The number 42 contains an important, symbolic meaning for our time, which those wise to it may use to survive and do well. To grasp this symbolism, we need to consult four different prophecies in the Bible, a variety of translations and every instance where the number is found.
Let’s begin at the beginning. The books of Kings and Chronicles reveal that the true Israelites were all captured and removed to Media and Babylon long ago. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah record that only a tiny few of them returned to become the ancestors of Jesus and His apostles. The vast majority of them, when freed by the Persians, walked overland to settle north-western Europe. Therefore the Bible, from cover to cover, discloses the history and destiny of our Western culture.
When our people are good, the Bible speaks of us as the Bride of Christ. When we’re bad, we’re called the Harlot, or Babylon the Great. The latter is what we have become and God is tired of it. When our people have mass-rebelled in the past, God has given us over to be conquered by the heathen for a while. The ten tribes of Israel were captured by Assyria and the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were captured by by old Babylon. After Judea had rejected and crucified Christ, God brought in the Romans, who flattened Jerusalem and killed the non-Christian, white Judeans.
With this in mind, let’s examine God’s prophecy in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, which foretells the invasion of the West by Gog, Magog, Persia (Iran), Mesech and Tubal. The Septuagint and Moffat translations additionally mention Ros, or Rosh. The Lamsa Bible from the Aramaic calls Gog “China.” I am not the first to figure that Rosh sounds like Russia, while Mesech and Tubal resemble Moscow and Tobolsk. Magog, Mesech and Tubal were sons of Japheth, the ancestor of the Slavs (Genesis 10.2). So we seem to be looking at an alliance of Russia, China and Iran. This is the exact group of countries our leaders are daily provoking now, for the first time in history. The prophecy also states that many other nations will join this alliance and both Russia and China have spent generations courting the Third World, to turn them against us. And no-one can fight the whole world. All of this fits with Revelation 17.16, which states that the nations will hate the Harlot and demolish her, bringing the corrupted Age of the Church to an end. Ezekiel goes on to predict that this multicultural gang will occupy our countries until God steps in to destroy them. But how long will the occupation last? Ezekiel does not say.
To discover this, let’s turn to Revelation 11.2: “But omit the outer court of the sanctuary and measure it not, because it has been given to the nations; and they shall frequent the holy city 42 months.” The outer court of the Jerusalem temple was where foreigners stood and all Christendom is meant to be God’s holy city today. To emphasize that this 42-month time period is literal, it is repeated in the same verse as 1260 days. This appears to predict that the West will be occupied for 42 biblical months of 30 days. In keeping with this, Revelation 13.5 tells us that the beast’s authority over us will also last 42 months.
The number 42 symbolizes our transition from one stage to another of God’s progressive plan. We establish this meaning by using the Law of First Mention, to set the pattern. The Bible’s first mention of the number 42 is found between the lines of Numbers chapter 33, which shows that our Israelite ancestors camped in 42 places on their journey from Egypt to the old Promised Land. Matthew chapter 1 reveals that 42 generations passed from our ancestor Abraham to the birth of Jesus. 42 months, or three and a half years, is believed to be the duration of Christ’s ministry, which accomplished our transition from the Age of the Law of Moses to the Age of the Church (and now we are preparing to transition into a more advanced phase). In Ezra chapter 2, we can count 42 families and other groups who returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. Spiritually, that is what a good deal of our population will accomplish soon. Three and a half years, or 42 months, was the duration of the drought Elijah brought on old Israel, which ended in the transition of many paganized people back to faith in the only real God. This is going to happen again. Many who have deserted Jesus Christ, or never known Him in the first place, will be prompted to turn to Him by hard times.
The war is not predicted to last long. Revelation 18.10 says of our faithless, dishonest society, “in one hour has thy judgement come.” The same time allotment is repeated in verses 17 and 19. The 3 mentions symbolize that our corrupted culture, now known as “Babylon the Great”, will be crushed completely.
The number 42 is a guidepost granted to us by God to give us hope that He has not forgotten us, when disaster strikes our rotted-out Western culture, because we can recognize that Christ will rescue His own after 42 months. We don’t need guns, which is good, because our own government doesn’t want us to have them! What we will need is patience and faith. What we can expect is another example of national salvation by Christ, like the Exodus and God’s smashing of the Spanish Armada.
There’s more. In 2nd Kings 2.23-24, a group of brats mocked the prophet Elisha. After Elisha cursed them, 42 of them were mauled by bears. Elisha was a type of Christ and the bear is the symbol of Russia. We are all God’s children but those who disrespect Christ are in for a brutal surprise, when the foreign armies arrive. The vain will not know how to act but the humble will survive. Here we get a glimpse of events to happen during the foreign occupation, which will constitute our transition from the Church Age to the Kingdom of Christ on Earth.
Remember also that when Assyria conquered Israel and when Babylon conquered Judah, the conquerors executed all the leaders of Israel and Judah. Our war-hungry leaders in the West have already boasted that they will charge all the Russian leaders with war crimes, so when we lose the war of Gog and Magog, do not be surprised if the shoe ends up on the other foot. Our officials set a dangerous precedent after World War 2, when they hanged all the German leaders who lost the war. The history of our culture is also prophecy for the future, so it looks to me like what goes around may come around.
To sum up, the number 42 symbolizes transition, so we can have hope that when foreigners conquer us, we are 42 months, three and a half years, or 1260 days, from the commencement of the Kingdom of Christ on Earth. There are 8 examples of the number 42, all listed above, which symbolizes our transition to a new beginning. What an honest, progressive and glorious new beginning it will be, with Jesus Christ as Leader! Remember, under God’s Law (Deuteronomy 15.1-2), all debts must be cancelled every seven years. We are way overdue to accomplish that and it will happen immediately upon Christ’s return. Should the reader worry about being temporarily subjugated by foreigners, please read Psalms 2. It’s very short and totally reassuring. If that’s not enough, read Exodus. Our God is a God of miracles and we must never lose sight of that.
Finally, Jesus tells us in the Gospels that only God Our Father knows the date of His return. For this reason, the apostle Paul cautioned his readers not to believe rumours that the event was near at hand, because the rebellion against Christ must come first (2nd Thessalonians 2.3). After nearly 2000 years, that rebellion has been raging for quite some time and God often gives us information, through the Spirit and the Word, as we need to know. I believe understanding the symbolism of the repeating number 42 will give us a pretty accurate, educated guess–right when we need it.
