 5a:10
This has been interpreted to mean that Mashiach (Messiah) will not come until the numbers of all souls are completed from entering the bodies. Said in different words, this means that when the pre-set number of souls that are determined to come to this world is reached, i.e. the total number of the world population, Mashiach will come, not a day earlier.
Therefore, that death entered the world through sin, merely proves that humans were created for eternal life, but by no means it necessitates the assumption that they would propagate without limits until the coming of the son of David. This total number was set and decreed to be fulfilled from the very beginning.
The number of those who have fulfilled the Law
Elohim gave the first humans three laws to guard: (1) be fruitful and increase, and fill the earth, (2) eat of every tree of the garden, and (3) do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But as soon as humans began to multiply, they began to sin and they continued to sin until the Flood came.
Because the generation of the Flood did not live by the Creator’s ordinances, it is written about them: “My Ruach shall not abide in man forever” (Gen. 6:3). The generation of the Flood was punished with obliteration because they became violent and immoral in every aspect of these terms.
And if one were to ask why the human race was such severely punished when it had not been given civil laws to follow, we must answer that there were indeed moral rules for behavior of the mankind established from the dawn of the human civilization. The proof for such a statement is found in the first crime a human committed against another human.
Elohim indeed gave Adam and Chavah only three laws to guard, but this does not necessarily mean that they were unaware of what sin was; they were. For instance, when Kayin killed his twin brother Hevel, he was fully aware that he committed a crime and there was a punishment for it (see Gen 4:13-14).
The sages teach that all the dead will arise at the resurrection of the dead, except the generation of the Flood, as it is said in Isa 26:14, The dead shall not live, Rephaim shall not rise.
Who were the Rephaim? The Rephaim (literally, the shades), were half-human half-angelic beings born of the daughters of men and the [fallen] angels of Elohim (see Gen 6:2 and Enoch 71:1).
That generation [morally and genetically corrupted] was decreed to die, and a new one had to continue from eight people preserved in the Flood: Noach and his family. Thus, the world was reset to begin anew until the total number of the world population is reached.
Elohim gave Noach seven laws to guard aka The Seven Laws of Noach of universal morality which include prohibitions against (1) worshipping idols, (2) cursing Elohim, (3) murder, (4) adultery and sexual immorality, (5) theft, (6) eating flesh torn from a living animal, (7) as well as to establish courts of law and justice in the world.
800 years later, at Mount Sinai YHVH Elohim gave His people Israel and all of the nations who joined them The Covenant, The Ten Laws, to guard as an everlasting law. Later, that day would be established to be the Festival of Shavuot to YHVH.
As YHVH Elohim sealed the native-born Israelites and the non-native who were grafted among them (see Romans 11) under the blood of the everlasting Covenant, He set the number of those who had been called from the beginning to fulfill the laws of His Covenant. We read from the second book of Ezra,
Arise up and stand, behold the number of those that be sealed in the feast of the Lord; which are departed from the shadow of the world, and have received glorious garments of the Lord. Take thy number, O Sion, and shut up those of thine that are clothed in white, which have fulfilled the law of the Lord. The number of thy children, whom thou longedst for, is fulfilled: beseech the power of the Lord, that thy people, which have been called from the beginning, may be hallowed. (2 Esdras 2:38-41 KJVA)
The Book of Revelation also testifies to the sealing of those who have fulfilled the Torah, saying,
Do not harm the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees until we have sealed the servants of our Elohim upon their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of all the tribes of the children of Israel: … (Rev 7:3-4) See also Rev 9:4, Rev 14:1, Rev 22:4.
For further knowledge on the matter, the reader may do well to read what we have written in The Prophecy of 144,000 in Revelation – Time of Reckoning Ministry.
We are obliged here to note that those who will be sealed on the foreheads are those who have been called from the beginning to set themselves apart to YHVH. They are the ones who have fulfilled the Torah of YHVH and thus they are called “servants of Elohim” (see Rev 7:3; Exo 13:8-9; Deu 6:6-8; Deu 11:18).
The mark on their foreheads is the same mark prophesied in Eze 9:4: הַתָּו ha–tav “the mark”. The letter tav is the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet whose ancient pictograph is two crossed sticks. This is also the letter of the Torah.
Isaac Newton wrote of the 144,000 servants of Elohim,
When the 144,000 servants of God are sealed in their foreheads & numbered, then do the servants of the beast receive his mark in their foreheads or his name & number: for immediately after do the 144,000 sealed ones stand on mount Sion with the name of God in their foreheads. The sealing the one & marking the other are opposites & therefore synchronal. The servants of God were sealed before the four winds hurt the earth & sea & trees in the trumpets that they might escape being hurt.
Note: Sir Isaac Newton was a 17th-century British scientist, one of the most influential scientists of all time. He was a mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and theologian who studied the Bible in its original Hebrew. He was a devout Christian but considered unorthodox by the mainstream Christianity.
Please, read what we have written in the book The Reckoning of Time concerning The Mark of the Name of the Beast and The Number of the Name of the Beast, 666 of Time of Reckoning Ministry.
Newton further wrote, “After all, if the Bible is God’s Word and it reveals Truth, then the closer we get to the Truth in our presuppositions, the faster we will discover the Truth in the details.”
Getting closer to the Truth, Newton referred to, includes getting closer to the prophetic numbers to be fulfilled before the return of the son of David.
With that said, we further conclude that the number of those who have fulfilled the Torah of YHVH is already included in the total number of the world population that is to be fulfilled before the coming of Mashiach.
Knowledge known to only a few will die out. If you feel blessed by these teachings of Time of Reckoning Ministry, help spread the word!
May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days!
Navah