The number five is generally agreed to be one of a handful of numbers similar to the church at Philadelphia. No bad things to say about it. Every source I have concerning this number associates the idea of God’s grace and life to it. The 5th word of scripture is shamayim, or heaven. There are not many bad things to say about heaven, and there is probably alot of grace and life there. The 5th day of restoration of the creation is the first appearance of life.
According to Ephesians 2:8-9, grace is a gift from YHVH. This gift is followed by eternal gratitude expressed through good works according to verse 10. Good works are defined only by the Word of God given to us from the beginning, or as Sha’ul puts it, from the foundation of the world. YHVH initiates the creative act and the objects of this act of grace respond. This is why the rest of the creation is seen going through the same process that human creation goes through. “In the beginning created God the heaven and the earth”. This was accomplished by YHVH ‘in the beginning’. Except for the soul and spirit of man and beast, so to speak, all things created in the beginning by the grace of God ‘respond’ in what we erroneously call the 6 days of creation. It was in the beginning that YHVH created heaven and earth in perfection, just as He did with man when he was created. Then in the second verse of scripture and the second recorded act, (remember the meaning of the number two?) the fall of hasatan takes place and the world is thrown into chaos and emptiness. Not so coincidently, the exact same thing happens to man in his first encounter with the evil one. But then the third recorded act (remember the meaning of the number three?) the Spirit of God moves over the face of the waters, and by an act of His own will, God restores His creation by ‘letting be’, ‘making’, ‘forming’, and ‘calling’. The creation responds to the Creator by producing fruit, shining light, and providing just the right atmosphere for God’s ultimate act to flourish. This same creation is waiting for it’s new body just as we are.
Romans 8:19-22
“For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creation itself ALSO shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”
