Numerology is a crazy study. Numbers can mean just about anything. To superstitious people, ‘7’ is lucky and ‘13’ is unlucky. The number ‘3’ is often attached to Babe Ruth or ‘23’ to Michael Jordan or LeBron James (depending which generation you grew up in). I’m sure you even have your favorite number. Yes, numbers mean many different things to people.
Even in Bible times, numbers were used to signify something. I'm sure we've all heard that '7' was the perfect number. This number was seen that way because of the seven days of creation in the beginning of Genesis. The number '12' was also seen as a complete number as in the twelve tribes of Israel or the twelve apostles. A few times too, the number '1000' was used to simply signify a long time.
One number that you would probably find no significance with is the number sixteen. It’s not a lucky number or have any type of celebratory value. However, a neat little study I stumbled upon is when we look at Scripture, we see that verses that hold this number have pretty interesting truths to them. Especially the sixteenth verse of the sixteenth chapter of a book. I’m sure it’s mere coincidental but I’ll show you what I mean.
Proverbs 16:16 – “How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.” True wisdom comes from God. The more we learn from Him, the more knowledge and wisdom we receive. Here, Solomon says that this is better than material things like gold and silver. Sure, these things are fine to have, but they won’t help you have a relationship with God.
Matthew 16:16 – “Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is the first confession of faith recorded for us. Peter knew who Jesus was and we can too. Our confession is part of the salvation process and helps us to become a Christian (Romans 10:9-10). More so, we need to confess this to others after we’ve converted (Matthew 10:32-33).
Mark 16:16 – “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” Seems pretty straightforward. This is a commandment of our Lord Himself. It’s clear that in order to be saved, we ought to both believe and be baptized. Sadly, much of the religious world today have different plans of salvation.
John 16:16 – “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father.” In context, Jesus is predicting His death to His apostles. But He tells them not to worry because He hints at His resurrection. He will see them again before being ascended into Heaven. This is the fundamental teaching of Christianity. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). This is the gospel. That through Him, we shall see God in the end of time.
Romans 16:16 – “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.” This is one of the many names for the church here on Earth. But this one is most significant because it shows us who the church belongs to; Jesus. Jesus built it (Matthew 16:18) and bought it with His own blood (Acts 20:28). There is only one church and it belongs to Him.
1 Corinthians 16:16 – “[I urge you brethren] that you also submit to such, and to everyone who works and labors with us.” Here we are told to submit to one another. When we submit to each other, we show our love to one another. Christians are the body of Christ and the family of God. As brothers and sisters in the Lord, we ought to love one another which ultimately shows our love for God.
As you can see, we have some pretty cool teachings from the number 16. Let us try and put these in our memory bank.
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