The Biblical Meaning of the Number 42 The number forty-two is a number connected with Antichrist. An important part of his career is to last for 42 months (Revelation 11:2, 13:5), and thus this number is fixed upon him. Another number of Antichrist is 1260, and this is 30 x 42. The factors of 42 are six and seven (6x7=42), and this shows a connection between man and the Spirit of God, and between Christ and Antichrist: -
Forty-two stages of Israel's wanderings mark their conflict with the will of God. -
Forty-two young men (around 30 to 40 years old) called Elisha the prophet an 'empty head' and mocked that his teacher Elijah was not taken up into the sky by God. They received a swift penalty for insulting one of God's prophets: "Then he (Elisha) went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, 'Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!' "So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths." (2Kings 2:23-24, NKJV)
Being a multiple of seven, it might be supposed that it would be connected with spiritual perfection. But it is the product of six times seven. Six, therefore, being the number of Man, and man's opposition to God, Forty-two becomes significant of the working out of man's opposition to God. There may be something more in the common phrase about things being all "sixes and sevens." They are so, indeed, when man is mixed up with the things of God, and when religious "flesh" engages in spiritual things. See section on the numbers six and seven together. The number 42 and Nimrod When we substitute numbers for letters in Nimrod's name we find the number 42 playing a role. Nimrod's name equates to the number 294, which is 42 x 7. The number 42 is often found as a factor in Anti-Christian names (See the symbolism of the number 13). It does not often appear as a separate number, but when it is thus seen as a factor of another number, it always imparts its significance to it. |