Audio Download

The Spiritual Significance of Numbers – Number Three

[Study Aired January 4, 2026]

The number three signifies that a process is taking place. The ultimate purpose of every process we see taking place in scripture is the process of judgment with whatever this number is connected. The three times repeated vision of Peter in the house of Simon the tanner, which led to the gospel going to the Gentiles, also led to you and I being “the house of God which is now being judged (1Pe 4:17). This number three signifies that a process is taking place, and that process is ultimately the process which in the fullness of time is to be administered to the whole world:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of [the process of] thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

‘The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness”, but  learning takes time, and the only way any of us learn righteousness is through the process of being judged by the fiery trials and tribulations of this life:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Being tried  requires going to trial, and the trial of our faith is a fiery trial which reveals all the self-righteousness and corruption of our rebellious carnal mind. The process of judgment is even now taking  place in the lives of Christ’s elect:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Judgment is a process which is not done and over with all at once in a ten-second ‘sinner’s prayer.’ The process of judgment is the greater significance of the number three.

In this study we will examine many of the entries in scripture where the number three appears, and we will demonstrate how this number is associated with the concept of this process taking place. In the end we will see that everything the Lord is doing in this process is leading to the judgment of all men in their own order:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end [‘the end’ harvest, (Exo 23:16)], when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

Exo 23:14  Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Exo 23:15  Thou shalt keep [1] the feast of [Passover and] unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
Exo 23:16  And [2, Pentecost] the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and [3, Tabernacles] the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Exo 23:17  Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

The “three times in the year” signifies the three seasons of spiritual growth we will all experience in our spiritual walk. Our initial Passover experience as “carnal… babes in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4), our Pentecost experience, when we begin to mature, and our Tabernacles experience, when we are “chastened and scourged and we begin  to die daily [and] suffer with Christ” (1Co 15:31, Php 1:29, 1Pe 4:13). God does not ‘chasten and scourge’ carnal babes in Christ. That is the Passover stage of our conversion. At that Passover part of our process, all we know is “Christ and Him crucified”:

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

It is not until the Pentecost part of the process of our spiritual experience that we can begin to appreciate the need for deep repentance and spiritual discipline which leads to understanding the function of the Lord’s goodness and His grace:

Psa 107:25  For he [The Lord] commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof [The fiery trials of life].
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

The “goodness” of Psalm 107:31 is the same “goodness” of this verse in Romans:

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

It is in the third part of the process of our conversion that we are finally given the maturity to appreciate The Truth of these verses:

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Being given to understand that our suffering with Christ fills up what is lacking of His suffering is the beginning of the third step in the process of our judgment which “must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17) in this present time:

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

The process of God’s judgment began with Christ, who was “made sin for us” and whose “sinful flesh” was not capable of inheriting the kingdom of God and had to be rejected and replaced with a resurrected spiritual body:

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: [Christ was “made sin” yet never  once committed a transgression of the “law of the spirit”]

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

2Co 5:21  For the man who knew no sin was made sin [made “sinful flesh”] on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Before His resurrection from the dead Christ did not pass through a locked door, but as a spiritual body, He could appear as “flesh and bone”, and yet He could simply appear in a locked room.

Luk 24:36  And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Luk 24:37  But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Luk 24:38  And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Luk 24:39  Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
Luk 24:40  And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.

“A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” is not Christ denying the truth of 1 Corinthians 15:44. Spirits had many times appeared as “flesh and bones”, such as when the Lord ate with Abraham and Sarah, when He wrestled with Jacob and here in this room where He is demonstrating that the tomb was indeed empty, and He was “raised a spiritual body” capable of being handled and capable of eating a meal with physical men:

Luk 24:41  And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat?
Luk 24:42  And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.
Luk 24:43  And he took it, and did eat before them.

All the fiery trials and the suffering “of this present time” (Rom 8:18) are just the ‘beginning of the judgment of God which is now on His house’ (1Pe 4:17). The judgment which “begin[s] at the house of God” does not end there. It culminates in the “great white throne… judgment” which will be the third season of the three seasons of God’s work of bringing all mankind into judgment and will completely destroy death to the extent that all death will be replaced with life in everyone who has ever drawn breath:

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

1Co 15:55  O death, where is thy sting? O grave [G86: ‘hades’], where is thy victory?

1Ti 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

As long as one person remains in the grave, death will still have a sting and a victory. However, we are assured that:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

For all the Babylonian ministers who maintain that ‘will have all men to be saved’ means that Christ simply ‘desires that all men be saved’, but He would never do anything contrary to our own fabled ‘free will’, consider this great Truth:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

Mankind’s will is worked by God’s desire. For that reason salvation for “all in Adam” does not depend on the will of men:

Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

It is manifested throughout scripture that what God desires is what He does, and if He desires the salvation of all in Adam, then that is what He is in the process of doing through His three steps of the judgment of all men of all time, signified by the three harvest seasons of the holy days which God gave to Israel.

Here are the three outward dispensations in which the Lord is working with His creatures:

1) “From the beginning:”

Mar 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.

2) Moses and the law of Moses:

Mat 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

Luk 16:16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

3) The “time of reformation”

Heb 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

This “time of reformation” is the time in which God matures His work as He reforms this vessel of clay. What is impossible for the carnal mind to understand is that as this part of God’s work with the flesh is being accomplished, a new spiritual man is being brought forth in a resurrection. We experience the resurrection now only in down-payment (“earnest”) form:

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be [future tense] also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

This “redemption of the purchased possession” is the first resurrection. It is the shedding of this vessel of clay once and for all. It is not just an “earnest” or down-payment, but it is taking full possession of a spiritual body in resurrection from among the dead, as the captain of our salvation has already experienced.

When Peter was found by Cornelius the Roman centurion, he was feeding Christ’s sheep at the house of Simon the tanner in Joppa. Just before Cornelius’ three  Gentile messengers knocked on the door of the home of Simon the tanner in Joppa the holy spirit three times showed Peter a vision of unclean animals and told Peter… “Arise Peter, slay and eat.” Three  times Peter answered, “Not so Lord; for I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” The people who Peter at that time considered to be “common and unclean” and unworthy of being spiritually fed were knocking on the door of his host, Simon the tanner. Even after being shown that he was not to “call any man common or unclean”, it was still a slow, hard, and trying process for Peter to accept the Truth that God was taking the gospel to the Gentiles. Peter struggled many long years, after having the three times repeated vision of unclean creatures which he was commanded “Arise Peter, slay and eat.” The Lord made it clear to Peter that the three visions corresponded with the three Gentile men knocking on the door of Simon the tanner. In the very next chapter Peter was obliged to explain why he had decided to entered the home of the Gentile, Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and this what Peter said about the significance of his three visions in which he was three times commanded to eat unclean food:

Act 10:25  And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
Act 10:26  But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
Act 10:27  And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.
Act 10:28  And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

Even after this miraculous event in the house of Cornelius, the Gentile Roman centurion it still required a process of many years for Peter to extricate himself from the “carnal commandment” Israel had been given to separate themselves from the Gentiles.

Here is an event which took place several years after Peter was honored to be the first apostle to share the gospel with a Gentile:

Gal 2:11  But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Gal 2:12  For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Gal 2:13  And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation [hypocrisy].

This story is given to demonstrate to us the spiritual significance of the number three. Three signifies the fact that a process is taking place. Our old man is daily being judged and being burned out of each of us, and ‘the world within us is learning righteousness.’ Both judgment and learning require time and experience, and time and experience produce the process being judged. The fact that both Peter and Barnabas struggled to accept what the Lord had revealed to them demonstrates the significance of the number three. It signifies the process of being judged:

Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

This is not just a history lesson about Peter’s struggles. This is an admonition for you and me to guard against any tendency to be respecters of persons because of income, race or social standing. Our only consideration is to please our Lord. We are to seek to worship God in spirit and in Truth. We are not to be men-pleasers. If we seek to please men, we are not fit to feed Christ’s sheep:

Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

Gal 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

Peter, setting us an example, immediately repented of His hypocrisy, and said this at the Jerusalem conference of Acts 15:

Act 15:7  And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
Act 15:8  And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us;
Act 15:9  And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Act 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Act 15:11  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

We will now examine how this process is revealed in the words of scripture:

Christ’s words demonstrate that no good is accomplished without going through the process of being judged:

Luk 13:32 And he [Christ] said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

Joh 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

The “three years old” sacrifices the Lord required of Abraham demonstrates that the only sacrifice acceptable to God is one which has endured the chastening process of being judged:

Gen 15:9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

Christ, along with His ‘two witnesses’, brought the news of a barren wife bringing forth a manchild, and bringing about the destruction of Sodom, which signifies the destruction of Babylon the great:

Gen 18:1 And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Gen 18:2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,

Gen 18:6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead [it], and make cakes upon the hearth.

Gen 18:20  And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
Gen 18:21  I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
Gen 18:22  And the [two] men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

The “three tenth deals” of the “meat offering” signify that it also is part of the process of judgment:

Lev 14:10 And on the eighth day he shall take two he lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and three tenth deals of fine flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil.

The three branches of the vine in the dream of Pharaoh’s butler signify the process of his release from prison.

Gen 40:10 And in the vine were three branches: and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes:

Gen 40:13 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place: and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh’s cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his butler.

Here are a few negative applications of how the number three signifies a process is working:

Gen 40:18 And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
Gen 40:19 Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.

Exo 10:22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:

Exo 15:22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

Num 22:28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?

Three hundred pieces of silver signify the process of the redemption of the Lord’s elect:

Gen 45:22 To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment.

Going into the wilderness for three days signifies the beginning of the process of being separated from our old man:

Exo 5:3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

 Our fruit is not edible until after three years:

Lev 19:23 And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of.

It takes two cycles of three years to bring us to our year of rest in Christ:

Lev 25:21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

After three years we are given to feed the Levite who ministers to us and the fatherless and widows who are among us:

Deu 14:28 At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates:
Deu 14:29  And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.

The Lord’s Word is divided into three parts, signifying that its revelation is a process:

Luk 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Even our deception by the lies of Babylon are revealed to be a process which takes time:

Rev 16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

Rev 8:12 And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.
Rev 8:13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

Three men, Cain, Balaam, and Korah, signify the process of apostasy:

Jud 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Christ presence in every generation is expressed in three ways… 1) Is, 2) Was, and 3) Is to come:

Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Rev 1:18 I [am] he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
Rev 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

Three principles govern the proper understanding of the Word of God and those three are 1) the letter of the word, 2) the spiritual meaning behind the letter of the word and 3) the sum of thy word [‘a multitude of counselors’].

1Co 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world [the letter of the Word], but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth [The letter of the Word], but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.

Psa 119:160 The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting (ASV, ESV, etc.).

Pro 11:14  Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Pro 15:22  Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Pro 24:6  For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.