Christ’s ministry lasted about three years. It started small, like a tiny grain of mustard seed, but it has produced a tree which will never die. During Jesus’ first year, growth was slow, but eventually it started to pick up steam – and associates. Essentially at the end, all of His disciples forsook Him, and He died basically deserted. There had been months when Christ was extremely popular with perhaps several hundred people who claimed to be His disciples. We know, however, that there were a dozen men who were closer to Christ than any other. They stayed by Jesus’ side right up almost to the end. They studied, learned and put into practice what they were being taught. And here in Matthew 10; Mark 6 and Luke 9, we have Christ’s commission of these twelve special disciple when they became His evangelists. I will return to this commission next Sunday, Lord willing, but I will point out now that it was at this point that these twelve became apostles. Luke 9:1-2 – “Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.” The words “he sent them” are “apostello” from which the word “apostle” is derived. And Matthew 10:2 begins, “Now the names of the twelve apostles (“apostolos”) are these:”
I didn’t take time to count, but you are undoubtedly familiar with the fact that there are dozens of references to the dozen disciples who became Jesus’ apostles. Our scripture gives us the first reference to “the twelve,” but there are eight others in this gospel alone. I think that there could easily be eight or nine references in each of the other gospels as well. There is no doubt that at this point in Christ’s ministry He had twelve special disciples and servants. Things get complicated later with questions about Judas, Matthias and Paul, but we don’t need to deal with them at all tonight.
Our question for this evening is this: Why were there TWELVE disciples?
First, I need to say that if you find a man who says that he knows the reason – walk away. Since the Bible doesn’t tell us that Jesus Christ specifically selected twelve men and here is the reason, then no one can be absolutely sure why Jesus called twelve and not thirteen. Someone might say, “I think that I know why He chose twelve.” – in that case it would be different. But I’m not sure that I would be even that bold. I don’t know why twelve were selected and not eleven or thirteen.
Either Jesus deliberately chose that number or it was just coincidental. It could have been that out of all the people claiming to be disciples, these were the most faithful. These men might have showed more of the characteristics for which Jesus was looking. They might have been more fearless, or communicative – more prayerful, or more humble. They came from a variety of backgrounds, including married men, single, self-employed and employees. Most were Jews, but one might have had more Canaanite blood than Hebrew. Most were Galilean, but at least one was from Judah. There were some of these men who were more exceptional than the others in different ways. But why did the Lord select twelve – and specifically these twelve? Why was Judas Iscariot included in this number? Wouldn’t eleven without Judas have been better than twelve with Judas?
If the Lord deliberately chose twelve was there a special reason? Maybe its my Canadian blood, but I like the number ten more than I do twelve. I would much rather have a meter than three groups of twelve inches. I would prefer a nice round ten litres than 2.64712 gallons. Why did the Lord give us ten commandments rather than twelve? Was there a reason? Was it because we can handle ten better than twelve? Was that the basis of the moral metric system? And why were there only nine plagues laid upon Egypt? Was is that if there were ten or twelve the nation would have been completely destroyed?
Perhaps something else which to muse over is found in Luke 10:1 – “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.” Not only did Jesus have His very special twelve, He had His somewhat less special seventy. Sixty might have made more sense, because that would be twelve multiplied five times. Christ gave the seventy very nearly the same commission that He gave to the smaller group. Why did the Lord set the twelve apart from the seventy, while they were set apart from all the rest?
Was there a specific reason that the Lord Jesus selected twelve disciples and not ten or eleven? In Mark’s account of this event we read – “And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two.” If there had been an odd number, then it would have been difficult to send them out two by two. But perhaps one could have remained with the Saviour to minister to Him, while the others were away. Could it be that the Lord chose this number because six pairs of evangelists were all that He could manage easily? Of course not. Could it be that the Lord was telling future Baptists that they shouldn’t try to organize new churches unless they had twelve good men?
Notice that just about everything that I’ve said begins either with a question or with “it could have been…..”
Could it be possible that there was a significant reason that the Lord chose twelve?
The word “twelve” is found 168 times in our Bibles, and I read every one of them last Thursday – then I read most them again on Friday. Sixty-three of those references are in the New Testament, and nearly a hundred are in the Old. If you are into math, and apparently we are this evening, those references are scattered pretty much equally between the two testaments – 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. 100 references in the 39 books and 63 in the 27 books.
I think that it has to be admitted that sometimes twelve comes up just because that was the number. Sometimes there is absolutely no special significance in those dozen things. For example, there were a couple of cities surrounded by twelve villages or suburbs. It wasn’t designed that way; that was just the way it was. And there was nothing special which ever came out of that particular situation. When the soldiers of Joab met those of Abner, twelve of each were selected to fight a duel. Why? For twelve years a certain woman had an issue of blood. Was there special significance in that? While I seriously doubt it, I’m sure that there are good men who say that there are important lessons in that number. The same might be said either way about the twelve baskets of left-overs after Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the multitude. Christ once said that He could call twelve legions of angels to protect Him. Was that just the first number that came into His head? Somehow I think not. Was there a special reason why He chose to speak of twelve and not fourteen? Was there an established military force of twelve legions, or was that merely a proverbial statement? How many assassins were there who wanted to kill the Apostle Paul after his arrest in Jerusalem? During their forty years in the wilderness (not twelve or even forty-eight years) Israel “came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.” Other than the fact that twelve wells are better than eleven, is there special meaning in that number? Perhaps there was, and perhaps there wasn’t, but I seriously doubt it. Were those wells scattered apart far enough so that each tribe could have their own well?
Perhaps those numbers don’t really have anything to do with our theme this evening. Other than the number itself, they appear to have no relationship to the number of the Lord’s disciples. These particular things give us no reason to think that the number twelve has any special significance. On the other hand there were lots of occasions when the Lord decreed that number, or it appears that the Lord deliberately picked the number twelve. Is the fact that Ishmael had twelve sons, as important as the fact that his brother Jacob had twelve sons? The Lord went out of His way to say that He would bless all of the twelve sons of Ishmael.
A great many references to twelve are related to the fact that there were already twelve tribes in Israel. When the Tabernacle was being prepared, each of the tribes brought gifts, so that there were twelve sets of this and twelve sets of that. How many loaves were placed on the Table of Shewbread in the Tabernacle? One for each tribe. How many precious stones were on the breastplate of the High Priest? Twelve. How many spies searched out the Promised Land and gave their report to Moses? How many stones were piled on top of each other in the Jordan River, and how many were taken out of the river to be piled up there outside of Gilgal? When Solomon designed the furniture for the Temple, he ordered that the Brazen Sea would be placed on the backs of twelve oxen. Was there a special reason. When Ezra led Israel back to the land after the Babylonian captivity he tried to reinstate the pure worship of God. The people built a very poor replacement for Solomon’s temple, but it was the best they could do. “And (Ezra) offered at the dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve he goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.” There was one goat for each of the twelve tribes, but not the same number of rams or bullocks. In the temple described by Ezekiel, the number twelve comes up over and over again, and it all appears to be related to the twelve tribes of Israel. And then we move into Revelation 21 and look at the New Jerusalem with all of its twelves. How many witnesses will there be during the Tribulation? Twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel – 144,000. Even beyond the fact that these mirror the tribes of Israel, could there be significance in this tribe-related number?
Amongst all the books in my library, I do not have any which deal with Biblical numerology. From searching the internet, it would appear that there are a few books out there, but I haven’t read any. My conclusion tonight, if that is the proper word, my conclusion is based on personal observation, not on the ideas of any best-selling authors.
It appears to me that God sometimes used twelve of this thing or that in order to create some order or arrangement. The twelve sons of Jacob – the twelve patriarchs – after a little rearranging, became the twelve divisions of His nation. Each tribe had its leader, like a sort of governor, with others advising them. And those heads of the tribes initially answered to Moses. It isn’t universal, but that number comes up often enough to suggest that it refers to some sort of divinely arranged organization. I may prefer the number ten over the number twelve, but I am not God. 10 is divisable by 5 and 2. Maybe the Lord likes the fact that 12 is divisable by 2, 3, 4 and 6.
Why did the Lord choose twelve disciples to become His twelve apostles?
Here is my suggested answer. It seems to me that those twelve were supposed to suggest something to Israel. Just as so many times, Israel took one man from each tribe, Jesus chose the same number. Twelve seems to be a Israelite sort of number. I am not trying to say that all of the twelve tribes were represented among the disciples, but there were the same number. There were twelve spies, twelve boulders in the river, twelve gates in Ezekiel’s temple and twelve jewels in the priest’s breast plate. Those were all commanded by God or by God’s messenger.
It could be that Christ wanted Israel to see, in just another way, that the Messiah had come? That number could have been a means of reaching back and reaching forward to tie the two together. The number twelve was an Israelite sort of thing. Look at the first words Jesus uses in the commission of these twelve men. Matthew 10: 5 – “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go NOT into the way of the Gentiles.” Initially, the ministry of the twelve was to the Jew only. Is that what it is all about? Even though we Gentiles have been graciously grafted into the plan of God, Israel is still, and will always be, God’s chosen nation.
These twelve disciples were primarily sent to preach the gospel to the lost house of Israel. And they appear to have other national responsibilities as well. On one occasion, Peter boastfully asked the Lord, “Behold we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Why should the twelve disciples act as special judges over Israel? If you want to interpret that as allegorical of all God’s saints, be my guest, but I’d rather think of it as literal. Statements like this help to confirm me in my thinking that the twelve disciples were meant to say something special to Israel.
There is scripture, which both ties the twelve Apostles to a special relationship to Israel, while at the same time opening the door to all the rest of the Lord’s saints. Turn to Revelation 21:9 – “And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal…… And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones………. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
It appears to me that Lord Jesus chose and ordained twelve men to become special ambassadors to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It appears that the number twelve was especially related to the twelve tribes. That doesn’t mean that we who are not of Israel have been excluded. In fact we have another special kind of relationship to the Saviour. But to answer my initial question, yes, I think that there was a deliberate reason for Christ Jesus’ selection of these twelve men. I think that they carried a Messianic message to the lost house of Israel.