I was studying about the great pyramid of Giza and I noticed that in the Grand Gallery there were 36 ceiling stones. There are 12 ceiling stones in the Queen’s Chamber and 24 ceiling stones in the King’s Chamber. Now if the 12 stones in the Queen’s chamber represent the 12 apostles and the 24 stones in the King’s Chamber represent the 24 elders around God’s throne (Rev 4:4), what do the 36 stones in the Grand Gallery represent? I got to thinking that 3 X 12 = 36. You have 12 apostles and 12 sons of Jacob, but who are the other 12? Well, Enoch was the 7th from Adam (Jude 1:4), so God definitely started counting patriarchs from Adam, and Noah was then the 10th, but that’s not enough. I got to looking at the genealogy, and sure enough, Shem is 11, Arphaxad is 12 (Gen 11:13) and Arphaxad lived at the same time (he lived to be 438 and lived ca. 2368-1930 BC) that God made the new blood-covenant with Abraham (2018-1843 BC) which grew to include the 12 twelve sons of Jacob.
The significance of the patriarchs extending past the Flood is that we end the Patriarchical Dispensation at the wrong place. I have always ended it at the same time that the old world perished (II Pet 3:6) and our present world began (II Pet 3:7), but Noah, the tenth patriarch, survived the Flood, as did his three sons who were also ante-diluvians. I think the proper place to end the Patriarchical Dispensation is when the covenant with Abraham began, because almost all of the Bible is focused on the Abrahamic Covenant. Moses’ Law was given at Sinai about 1500 BC, but the covenant that led to that started 430 years earlier (Gal 3:17). It seems that the proper place to draw the line is Arphaxad and he makes 12 patriarchs and the 12 patriarchs plus the 12 sons of Jacob and the 12 apostles makes 36 men, 12 from each of the three dispensations, that are summed up in Christ as depicted on the ceiling of the Royal Gallery in the great pyramid at Giza.
