Bible Associations

No place in the scripture does the number thirty-nine or thirty and nine appear.  Yet it is very strongly associated with the subject of the curse of the law of sin and death.  Before you declare that I have lost my mind, please hear me out.

            The curse of the law of sin and death is set forth in Gen. 2:16, 17 "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."  Now please count with me the number of words the Lord actually commanded: Of-1, every-2, tree-3, of-4, the-5, garden-6, thou-7, mayest-8, freely-9, eat-10, but-11, of-12, the-13, tree-14, of-15, the-16, knowledge-17, of-18, good-19, and-20, evil-21, thou-22, shalt-23, not-24, eat-25, of-26, it-27, for-28, in-29, the-30, day-31, that-32, thou-33, eatest-34, thereof-35, thou-36, shalt-37, surely-38, die-39.  Thus, there are thirty-nine words in that law.  Surely, you say, that is just a mere coincidence. 

            The curse of the law of sin and death is death.  The details of that death are set forth in Psalms chapter 14:1-7  "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.  The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.  They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.  Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.  There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.  Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.  Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." 

            The interesting thing about the curse of the law of sin and death is that it is also set forth in Psalms chapter 53.  Psalms 14 and 53 are almost identically worded.  Why are there two Psalms that are almost identically worded?  The answer is that God set it forth to be that way.  Coincidentally, the two chapters are thirty-nine chapters apart.  But, there is more to this mystery. 

            The curse of the law of sin and death is also set forth in the third chapter of the book of Romans: Rom. 3:9 "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God."  Please notice that this description of the curse of the law of sin and death begins in Rom. 3:9. 

            Another interesting piece of information is that the Old Testament which shows forth the covenant of the law which God made with Israel has thirty-nine books and the very last word of the Old Testament is curse.

            The curse of the law of sin and death is also alluded to in Gal. 3:10, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them."  This, of course, locates all of us as being under the curse of the law of sin and death.  Thankfully, this is not all that we read about it in the third chapter of Galatians.  We read in Gal. 3:13, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:" In this thirteenth verse, the word curse appears three times.  Thirteen times three is thirty-nine.  Here we are informed, that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us.  He was made a curse for us on the tree of the cross.

            The place where Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law of sin and death was on the cross.  Christ hung on the cross from the 3^rd hour to the 9^th hour.  Notice again the 3-9 in Christ being made a curse for us to redeem us from the curse of the law of sin and death.

            In declaring the gospel of the grace of Christ, Paul declared that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law of sin and death by being made a curse for us.  The punishment wicked sin-cursed men put on Paul for preaching this precious truth was that "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one." (2 Cor. 11:24) 

            If the association between the number thirty-nine and the curse of the law of sin and death is just coincidence, then all I can say is that there are sure many coincidences.