153, Sons of God

Because of the number 153 appearing in the text of John 21:6, much intrigue and speculation has been offered as to its hidden meaning. Gematria is the study of the numerical value of words in the Hebrew and Greek language because their letters also serve as their numbers. I have spent many hours looking into the significance of 153 and its relation to Biblical text and it’s underlying meaning. The following screenshots are from the Bible Wheel website. These address very little of the numerical significance of 153 to mathematicians.

1224  is “The Lord God” in Greek gematria. As I went to begin my Bible study this morning, the first app I went to was YouVersion and this caught my attention,

I had highlighted the text while doing a study on the life of Elijah recently. Elijah was NOT put on the shelf by God after he went and hid in a cave where God went and speak to him as some believe. He went on to do much more work for God for years before God raptured him from the earth in a fiery chariot. By studying the time frame of the reign of the kings he lived in I learned that.

The verse from 2 Kings 1:17 speaks of a somewhat strange “coincidence” (I’m using that word very loosely) of the Bible. For a time, Israel and Judah each had a king with the same name, Jehoram. The reason this Jehoram became king is because Ahaziah “had no sons” so his brother Jehoram was appointed king.

2 King chapter one tells the story of Ahaziah and his sickness that brought about his death. Instead of seeking the God of Israel he sought the god of Ekron (little-g).

God directly tells to Elijah to intercept the messengers Ahaziah has sent to inquire of the god of Ekron and tell them,

2 Kings 1:3-4 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ 4 Now therefore, thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” So Elijah departed.

Obstinate Ahaziah sends a captain and his 50 men to get Elijah. Not too good for them because Elijah calls down fire from heaven. Yes fire from heaven, doesn’t sound like a man God has “put on the shelf” to me.

2 Kings 1:12 So Elijah answered and said to them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

Elijah is STILL, Mighty in Word and in Deed, exercising the authority God has placed him in. Don’t “feel kind of sad for Elijah” and believe Elijah’s ministry finished after his “cave” experience. It’s NOT so. Be a Berean and study God’s Word for yourself. You will see where some teachers haven’t done their homework in doing so.

Ahaziah sends another captain and his 50 men to get Elijah. Do you remember a song about a wicked king by Herman’s Hermits called “I’m Henry the VIII, I Am” that said, “second verse, same as the first,” well that’s what happened to the second group of men king Ahaziah sent to get Elijah. If you are keeping track, 102 men have been incinerated by God’s fiery judgment. Are you starting to see where I’m going with this?

Then Ahaziah sends the 3rd (that’s another great Bible number) captain and his 50 to get Elijah. If you are counting like I am, that’s a total of 153 men. And the 153rd man fears God, the God of Elijah and Israel.

2 Kings 1:13-14 Again, he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and pleaded with him, and said to him: “Man of God, please let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight. 14 Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up the first two captains of fifties with their fifties. But let my life now be precious in your sight.”

As I pondered the “153” of this account a thought came to my mind. The 153rd man feared and pleaded with God, interceding for his men and himself, through the words he spoke to the prophet, who else in scripture has done that?”

The prophet Daniel did.

Daniel 9:3-19 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, 5 we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. 6 Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

8 “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. 10 We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 11 Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. 12 And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

13 “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 14 Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. 15 And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

16 “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. 17 Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. 18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

By all accounts, Daniel was a righteous man in God’s sight but he understood the cause of their captivity and destruction of their homeland. Daniel included himself with the sinful nation’s sins even though he lived a life in a way to please God. He didn’t proclaim, “We are a blessed nation, the children of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.” He faced the reality that the sins of the nation of Israel opened the door for God’s judgment.

Jeremiah, another man of God has the sense to confess the sins of Israel in the reality of God’s judgment instead of proclaiming all their righteous deeds,

Jeremiah 14:7-9 O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us,
Do it for Your name’s sake;
For our backslidings are many,
We have sinned against You.
8 O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble,
Why should You be like a stranger in the land,
And like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why should You be like a man astonished,
Like a mighty one who cannot save?
Yet You, O Lord, are in our midst,
And we are called by Your name;
Do not leave us!

Even Moses, the original “man of God, mighty in word and in deed”  Acts 7:22, had the sense to confess the sins of God’s people but include himself in the punishment for it instead of acting self righteous saying, “they did it, not me.”

Exodus 32:31-35 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! 32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”

33 And the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. 34 Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.”

35 So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.

Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, the world and America has a multitude of sins it has committed against God. And as the prophet Jeremiah noted, “Yet You, O Lord, are in our midst,” In other words, God is Sovereign and NOTHING happens that He hasn’t allowed to happen. Instead of praying to God and reminding Him all the “self righteous” things we as Americans and America or as Christians have done for God, how about doing the Biblical thing, Confess OUR Sins and ask for His Forgiveness and Mercy.

It worked for the 3rd captain of the 50, the 153rd man, “a son of God,” by his confession of faith. It worked for Moses, Daniel and Jeremiah.

2 Chronicles 7:13-14

13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Even king Solomon, at one time was close enough to God to cause “the fire of God to fall down from heaven.” God’s response to his “mountain top” experience was a warning of what would happen when they stopped following God’s ways. God didn’t say, “if your good outways your bad, you’re OK.” That isn’t even a viable defense for America’s condition today. Quit telling God all we have done for him and start confessing our sins and ask for His forgiveness and mercy.

God doesn’t even accuse the “world” in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, He directs His warning to “MY People.” Think about that a little while.

God can drop a cure to the Covid-19 virus in anyone’s mind whenever He pleases. That would be but a small demonstration of His power. He could cause the virus to evaporate away, completely, forever or for 10 years like Sylvia Brown predicted in a book she wrote in 2008.

“around 2020, a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments,” Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years later, and then disappear completely.

He could bring complete healing to every ill soul and prove beyond a doubt of His intercession. Nothing is impossible for God, Right. But how long would it take the church to switch back into the house of merchandise Jesus vehemently condemned? NOT Long enough!!!

John 2:13-15 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. 15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.

Too soon and the cries and professions of faith would be, “Money Comin’ To Me!!!” I despise those words of greedy faith. Unless its to give to the worlds really poverty stricken people.

I had every intention of writing nothing this morning because I had a lot of things planned to do before it got too hot. Sometimes God lets me see scripture in a certain light and I feel lead to share His thoughts in my mind. Now I’ll get to my Bible study for today and deal with the heat later.