![]() And then there are passages in which the number 7 is associated with God’s judgment: the seven bowls of the Great Tribulation, for example (Revelation 16:1), or God’s warning to Israel in Leviticus 26:18. Other times, it challenges us: Jesus told Peter to forgive a wrongdoer “seventy times seven” times (Matthew 18:22, NKJV). Sometimes, the symbolism of 7 is a great comfort to us: Jesus is the seven-fold “I AM” in the Gospel of John. According to Leviticus 25:8, the Year of Jubilee was to begin after the passing of every forty-ninth year ( 7 times 7). Jeremiah 29:10 predicted the Babylonian Captivity would last for seventy years ( 7 times 10). Multiples of 7 also figure into the biblical narrative: the “ seventy weeks” prophecy in Daniel 9:24 concerns 490 years ( 7 times 7 times 10). For example, we find seven pairs of each clean animal on the ark (Genesis 7:2) seven stems on the tabernacle’s lampstand (Exodus 25:37) seven qualities of the Messiah in Isaiah 11:2 seven signs in John’s Gospel seven things the Lord hates in Proverbs 6:16 seven parables in Matthew 13 and seven woes in Matthew 23. Series of seven things crop up often in the Bible. ![]() Six always falls short of seven, just like “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In Revelation “the number of the beast” is called “the number of a man.” That number is 666 (Revelation 13:18). In some passages of the Bible, the number 6 is associated with mankind. Interestingly, man was created on the sixth day of creation. In these instances, 7 signifies a completion of some kind: a divine mandate is fulfilled. ![]() So we see the command for animals to be at least seven days old before being used for sacrifice (Exodus 22:30), the command for leprous Naaman to bathe in the Jordan River seven times to effect complete cleansing (2 Kings 5:10), and the command for Joshua to march around Jericho for seven days (and on the seventh day to make seven circuits) and for seven priests to blow seven trumpets outside the city walls (Joshua 6:3–4). Thus, right at the start of the Bible, the number 7 is identified with something being “finished” or “complete.” From then on, that association continues, as 7 is often found in contexts involving completeness or divine perfection. ![]() The seventh day was to be “set apart” for Israel the Sabbath was a holy day of rest (Deuteronomy 5:12). ![]() This is our template for the seven-day week, observed around the world to this day. God spends six days creating the heavens and the earth, and then rests on the seventh day. The first use of the number 7 in the Bible relates to the creation week in Genesis 1. ![]()
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