Questioning the value of numerology was going to be the entire topic of this piece of writing. Having thought about it, I am falling so strongly on the side of doing it that my main argument is that we should since it is fundamental in how God identifies himself.
There are no prohibitions that I can find about doing numerology in the bible. It is not mentioned among the sins of witchcraft, though it does appear to be popular in the new age.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. — Deuteronomy 18:10
My problem with the new age was not that they interpreted numbers or symbols, but that they gave the wrong meaning to them.
It also seems there are no negative associations with numbers, except perhaps when David numbered Israel (2 Samuel 24:1; 1 Chroncicles 21:1).
Jesus said:
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.— Matthew 12:40
Is this Jesus using numerology? Whatever you wish to call it, he is matching up a number of days in one place with a number of days in another.
I'm not sure we should be calling it numerology, but numbers are all over the bible and a number of one thing can represent another. There's also an entire book called Numbers, which is the fourth of the five books of Moses.
Ezekiel is told to lie on side for 390 days to represent a specific number of years.
For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. — Ezekiel 4:5
The seven branched candlestick first spoken of in the books of Moses turns out to represent the seven churches according to Revelation.
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. — Revelation 1:20
If we didn't observe the numerical patterns we might not understand a mystery that is not spelled out explicitly.
For example:
And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. — Isaiah 4:1
Is not this also to do with the seven churches, a woman representing a church?
Are there not multiple references to the number 40 in the bible? Are we really going to claim these numbers are meaningless?
Simply because there may be ways of looking at numbers that are not helpful, does that mean that all ways of looking at numbers are?
Do we not also have poor and bad interpretations of the text that take away from the meaning? Does that mean that we should abandon attempts to understand the text? I don't think so. In the same way we should not abandon understanding the words in the text we should also not abandon understanding numerical mysteries in the text.
It's hard to avoid seeing words as numbers in languages where letters are used for numbers. This would include Hebrew and Greek, the original tongues of the old and new testament. Arabic numerals are a distinct set of symbols, which have been borrowed by other cultures, and that's what we normally use in English.
It's even harder to avoid when interpreting the bible when Revelation explicitly speaks about "the number of the beast" and "the number of his name".
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
— Exodus 20:8-11
The working week with the much desired rest at the end of it, cultures have tried to break away from. In the end they have returned. Where else but God's own account of creation in the bible does our week come from?
We may tend to gloss over the importance as the seven day week signifying the creator as it's uncomfortable for us because we are taught to not believe that the earth was made in six days. God here has given us the reason for the sabbath as signifying him creating the world in six days.
The seventh day and the seven day cycle continues from the creation week and is part of the how God, the creator, defines himself in the ten commandments. How can this not be seen as important?
If after looking into numerology, I had to throw away every other significance of numbers, the significance of six days and the seventh day in their relation to God I would treasure.