The Design of Scripture

The Number Thirteen, Fourteen, and Fifteen


The Number Thirteen

There are many superstitions that cluster around this number. It is to many people an unlucky number. So far, I have used two words that have no scriptural basis and are meaningless to a child of the Most High God: superstition and luck. There are some who teach that thirteen, and especially 'Friday the 13th', became an 'unlucky' number because of the death of the firstborn in Egypt on that day. If that is a fact, then it is not a fact because of a lack of luck, but rather rebellion, which is the consistent meaning of this number in scripture.

The very first occurrence of this number cannot be written off as coincidence.

B'reshith 14:4
"Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the THIRTEENTH year they rebelled."

In Pirkei Avot 5:13, we read that thirteen is the age that young men become a 'bar mitzvot' or 'son of the commandments'. As a young man enters into his teenage years, it is this particular time that was chosen to place him under the authority of the commandments. Could it be that this is the beginning of a young man's rebellious years? We had previously learned that 12 was the number of YHVH's governing authority, but when perusing the lists of the tribes in scripture we are many times confronted with a total of 13 tribes in which a rebellious son is generally left out to bring the total back to 12. Could this also be one of the reasons that the tribe of Dan is left out in Hitgalut 7:4-8? When reading the genealogies of the righteous and the unrighteous in the first 11 chapters of B'reshith, we find that the gematria of the lines of Seth are divisible by 8 and the line of Cain by 13. The line of the Canaanites and the descendants of Joktan are all divisible by 13. In B'reshith 25:12-17, Ishmael's 12 sons add up to multiples of 13, as well as the Dukes of Edom. The sons of Midian and the children of Lot all add up to multiples of 13. The kings of Yehudah add up to multiples of 8 while the kings of Israel, the rebellious house, are in multiples of 13. In Yechezk'el 4:4-5, the prophet is commanded to lay on his left side 390 years (13x30) because of Israel's rebellion and iniquity. Haman orders the Yehudim to be executed on the 13th day of the 12th month.

The 13th letter of the Aleph-bet is the letter 'mem'. The symbol for mem is water. The earth was covered in water during Noach's time because the earth had become corrupt. After the flood the names of Noach, Shem, and Ham are divisible by 8, but when adding Ham (remember what he did?) the names are now divisible by 13. (Adding ham to your breakfast is also rebellion.) Perhaps the most astonishing revelation about the number 13, is the fact that the gematria of almost every one of the names for hasatan are divisible by 13. The word 'dragon' is mentioned 13 times in the book of Hitgalut. There are 13 famines mentioned in scripture. Leaven occurs 13 times in the Brit Chadashah. One of the titles of the Mashiach tachat (antichrist) is the adversary. In the last days, most of the nations or gentiles will be as lawless as the adversary. The gematria of adversary and nation (goy) are both 13.

The Number Fourteen

The number '14' is a multiple of seven, and for that reason alone, we should be sensitive to it's appearance. This number speaks of salvation, for it is the 14th of Aviv that the passover lamb is to be killed. The generations of the Messiah are in multiples of 14 (Mattityahu 1:17). The Holy Spirit makes it a point to tell us that the fourteenth night was come when those who abode in the ship would be 'saved' (Acts 27:31-33). The gematria of King David is 14, and the 14th letter of the Aleph-bet is 'nun' whose symbol is the fish, the historic symbol of those who are saved.

The Number Fifteen

This number paints for us a picture of rest. It is this day that the Messiah is buried, which of course for most of us is the final rest, at least for our bodies anyway. The final feast in the last days is the feast of Sukkot which begins on the 15th of Tishrei. In Esther 9:20-22 we read:

"And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Yehudim who were in all the provinces of the king, Ahasuerus, both near and far, to establish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar, and the FIFTEENTH day of the same, yearly, as the days in which the Yehudim RESTED from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor."

The word 'kinsman' is found 15 times in the book of Ruth. The 15th time Naomi's name is mentioned in the book of Ruth we read:

Ruth 3:1
"Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek REST for thee, that it may be well with thee?

Shalom Alecheim!