The Design of Scripture

The Number Thirty Seven


I have decided to conclude this teaching series on 'numbers' with the number thirty seven. It has been my privilege during this particular series to receive a lot of information and help from my good friend, Rosemary Brown. Rosemary has poured more hours of her life into research in gematria and related subjects in the last year that I have known her, than most people could accomplish in a lifetime. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to Rosemary and her exhaustive work.

It is Rosemary who made me aware of the frequently appearing number '37' in scripture. I pray that if nothing else, this teaching has made every reader more sensitive to our Creator's use of numbers. We now know, since the advent of computers, that all things can be reduced to or represented by numbers. Even computers use binary code to produce what you are seeing on your screen right now. At this time I am not completely certain as to the teaching representation of the number thirty seven. It simply appears in many familiar Hebrew words and phrases. One of my favorites is the amount of times that the Hebrew words for 'circumcision' and 'uncircumcision' appear in the Tenakh. YHVH made a covenant with our father Avraham in B'reshith 17 involving circumcision. Those who were circumcised became part of the covenant and those who refused were cut off from the covenant. This is analogous to receiving the word of God or refusing the word of God. The Hebrew words these two English words come from (mul, 'arel) appear thirty seven times in the Tenakh. The phrase 'Bethlehem of Judah' where Yeshua‘ was born appears thirty seven times in the scriptures. The golden lampstands in the Tabernacle appear thirty seven times in scripture as well.

The gematria of a good many words we are all familiar with also add up to thirty seven or multiples of thirty seven. Some of these in English are peace (shalom), redeem (ga'al), signs ('ot), witness ('ed), testimony ('ed), rock, (tzor)teaching (lamad), foundation (yesod), standard or tribal camp location (degel).

Five centuries before the first coming of Messiah, a Greek philosopher named Pythagoras wrote the following words, "... numbers are the language of the universe". Modern science has now caught up with that provocative statement. In this short series on the subject, I have not begun to even scratch the surface of the enormity of the truths contained in YHVH's use of numbers throughout scripture. The fingerprints of the God of Israel are found in every letter and between every letter. His desparate desire to reach out to mankind in every way He can is abundantly evident. All creation points to the Word of God and survives by His Torah. My favorite section of scripture has always been the 119th Psalm. This Psalm is broken up into exactly 22 sections of 8 verses each. The entire theme of this Psalm is the laws and commandments of God and their blessing in your life. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The first 8 verses all begin with the first letter of the alphbet. The next 8 begin with the second letter and so on until the last letter. The gematria of Yehu' is 22. This word means 'YHVH is HE'. The numerical value of 'ahav or love is 8. It is the Messiah who said "If you LOVE me you will keep my COMMANDMENTS." In 22 sections of 8 verses each the God of Israel spoke to all of mankind what Yochanan 3:16 says, I LOVE YOU!

Shalom Alecheim!