THE  NUMBER   THREE...........................Why Three?  Below are from the Bible about Three

Teachers reference for the number three why we handcraft a guitar like instrument with only three strings.  Below you will read the research about the number Three. I believe it to be the number of completion. You may select any information to incorporate into the 3 stringed instrument. From the Trinity, to Calvary. From old Testimate to The death of Christ the number three is used for so many things.

       Back to Bible&Music

The scriptures contain the number three more than any other number. The number three is represented also in the evil side  in the trinity of wickedness as the world, the flesh, and the devil.  The trinity of evil, the dragon, antichrist, and false prophet. We can also find that the number three also deals with God's judgment.  When Christ took that judgment of man upon Himself. He hung on one of  three crosses durning which time the sun was darkened for three hours.  As Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale, so was Christ three days in the belly of the earth.

Similarly in the Bible, many rituals are carried out in threes, like the daily prayers and yearly fasts.  Three is also associated with sacrifices. And he said unto him, take me an heifer of  three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.  Animal sacrifices often had to be three years old.  We find in Leviticus 19:23 the the fruit was not to be harvested until three years after the tree was planted.

 There were three times that the Father's voice bore testimony of His Son.  The first time And lo a voice from heven, saying This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. ( Matthew 3:17). This was a testimony to the Jews.  The second time was for the church leaders. And there cam a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son hear him. (Luke 9:35). The third time was for the Greeks.  Father glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glority it again. (John 12:28). The very beginnings from the Torah is connected to the number Three.  God waited three months after the deliverance of Israel from bondage and the slavery of Egypt, The Torah consists of three parts, the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, The communications between God and Israel were carried on by three, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Israel is divided into three divisions, priests, Levites, and laymen.  In the Tabernacle and the Temple they consisited of three parts, the Court, The Holy place, The Sanctuary.

As we continue to look at the number three Noah had three sons, Solomon the wisest man that ever lived God distinguished before all others in this "perfection" was the third king.  Throughout all of Gods word we can see how the number three plays such an important part, the trinity of the Scriptures is the law, prophets, and writings.  Moses asked God for three things, that the Schechinah might rest on Israel, that is might rest on none but Israel, that God's ways might be know to him. Three precious gifts were given to Israel, the law, the land, the world to come.

Jesus Christ is three shepherds, The Good Sheperd, The Great Sheperd, The Chief Shepherd. So from the Torah or the Bible as we have it today, the number three is the most used number.

There were three appearances of Christ, Past has appeared ( Heb 9:26) to put away sin, Present Heb. 9:24) in the presence of God, Future Will appear (Heb. 9:28) to those who await Him.

 Jesus began began his ministry at 30 and died at the age of 33 a ministry of three years. During the ministry of Jesus He raised three people from the grave to show his perfect power over death. One day Jesus was walking along and a great many people were following him. Because he had healed so many people, great crowds would press close to him in hopes of touching him and being healed of their sicknesses and diseases. One woman that had been bleeding a long time touched him on the tassel of his tallith and was healed because of her faith. Then the ruler of a synagogue (a place of worship) came to Jesus in hopes that he would heal his dying daughter. About the same time he approached Jesus, some people from his house came to tell him the bad news. His daughter had already died, and there was no reason to bother Jesus about it.                                                 

The Bible says that as soon as Jesus heard this he told Jairus, be not afraid only believe. Jesus took Peter, James, and John (3) with him to Jairus' house. The people were wailing and crying because the little twelve-year-old girl was dead. Jesus asked them why they were weeping because he said the girl was not dead, but only sleeping. The people all laughed at Jesus because they knew she was dead. So Jesus took the parents into the room with Peter, James, and John. It was a custom to lay hands on the sick to heal them. The person laying hands on the sick would place the prayer shawl on the person that was to be healed. Jesus probably followed this custom. He took the little girl by the hand and said, Talitha cumi. He told her to arise from under the tallith. The second is of a poor widow whose only son had died, and the Lord "had compassion on her" and with the one word, "Arise," brought her son back to life.  The third rising of the dead was Lazarus. Jesus was not there, however, when Lazarus died some days before the Passover. Threatened by Jerusalem's authorities, he had left the area, traveling down the ancient road to Jericho, then to the safety of Transjordan where John had baptised. Once he heard the news of Lazarus' death he returned up the same road to be with his friends. John's account describes a typical Jewish burial. Wrapped in linen strips, Lazarus' body was buried the same day he died; his tomb a cave, sealed with a stone, outside the village. His sisters, Martha and Mary then began the customary 30 days of mourning at home, receiving the condolences of their friends and neighbors. Back to top of page

By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus was dead four days, the point the rabbis claimed no trace of the soul remained in the body. Decomposition had set in. Hearing that Jesus was coming up the road, the two sisters left their home to express their grief. "And Jesus wept." Then, deeply moved, he went to the tomb and ordered the stone removed. Looking up to heaven, Jesus prayed to his Father and in a loud voice cried, 'Lazarus, come out.'" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with linen bandages, his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said, `Loose him; let him go.'"   As we continue in the New Testimate we find that

Peter denied Jesus three times but Jesus gave Him the opportunity to repent three times.  In John 21:15-17 we can read, " So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: thou kowest that I love thee.  He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.  He siath to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord: though knowest that I love thee.  He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.  He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?  Peter was grieved because he said unot him the third time.  Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.  Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep"

 Jesus prayed three times to the Father before He was taken to be crucified, on the cross above Jesus was a sign that said, " King of the Jews".  It was written in three different languages.  Peter had three visions to convince him to preach the gospel to the gentiles. I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I was a vision. A certain verrel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners, and it cam even to me; Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw four footed beasts of the earth. and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air: And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter: slay and eat.  But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.  But the voice answered me again from heaven. What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.  And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven. (Acts 11:5-10)

Jesus saw the agony of the cross three times before the crucifixion,  once before creation,   "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5) In John 17 Jesus Christ prayed to the Father shortly before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and subsequent crucifixion. He began His prayer by asking, "Father, the hour is come; glorify, thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee" (John 17: 1). In verse 5 He repeated His request for glorification and specified that He desired the glory that He had with the Father before the creation of the world.  Then once in the garden of Gethsemane, and again on Calvary before the nails pierced His flesh.  Jesus also was tried in three courts of man. The first was the trial before the Sanhedrin.  Saint John says, They led Jesus away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the High Priest. The record is not very clear at this point. Some sort of an examination seems to have been conducted by the High Priest Caiaphas, either privately or in the presence of Annas, but as the examination was not fruitful, it is of no particular consequence. Jesus was then taken to the house of the High Priest, where the chief priests and the scribes and the elders were assembled.                                               Back to top of page

The second court was the trial before Pilate. The trial before Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, began at the hall of judgement in the early morning. It was held in the open air as the Jews would not enter the hall on the feast day for fear of being defiled. This is not the only instance in history of where a precise observance of the forms of religion or ethics has attend an example of man's inhumanity to man. Christ was brought before Pilate because the Sanhedrin had no power to put him to death without the approval of the Roman Governor. The third time Christ was taken to Herod, who was glad to see him because he wanted him to perform some of the miracles of which Herod had heard, to act the mountebank. Christ refused to say anything. And the chief priests and scribes accused him before Herod. While the particulars of this accusation are not set out, it was evidently regarding Christ's claim to be a king, as Herod mocked him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate. Evidently Herod did not consider the charges serious nor proved. And Herod was a Jew. The number three was used by Jesus to show completion, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up" Jesus told the Jews.  All three elements, testings, the judgments, and the resurrections can be seen in the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord. Hence three is a number of death, burial and resurrection of our Lord. This was Divine in operation, and Divine in its prophetic foreshowing in the person of Jonah (Matt 12:39,40; Luke 11:29; Jonah 1:17). It was the third day on which Jesus was "perfected" (Luke 13:32). It was at the third hour He was crucified; and it was for three hours (from the 6th to the 9th) that darkness shrouded the Divine Sufferer and Redeemer. The "loud voice" at the end of those twice three hours, when, "about the ninth hour," He cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me" (Matt 27:46), shows completely that nothing of nature, nothing of the light or intelligence of this world, could give help in that hour of darkness. This surley prove's our incapacity to deliver ourselves from our natural condition. With the light at the ninth hour came the Divine declaration, "It is finished." So divinely finished, completed, and perfected, that now there is no such darkness for those who have died with Christ. Light, uninterrupted light, shines upon all who are risen with Him; uninterrupted sunshine--even "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." That three hours' darkness, therefore, testifies to our complete ruin, and our complete salvation, and shows that His people are "complete in Him."

So if numbers play an important part in God's Word then three is the most important number in the Bible, for this number  played the most important part in each of our lives, it is a number that is truly one of perfection, one of completness, that empowers all time, all space, for without this number we would have no hope,for  the number three sets us free,  for on the third day   He arose, and that completes our perfection.