Some numbers are famous in the Bible, like 3, 7, and 40. There are infamous numbers, too, like 666. Not much has been understood about the number 21 and what it means during its usage. It appears seven times in Scripture.
Below is a list where “21” appears, or something appears 21 times in the Old and New Testaments.
21 and the Number 2000
Interestingly, a number appears 21 times from Genesis to Revelation: The number 2000.
It is eye-opening to see this connection and realize how often the two pop up together. Here are a couple of examples.
During the fight to be released from an overly harsh “iron” hand of Communism during the Cold War, 21 demands were made by the Polish people who suffered under this brutal control system. One of those ultimatums was that Poland’s factory workers demanded to be paid 2000 “zloty” (Polish currency). In this relationship, twenty-one and the number 2000 appear together.
Likewise, we also see it in our current political situation here in America in the Year 2021. Much is being bantered about concerning $2000.00 stimulus payments. Somehow these seem to be drawn together.
As I was writing this post at 6:21 AM on 2/10/2021, I serendipitously came across this fact: people born on January 21, 2000, would be alive precisely 21 years, 21 days, and 21 minutes at that precise moment. It seems there is a divine connection at play here.
See the screenshot below.
A screenshot from a birthday website.
21 in the Bible
To write twenty-one in Hebrew, they wrote two Hebrew letters: kaph-aleph. These signify giving strength and the strength of God’s Grace to cover sin during our time of spiritual growth, reflecting the twenty-one coverings of Moses’s tabernacle to protect the twenty-one rebellions of the children of Israel in the wilderness.
In the Bible, we see the twenty-one as a reflection of both good and bad. It is associated with sin and Rebellion but is also a representation of God and the Temple. There are twenty-one chapters in the book of Judges, a significant title given the twenty-one is when judgmentis handed down.
Here are some other “21’s” in Scripture:
One of the ten shortest books, Obadiah, has only 1 chapter with twenty-one verses. Out of twenty-seven New Testament books, twenty-one of them are Epistles. The book of Hebrews contains materials from twenty-one Old Testament books.
The word Frankincense occurs twenty-one times in Scripture, as well as the phrase ‘the Father.’ The names James (the great) and James (the less) also show up twenty-one times.
The last King of Judah, Zedekiah, began his reign when he was only twenty-one years old (2Kings 24:18). He was placed on the throne as a ‘puppet’ king by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who in 597 B.C. conquered Jerusalem and took the then-king Jehoiachin prisoner. Zedekiah’s reign lasted eleven years until 586 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and its beloved temple.
Jesus speaks of angels twenty-one times, always in the plural. “Flood,” “star,” “capacity” are also in Scripture exactly twenty-one times. In the New Testament, seventeen chapters have twenty-one verses.
This is a short list because we will explore other aspects of twenty-one next in the Bible.
Read previous posts from this series:
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