Does 12-13-14 Have Any Special Meaning?

I imagine that the numerologists are very busy today looking for arcane messages in today’s date, 13 December 2014. This date can be represented as 12-13-14.  This alignment of dates will not happen again for 100 years.  Surely it must have some cosmic significance! Personally, I think it is just a coincidental arrangement of numbers due to our current dating system.

When I noticed the 12-13-14 arrangement, I thought about the significance of numbers, especially in the Bible, which does use numbers as symbols. Think of the numbers 3, 7, 666, and 1000. Some people think that they see beyond the obvious symbolic use of numbers and that they can detect many numerological messages secretly embedded in the text by God. This is on the same order as belief in the controversial Torah Bible Codes.

The hidden messages which do undeniably exit in the Bible were of human origin. For instance, investigate ATBASH. An example occurs at Jeremiah 25:26. These messages were meant by the writers to obscure the true meaning from hostile governmental authorities who might read the texts. The idea is "to hide in plain sight." Also investigate the use of acrostics, an intentional literary form used by some of the Old Testament writers. Two examples of biblical acrostics occur at Proverbs 31:10-31 and Psalms 119.

I do not believe that the Bible is full of hidden supernatural messages. That is a pagan Gnostic idea. God inspired the writing of the various books of the Bible as a coherent whole and it is intended to be understood. It is a tool, a book of revelation about the nature of God, not a book of puzzles.

The Bible tells us that God is not a man and that His ways are not our ways. God is totally other, unknowable, and perfect.  He moves in the sub-atomic places and in the cosmic places. The Bible is part of God’s effort to make the utterly unknowable (Himself) understandable, at least partly, to our inadequate tiny little minds. Over and over we are told, “the Kingdom of God is like ….” I believe that God has used the entire Jewish religious and cultural system to explain what He is like. The entire Bible points toward Jesus, Who is the ultimate revelation of Who God is.

Book Comment: When God Winks at You

     When God Winks at You, by SQuire ("es-quire," get it?) Rushnell, was described as a "cute book" by the person who gave it to me.  She liked it so much she bought multiple copies and gave them out to her feriends.

     Before his retirement, Rushnell was a long time executive with the American Broadcasting Company television network (he's the man responsible for Schoolhouse Rock) and draws on his friendships and acquantances for short vignettes which illustrate how what appear to be unlikely coincidences are actually God speaking to us non-verbally; little split second miracles. 

     My response to this insight is, "Of course."  This is one of the ways in which God speaks to His people.  Every believer who is spiritually attuned to listen to God has experienced it; every day if they are really listening; just last night for me.

     I was working on a blog post (I sometimes work ahead and "pre-post" for later dates) and, since I have a memory like a sieve, I pulled out my Cruden's Compact Concordance to find the Bible verse for which I was searching.  I opened my Bible and there was no page shuffling necessary; the verse I was looking for was sitting there on the right hand page.  Hello.

     Rushnell calls these happenings GodWinks, God's way of reminding us that He's there ... "a direct personal message of reassurance."

     Jesus has told us that He is always with us, each, personally (Jeremiah 1:5).  He knows and attends to every individual flower (Matthew 6: 28-30).  He knows when a bird falls from a tree and He knows how many hairs you have on your head (Matthew 10: 29-31) .  He knows your every thought as you think it, before you think it, and he knows you by name (Exodus 33:17).  Sometimes He gives us GodWinks.

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     SQuire Rushnell says that his personal hero is Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking.  It shows.

     A criticism some people have of Dr. Peale and other power of postive thinking advocates is that they are generic Christians,  rarely mentioning Jesus.  The word "Christ" does not appear until page thirty of When God Winks at You and then only in a quote from the president of the United States.  This does not negate the validity of the point the book makes.

Rushnell, SQuire, When God Winks at You.  How God Speaks Directly to You Through the Power of Coincidence (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2006)