Why Is 6 the Number of Man?

Having previously studied the first five numbers, it’s time now to cover the number 6. It’s commonly accepted that, in God’s Word, the number 6 represents man. Humanity. The question is, Why? How do we know that the number 6 in Scripture represents mankind? Let’s take a look!

To start with, God created Adam and Eve on the sixth day of Creation, last of all His creatures. And when He created them, He gave them dominion over all other creatures which He’d made: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth’” (Gen. 1:26).

Though God made other creatures on the sixth day also — “the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind” (Gen. 1:25) — He gave dominion only to man. The creation of man was the culmination of God’s physical creation, and also the purpose for it. He created the earth and everything on it for man to rule over. He created the sun, moon, and stars for the earth and man, “to give light on the earth” (Gen. 1:15). He created trees, plants, and grass as food for man and the rest of His creatures (Gen. 1:29-30). All of God’s physical creation serves His plan for mankind.

And, of course, the sixth day of Creation was also the sixth day of the week. The day we now call Friday. God created man on Friday, and ordained the next day as the Sabbath: “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Gen. 2:2-3).

Now we know from the fourth chapter of the Book of Hebrews that the seventh day Sabbath pictures God’s Kingdom. The weekly Sabbath pictures the eternal Sabbath, the ultimate goal of our journey in this life. We must strive to enter that eternal Sabbath! “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” (Heb. 4:9-11).

So God finished the physical creation, all His work, in six days — for man. He created man on the sixth day and gave him dominion over all the earth. But He created man short of the seventh day. Short of the Sabbath. Short of the Kingdom of God. In a word, incomplete. As we’re told, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Very good — but not perfect. God hadn’t created man in His Kingdom; it still remained for him to enter it! Though Adam and Eve hadn’t yet sinned, they weren’t perfect, but still carnal. They could still sin and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and indeed they did, just as all have done since.

Each week serves as a reminder both of Creation and of God’s Kingdom. Each week, God gives us human beings six days for our own works, followed by the Sabbath at the end. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God” (Ex. 20:9-10). Six days for man and his works. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.

As long as ancient Israel dwelt in the Promised Land, God established a similar system for the land. He gave man six years to plow, plant, and harvest the land, but made the seventh year a year of rest from agriculture. “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow” (Ex. 23:10-11).

Man’s works, apart from God, lead to bondage. And thus we see God’s Word associate the number 6, and various multiples of 6, with bondage. If an ancient Israelite became a slave to a fellow Israelite, he could be a slave for up to six years but would be released in the seventh year. “If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you” (Deut. 15:12). Six years a slave; free the seventh year.

When God brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt, He brought out “about SIX hundred thousand men on foot, besides children” (Ex. 12:37). Man was in bondage, but delivered by God. And when Pharaoh pursued after the Israelites to bring them back into bondage, he pursued with “SIX hundred choice chariots” (Ex. 14:7).

Scripture especially associates the number 18, or 3x6, with bondage. But that’s a topic for another day. For now, it’s sufficient to see that man’s works and man’s ways lead to bondage. Hence, the number 6 has ties to bondage.

Since 6 represents man, it should come as no surprise that the sixth commandment is “You shall not murder” (Ex. 20:13; Deut. 5:17), or that Scripture links manslaughter with the number 6. God commanded Israel, “When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall appoint cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person accidentally may flee there. These six cities shall be for refuge for the children of Israel, for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person accidentally may flee there” (Num. 35:10-11, 15). The manslayer would be confined to one of these SIX cities until the death of the high priest (vv. 25-28).

When Jesus Christ came to earth, He came to die for the sins of man, to free us from the bondage of sin and death. And so, when Pilate delivered Him up to be crucified, it was apparently the sixth hour after His arrest (John 19:14). He then hung on the cross for six hours, from the third hour of the day (Mark 15:25) until the ninth hour (Mat. 27:45-50; Mark 15:33-37; Luke 23:44-46). At the sixth hour, the land became dark (Mat. 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44). Darkness, as we know, pictures sin (Rom. 13:12; Eph. 5:11), the sins of man for which Yeshua/Jesus died.

Through Yeshua, man can be saved. Accordingly, when He visited with the Samaritan woman at the well, He revealed Himself to be the Savior of mankind “about the sixth hour” (John 4:6). It was also at the sixth hour that God showed Peter a vision of unclean animals (Acts 10:9-16, 28) and revealed His offer of salvation to the Gentiles.

God’s earthly sanctuary under the Old Covenant, first the tabernacle and later the temple, likewise demonstrated the number 6 to be the number of man. But more than that, it revealed man’s incredible potential and destiny if he obeys his Creator!

As we’ve seen before in a study of the tabernacle/temple, the golden lampstand and its seven lights symbolized Jesus Christ and His people. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), but He also told us, “You are the light of the world” (Mat. 5:14). The lampstand consisted of a central shaft, “and six branches came out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side” (Ex. 37:18). The main shaft represented Jesus Christ; the six branches His people. As He said again, “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5).

It’s commonly accepted that the number 7 represents completeness. At Creation, the seventh day marked the end of God’s works, and He rested. More on the number 7 another time. But we can see that man, represented by the number 6, is short of completeness. Man is incomplete.

We’ve also seen previously that the number 1 represents God: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” (Deut. 6:4). Jesus said, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30).

The golden lampstand beautifully brings these numbers together. Just as the one central shaft completes the six branches and makes a total of seven, so it is Jesus Christ who completes us. Without Him, we are nothing. Returning to John 15:5, if we read the entire verse, we find, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

But the lampstand isn’t all. We find the number 6 throughout Ezekiel’s vision of the temple in Ezek. 40-48. These chapters detail many measurements of the temple, and all these measurements are vital. God told Ezekiel, “Son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern” (Ezek. 43:10). So all the numbers and measurements are vital, but since this is a study of the number 6, let’s focus on that one.

The angel who measured the temple before Ezekiel’s eyes used a measuring rod six cubits long (Ezek. 40:5). The wall around the whole complex of Ezekiel’s temple is six cubits high and six cubits thick (Ezek. 40:5). The gate chambers within the gates are six cubits (Ezek. 40:12). The doorposts of the temple itself are six cubits thick (Ezek. 41:1). The entrance into the Holy of Holies is six cubits high (Ezek. 41:3). The wall of the temple is six cubits thick (Ezek. 41:5). The foundation of the temple is six cubits high (Ezek. 41:8).

Why so many sixes? Because God’s people are His temple! “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). Again, “You are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16). The apostle Peter likened God’s people to the stones of the temple: “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:4-5). The apostle Paul likewise wrote that we are “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:20-21).

In fact, God explained to Ezekiel, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever” (Ezek. 43:7). No wonder, then, that we find the number 6 throughout Ezekiel’s temple! It pictures God dwelling in the midst of His people. God (1) will dwell in the midst of His people (6), and in Him we are complete (7)! As we find again in the Book of Revelation: “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’” (Rev. 21:3).

So what, then, do we have when a man sets himself up in the place of God, proclaims himself to be a god, and is worshiped by other men? I speak, of course, of the antichrist at the end of this age. We have the peak of man’s carnal human nature, in all its ugliness. We have a man who can never enter the presence of God, who can never become complete, who falls short in every way. So it’s only fitting that we read, “Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666” (Rev. 13:18). This “man of sin” (2 Thes. 2:3), who enslaves the earth, will perish along with all his followers (Rev. 19:11-21) and all who reject Jesus Christ.

By illustrating the characteristics of man, the number also 6 serves as yet another illustration that man has just two choices. Embrace Jesus Christ, enter into the Kingdom of God, and become complete, or else fall short and perish with the wicked. Move forward into the eternal Sabbath rest, or remain in bondage to sin and die.

Any input? Additions? Disagreements? Leave a comment below!

Biblical Numbers Series:

1: The Number 1 and Its Biblical Meaning

2: Why the Number 2 Means Your Life!