Why the Number 2 Means Your Life!

 In our previous study of the number 1, we saw that it represents God, unity, and strength. God is one, and His name one (Zech. 14:9). Both the Father and the Son are God, but they have unity of purpose under the will of the Father. They are one, but they are not alone.

You see, 1 only represents strength if it involves multiple individuals acting together as one. The United States’ motto E Pluribus Unum, “Out of many, one,” illustrates this concept. Any one American state would be weak by itself, but the fifty states together make a strong whole.

Being alone is not good, and this brings us to the number 2.

2: Two becoming one; fruitfulness; life; division

King Solomon wrote, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Eccl. 4:9-12).

At the very beginning, when God created man on the sixth day of Creation, He said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (Gen. 2:18). God recognized that man alone is weak and insufficient. “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man” (Gen. 2:21-22).

One person alone is insufficient, so God created two of them. But what was God’s desire for these two? That they become one. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

So here we see that the number 2 represents two becoming one. And what normally happens when two, a man and a woman, become one? They become fruitful and bring forth new life! “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Gen. 1:28).

Likewise, what happens when we become one with God and He gives us His Holy Spirit? We bear fruit. We’re told in Gal. 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Furthermore, God preserved animal life through the Flood by bringing two of every kind onto the ark with Noah (Gen. 6:20). Yes, He preserved seven pairs of clean animals, but they, too, entered the ark “two by two” (Gen. 7:9. 15).

After the Flood, when God commanded Noah and his family to leave the ark, He also added, “Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth” (Gen. 8:17).

We see the number 2 representing fruitfulness and life in other ways, as well. God blessed Abraham’s second son, Isaac; Isaac’s second son, Jacob; and Joseph’s second son, Ephraim. In fact, Ephraim’s very name means “doubly fruitful” (Strong’s # H669). Ephraim, Joseph’s second son, was to be twice as fruitful as his older brother, Manasseh!

Speaking of Joseph, Pharaoh brought him out of the dungeon and made him ruler of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself (Gen. 41:40). And what was the purpose of making Joseph the second ruler of Egypt? “To preserve life” (Gen. 45:5). Joseph’s God-given wisdom and planning saved countless souls from starvation during the devastating seven-year famine.

We see the same pattern a few more times in Scripture. When Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and thereby saved the lives of the wise men of Babylon, the king made him his right hand man (Dan. 2:46-49) — the second ruler of Babylon, so to speak. After Mordechai prompted his niece Queen Esther to intervene with King Ahasuerus and save the lives of the Jews from Haman’s plot, the king rewarded Mordechai by making him the second ruler of Persia (Est. 10:3). Finally, our Savior Yeshua/Jesus is second only to God the Father, and it is through Him that we have spiritual life.

Yeshua’s death ushered in the New Covenant (Heb. 9:16-17), the second of the two covenants in the Bible (Heb. 10:9). Whereas the Old Covenant and its animal sacrifices could “never take away sins” (Heb. 10:11), the New Covenant does take away sins through our Savior’s sacrifice. Under the Old Covenant, we were still under the death penalty for sin; under the New Covenant, the second covenant, we have life (2 Cor. 3:6).

In the Old Testament, our Savior’s death was foreshadowed by two yearling male lambs being sacrificed each day, one in the morning and one in the evening (Ex. 29:38-41; Num. 28:3-8). As proven in the book The Lord’s Passover, by this author, these two sacrifices occurred at the 3rd hour (about 9 AM) and the 9th hour (about 3 PM) — the 3rd hour also being the hour Jesus was nailed to the cross, and the 9th hour being the hour He died! Through our Savior fulfilling these two daily offerings, we can be reconciled to God, we can become one with Him, and we can inherit eternal life.

Furthermore, God’s Word tells us there will be two resurrections. As we’ve seen in previous posts on the resurrections, few will be in the first resurrection, but many will be saved in the second resurrection. Thus, the second resurrection will be the more fruitful of the two.

In addition to representing two becoming one and bearing fruit, the number 2 also represents the strength brought about by such a union. Remember, as Solomon put it, “two are better than one” (Eccl. 4:9).

Therefore, we see many things repeated twice to strengthen the message. Pharaoh had two dreams about the coming famine (Gen. 41:1-7). God wrote the ten commandments on two stone tablets (Ex. 31:18). Gideon asked God for two signs before attacking the Midianites (Judg. 6:37-40).

Jacob’s two wives, Rachel and Leah, are called “the two who built the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11). You might call them the two pillars of Israel, just as there were two pillars at the entrance to Solomon’s temple (2 Chron. 3:17).

Under God’s law, no one could be executed without the testimony of at least two witnesses (Deut. 17:6; 19:15). When a fellow believer has sinned against us and refuses to listen to us, Jesus exhorted us, “take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established’” (Mat. 18:16). During the Great Tribulation at the end of this age, God will condemn the wicked world by the mouth of His two witnesses (Rev. 11:3-14).

When God created man in His image, He created us with two of most things: two eyes, two ears, two arms, two hands, two legs, two feet, two lungs, and two kidneys. Having two of these things makes us much stronger than having only one! And yet, in a way, they are one, for all are members of the same body (1 Cor. 12:12-31). That leads us right back to where we started, to two becoming one!

There’s one final meaning of the number 2 that I’d like to touch on. On the second day of Creation, God divided the waters (Gen. 1:6-8). Thus, two can also represent division.

We see this application many times throughout Scripture, as well. When Solomon sinned and led Israel away from God, that is, when he divided himself from God, God in turn divided Israel into two kingdoms (1 Kings 11:26-39; 12:16-24). God also makes a distinction, a division, between His people and the world. Mat. 24:40-41 tells us, “Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.”

There might appear to be many paths in life, but in reality, there are only two. God’s way and Satan’s way. God’s way and the world’s way. Good and evil. In 1 John 2:15-17, we find, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

In fact, after God said, “Let there be light,” on the first day of Creation, He secondly “divided the light from the darkness” (Gen. 1:4). This represents the two ways of life. 1 Pet. 2:9 exhorts us to, “proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

As God’s people, we cannot have divided loyalties, just as we cannot be in light and darkness simultaneously. Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mat. 6:24).

This is why God’s people shouldn’t marry unbelievers. A believer who is part of God cannot become one with an unbeliever who is part of the world. It’s impossible to be one with God and also one with the world.

2 Cor. 6:14-16 tells us, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?”

A divided marriage means a divided house. As Yeshua told us, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand” (Mat. 12:25).

We see, then, that becoming one with God means being divided from the world. In order to be alive to God, we must also be dead to our sinful, carnal nature (Rom. 6:11).

As we did with the number 1, let’s conclude with a brief look at the Hebrew language. In Hebrew, the numeral 2 is represented by the second letter of the alphabet, beit ב.

As is normal in Hebrew, beit is not merely a letter, but also a word. It means “house.” How does a house begin? As we saw previously, it’s with two people. Two becoming one, two bearing fruit, two bringing forth life!