If we are going to use a Tabernacle Cubit of 22 inches, then what does the Bible have to say about the significance of this number 22?
Up to this time, my readings of Bible numerics provided little knowledge of the number 22, other than its implications to situations of disorder, subversion, and the falling short by man of God's requirements for him. This study has revealed that the number 22 has specific reference to the activities of those people called out by God to perform specific missions, especially of the members of the priesthood; and it has special reference to the measurements of the tabernacle structure and its furnishings.
As the tabernacle or temple represents the framework wherein God communicates with man - whether it be via physical building structure, or the body of man as the temple housing God's Holy Spirit within - then may we be so bold as to consider that the use of number 22 in God's design of all things, may be a sign of God wanting to make communication with man? Indeed if number 22 is a number of disorder, then sometimes it is through our misfortune and misadventure that God draws us closer to him when we recognise and admit the errors or our ways which are not in accord with His laws.
The first record of God communicating with man is in the book of Genesis. I don't want to enter into the debate here, as to whether or not man existed before Adam (4000 BC), or whether or not the Noahic flood covered the world or a small part of it, but, I do think it is worthwhile to see where Moses fits into the history of the Adamic peoples. On the sixth day of God's creation "week" - God spoke to man and gave man his "briefing". Man was told to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, and subdue it. More detail can be found by reading Genesis 1.26-31. I will call this the "Creation Covenant" or promise of God to man. God gave man dominion over every living thing that moved on the earth. He was given food from the fruits and seeds of trees and herbs. God "rested" on the seventh day of His creation week. This briefing apparently conditioned the life of man in innocency as there is no record of any law to be observed in chapter 1 of Genesis.
It is not until after the seventh day of the creation week that we read about the man Adam and his wife Eve. This is recorded in Genesis chapter 2, though it does not say anything about an "eighth" day. This second chapter says that God formed Adam and gave him a special place or land wherein to live, and later on his wife Eve was there with him. God's relationship with Adam was, however, conditional that he eat not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil otherwise he would die. In Genesis chapter 3, we read of Adam and Eve falling short of God's instruction or spoken law. They were disobedient. They broke God's law. They ate of that tree, and God brought about conditions of life as a result of this fall from Grace. These conditions are the "Adamic Covenant" with man and include:
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1. Man became aware of his nakedness
9. God tells the man (Adam) that:
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The summarised circumstances above are so familiar to us today, on an individual level, and on group and national levels. And people are always ready to blame something or someone else when there is failure. There is an aggressiveness in today's society, with many "movements" fighting for various causes. Maybe we should look at the objectives of these movements, and consider whether or not they are going against God's plan for mankind. When I summarised God's response to Adam and Eve's behaviour, I felt that maybe women of this 20th century are battling against circumstances of enmity which God Himself has put into place between man, woman and their relationship with God.
Although God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden as punishment, He did make them coats of skin, and clothed them. He also did not leave man without hope, assistance, and a promise of redemption. He placed Cherubims at the east of the garden, and a flaming sword, to keep the way of the Tree of Life. The New Testament of the Bible refers to Jesus as the Way and the Tree of Life, and that Jesus was the Word made flesh. Reference to the "sword" in the Bible is often symbolic of God's word too. In the Old Testament, it is recorded that Angels appeared as messengers to many men who were called of God because they did not lose their faith in Him.
The Creation Covenant and the Adamic Covenant witnessed the fall from God's Grace of Adamic man and his banishment from fulness of joy in the presence of God. By the time man had reached the tenth generation of people - Adam to Noah (born 2944 BC) the corruption and sin of mankind was considered by God to be so bad, that God brought about the Flood (about 2344 BC) to destroy the evil in the earth. Noah and his family were saved from the Flood, and God made a Covenant with Noah for Noah's sons to be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth (Genesis 9.1-17). This "Noahic Covenant" established the principles of human government (Genesis 9.15), and God's promise to man never to destroy all flesh by flood.
It was in the eleventh generation of Adamic people that Shem was born. He was one of Noah's three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth). It was through the line of Shem that the Semitic peoples were born, and the genealogy of Jesus Christ is traced back through the line of Shem to Adam. Some researchers claim that the following peoples can be traced through ancient traditions and archaeology:
From the Ham and Japheth peoples Nimrod founded Babylon around 2299 BC, and a confederacy of warlike peoples grew up in Chaldea with Shinar as the centre about 2000 BC. (Abram was born about 2052 BC.) In the course of time, this developed into the Assyrian Empire with Ninevah as its capital, and it became known as the Gentile civilisation - a national system in opposition to the system appointed by God through the line of Shem.
People began to neglect the Law of God; there was much wickedness in the world. The Bible tells us that God set about to call out a representative who would father a nation which could witness for Him and His requirements from mankind.
From Adam to the birth of Abram (through the line of Noah's son Shem), was twenty generations. Abram's faith was tested by God, and he was called by God, who changed his name to AbraHAm. God established with Abraham what is known as the Abrahamic Covenant and this covenant was later confirmed and enlarged in Abraham's son Isaac, and in Abraham's grandson Jacob. The original covenant, given to Abram in the city of Ur (which was situated near what is now known as Kuwait near Iraq) is found in Genesis 12.2-3 - "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." This covenant is entirely unconditional and unbreakable.
Also, Abraham was promised a future inheritance of land. Abraham had two sons - Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael was half Egyptian and also fathered twelve sons. Their descendants dan be traced to be among the Arab nations. God promised blessing to these people too, but it was through the descendants of Isaac that the national blessings would be inherited. The Abrahamic Covenant founded the nation of the twelve tribes of Israel, and confirmed with specific additions, the Adamic promise of man's Redemption. Isaac's son Jacob, who fathered the twelve-tribed Israel nation, was the 22nd generation from and including Adam. So we have:
Also, from Jacob's eleventh son, Joseph, were the tribes of Ephraim and Manesseh born - these descendants now traceable to the great nations of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and the United States of America. The next two charts show continuation of the generations into nations or empires, from Noah through his other two sons Ham, and Japheth.
Measure the Temple CONTENTS Bible Chronology |
