God’s perfection: Number 7
What is God trying to tell us through the number seven? In the Bible, the number seven is the symbol of completeness, fullness, fulfillment, and perfection. The frequency with which the number seven occurs in Scripture makes it clear that this is something that should not be missed.
Here are just a few examples of the occurrence of the number “7″ in the Bible:
| Seven days of creation | Genesis 1 | |
| Seven good and seven famine years in Egypt | Genesis 41 | |
| Seven lamps of the Menorah | Exodus 25:37 | |
| Seven feasts of Israel | Leviticus 23 | |
| Seven priests with seven trumpets circle Jericho seven times | Joshua 6 | |
| Daniel’s seventy sevens prophecy | Daniel 9:24-27 | |
| Seven loaves fed the 4,000, seven baskets left over | Matthew 15:32-39 | |
| Seven deacons in the early church | Acts 6:5 | |
| Seven “I am” statements in the gospel of John | John | |
| Seven elements of the armor of God | Ephesians 6:14-18 | |
| Seven churches in Revelation | Revelation 2,3 | |
| Seven promises, seals, trumpets, angels, plagues, bowls etc | Revelation | |
| Seven appearances of angels | Gospels and Acts |
In addition, the Bible makes important points using multiples of seven, e.g. “seventy”, “seventh”, “seven times seven”:
Every seventh year was a sabbatical year (Lv 25:4).
Seven times seven reiterates the sense of completeness. In the Year of Jubilee (at the completion of 7 x 7 years = the 50th year), all land is freed and returns to the original owners (Lv 25:10).
There are 70 elders (Ex 24:1) in Israel.
Israel was exiled to Babylon for 70 years (Jer 25:12) to complete its punishment.
“Seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) reiterates this still further. The Lord was not giving Peter a mathematical number of times that he should forgive another person, but rather was insisting on limitless forgiveness for a brother’s sin.
(from the Tyndale Bible Dictionary)
In looking at the world of God’s creation, the heavens and the earth, there are echoes of this occurrence of the number seven. For example, there are seven colors of the spectrum (and in rainbows); there are seven notes in the musical scale in the Western (Judeo-Christian) world.
When we started CelebrateYourFaith.com, we deliberately chose a grand opening date of July 7, 2007 as a powerful symbolic scriptural reminder of the Great Commission. CelebrateYourFaith is dedicated to reaching the world with the good news of the Gospel; it is our heart to support mission work and missionaries with proceeds from every purchase.
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