So, I decided to spend some time looking into the number 4 the other day, specifically what it might mean in a biblical sense. It’s one of those numbers you see pop up, but I never really sat down to think about it deeply. It felt like time to actually do the work and see what I could find.
My first step was just to kinda brainstorm where I remembered seeing the number 4. Off the top of my head, not much came immediately, maybe directions like North, South, East, West? That felt a bit too general. So, I figured I needed to be more methodical.
I grabbed my well-worn Bible and a simple notebook. Honestly, nothing fancy, just needed somewhere to jot things down. I started by using the concordance in the back, looking up the word “four” and also scanning passages I vaguely remembered might be relevant. It wasn’t a quick process, mind you. I spent a good chunk of an afternoon just flipping pages and reading context.
Here’s some of the stuff I started noting down:
- Creation: On day 4, God made the sun, moon, and stars. That felt pretty foundational, like setting the rhythms for the earth.
- Eden: Remember those four rivers flowing out of the Garden of Eden? Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates. Spreading out, watering the earth.
- Earthly Scope: Lots of references to the “four corners of the earth” or the “four winds.” This came up in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Revelation… seemed to consistently mean the whole world, everywhere.
- The Gospels: Then it hit me – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Four accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, each with a slightly different focus, but together giving a full picture. That felt significant.
- Visions: Ezekiel had those visions with four living creatures, each with four faces and four wings. Daniel saw four great beasts representing kingdoms. Revelation mentions four angels and the four horsemen. These felt more complex, maybe about divine order or judgment on the earth.
Putting it Together
After listing all these out, I took a step back and looked at my notes. What was the common thread? It wasn’t about holiness like maybe 7, or judgment like some other numbers could be. It felt very… grounded. Very much tied to the earth, the physical world, and its structure.
Think about it: the four seasons, the four directions. Things that define our experience on earth. The sun and moon created on day 4 govern our time here. The four rivers water the physical land. The four Gospels give us the complete earthly ministry of Jesus. The “four corners” literally means the whole scope of the world.
It’s like the number 4 represents a kind of universal-ness, but specifically tied to the created order. A completeness of the physical realm, maybe? Like the foundation or the boundaries God set up for the world.
So, my takeaway from this little exploration? For me, the number 4 in the Bible points strongly towards God’s creative work in the world, its structure, its reach, and how He established order within it. It feels like a signature of completeness for the physical aspects of His creation and revelation, like the four walls making a complete room or the four points of a compass covering all directions. It’s not the final spiritual completion, perhaps, but it’s the complete foundation He built for us here. That’s what I got out of my reading and thinking, anyway. Made the number feel a lot more solid and meaningful when I see it now.
