What about the number 12? What is it in the Bible?

Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good. 

   Today, and I do not understand, but when listening to Luke 6 Jesus went to the mountain side and prayed all night.  When morning came He called all His disciples to him and choose 12 of them.  Luke 6: ¹² One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. ¹³ When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:

  Sometimes we may use disciple and apostle synonymous; however disciple means a follower whereas apostle means one sent on a mission, one of authoritative power.  So, here Jesus had many disciples following Him, an He chose 12.  For some reason this came to mind, I have read it many times, but did not pick up on it.  Also, Jesus prayed ALL NIGHT, which makes me believe the Word of God (aka Holy Spirit for us) was in Him to chose the apostles.  Prayer is definitely essential, ernest Prayer.

   Upon researching it, the number 12 is mentioned 187 times in the Bible and the number 12 is the number of perfection and authority.  Jacob (which means 

“supplanter” which means “to supersede by force or treachery” which is what Jacob did when he took Esau’s birthright for a bowl of stew).  Jacob repented of his wrong doing and God dealt with him differently and called him Israel (which in the Hebrew is “Yisra’el” and means “God prevails”). Jacob had 12 sons which became the 12 tribes. Here are a few facts about 12:

   Jesus chose 12 apostles;  New Jerusalem has 12 gates with 12 angels guarding each gate and each gate is named after each tribe of Israel.

  In Revelations 12 thousand of the 12 tribes will have salvation;  the walls of New Jerusalem is 144 cubits (12 x 12); the New City is 12,000 furlongs squared; the high priests breast plate had 12 stones; JESUS FIRST SPOKE IN THE SYNAGOGUE AT AGE 12; 12 minor prophets in the Old Testament; 12 books of history  - Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ester.  12 spies sent into Canaan, and we could go on and on.

    The number 7 means completion and perfection.  So 7 is important also, but not today.  7 is mention in the Bible 465 time, with derivatives like seventh it is 654 times mentioned.

   The main item that jumped out at me was in Luke 6 when Jesus chose 12 of the disciples to be apostles.  I guess this is more of a history lesson on 12 than a Bible study, but which researching it I found it to be quite intriguing. I do hope you found it interesting as well. Love you all.

In Christ's Love and Grace

Johnny