Is There A Connection Between 6 66 and Faithful Disciples?
6 66 Not what we thought?
We saw in a previous post (link below) that 6 is the numerical value of the letter VAV in the Hebrew Alefbet,
https://www.minimannamoments.com/in-times-of-need-and-during-days-of-uncertainty-whos-got-our-vav/
and we are no doubt aware of the inference to the multiple of it as 666 from the reference in Revelation 13:17
Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six.
In Revelation 13, The beast is identified as the number of a man and gave these numbers as the name of the antichrist. Meaning: The one against Christ – christ means anointed, so it is against the anointing. It is referring to more than just one individual as it’s a spiritual influence that is totally opposed to His Holy Spirit/Ruach HaKodesh, the living God/YHVH and Jesus/Yeshua Messiah. This spiritual influence was already in the world back in the days Jesus/Yeshua was here.
It is anti messiah/anti anointing and part of the beast system in the worlds matrix/construct.
We must understand that since the time of the Early Church up until now, the spirit of Antichrist has already been at work, preparing the way for the Antichrist to take center stage, lawlessness is already at work. (2 Thessalonians 2:7).
And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. 1 John 4:3
What ever is opposed to Gods’ ways, is antichrist in spirit, influence and action.
When the reference system of chapter and the verses were added as an aid to the Scriptures it was not without interesting assignments of the numbers. Notice for example, how many scriptures with the reference 3:16 in different books are significant in their content.
Most famous being John 3:16.
For a list of all the 3:16’s click link below:
https://www.minimannamoments.com/316-2/
So what is the connection between a faithful talmidim/true disciple and 666?
תלמידם – TALMIDIM – [tal-mee-DEEM] – Disciples
As we know, nothing in the Word of God is there by coincidence, so it is a noteworthy comment that a particular scripture in John’s gospel has these specific numbers as its reference.
666 vav vav vav
6 in Hebrew has a meaning of the number for man/humans and is used for both the letter W and V.
The letter Waw/Vav is the sixth letter of the Aleph-Bet/ alef-beis, having the numeric value of six.
The pictograph for Vav looks like a tent peg, whereas the classical Hebrew script (ketav Ashurit) is constructed of a vertical line and conjoined Yod.
The meaning of the word vav is “hook,” as a connecting hook used when the mishkan (tabernacle) was assembled.
In the Bible, the number 6 symbolizes man and human weakness, the evils of Satan and the manifestation of sin. As such, it represents “Adamic man,” who was created in Genesis 2.
Man was created on the sixth day. Men are appointed 6 days to labor. A Hebrew slave was to serve six years and be released in the 7th year.
If you are new to mmm link below for the pictographs:
https://www.minimannamoments.com/ancient-pictographic-hebrew-language/
We could see it then as a triple point being made to humanity, especially in relation to the subject content of the verse here in John, which is also a very critical scripture.
John 6:66
From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
The number of this 6.66 beast causes listeners to scoff and not believe in truth when spoken, and its name is backsliding, giving up… however as talmidim, we are called to
endure to the end…
John 6:66 in Context from 6:53
6:53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
Many Disciples Turn Away.
Then said Jesus to the twelve, Will ye also go away? John 6:67
60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”
63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
They went away backwards!
His teachings were just too hard for them to accept and believe. The direction here is backward, not simply stopping where they were, but they reversed their position; losing anything they may have gained by having been in His presence.
When what He requires of us does not fit our paradigm, when it is too inconvenient, or may cause discomfort and interrupt our daily routine, are we any different from the grumbler’s? Do we say it is too hard a thing for us to do?
They were disciples/talmidim and by the very definition of the word, they were used to discipline. Yes, some of His sayings were hard so hard they left off from following Him..
It makes one wonder, where do we get this picture that following Jesus/Yeshua and being a ‘Christian’, is like a picnic on a sunny day with everything absolutely perfect, skipping through flower filled meadows with birds singing, animals frolicking in springtime youthful play? So much of our thinking is pure fantasy and not based on the reality of His Word, especially Messiahs words. We project the love side/ aspect almost with a bias and neglect the seriousness of the scriptural issues at stake. He said, in this world you will have tribulation. It is part of our training, in order to build up our faith, so if we are not experiencing tests and trials then it would seem we are not being trained. That is why we are to rejoice….we are maturing!
James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, a whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
We are in a battle, a fight for life itself, eternal souls are in the balance and the Way, His WAY is narrow, the way is hard, it is uphill, the path is steep, that road is full of pitfalls and we need Him every step of this Way.
No wonder He said few there are that find it.
So we must need to look because He said those that seek Me will find Me. Prov. 8:17
When? How?
When we seek/ look for Him with our whole heart.
Chevarim and Mishpachah, we are in perilous times
BUT we are NOT to fear… He said they would come.
2 Timothy 3 (NKJV) Perilous Times and Perilous Men. 3 But know this, that in the last days [] perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, [] unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
None of this life in the Spirit is automatic and being saved is not an end in itself,
it is the start of a new life with His spirit within.
Yeshua/Jesus says we must stop living to protect the life of the flesh. It’s not the real us, and it cannot be redeemed; it can only be quickened to accommodate our walk spiritually.
Being filled with His Spirit is not an end, it’s the power to walk the WAY/Derekh, it’s the strength to follow Him and to find that ancient path of holiness. We are a peculiar people, set apart, we are to be in contrast to the world. We are not to be absorbed into it but separate from it and willingly embrace the hard sayings. Don’t be seduced and don’t succumb to the 6 66 and end up following Him no more.
In John 6:53-59 He was referencing the tabernacle /Mishkan and the eating of the showbread of His presence, and the Passover lamb of unleavened bread and 4 cups of the Seder meal.
He was saying.. I am here to fulfill this appointed time, I am the Passover lamb, THE sacrifice to take away all sin.
The ones who left Him may have been confused, because cannibalism was very evident in many pagan worship rituals 2000+ years ago; and some of the listeners may have thought mistakenly, He was meaning to literally eat Him.
And they did not comprehend what He meant, for in their minds, how could what He said be possible? Firstly, that He was alive and secondly, that He was saying He was from heaven… to them, the facts did not add up.
Confusion is a great tool of the enemy, it causes many to fall away through lack of clarity and understanding. Let’s not be of those who fall away for any reason, but of those who press on, like Paul, to the prize of the high-calling.
If we don’t believe or think tests, trials and hardships are what we are supposed to experience in life. Read what happened to all the apostles and disciples. Only John lived a full life, all the others were killed for their faith. Pauls life as an apostle/ a sent one, to the Gentiles, was a series of horrific events. Recorded in 2 Corinthians 11:25.
Paul’s ship sinks on the way to Rome.
Those whose lives bear hardship and trials seem to be those whose lives are dedicated to His calling. Compare any of the apostles to today’s ministries. There’s something very inconsistent with the Scriptures and the modern western lifestyles. When compared with the true church/ ecclesia we must be discerning as we follow Him along the narrow way that leads to the dalet, the door, Yeshua/Jesus. Through Him, we enter everlasting life and like the camel through the eye of the needle, whose load had to be removed before it could go through the small door into the city. We too must off load all that we carry unnecessarily and lay it down, as well as all the burdens that prevent us following Him whole heartedly.
John 6:66 (Context.)
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
This should give us pause for thought, for He knows the intent of our hearts whatever we say or do to those around us.
Another more positive angle on 666 is the numerical value of the letters vav vav vav; when added together = 18 which is the same value of the letters for chai – the Hebrew word for life.
Chet (ח) and Yud (י)
חי
which signifies life and represents being alive.
There is life/chai/18 in 6.66 when we don’t reject His hard sayings and ways.
In John 6:66 The word, Talmidim/disciples, meaning students.
This is not a reference to His inner circle of 12 men; or of the 12 apostles, for they are distinguished from these in the next verse; nor any of the 70 disciples, for their names were written in heaven, and could not apostatize totally and finally, as these did.
For we read that John spoke up…
He and the others knew Messiah had the words of eternal life..
It is referring to some of the multitude of the disciples, who followed Messiah, heard Him, and professed to believe in Him, and were baptized in His name, but were not true disciples, only nominal ones.
They withdrew themselves from His ministry, they dropped their profession of faith in Him, and relinquished Him as a Savior and Redeemer and Lord: for when it became clear that He would not be made their king, or a temporal redeemer; and then talking of Himself as the bread of life, and of coming to Him, in a sense they did not understand.
They turned their backs on Him; and as the words may be literally read,
returned to the things that were behind;
to the world, and to their old ways and old companions/habits, to satan and their own hearts lusts; like the dog to its vomit, and the swine to its wallowing in the mire: their true picture is drawn, in the parable of the unclean spirit going out of the man, and returning, (Matthew 12:43).
this is why Paul says forget the things behind…if we focus on them they can lure us backwards…
And they returned to their previous teachers, the Scribes and Pharisees, and to the law of works, and to seek for righteousness by it; setting up their own righteousness, and not submitting to the righteousness of Jesus Christ/Yeshua HaMashiach; they looked back and drew back,
and walked no more with him;
never returned to Him anymore,
or went with Him from place to place as before:
never attended on His ministry again
or had any intimacy/friendship and fellowship with Him:
and so it commonly is with apostates who turn from the profession of Jesus Christ/Yeshua HaMashiach; they seldom or ever return, or are recovered; it is difficult, if not impossible, which is sometimes the case, to renew them again to repentance. Only He can touch their hearts as we pray for their teshuvah/repentance.
תלמידם. talmidim-
A plural Hebrew noun meaning “disciples” in its truest sense: those who leave family to study and follow the ways of their teacher [rabbi].
They study not only to learn what their teacher knows but to become the type of man their teacher is.
We are to endure to the end and this is the reason for the warning and why if we yield to 6.66 turn away and follow Him no more, it is more than likely those individuals will succumb to the 666 system that John spoke of in writing the Revelation of the resurrected Messiah Yeshua/Jesus.
From the time many of his disciples/talmidim went back and walked with Him no more.
It’s a moment of truth,
it’s the time when the rubber hits the road.
When the test of our commitment is proved, because when Our Father gives us a clear understanding of His will, by His spirit, through His word, 1John 1:7, we must walk in the light of it. We are constrained by love to abide by our decisions and commitment to do what we have said we will do, what we have promised the Lord in our covenant agreement. We do not swear in vain we are bound by oath.
If we know to do it and don’t, we will sink to a level of bondage that the Lord never had in mind for us.
The point of revealing, our personal apocalypse of who Messiah is, and the reality of His redemptive work in us has a profound effect, in that we should be so changed from our former self so as to be almost unrecognizable.
The Lord Jesus/Yeshua our Rabbi (teacher), in us – the hope of glory. If He is in us then it should be obvious in every aspect of our new creation reality.
Do people know you by your affiliation to Jesus/Yeshua or by some other imagery? What we present to the world and to others in it, is how we really want them to see and know us.
Is it by our designer clothes labels, what we wear. Do we buy the latest fashion to be the same as everyone else? Are we known by where we live or our status in the community, our belongings and our worldly prosperity and success in our chosen field, or are we workers in His vineyard, seeking His face, His kingdom and His pleasure.
Are our lives acceptable in His sight?
Acts 26:19 is a key.
If we are mentally disobeying the heavenly vision it will make us a slave to ideas and to viewpoints that are completely at odds to those of Jesus/Yeshua. We as disciples, are not to look at others and say. If he/she can prosper with those views/ beliefs why can’t I?
We must walk in the light on the revealing/ the vision/ the picture that has been given to us and not compare it with those of others. If we find that one of our favorite and strongly held beliefs or views on things clashes with the heavenly vision. i.e.
That which has been revealed to us in scripture and what is truth and righteousness in all its ways, we must not begin to argue and bend His scriptures to fit our personal dreams, desires and goals.
The moment we do that we will fall into one of the snares of the devil, which is the pride of life, a sense of prosperity and personal rights/ of entitlement/ will surface in us and these are the things that Jesus/Yeshua placed no value on, as He indicated to the rich young ruler. These are the works that will be burned up, they are wood hay and stubble.
In fact these things are the root foundation of everything foreign to Him and His life and He was opposed to them in every way.
Luke 12:15 He said, one’s life does not consist of the abundance of possessions.
If we don’t see or understand this, it is because we are choosing to ignore the foundational principles of His teaching and many even say I don’t want that for my life, but I want this, I want to do that, I want my own way.
We tend to lie back and relax, leaning on the memory of wonderful experiences of the past, when His will was first revealed to us. However if these standards of discipleship have been revealed to us by His light and we don’t try to measure up to them, or even feel the need to have a desire to do so – then we begin to backslide. The movement of a walk is by its very nature/essence a movement forward, it’s action, not static or reverse.
And it means our conscience does not respond to the truth, the choice to respond is left to our free will. We can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth, when personal apocalypse comes, there has to be a reaction; and all actions have consequences and future outcomes, either directly or indirectly.
This moment in time shines His light upon us and He marks us as a disciple, we either continue and press forward with even more zeal and devotion; or as someone who walked with Him no more, turn to go backwards.
In our lives:
Turmoil/Ra comes from reacting to people.
Peace/Shalom is born of response to His Spirit.
Darkness is always related to light – the one always follows the other.
God/YHWH/Yehoveh, made the evening and the morning and called it day.
Our experience is a daily combination of evening and morning darkness and light
We go to sleep/ rest as the darkness comes and rise into the light in the morning
Psalm 139:12
Darkness and light are all the same to God – this is because His light penetrates the darkness and as we walk by faith and allow His light in, the darkness will flee.
So the connection to a true disciple is found in the scripture John 6:66
666 From the time many of His disciples/talmidim went back and walked with Him no more.
The antichrist spirit influences humanity in three areas, the world, the flesh, the devil! against our spirits, souls and bodies, which is why this Scripture 1 Thess. 5:23 is important.
Days are coming when people are going to see the unbelievable and hear of truths that have been hidden from the public view. Jesus/Yeshua warned us that peoples hearts would fail them for fear of seeing things coming upon the earth…
What will we do?
Who will we believe and who will we follow??
Will hard sayings and our physical senses cause us to follow Him no longer?
There are 4 options:
Are we walking towards Him,
or away from Him
or are we walking WITH Him
The only WAY we should see this direction
is if we are following Him
or are we
between 2 minds?
“How long halt ye between two opinions?” (I Kings 18:21).
These are the words of the prophet Elijah. They were spoken to a large group of people on Mount Carmel. They had departed from God.
Elijah warned the people to make a choice
1 Kings 18:21 The term “halt you” in the King James’ Version (“falter,” NKJV) provides a literal picture of what Elijah means.
It suggests a person staggering, unable to catch his balance, and failing to accomplish anything of any consequence because his mind is divided.
The person in such a circumstance cannot get a grip on life. These people were wavering back and forth, which the scriptures record was typical of the Israelites. The Bible shows in many places that the people continued to worship God, yet also served their idols
Essentially, they tried to worship both the true God and pagan idols, which suggests a divided mind. “No man can serve two masters; for . . . he will hate the one and love the other” (Matthew 6:24). But the one that he hates is still a part of his mind, and it will cause problems.
In Elijah’s word-picture, he is indicating that though nothing is wrong with the rest of the body, because the mind has no focus, the body’s efforts have no direction. This sets up a situation where, at best, there will be little movement—that is, little accomplished—and at worst, there will be no forward movement at all, but just staggering, first this way then that. That sort of situation produces nothing.
Elijah is quite instructive here. He began to prophesy in a time of immediate crisis, one that would become far worse before it ever improved. There was tremendous evil to overcome. His ministry took place about 150 years before Israel was to fall, becoming the Lost Ten Tribes, so God was beginning to make a powerful witness to them. Elijah’s work was to reveal the true God to Israel in a time of growing national crisis. (sound familiar?)
Elijah prepared the way for Elisha, who had a double portion of Elijah’s spirit and did many more miracles. In this regard, Elijah was a type of John the Baptist, and Elisha, a type of JesusYeshua. God’s pattern is being established. He sends someone long before the real crisis reaches its peak, while it is building.
Elijah says disturbing things. This is a prophet’s job, a hallmark of a prophet of God. People like to feel comfortable. The only trouble is that people like to feel comfortable in moral mediocrity. They become “settled on their lees,” as it says in Zephaniah 1:12.
The prophet comes along and troubles people by awakening them to their sins, making them feel guilty about their relationships with God and each other. He awakens them to their spiritual and moral responsibilities. These Israelites were lethargic in terms of true, spiritual matters.
When an individual is freezing to death, he feels a pleasant numbness that he does not want to end, so he just goes to sleep as he is freezing to death. However, when heat is applied, and blood begins rushing into the affected areas, pain immediately occurs. Even though it hurts, the pain is indicative of rescue and cure. God sends a prophet to people who have become cold in their relationship with Him, like they are spiritually freezing to death, and although they want to stay that way, the prophet turns the heat up, and so they become angry with him, often accusing him of causing their pain, when he is actually working to reverse their condition.
A prophet’s life is never a happy situation Jeremiah is an example of this, he moaned and complained to God,
“This is more difficult than You ever told me it would be.”
He didn’t like the position God put him in and wanted people to like him. However, he was faithful and did his job even though he was in trouble his whole life.
There are several ideas as to exactly what Elijah meant by How long will you falter between two opinions? One is that he likens them to a bird in a tree that cannot make up its mind where it wants to settle down, so it just keeps hopping around.
How long are you going to hop from branch to branch?
Another idea is that it pictures a person shifting his weight from one foot to the other, indicating a degree of lameness.
A third is that he is describing somebody teetering on a tightrope and trying to maintain his balance.
Whatever the case, there is no doubt about Elijah’s intent: “How long will you keep shifting from one opinion to the other?” Their spiritual lethargy for the true God made them uncommitted. Their commitment went one way, and then it went the other way.
Once Elijah began preaching, their conscience pricked them, and it encouraged them to worship the true God. But their carnality and their fear of men persuaded them to worship Baal, because they wanted to be friends with their fellow Israelites. They were straddling the fence in a precarious state of imbalance, attempting to combine the worship of God with the more popular worship of Baal and Asherah but it will not work.
When Elijah preached his message, it put the people in a bind because they knew their conscience was telling them that they had to commit themselves to God or to Baal. It disturbed them. Only the individual could decide which side he would be on, because Elijah made it clear, “God does not want you the way you are. Either you are going to be committed to Him or not. If you will not be committed to Him, you are going to die.”
This indeed was a hard saying!
The lesson for us becomes clear, because Jesus/Yeshua says the same thing in Matthew 6:24; 12:25. The Sovereign Creator is not a God who allows His favor to be bought. He is a loving Master who only is to be simply obeyed and served – and only on His terms/covenant which we often fail to understand.
The devil never lets men halt if he can help it. That is the last thing he would ever think of doing. He keeps them so fully occupied, and so on the go, driving hard for the things of the world and of the flesh, that they have not time to halt. It is hard to get them to listen for 2 minutes because he pushes them in business, pleasure, family, consequences, anything that will take their/our attention.
We have heard the references to the days of Elijah
אֵלִיָּהוּ
Eliyahu
This name is written two different ways – אליה,
pronounced as eliy-yahu
or
אליהו, pronounced as eliy-yahu / ay-lee-yaw’-hoo
meaning, My God is Yahweh /YHWH.
In Malachi 4:5 I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.
(He may have been referring to John/ Yochanan’s ministry)
and
because of that scripture in Jesus/Yeshuas day, they thought John the Baptist was Elijah returned.
In Matt 17:12 Jesus said: But I say to you, behold, Elijah has come, and they did not know him, and they have done unto him everything whatsoever they wished;
We think of John as the metaphorical Elijah, or re reading Messiah’s words, it may have been Elijahs spirit in Johns flesh body as in the same way we read Elisha had a double portion of Elijahs spirit!? Interesting concept…. as there is much we do not understand regarding spiritual matters and this generation is probably about to get a wake up call concerning what is real and what is not! God is God and He can do whatever He pleases. We limit Him by the parameters of our own understanding and reduce Him to mortal abilities and finite actions.
John called people to repentance and a life of obedience, preparing the people of his generation for the coming of the Messiah Jesus/Yeshua, the One who had come
to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:10)
and to establish the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).
The days of Elijah were days of upheaval trials famine darkness and war, yet it was also preparing the WAY of the Lord…we are here again Gods pattern comes full circle and days of repentance
We are the voices crying in the wilderness we are the voice of the yovel calling for repentance and salvation…
Lets continue to prepare ourselves for Shavuot so His fire may fall on us and that we are so filled with His Holiness that all within us that is not of His spirit is consumed.
Then all that remains are vessels full of His Light, His Glory; and His sayings will not be so hard that we will follow Him no more – but rather be the beacon of hope to the world in darkness, the light on the hill, the burning lamp whose oil will not fail. Why? Because we are filled with all the fullness of His presence continually and people will see Jesus/Yeshua, the Light of the world in us.
Next time we see or hear 666 lets remember John 6.66 and whose we are and who we serve!
Remember He said…
It Has Been Said We Are The Elijah Generation…If we are then we are in for a wild and serious ride……
Shalom shalom mishpachah/family and cheverim/friends! You are loved and appreciated and prayed for daily.
P.S. For those counting, today is day 39 of the Omer; day 49 will be Wednesday night May 27th 2020. Click Link for the special 40th day of Omer
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