The book of Revelation is Apocalyptic literature, a genre many may not be familiar with.
Apocalyptic literature uses numbers to represent something grander / fuller and are not to be read literally.

Here are a few examples to illustrate this.

3, 7, 10, 12, and multiples, speak of wholeness, completeness, divinity.
7 - creation good, 10 - commandments, 3- divinity, 6 - man, 12 - tribes of Israel, apostles.

Seven, rooted in the creation account, is the number of God and completion.
The "seven spirits" (Revelation 1:4) refers to the totality of the Spirit, or the Holy Spirit.

The three sets of seven judgements express the completeness of God's judgements.

The seven churches represent the church as the completed whole, the entire Body of Christ, the church in every age.

'Christ' appears seven times in Revelation.
'Jesus' and 'Spirit' appears fourteen times in Revelation
'Lamb' appears twenty-eight times in Revelation

Four is used to refer to something with worldwide impact - four corners and fourd winds in Revelation 7:1.
The four rivers of Genesis 2:10-14 watered the entire earth (Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates - not to be confused with  post-flood rivers of same name).

Twelve is the number of government or of God's people (the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles).

One Thousand expresses an indefinitely large number or period of time.
Thus the millenium refers to the church age as a whole.

144,000 of Revelation 7 and 14 refer to the entire people of God throughout the ages (12 tribes * 12 apostles multiplied by 1000 to express fullness).

Six is the number of humanity (man having been created in the sixth day).
'Babylon' appears six times in Revelation

666 of Revelation 13 alludes to the demonic trinity.
Six repeated three times to reflect its members - the dragon, the beast and the false prophet.


This is not an exhaustive exploration of the subject of numerology and I would warn against the dangers of getting obsessed with this matter leading to using such in personal horoscopes and worse (date of birth, weight at birth, date of wedding, date of death ...).

In John 12:28-29 we have a record of a voice from Heaven - Father God speaking to Jesus. Some people in the crowd said it had thundered, some said an angel had spoken. Jesus spoke of his sheep recognising his voice John 10:27-28. He has promised us a Counsellor - the Spirit of Truth. He may give us 'signs' for an encouragement - situations, co-incidences, the sound of thunder, but they do not overrule or replace his voice.

Do not test the goodness of God (that is his character, he is authentic), but test the good to see if the good is God.