Audio Download

The Spiritual Significance of Numbers

The Number Two Signifies Both Division and The Witness to Him Who Unites

[Study Aired January 2, 2026]

While the number one signifies the unity that is in the “Holy spirit of God” (Eph 4:30), the number two sets the stage for all that “one spirit” (Eph 4:4) is doing with His creatures.

That work requires a foil against which His love can be displayed. That foil includes a second being in a second realm. It requires an incorruptible, spiritual heaven which is diametrically opposed to a naturally corruptible physical earth. It requires within those two opposing spheres good versus evil and right versus wrong. In that sense ‘two’, in its negative application, signifies division and opposition.

This principle is revealed in the first verse of scripture where we are told that the Lord created two things, the one being opposed to the other:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created [1] the heaven and [2] the earth.

Here is one of many verses of scripture which reveal the contrast between these two creations:

1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Genesis 3 reveals that the natural inclination of any wife is to be “against” her husband:

Gen 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [H413: ‘el’, against] thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

The Lord did not command Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the vain hope that they would be obedient children and live forever in physical bodies of “corruptible… flesh and blood” (1Co 15:50). That is not what the scriptures teach at all.

How could that possibly be true when we are clearly told:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

That verse is only one of many which reveal that God knew exactly what Adam and Eve would do “before the world began”, and He had already “given us grace… in Christ Jesus before the world began.” There is no way God could give us grace in Christ before the world began if He had not known in advance that Adam and all of mankind would need that grace to teach [them] to forsake ungodliness and disobedience and to live Godly lives’:

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

That is the significance of the number two. It signifies both the foil of sin and corruption, and it signifies the incorruptible righteousness of God which witnesses against that sin and unites us with Christ and His Father.

This great hidden Truth of the foreknowledge of God concerning both good and evil is repeated throughout scripture:

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Informing us twice that our calling in Christ was given to us “before the world began” witnesses to us that God has every day of everyone who has ever lived ‘written in [His] book before there were any of those days’:

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

Psalm 139:16 tells us that God knew “before the world began”, before He ever created Adam and Eve, that they would first disobey His commandments, and He knew that they would need the salvation which is given us through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ “before the world began”, and He had every day of Adam’s, and our lives, “written in His book before there were any of them”. That verse is just as true for Adam and Eve as it was for King David and as it is for each of us.

Two verses in Proverbs 16 confirm the Lord’s omniscience, His knowledge of everything even before it happens, and His omnipotence, His power over all things good and evil:

Pro 16:1  The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

Lest there be any doubt about the significance of verse one this what we are told in verse 4:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

There we have the great Truth which is the spiritual significance of the negative application of the number 2. As surely as the earth opposes the heavens, and Eve’s curse is to be “against” her husband, this division will at the appointed time produce the unity, the “one flesh”, of the two when the time arrives  that “thy husband… shall rule over thee.”

Gen 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [H413: ‘el’, against] thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Cain also disobeyed the Lord which is revealed to us when the Lord told him:

Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto [H413, ‘el’, against] thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

“If you do well, shall you not be accepted” reveals that Cain had not done well and that is why the Lord had no respect to Cain’s offering which was “of the fruit of the ground.” It is manifest from the fact that the Lord had respect to Abel’s offering “of the firstlings of his flock”,  that the Lord had already instructed mankind concerning never offering a flour offering without first offering a blood offering:

Num 28:31  Ye shall offer them beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, (they shall be unto you without blemish) and their drink offerings.

Notice that when the Lord is judging Cain’s sin, He uses the exact same language He used when judging Eve for her sin… “and unto [H413: ‘el’, against] you shall his desire be and you shall rule over him.” The pronouns ‘his’ and ‘him’ both refer to “sin [which] lieth at the door.” Sin had no desire to please us or God. ‘The law of sin in [our] members wars against us and brings us into captivity to that law of sin which is in our members’:

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members,  which is in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

If there is any doubt that the Hebrew word in Genesis 3:16, where the Lord tells Eve her desire shall be “to your husband” should read ‘against your husband’, and that in Genesis 4:7 where the Lord tells Cain that ‘unto thee shall be his [sins] desire’, should read ‘against thee shall be his [sins] desire’, if there is any doubt about that statement consider how that Hebrew word is translated in the very next verse:

Gen 4:8  And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against [H413: ‘el’, against] Abel his brother, and slew him.

Eve was of Adam, and she was designed to oppose him as a witness of how the natural carnal mind is just naturally “against the knowledge of Christ.” She is given that rebellious spirit for the very purpose of overcoming it and denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living a Godly life in this present age (Tit 2:11-12) and submitting to her husband’s rule. The same is true for Cain and for each of us. We, too, are “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin” (Psa 51:5), and we all have “another law in our members and bringing [us] into captivity to the law of sin which is in [our] members” (Rom 7:23).

Fortunately for mankind there is a “second man Adam” who was “slain from the foundation of the world” to atone for our sins:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Rev 5:4  And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

This is what Christ tells us of ourselves if He is abiding within our hearts and minds:

Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Mat 5:15  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Mat 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, [Be My two witnesses] that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

The metaphor of light is cast against the foil of darkness. Light signifies spiritual Truth, Godly direction and a life full of purpose and meaning. A life of light is contrasted with a life of darkness, being a slave to sinful passions, rebellion against authority; a life of futility and emptiness.

Contrary to what many have been taught, the opposite of heaven is not hell. The opposite of heaven is the earth, and this is what we are told in the very first verse of scripture:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

The second verse describes the initial condition of ‘the earth’:

Gen 1:2  And [1] the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And [2] the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Verse two is a prophesy of what God is doing with this ‘earth’, which signifies these dusty, clay bodies of sinful flesh and blood. Verse two of Genesis 1 describes what mankind is spiritually to this very day. Spiritually all men come into this world “without form, and void… shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin”, and [in spiritual] darkness. Then the spirit of God begins to move upon the face of the waters’, upon which ‘waters’ the great whore sits as a queen:

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

The number two in this context divides heavens from a dark, “without form and void” earth. The number two divides the darkness of earth from light of “the spirit of God” which is in the process of “moving on the face of the waters” and dividing the light from the darkness.

Gen 1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

The Greek word for ‘double’ in Revelation 8:6 is G1363, ‘diploo’. Here is Strong’s definition for ‘diploo’:

G1363
διπλόω
diploō
dip-lo’-o

From G1362; to render two fold: – double.

The great harlot who controls the beast will receive “two fold… torment and sorrow, according to her works”. This is God’s righteous judgment against this great religious harlot, It is not a positive application of the number two, nevertheless, in the end good comes of this ‘two fold’ punishment.

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way 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.

Notice that it is God who created both the darkness and the light. The darkness was created before the light because we are explicitly told, “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” This Genesis principle of God beginning His work with darkness is repeated in the New Testament where we read:

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The typical physical works of God in Genesis 1:3 signify the spiritual work He is doing in us in 2 Corinthians 4:6. We are all born in spiritual darkness, and we must all be brought out of that darkness into the spiritual light of “the face of Jesus Christ”:

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

King David is not telling us that he had an immoral mother. What he is telling us is that ‘corruptible flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God’ (1Co 15:50).

 It is all being worked around the number two.

In the garden of Eden there is the second person, the woman who was deceived. There is the second being, that old serpent the devil and Satan. The work which the Lord is orchestrating between these two, the woman and the serpent, produces a “second man… the seed of the woman” where this number two becomes very positive as a witness of all this work which was all ordained and written in the Lord’s book… before the world began”:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

The second day of creation builds upon what the Lord did on the first day. On the first day the Lord created the heavens and the earth and called light out of the darkness which was upon the face of the waters:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

‘Heaven and earth’ are the first pair mentioned in scripture. The second pair mentioned is light and darkness. Someone might consider ‘the evening and the morning’ to be a third pair, but ‘the evening and the morning’ is really just another way of saying light and darkness. Both are mentioned in the account of what the Lord did on the first day of creation.

On the second day the Lord introduces a third pair… “the waters which are under the firmament, [and] the waters which were above the firmament”. This again is physical words which are meant to convey a spiritual message to the Lord’s elect through this dichotomy which is signified by the number two.

The waters under the firmament signify the waters on which the great whore sits (Rev 17:15). The firmament and the waters above the firmament signify the fiery trials and tribulations needed to evaporate the waters below the firmament and move them into the waters which are above the firmament. The fact that we are told that on the fourth day the Lord ‘set the stars in the firmament of the heavens’ is not a contradiction of Him also telling us that the birds fly in the firmament of heaven because the word ‘firmament’ simply signifies that which is above the waters which are below the firmament.

Gen 1:16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
Gen 1:17  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:19  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

The fact that in the very next verse of scripture we are told that the birds also ‘fly above the earth in the open firmament of the heavens’ demonstrates that “the waters [which are] above the firmament” simply signify the separation of that which is spiritually “above the earth” from that which is spiritually below the firmament of the heavens.

There are so many pairs mentioned in scripture, and in nearly every case it is for the purpose of demonstrating the work the Lord is doing with the old “first man Adam” to produce the “the last Adam… the second man… the Lord from heaven” within every man.

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.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. [So much for the false doctrine called ‘the law of circularity’]
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Here is what E.W. Bullinger has to say about the number of pairs found in scripture:

“It is impossible even to name the vast number of things which are introduced to us in pairs, so that the one may teach concerning the other by way of contrast.

“The two foundations of Mat 7:24-27: the one which ‘fell not, for it was founded upon a rock;’ the other which ‘fell , and great was the falloff it’. The two goats (Lev 16:7); and the two birds (Lev 14:4-7); the two opinions (1Kg 18:21; the two masters (Mat 6:24); the two commandments (Mat 22:40); the two debtors (Luk 7:41); the two covenants (Gal 4:24); the two men [who went up to the temple to pray] (Luk 18:10); the two sons [who were asked to work in their father’s vineyard] (Mat 21:28, and Luk15:11, and [the two sons of the two wives of) Gal 4:22, etc. etc.” (End Quote)

The positive application of the number two is that of being a witness:

The number two, like every other subject in scripture, has both a positive and a negative application. That dichotomy is the spiritual significance of the number two. Negatively it signifies division, chaos, and confusion. In its positive application it brings unity by being the Witness to the Truth, which Truth empowers those who cling to the Truth and bear Truthful witness to that Truth by displaying a life that reflects the light of Christ to this evil world. Therefore the number two signifies the “two witnesses” who are also signified by “two olive trees which stand before the God of the earth.”

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

These “two olive trees” are defined as “the Word of the Lord” in Zechariah 4:

Zec 4:1  And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,
Zec 4:2  And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

The words of the book of Revelation are to be read, heard and kept in every generation since Christ by those who are given eyes that see and ears that hear (Mat 13:10-15, Rev 1:3). Therefore these “two witnesses” signify those who have the light of Christ and His Words in their hearts and minds.

Deu 19:15  One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.

Mat 18:15  Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.
Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

In Conclusion

Considering all we have seen regarding the number two, we can conclude that in its negative application, it signifies the difference between the old and the new man, and it signifies the division, chaos, futility and corruption which characterizes the realm of our dying, carnal-minded old man.

In its positive application, the number two signifies the unity of the Father and the Son, the unity of the husband and his wife, and the fact that the Lord is calling light out of darkness.

The spiritual significance of the number two also includes the concept of being a Truthful witness to the Truth of the “Word of the Lord”:

Zec 4:3  And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
Zec 4:4  So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord?
Zec 4:5  Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know [witness to] his voice.