THREE

Ever give a second thought to the number “3”? Through the Bible’s lenses, it’s more than the third real number in our counting system (provided you don’t “count” zero). It’s considered the number of “completion.”  Think:

The trinity of the Godhood: Father, Son, Holy Ghost.

Noah had three sons (Shem, Ham, Japheth) who survived the flood to begin the world’s repopulation (Genesis 7-10)

Three angels visited Abraham to tell him and his barren wife to prepare a nursery (Genesis 18).

Joseph, now a VIP in Egypt, let his hungry brothers sit in prison for three days when they came for food during the famine (Genesis 42)

Jonah sloshed in whale digestive juices for three days and nights  (Jonah 1:17).

Matthew 2 reports that the baby Jesus received three gifts from the wise men.

After Jesus fasted for 40 days and night in the desert, Satan tried three times—unsuccessfully-- to tempt him. (Matthew 4:4-10).

The Bible tells of three people whom Jesus raised from the dead: the widow’s son (Luke 7:11-14), Jairus’ daughter (Mark  5), and Lazarus (John 11).

The man beaten almost to death by robbers on the way to Jericho had three people see his plight. Two (priest and Levite) wouldn’t dirty their hands to help. But a Samaritan did, and went the extra mile (literally!) to help him.

The third day after His crucifixion, just as predicted (and the way Jews figured time), Jesus rose from the dead.

Don’t forget the trio of “faith, hope and love”—the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13).

Perhaps Reginald Heber (1783-1826) had some of these “threes” in mind when he wrote the hymn “Holy, holy, holy.” Find a hymnal and read through it. Pause at the triad phrase, “which wert and art and evermore shall be.”  Yes, it’s old English but it’s timeless truth. Past, present, future. God is unlimited by time.

The church my family attended in my early childhood highlighted that hymn.  Every service opened with the robed choir processing down the aisle, singing it. Once in the choir loft, they paused, then sang a cappella this verse from Habakkuk 2:20:

The Lord is in His holy temple (2x), let all the earth keep silence. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Amen.

The Trinity. The conjoining of so many threes in scripture. Such things give me holy pause, wanting to say as Habakkuk did two verses later: “I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord” (Habakkuk 3:2b).