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As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night
will never cease. - Genesis 8:22

4 is for Cycles of Nature

359 words long.

Published on 2024-03-03

The number four occurs often in the Bible, just like three and seven. There are:

  • four gospels
  • four heavenly creatures in Ezekiel
  • four main banners under which Israel marched

However, Ecclesiastes concerns itself with time, so that is the direction we must look. On the fourth day in Genesis 1, with the creation of the sun, moon and stars, God finished the construction of the physical (non-living) world. These celestial timepieces mark off the four seasons.

Ecclesiastes begins with the Teacher lamenting the weariness and repetition of the endless cycles of nature:

Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun sets,

and hurries back to where it rises.

The wind blows to the south

and turns to the north;

round and round it goes,

ever returning on its course.

All streams flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

there they return again.

All things are wearisome,

more than one can say.

The eye never has enough of seeing,

nor the ear its fill of hearing.
- Ecclesiastes 1:4-8, NIV

What Solomon calls wearisome, God calls faithful. He marks off time with four pairs of opposites:

“As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night

will never cease.”

- Genesis 8:22, NIV

Look back at the four endless cycles of Ecclesiastes 1 and maybe you will be as amazed as I:

  1. earth
  2. fire (the sun)
  3. air
  4. water (streams and oceans)

Those are the four things a plant needs to grow, the four elements a farmer needs for the harvest. Some repetition is good, and the number four represents the eternal cycles of nature.

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