The Significance of One

The Significance of One

The number ONE in the Bible often stands for UNITY. Unity is several things joined together to form a single, whole entity. Unity: the state of being one, oneness; a whole or totality as combining all its parts into one; concord, harmony, agreement. With ONE there is stability; it is fixed; it is absolute. Where there is unity, there is peace. There is strength in the number one, for if a group of people are one, they are undivided.

Two different words are used in Hebrew for the number one. 1. yachid: only one, numeric one Example: Genesis 22:2 Take your son, your only son (yachid) Isaac whom you love, and sacrifice him to me. 2. echad: one of others, unified one Example : Genesis 2:24 A man shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one (echad) flesh. In Hebrew yachid is never used of God. The word is always echad ( one of others ). This shows not a numeric unity, but a compound unity.

Genesis 2: 24 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one (echad) flesh. Mark 10:6-9 6 But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. [a] 7 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, [b] 8 and the two will become one flesh. [c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. Here is an instance of the number one symbolizing unity. Why is it important for a man to be united with his wife? The primary strategy the devil uses to destroy a family is to attack this unity. For if the devil can sever the connection between man and wife, then there is no unity, no harmony, no oneness, but rather two separate entities. Is it possible to have a marriage UNION but not a marriage UNITY?

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is ECHAD. [a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Mark 12:29-30 29 The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is ECHAD. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Recall the word one in this context means a united plurality. Therefore, what does it mean when it says the Lord is one? Who composes this unity?

Genesis 11: 1-9 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, [a] they found a plain in Shinar [b] and settled there. 3 They said to each other, Come, let s make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth. 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The LORD said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [c] because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

At Babel, the people were of one language and of one speech. They were united in their effort to build a city and make a name for themselves. God recognized this oneness, the unity of the people, and thus He disbanded the people by changing their language.

2 Kings 18: 3-5 3 He (Hezekiah) did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan. [b] ) 5 Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. A high place was a localized or regional worship center dedicated to a god. Worship at these local shrines often included making sacrifices, burning incense, and holding feasts or festivals. Some of these high places contained altars, graven images, and shrines. The Canaanites, Israel s enemy who worshiped Baal as their chief deity, also used them. God commanded the Israelites in Numbers to destroy the high places. Furthermore they were to only worship and sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 32:10-12 10 This is what Sennacherib king of Assyria says: On what are you basing your confidence, that you remain in Jerusalem under siege? 11 When Hezekiah says, The LORD our God will save us from the hand of the king of Assyria, he is misleading you, to let you die of hunger and thirst. 12 Did not Hezekiah himself remove this god s high places and altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, You must worship before one altar and burn sacrifices on it? We see here again that the number one is declaring a unity of worship. For only when Hezekiah destroyed the high places did the people of Judah begin to worship as one in Jerusalem.

John 17:20-23 20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one 23 I in them and you in me so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. We see here that Jesus prays that His people would be ONE. In verse 23 Jesus even prays for the UNITY of believers. John 10:30 30 I and the Father are one. What is Jesus saying when He says I and the Father are ONE? What would our lives look like if we said I and the Father are ONE?

Acts 4:32 32 All the believers were one (united) in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. The church in Jerusalem that Luke is referring to was not divided, but UNITED, a totality of different people with a common bond, Christ. Ephesians 4:1-6 4 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Paul emphasizes the need for unity in this passage since there is one body, one Spirit, one faith, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. In our culture today, many people do not believe there is one and only one way to salvation. Many people would say that there are multiple pathways to finding God as opposed to ONE path, Christ. John 14:6-8 6 Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know [b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. However Jesus says that the only way to the Father is through me. Why? Because Jesus and the Father are ONE. Jesus and God are united. Acts 4:12 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

Prior to Christ, the Jews and Gentiles were separated from one another. However because of Jesus, this division is abolished and the two are made ONE. Ephesians 2:13-16 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away (Gentiles) have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 4 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one (Jew and Gentile) and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. Remember that where there is unity, there is peace. Because of the cross, the Jew and the Gentile are united into one new humanity. The blood of Christ is the most powerful unifying agent ever!

Galatians 3: 26-29 26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one (UNITED) in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Hebrews 9: 7;25-28 7 But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 25 Nor did he (Jesus) enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Jesus died once to bring salvation to all. All believers are united in Christ by his ONE sacrifice. Jesus did not enter the Most Holy place repeatedly, but ONCE. This single sacrifice provides unity for all who believe in that sacrifice.