Mike,

I read a website that says the number 5 is associated with death. Can you read it and give biblical truth?

God Bless
D____

Hi D____,

Thanks for sending this to me. It is always interesting to see what others get from God’s Word. As I hope you have heard me say in the past, ‘Every word of God has both a positive and a negative application.’ That is the very meaning of “a sharp two edged sword.”

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick [ Greek, alive], and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

What comes out of God’s mouth is His Word, and whether he is speaking of a lion, a lamb or Christ Himself, there will always be both the positive lion of the tribe of Judah, and the negative lion who ‘roams about seeking whom he may devour’, a positive ‘lamb of God’, and the ‘lamb with two horns who speaks as a dragon’, and there is even the Jesus who came to deliver His people and “another Jesus” with “another gospel.”

2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

The same principle applies to all the numbers, all the colors and all the metals mentioned in God’s Word. There will always be both a negative and a positive application for any word of God’s Word simply because Christ is that Pillar of smoke which is bright as the sun on one side and dark as the blackest night on the other side.

Exo 14:19 And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:
Exo 14:20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.

I can see why this man associates the number five with death, when you focus only on  Gen 5 and the fact that the best way to kill a man is to “smite him under the fifth rib.”
But that is only the negative application of this number. This writing mentions the positive applications like the five loaves of bread with which Christ fed the multitudes, the five changes of raiment for Benjamin, Joseph’s favored brother, and the five stones which David picked to do battle with Goliath.
Here is what this writer of whom you wrote has to say about the five part covenant of redemption:

“The covenant of redemption, also known as covenant of grace, set forth in Rom. 8:29, 30 is a five part covenant:

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

The five parts are foreknown, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified. God does the foreknowing, predestinating, calling, justifying, and glorifying. It is all his work. Man does not do any of the work.”

While it is true that we must “die daily” in order to gain life, the outcome of the covenant of redemption is life, not death.
Tit 2 tells us “the grace of God has appeared to all men chastening us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts…”

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching [ Greek, paidueo, chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

This paper has helped to give me a clearer view of the negative application of the number five, and for that I am grateful.
I hope this helps you to see why this writer does not see the five loaves, feeding the multitudes, Benjamin’s five changes of raiment, and the five step plan of redemption, as the positive work of grace in our lives, is because he does not see that two edged, positive and negative, light and darkness that is God’s Word. ‘It is darkness to them and it is light to these’ (Exo 14:20).

Your brother in Christ,
Mike