The Appendix to
The Psalms
APPENDIX III
THE NUMERALS IN RELATION TO THE SIX DAYS WORK
IN its relation to nature the symbolism of numbers is a
matter of the deepest interest. If it has, as we have seen, its roots in
nature, and at the very basis of all arithmetic there is such a testimony to
Christ as, I may venture to say, has been proved to exist, then it is hardly
possible to believe that it ends with this, or that this is other than just a
beginning of what must extend indefinitely throughout nature. Moreover to
pursue such an investigation need not be alarming to those who most fear
imagination. A bubble is not capable of being stretched very far, as every body
knows; and the attempt to stretch it most surely ends in revealing its nature.
The safeguard as to imagination is to test it in every direction, and there is
no test more severe than a mathematical one. I propose, then, briefly to take
up the six days work as given in the first chapter of Genesis, to test
the numerical structure more closely than has been done hitherto, with regard
to the natural facts themselves. This has, as may be easily realized, its
peculiar difficulties, - most of all perhaps, in this, that the symbolism of
the numbers gives us rather moral than a physical vocabulary by which to
interpret. I have been content therefore generally hitherto to apply it to the
typical meaning which in all the six days work is double, and affords a
secure enough basis for application, especially as a concurrent natural one
more or less appears.
But there is another thing to be taken into
account also, as yet has not been done. The days being expressly announced in
order from the first to the seventh, these numbers must of course, remain for
interpretation, as I have elsewhere used them. But besides this, it has been
very generally noticed that the six days run into two parallel divisions,
according both to subject and mode of arrangement: thus -
1st
day-Light. (1) 4th day-Lights.
2nd day-Waters dividing (2) 5th day-Waters
producing.
3rd day-Dry Land (3) 6th day-Dry land producing, animals and
vegetation, and man.
Here is an evident parallelism which must divide
the 6 days into two parts, and give to the second part a second series of
numbers also, as I have indicated. Both must find their place in the
interpretation. Dana in his well-known "Geology" remarks -
"In this
succession we observe not merely an order of events, like that deduced from
science; there is system in the arrangement, and a far-reaching prophecy, to
which philosophy could not have attained, however instructed. The account
recognizes in creation two great eras, each of three days, - an Inorganic and
an Organic. * * *
"The last day of each era, included one work typical of
the era, and another related to it in essential points, but also prophetic of
the future. Vegetation, while for physical reasons a part of the creation of
the third day, was also prophetic of the future organic era in which the
progress of life was the grand characteristic. The record thus agrees with the
fundamental principle in history, that the character of an age has its
beginnings within the age preceding. So again, Man, while like other Mammals in
structure, . . . was endowed with a spiritual nature, which looked forward to
another era, that of spiritual existence."
Thus we have three great
divisions, - including the Sabbath as a third: let us characterize them each
numerically: -
1. (Chap. i. 1-13): The reign of the inorganic.
I do
not say more than the reign, because of that with which it closes, the
introduction of vegetable life. But how does the inorganic bear its numerical
stamp? Plainly, because it is of simple, uniform constitution, not
differentiated into organs. Thus Dana as a physicist has characterized it by
what agrees fully with the numerical division.
But the second division
will not be classed numerically as the "reign of the organic;" and this
certainly would not characterize it in any proper way. "The progress of life"
says Dana," was its grand characteristic." We can express it more fully and
precisely every way, and numerically, as -
2. (Chap. i. 14-31): The
two-fold, active life, in progress towards the discernmement characterizing
man.
"Two-fold" - not like the plant, but with life and soul; and thus
"active" - the moving creature; this crowned finally, (not by evolution, but
according to the plan and by the creative power of God,) with the "discernment"
which is not the mere intuitive instinct of the beast, but the discriminating
knowledge of the human spirit.
The third division, which consists of
the seventh day alone, is simple:
3. (Chap. ii. 1-3): The Sanctification of
the Sabbath of Rest.
The numerical structure in each case seems to seize
upon the central character, and define it sufficiently for its purpose. But let
us go on now to the smaller divisions.
The account of the original
creation of the heavens and earth shows itself by the structure to be but an
introduction, however necessary as that, to the six days work. It does
not belong to that work, yet cannot form a section apart, without throwing the
rest of the chapter into disorder. It must come in with the first day, and
there is most suited to the spiritual meaning as making the work of the first
day a beginning of restoration; thus: -
1. (vers. 1-5): Introduction and
first day: light.
(i) Original creation.
(ii) The earth as it were in
dissolution: darkness upon a deep.
(iii) Restoration beginning with Light.
The stamp of the God of resurrection is clearly upon this history at
the beginning, and it is repeated every day in the common daily cycle as it is
recorded, the "evening and the morning" being the day. Notice that the
beginning of the first day is not before the light, but with it, or it could
not begin with evening: for evening implies already light But the light
strangely comes only to fade and darken into night through this to reach its
morning by a new birth as it were, when (for that day, of course) the darkness
is wholly past. How earnest is God to impress us with these spiritual lessons!
Faith in all times has had to learn the ruin of the creature and the sole
sufficiency of God; and that is what resurrection teaches. It is the end seen
from the beginning the final lesson written on the first page of the book.
We are here too much at the beginning of things to reason as to them
in their physical aspect, which is what we are just now concerned with. Why
light should be the first thing in physical restoration we may have no means of
knowing, while the spiritual meaning is clear enough. If there is indeed that
deep sympathy in the natural with the spiritual, upon which all our belief in
analogy is based, then we have in this what may commend the history as true in
such respect, and suggest a means of insight even into nature itself, which has
had at present (as I think) no advocates. It may not the less merit
consideration.
"Light," it will be seen, comes under two numbers, 1
and 3, and does not seem as if it could be spared from either. The meanings of
the numbers can in fact each be given in terms of the other with reference to
it for "that which doth make manifest is light," and it is thus a source of
knowledge. This may justify its double place according to the spiritual
meaning, and so justify it really; for the spiritual is that which governs
everywhere in Scripture. Yet it must also be a canon of all true interpretation
that no spiritual interpretation can set aside the text which it interprets,
and the text here is physical. Plainly then light as making manifest would seem
as yet not to be called for, when there were no eyes yet to be blessed by it,
as there are not till the fifth day.
When we remember, however, that
light is not merely what we call by that name, but in fact a trinity of light,
heat, and actinism, or power for chemical change, for this, if we cannot trace
it, we can easily infer meaning in connection with the next step in the
preparation of the earth to be the home of life, the making of the expanse or
firmament.
Thus a physical meaning may well underlie the spiritual
one, and light in its triune character answer to the third place in which we
find it here as an active agent in the restoration just beginning.
But
we must go on to the second day, in which we find the formation of the expanse
by which the waters are divided. Two is the number both of progress and
increase (and so of expansion), and also of division and thus the numerical
stamp is fully upon the second day.
All this seems at first sight to
be purely phenomenal; but, if we consider it more deeply, does it not point to
some adjustment, if no more, of those laws of the expansion and diffusion of
gases, which are among the most remarkable and important for the needs of every
living and breathing thing? While the division of the waters is of course that
which provides for the water-supply of the dry land next to come into
existence. This is all obvious enough to be perhaps even common place as a
suggestion; but if so, does it not show that the numerical structure, which
emphasizes just such central points as these, has a real physical as well as
spiritual significance?
Upon the third day, the earth is separated
from the waters, and we have the beginning of organic life in the plant, the
link with the next division. Both these things bear upon them very plainly the
numerical stamp.
As to the earth, it is the habitable earth,
mans future dwelling-place, set apart from the waters which had ingulfed
it, and thus in true resurrection. The number of its section - of the day
itself - is fully set upon it
Then as to the vegetable life, three is
the number of specialization of setting apart for specific purpose, which
organization so fully exemplifies. Besides which, as I have elsewhere shown,*
there are three organic kingdoms in nature, of which the vegetable stands
third; man by virtue of the spirit with which he is endowed, standing first;
and the animal, the mere "living soul," the second. The vegetable occupies the
third place among these as the great transformer of the inorganic into the
organic; while the animal reduces again the organic to the inorganic. The
vegetable is the producer, as the animal is the consumer.
* "Spiritual Law
in the Natural World," p. 99.
Another thing which is specially noticed
in the account, and which would seem to come under this number is the
phenomenon of reproduction. All living things must of course reproduce
themselves, if life is to continue on the earth; for as a fact death comes in
with life. Thus "its seed in itself" is characteristic.
Thus the
numerical structure is justified all round: for these matters to which it
directs our thoughts are not points of slight importance, but which have direct
and essential relation to the account before us, which is in fact that of the
preparation of the earth for man. Let this be duly weighed, and the argument
for the symbolism of the numbers will be convincing.
But we have not
closed the account of the third day: we have yet to consider numerically these
two divisions of it as such.
The first seems to refer to the gathering
together of the waters into one place, by which in fact the dry land was laid
bare. It naturally raises the question whether the land was elevated, or by the
opening of interior receptacles in the earth the waters were drained off: a
point which it certainly is not for us to take up here. The word of the Creator
seems to imply action upon the waters, rather than upon the land; but of the
import of the whole question we have too little knowledge to venture anything.
As to the second, we have not the same clue in the language; but
growth, which is characteristic of the living thing, comes under the number;
and if the transforming power of the cell is the fundamental thing in it, there
must be growth as the immediate consequence of this, and for anything beyond
the mere cell-unit. The cell must be reproduced and the addition of material is
followed by division in order to effect it. If tissue is to be formed, this is
done by transformation once more of the newly formed living matter into it; in
which that which has begun to live gives up its life, the protoplasm or
bioplasm as it has been variously called "dies into" so Dr. Beale expresses it,
the formed material of the tissue, membrane or bone or muscle.
So hard
does death follow upon life! and yet so really also does it minister to it.
Weighty lessons to reach so early in our Nature primer!
But notice how
in "growth," "addition," "division," "death," we are taking up the ideas
expressed under the number two of the subdivision; and notice that as
"transformation" and "reproduction ," are the inherent powers of organic life
"growth," "division" "death" are modes of their accomplishment. Thus the
numbers appear throughout; and while that of the division gives the governing
principle, the modes are given in the subdivision! Is this system or what is
it? Aye, what? For the first subdivision of this third day follows the same
rule: gathering of the waters into one place is just the mode by which the dry
land is produced! I leave to the reader to decide what all this may mean or not
mean.
But we have only reached half-way through the six days
work, and in the second division the numerals are doubled, as we have seen. In
this way they are more exacting in their requirements, but if intended as helps
and verification of interpretation there must be more than compensation in the
result attained. Let us go on then carefully and hope fully to consider what is
still before us.
Here though life in its progress is, as we have seen,
the great theme of the division, we have yet an introduction which does not
take up this though it is a preparation for it. The fourth day with its
"lights" is here the analogue of the "light" of the first. These two numbers,
then, 4 and 1, are what we have to consider in reference to this day.
The number 1 speaks naturally, as in the former case, of light upon the earth
as the great subject: and this is plainly stated to be so: "God set them in the
expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth."
The number 4 is
that of the earth, eminently of matter, as passive, recipient, thus would
remind us of the bodies to which the light is attached, making them
"luminaries." Thus both numbers are significant and point together to what no
one can fail to see to be the central feature of the fourth day.
But
the number 1 is the number of rule also; and here sun and moon are especially
appointed to be respectively the rulers of the day and of the night. As the
result, upon these now depend the alternations of light and of darkness, and
the seasons - here first named. Four, let us remember, is the number that
speaks of transitoriness and change, which naturally point here to the
"seasons." But the seasons are dependent upon the rule of sun and moon: so that
the 4 and the 1 come for the second time together. Surely there is some meaning
in all this.
These changing seasons, while they affect all living
things, have yet plainly their chief significance for Gods responsible
creature, man, so soon now to appear upon the scene, and thus the word "signs
"precedes "seasons"in the command given. The earth being dependent upon heaven
in the way it is, it could not but be that man would seek the significance of
all appearances in sun and moon; with which the stars would soon come to be
conjoined. By all these he would learn his littleness and his dependence, as we
find in an exaggerated form and turned to evil, as he turned away from God, in
his wide-spread worship of the heavenly bodies. Their power for evil shows
their power for good; upon which it is not here for me to dwell. It is enough
here to point out how plainly all this heralds the near approach of man, and
the tender interest shown by God in His creature. Purpose of love is read in
the Scripture physics from the beginning; and the book of Scripture opens for
us the book of Nature with lessons for the heart.
But to come now to
the fifth day, which is also the second of the second series: the numbers 5 and
2 are those therefore which have now to be considered in relation to the work
of this day, the introduction of animal life. But two, as has elsewhere been
shown,* is the number of the animal kingdom or simple "living soul," above
which man is raised by his possession of spirit. The "soul" in Scripture is the
seat of that emotional, appetitive, instinctive life, which needs for its full
development the guidance and control of that intelligent, moral nature, which
in man is joined to it. This dependent nature of the beast suits the place for
which it was ordained, of subjection to man, which in the domestic animals we
find them filling, and which, spite of the fall, the wild beast it self
recognizes still to a large extent. The full meaning of it now we can hardly
realize.
* "Spiritual Law in the Natural World," pp. 109-113.
The
soul as the motive, emotional faculty full of the unreasoning contrasts which
we find in passion, comes fully under this number two. But in its relation to
instinct proper, it seems to transcend this. Instinct, within a certain range,
does, as we know, the work of mind, more promptly and satisfactorily than mind
itself will do it. Reason will pause, waver, get perplexed and blunder, where
instinct will at a dash and almost unfailingly accomplish its end. If it were
mind, it were a higher mind than mans; and yet mans mind rectifies
its mistakes and rises above instinct, and into spheres into which it is
impossible for this to enter. The wisdom of the beast in its lower sphere seems
more divine than that of man, which has marked upon it in its readiness to err,
the creatureliness which is for him so wholesome an admonition. The beast, in
fact, as having no personality to distract it, acts from its own God-given
nature, unperverted by the fall; and laws of nature have, as we all realize,
the same character of promptness, certainty and effectiveness which we
recognize in the instinct of the beast. Its Maker has (as we may reverently
say) the responsibility of its actions in a way that cannot be said of man with
his free personality: hence it is necessarily, what man should be freely,
weakness which withal testifies of an energy beyond itself. And this is just
what would be covered by the number 5, which, as 4 and 1, speaks of creature
weakness allied with divine strength. This as applied to man suggests of
necessity responsibility as we have elsewhere seen, while in the beast it would
speak only of an energy which wrought in it beyond its own.
Thus the 5
and the 2 unite here, as previously the numbers of the fourth day, just to
point out the central feature of the work accomplished. A perfect system seems
to develop itself in these numbers, which should induce us to inquire more
earnestly into it; and which in Moses manifests a mind beyond Moses, - is a
mark of inspiration which will turn the keenest-eyed of critics most of all, as
that, into the adoring worshipper.
There is more than this, one may
feel sure, as to the meaning of the fifth days work, but I do not possess
the competence to utter it. Let us go on to the sixth day, which is the third
of the second series: where again the numbers are manifest. Notice, throughout,
that there is no possibility of manipulating any of these, no choice at all
which can be exercised with regard fo them. We are rigorously shut up to these
and none but these. If imagination is permitted, it is restricted within the
narrowest limits: and this, for the purpose we have before us, is what is most
of all to be desired.
On the sixth day, as on the third, we have a
double work: the earth bringing forth the living soul, as on the fifth day the
water did; now the land-animal; and after this man is made in the image of God.
As to the first part of the work, the land-animal, I can, I fear, say
very little to the purpose. The living soul is introduced on the fifth day, and
there characterized: as such it is not distinctive here. Of the three classes
"cattle" might seem to suit the number of discipline; but of the "creeping
things" we do not seem to have a clearly defined idea; while "the beast of the
earth," said to be the more freely moving wild beast, is not by this either
much more fully defined. They are all beasts of the earth, in the sense of
moving upon it., and the "cattle," put first, shows that the definitions here
are not in the way of zoological classification, while the thought of relation
to man is prominent if not ruling.
As to the creation of man we can
happily see more clearly. What is said of him is that he is "created in the
image of God, as His likeness:" in some sort the reflection of Himself. The
word "created" is very important; for it shows that the "image of God" does not
refer, as many have thought, to the sovereignty man was to exercise over the
earth, but that it was inherent in his very constitution. And it shows more
than this: it enables us to say definitely in what it consists. For the word
"created "is used as a different thing from simple "making," and implies the
bringing forth of some new element of being, not involved in former production.
Thus it is used in this chapter in regard to the original creation of heaven
and earth, not of anything merely material afterward. It is used next of the
introduction of the "living soul," soul being such a new element. And next it
is used here, where in man spirit is added to soul. If this be so, then spirit
is that which is really the image of God in man.
Scripture confirms
this from every side. For "God is a Spirit," and the "Father of spirits." (Jno.
iv. 24; Heb. xii. 9). Had it said "souls," the beast is also a soul; but "the
spirit of man which is in him" is that by which alone human things are known
(1Cor. ii. 11). It is the intelligent and moral part. Here then is manifestly
what is necessary to the image of God; and if " we are His offspring" (Acts
xvii. 28) then we can understand how as "Adam begat a son in his own likeness,
after his image" (Gen. v. 3), man can be said to be brought forth, only here it
is creation, and the child is but a creature, in the image of God.
Out
of this comes indeed his capacity for the place into which he is immediately
put, as the vicegerent of God upon earth: "Let us make man in our image, as our
likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl
of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
The word for "have
dominion" is radah, "let them tread down" or "subdue:" implying a dominion to
be maintained with power, and the moulding of those subject to him to his will.
Thus we find in the next chapter that Adam is put into the garden, "to dress it
and to keep it; " and the mention of "cattle" in the present one implies the
same thing. There was yet no existing evil; but here were plastic natures for
him to mould and convert to fullest use. While the need of this would be for
himself such needed discipline - if we may yet use such a word - such training
by exercise, if that be fitter, as would call out in himself the vigilance and
carefulness suited to one under needful trial, and liable totemptation.
These then are the main features of the sixth days work as to
man; and here it is not hard again to trace the fitness of the numbers. Three
is the number of reproduction, perhaps of refiexion, and shows us man in the
image and likeness of God. Six is the number of mastery and of discipline; that
which springs out of his being alone in Gods image, and in relation to
the earth on which he is placed. Thus again the numbers have the most fitting
and beautiful relation to the subject in hand.
As to the two divisions
of the sixth day as snch, - their relation to these first two numbers, - I can
only give what suggests itself to me, and something of the mode by which I
reach it, that it may be the better tested by those who put things to the test.
The lack of clearness as to the first division of necessity occasions
difficulty.
In the first place, it would seem likely that the two
divisions, the beast of the earth and the man, are here exhibited in contrast
with one another. Contrast there is necessarily, and the number 2 speaks often
of this, especially where we have, as here, two as the whole measure of what is
before us.
What is before us is something characteristic of the beast
and of the man respectively. As we know the man best, it is natural to turn
first to him; and here, if we consider how he is presented to us as one in the
image of God, His offspring, we must think of this link with God as being the
great contrast between man and beast. Two, the number of this section that
speaks of man, may naturally, therefore, suggest fellowship, - that fellowship
for which the beast is totally inapt. He can look up into the face of God,
listen and respond to Him. A wondrous privilege and dignity, which has not as
yet been pointed out to us, but which is based upon that which has been pointed
out: that which comes first has been put first, and now we have the inference
which is to be noted from it.
On the other hand, the beasts life
is in this respect alone, nay, we may say, barren. He has on this account no
link with eternity; he is but the beast that perishes. Neither desire nor
thought in him craves anything better; and death is to him no shadow, no
perplexity. Thus he fills evidently the numerical place assigned him; and I see
no other way in which he could fill it. The number one as applied to him seems
to point absolutely in this direction alone. The method of exclusion may be
here permitted to the argument; though it only furnish as to it the smallest
part.
This examination may not be unfitting as an appendix to the book
of Psalms, which has in it such constant references to nature, and indeed to
the first of Genesis. It should confirm us in the conviction of how important a
place the numerals have in Scripture, and encourage us as to their application
in the field of nature also. They are open books put into our hand by the same
divine Teacher: would only that there were more to pursue their deeper study in
that faith in the perfectness of all His work, which alone will give us the
profit of such labour.
Go To Appendix Four
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