Meaning of 3 – The Genesis Numbers

Welcome to the third in the Genesis Numbers series! In our previous two studies, we’ve looked at the significance of days one and two, what those numbers mean in relation to the day, and how that meaning moves forward into the rest of scripture when numbers are used representatively.

As we are now up to day three, it is the number three that we will be considering. Our core text:

Gen 1:9-13  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. 

In line with our previous verses, our goal is to look at what happens on day three to see if it provides an explanation for what three means in Scripture. Using Scripture to understand Scripture. If you do a search for what three in the Bible means, you’ll find a whole lot of trivia, with no solid Biblical back-up for why it means what it means. I believe if we look at day three, we see two primary things: one, a meaning of three symbolically and two, the first typology of the resurrection of Christ.

1. Day three is when dry land appears. Dry land is solid. You can stand on it. In this, is the reference to three’s meaning: complete/sturdy. As land is something you can stand on opposed to water, as three legs is the minimum you need for stability for a table or chair.
   It’s on this day that we see the creation of plants. Everything that is needed on planet earth for life is now present. Earth’s creation is complete. All that is missing are the inhabitants.
   Three is building on the idea of the witness of the number two. If you have two witnesses, then three removes all shadow of doubt.
   
   In vein with the concept of one being self-existence, and two verifying the existence of one, there is the idea which is that three is actually a two of sorts. Let me try and explain: one has no witness of itself. Two is bearing witness to the one, it is therefore, one witness. When three comes into the picture, it means there are two witnesses of the one. Once again, the idea of stability/completeness is present. It’s the verification of what came before.
   
   Now we need to test this idea:
   Deu 19:15 – two or three witnesses. Clearly three is even more powerful than two.
   1 Jn 5:7-8 – three witnesses to one. It matters not if you include the disputed passage, it says the same thing.
   Mat 28:19 – the name of salvation, Jesus, is the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. It’s the name that includes all the attributes of God inside of it, hence it is the name above all names. It is the complete name.
   And finally, Jesus’ rising from the dead after three days and three nights (Mat 12:40)
   Why was it three days and three nights? Because three symbolizes completeness. Death couldn’t hold Christ the moment He died on the cross. It was the will of God that it would be on the third day that He rose.
   I believe one could look at it like this and be on very solid Scriptural ground: Jesus rose on the third day because it was absolute proof that He had really died and yet, he rose again. To be more precise, it was absolute certainty that He conquered hell, death, and the grave.
   If three represents completeness, then Christ rising on the third day signifies a complete victory. All that God needed to do to save us has been done. It’s finished. That was the very words of Jesus on the cross, It is finished! Now, we are simply waiting for His return. Sin’s price has already been paid, death has already been defeated, the Messiah has completed His task.
   
   2. This second point is not really all that separate, in fact, it pairs nicely with Christ’s resurrection. If you read about day three, consider something fascinating. It is on day three, that we first see life. And not only life, but life that comes from a watery grave. Deep water is covering the earth as stated in Genesis 1:2, yet, on day three, land rises out of the water, and it’s not barren land. It’s alive!
   Perhaps you’ve already connected the dots. It’s foreshadowing a day when the Captain of our Salvation went down into the grave, He was swallowed up and there was but chaos – an abyss – but then came the third day when the Word of God commanded and there was no devil or grave that could hold Messiah down. With His rising from the dead, there would come life, and life more abundantly.
   
   God could’ve created everything instantaneously. Why didn’t He? Perhaps it was because it was for us to see that Jesus Christ was indeed the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. (Rev 13:18) For even before man had sinned, God had already in the days and order of Creation, foreshadowed the day that there would be a rising from the dead and life as a result.

Notes:
– Despite what many would allege, three does not have anything to do with the godhead. The godhead has been grossly misunderstood. Godhead means the state of being God, deity. It does NOT refer to eternal, distinct, coequal persons. Three is not a number for God. One is the number relating to God.