Once in a Thousand Years

Earlier this month, something unusual took place. In fact, it was a once every thousand year occurrence. At five minutes and six seconds after 4 a.m. on the 8^th day of July, this year, the time and date was 04:05:06 07/08/09. This will occur again in 3009, assuming the culture that exists then writes time and date the same way most Americans write it now.

This information came to me through one of the e-mails that populate the Internet. Since I am an engineer, just seeing this set of numbers started me thinking about other combinations. It turns out that this is the last set in a sequence of five. The first one is 00:01:02 03/04/05. This set has the rule that every first digit of every pair is a zero. If the rule is changed to another one that allows the first digit to be a zero or a one, then five more sets can be added in a longer sequence. It begins with 00:01:02 03/04/05 and ends with 09:10:11 12/13/14. (Engineers like to play with numbers this way.)

One sequence caught my eye: 07:08:09 10/11/12. That is the birthday of one of my relatives. She will be 44 years old on that date. That probably is of no importance to you, but it did cause me to look more closely at this particular number combination. Since I know that coincidence and luck do not have any part in my life, I decided to see if the combination might have a spiritual significance.

(Note to anyone who has not accepted Christ's death as their release from slavery to sin: you may have coincidence and luck all over your life. The Bible tells me, however, that those who have accepted Christ as their savior have nothing in their lives that He has not given permission to be there.)

One of the things I have been studying is the Bible's use of symbols. Since God does multiple things simultaneously, factual events recorded in the Bible can also have prophetic meaning and contain symbolic meaning at the same time. The Israelites' Tabernacle described in Exodus is a great example of this.

Anyway, numbers in the Bible can be symbols for certain ideas. If we look at the numbers in 07:08:09 10/11/12 the ideas that correspond with the numbers can be the following:
7 – Completion or fullness
8 – New life or new beginning
9 – Fruit of the Holy Spirit
10 – The Law of Moses
11 – Unknown (If anyone can provide insight and scripture references to support the symbolism, please leave a comment.)
12 – Divine order

One way to interpret these numbers is that on the morning of October 11, 2012, some work of God will be completed and a new beginning involving both the New and Old Covenants will occur, somehow involving God's divine order.

My relative's age, 44, also plays a part in the symbolism. The number 4 represents the whole earth. When something is repeated – "4" – "4" – the certainty of it happening is emphasized.

I am NOT PREDICTING that the world is coming to an end.

All throughout the Bible, God shows us times when He starts and ends different works. So far all this exercise has done is heighten my awareness that God is at work in the world. I will pay special attention to the morning of October 11, 2012, if I am still around to appreciate it. Maybe you can join me…