The Meaning and Symbolism Behind the Number Seven (7)

I don't know if you've ever pondered the fact that the use of numbers plays a very significant role in scriptures. Numbers often have a symbolic meaning. Sometimes they have prophetic significance. And some numbers, as you'll find commonly used in scriptures, are the numbers 3 and 7 and 12, like there were 12 tribes in Israel, 12 apostles. 40 is often considered a time of trial and testing. You'll find 40 mentioned a lot in scriptures, and 70. And today I would like to discuss the frequent use of just one of those numbers, a rather remarkable number, not just in the Bible, but also even in our own culture today, in secular history and math. And that is the number 7, to talk about the power behind and the symbolic significance of the number 7 and its meaning in scripture. So let's begin in the beginning. We'll go to Genesis chapter 2 and verse 2 and see a reference to the number 7 in scripture. Genesis chapter 2, verse 2. It says here, just one simple verse we'll read, and on the seventh day God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done. And of course, the commandment regarding observing and respecting God's Sabbath day harkens back to the fact that it was part of creation, and it is very important to God. God's work of creation was complete. It was beautiful. It was completed in six days as a magnificent creation, and then God rested. He fulfilled that week. He completed it by resting on the seventh day. In Genesis chapter 1 and verse 31, just a few verses earlier, it says, then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So he was satisfied with the way that the earth turned out, its beauty, its majesty. He completed it at the end of six days, and he rested on the seventh day. Again, this number represented a complete and total creative cycle.

Six days of actual work in creation, a day of rest, of admiration and enjoyment. Of those six days of work, a total of seven days, the pause that refreshes is what the Sabbath day is. And from this beginning, the number seven eventually became very special, even to pagan civilizations around the world.

Now, the oldest writings that humanity has are from pagan cultures, Babylon and Samaria and other nations that existed before there was Israel. Before we have the Old Testament scriptures in the time of Moses, others were writing. And it's interesting that because of this event in Genesis chapter 2, even though those civilizations became pagan and worshipped many gods and many distortions, yet they still acknowledged and observed that the number seven had very wonderful and special significance. So I'm going to read a quote to you from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. This is volume three under the article number, and here's what it says under that article. Just a couple of paragraphs.

By far the most prominent of these, speaking of all numbers, is the number seven, which is referred to in one way or another in nearly 600 passages in the Bible. There is clear evidence in the cuneiform text, which are our earliest authorities, that the Babylonians regarded seven as the number of totality or completeness.

The Sumerians, from whom the Semitic Babylonians seemed to have borrowed the idea, equated the number seven and all. That's a quote to should mark like everything, total, complete, all. The seven-story towers of Babylon represented the universe. Seven was the expression of the highest power, the greatest conceivable fullness of force, and therefore was early pressed into the service of religion.

So how far did the significance of the number seven go? Another paragraph, a short one. As this sacred or symbolic use of seven was not peculiar to the Babylonians and their teachers and neighbors, but was more or less known also in India and in China, in the classical lands, and among the Celts and the Germans, it probably originated in some fact of common observation, perhaps in four lunar phases, each of which comprises seven days and a fraction. End of quote. I'm not sure I would totally agree with their last statement there. I think the origins came from the understanding that the earth was created in six days, but God rested in the seventh, and there was one weekly cycle.

But even beyond this, and beyond the scriptures that we'll look at today, it's amazing how even our world's cultures within those cultures, the number seven is repeated and recognized. I'll just give you a few examples. There are seven continents in the world, according to human cultures, human established history. Research by the Institute of the Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, the Stanford School of Medicine, says that our skin is regenerated in seven days, and every cell in our body is replaced every seven years.

Lately, I've been standing in front of a mirror saying, I think it's time. Hello! Where are you? Regeneration, let's get going here. But that's what occurs. There are seven wonders in the ancient world who created that. Men's cultures created that, but it's interesting that they settled on the number seven. The colors of the rainbow are seven in number. There are seven basic musical notes in a diatonic scale.

Seven has the highest probability of occurring when rolling dice.

That's interesting. You may have heard the term lucky seven. It's because if you add up all the potential between die that have enough six, five, four, three, two, one, and another one, the most common occurrence of throwing those two dice back and forth is reaching the number seven.

The number of rows in the periodic table of elements is seven.

The neutral pH value that lies between acidity and alkalinity is seven, 7.0.

The international organization, called the ISO, developed something that we are all aware of, network communications. If you work in a company, you're connected to a network, and networks communicate with each other digitally. Well, it developed the open systems interconnection, which may mean absolutely nothing to all of us, including me. Known as the OSI model, it divides network communications into seven layers.

In electronics, a logic gate is an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function.

There are seven basic logic gates.

Seven is also the number of the stars in the constellation known as the Big Dipper. The seven deadly sins, again, this doesn't necessarily come from the Bible. The seven deadly sins are lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Otherwise known as American politicians.

The number seven has many unique mathematical qualities. As a matter of fact, there was one page that had far too many uniqueness of the number seven in math that, first of all, I didn't understand half of it because I'm not considered myself a math whiz, and there were far too many to mention. But if you're interested, if math is your thing, you can Google the number seven in mathematics and you'll be amazed at the uniqueness of the number seven and all of its qualities in mathematics.

So that being said, we see that the number seven has had significant meaning, going back to Genesis chapter 2 and verse 2, and recorded history, and even our major culture today. It's amazing how many times seven is repeated, even in the electronic, the digital world, how things have been divided into seven. Many numbers in the Bible have symbolic meaning, but the number seven came to symbolize completeness and perfection, and that's what I would like to look at today.

When it's used to refer to God, it's a sacred number, meaning His perfection, His totality, His completeness, His fullness. So what I'd like to do in this service today, in this sermon, is do a survey of the number seven in the Old Testament and the New Testament. We only have time for so many. But to helpfully appreciate and understand more of the power behind that digit that we call the number seven. Let's begin. Let's go. We started out in Genesis 2. Let's go to Genesis chapter 7 and beginning in verse 2, where God says something very interesting to Noah. He's about ready to destroy the earth, so He tells him how many animals, clean and unclean animals, are taken to the ark, and He also tells him how many days it is when that mission is completed before He is going to destroy the earth.

So let's take a look at this. Genesis chapter 7 and verse 2. He says, you shall take with you seven every clean animal, a male and a female, two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female, also seven each of the birds of the air, male and female, to keep this species alive on the face of the earth.

Then He says something here in verse 4 that we often miss. For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth, forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all the living things that I have made. So what does this mean? What's God saying here? Well, God's message to Noah is that He would now complete His purpose of preserving life on the ark, and that included seven pairs of clean animals.

And then He would destroy humankind after seven days, the exact length of a weekly cycle. So think of it this way. The symbolic contrast is that God created the world in seven days, and now He's telling Noah, I'm going to destroy the world in seven days. I'm going to flood it. I'm going to do the reverse. Life, death, except for those who were preserved in the ark. Let's go to Genesis 21 and verse 27. You see here that seven was also a way to seal a contract, a done deal, solid, unbreakable. Total commitment is what Abraham meant by this example. Genesis 21, beginning in verse 27, and He's making a contract with Abimelech regarding a well that He has dug.

It says, So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. And Abraham set seven eulams of the flock by themselves. So he separated those seven young lambs, put them by themselves.

Abimelech asked Abraham, What is the meaning of these seven eulams which you have set by themselves? And he said, You will take these seven eulams from my hand, that they may be my witness, that I have dug this well. See, this seven is a covenant, a sure, absolute, non-refundable, non-breakable covenant between you and I. And the seven eulams represent the fact, I dug this well, not your people, not you, I did it, and I have possession of this well. So again, the number seven here is, in this case, representing a surety, representing something that is absolute and unbreakable.

Genesis, chapter 29 and verse 26, one of my favorite stories. The story of Jacob and his dealings with his uncle Laban, Uncle Lab. You know, Jacob was a supplanter. He came out of the womb holding on to his brother's heel, Esau. There were at least two times in which he tried to deceive, through deception, take his brother's birthright. He was a deceiver. He thought he was clever until he met the grand master of deceit, his uncle Lab, who taught the young pup a thing or two about the art of deception.

And in this story, as we pick it up here in verse 26, Jacob worked like a dog for seven years so that he could marry Rachel. He loved Rachel. She was beautiful. He worked his seven years and they had the wedding day. And there was singing and dancing and he probably drank a little bit too much wine because at the end of the day he went into the tent and did the husbandly thing and woke up in the morning.

And it happened to be Leah. Not Rachel. It was Rachel's sister, whom in his perspective he didn't think was as beautiful and as lovely as Rachel. So now we'll pick up the story here in verse 26. And Laban said, it must not be done so in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you. We kind of have a custom among our people. And that is, we don't give the younger before the first- Did I mention that to you? We don't give the younger before the firstborn. So continuing, so fulfill her week and we will give you this one also.

That's not a very complimentary thing about the daughters. We will give you this one also for the service which you will serve me for still another seven years. Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife also. And Laban gave his maid Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as a maid. Then Jacob also went into Rachel and he also loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban still another seven years. So Jacob, the supplanter, that's what his name means, worked a complete seven-year cycle for Rachel and then ended up with Leah.

He had been deceived. Then, in a deal that he felt he couldn't refuse, after he fulfilled his week with Leah, he immediately got to marry Rachel. But he still had to work another seven long years in order to complete the prenuptial agreement. This was his dowry to Uncle Laban, his agreement between Laban and Jacob, for the privilege of marrying his daughters.

So again, the number seven is very significant here. Seven meaning the compact of a dowry of a prenuptial agreement. You had to complete that legally in order to pay your debt as a dowry to Uncle Laban.

Now let's go to Genesis chapter 33 and verse 1. Eventually Jacob got very tired of being manipulated by his father-in-law, who even after he worked all these years would change his wages and change the terms to try to short Jacob in every way that he can and manipulate him and take advantage of him.

Eventually Jacob got tired of that and through a very dicey episode was able to escape Uncle Laban. Uncle Laban is what we would call in the 21st century a control freak.

But he finally got out from under the clutches of Uncle Laban, but now he's heading home and he has to face his brother Esau.

Now they weren't on very good terms. He was not very kind to his brother Esau, not very kind to him at all, very deceptive towards his brother, and he doesn't quite know what to expect.

Chapter 33 verse 1. Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there Esau was coming and with him four hundred men.

Uh-oh. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants, and he put the maidservants and their children in front.

So if there's an attack, they're the first ones that will be sacrificed, leaving his own natural children with Leah and Rachel farther back a longer opportunity to escape, to get away.

So he puts the maidservants and their children in the very front, their most vulnerable, Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph at the very back, the greatest opportunity to run and escape and hide someplace in case these four hundred men with Esau attacked the family.

Verse 3. Then he crossed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came to his brother.

If we went back a few chapters, we'd see in chapter 32 verses 6 through 9, he was deeply afraid that his brother would kill him and his family for his past deceit and his actions against his brother Esau. Bowing seven times to Esau was an act of complete respect and submission and humility towards his brother.

He basically said, I'm your servant. I am sorry for what I have done in the past. I am vulnerable. I am coming before you with nothing.

The seven times that he bowed represented his complete submission and humility towards his brother. His brother honored that, which is really a good thing.

So in this case, again, we see seven representing total submission, complete humility, as an act of respect for a brother in which he had been alienated from in the past.

Genesis 41 and verse 17. The story of Pharaoh's dream, as God gives Pharaoh—well, actually, I think it was more of a nightmare in Pharaoh's case—of an understanding given to him by a young Hebrew of what would happen the next 14 years in Egypt.

There would be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of very severe famine.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph—again, this is Genesis 41.17. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Behold, in my dream, I stood on the bank of the river.

Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine-looking and fat, and they fed in the meadow.

Then, behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt. Such ugliness I have never seen in all the land of Egypt.

And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows. Verse 21. When they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were just as ugly as the beginning.

So they still looked ameciated. He said, So I awoke. In other words, I was startled. This was a nightmare. This terrified me. So I woke. Verse 22. Also I saw in my dream, and suddenly seven heads came up in one stalk, full and good. Then, behold, seven heads withered thin and blighted by the east wind sprang up after them. And the thin heads covered the seven good heads. So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me. Well, thankfully, Joseph could explain it. And the point here, of course, is in Pharaoh's dream, the seven good years of abundance, followed by the seven years of famine, represented a complete and total cycle of plenty, followed by very severe poverty and famine that was to befall not just the nation of Egypt, but what would influence all the other nations who traded with Egypt and were in that part of the world. So here again, we see seven means surety, it means complete, it means a cycle, it means what God says is sure, the sure word. Let's go to Exodus chapter 25 and verse 36. Leave the book of Genesis. Go to Exodus chapter 25 and verse 36. The instruction that Moses was given about the golden lampstand that was to be used first in the tabernacle later would also be present in the temple. Exodus chapter 25 verse 36, this is their knobs, kind of a difficult translation. It means buds, kind of like the bud of a flower.

Their knobs and their branches shall be of one piece. This is each of the branches that comes up out of the center. All of it shall be one hammered piece of pure gold. You shall make seven lamps for it, and they shall arrange its lamps so that they give light in front of it. And its wick-trimmers and their trays shall be of pure gold, which will be made of a talent of pure gold with all the utensils. So here it's describing the golden lampstand used in the tabernacle later in the temple. It had seven lamps attached to it. It was lit by the priest every evening. It would be lit, and then he would extinguish that lamp every morning.

He did that year after year. The priest did that for generations until the temple was destroyed. This represented the complete presence of God available to Israel. It was his light, the lampstand recommended and represented God's presence among the nation. Light, character, wisdom. And that's why Jesus said, by the way, that we have to be a lampstand, like a stand right on top of a hill. And we can't cover up our light. We are to be the same kind of light. God's presence should be radiating out from us and influencing and enlightening everyone whom we meet and come in contact with, just like this golden lampstand was used to signify God's presence in the temple. The total light of his character was reflected on Israel.

Let's go to Leviticus chapter 4 and verse 6. See another example.

Leviticus chapter 4 and verse 6. This is when an anointed priest would sin. Priests were human. They may be anointed, maybe a high priest, may have very beautiful vestments that would be worn on the day of atonement and a wonderful little breastplate with different stones on it that tradition says would flash and glow. I don't know if that happened or not. It was very beautiful, dressed up, but they were human beings and they made mistakes. They sinned.

But they also represented symbolically the ultimate high priest, Jesus Christ. So when they sinned, there needed to be an atonement for their sins to represent the fact that Jesus Christ was righteous. So here was the instruction. Leviticus chapter 4 and verse 6. The priest shall dip his finger in the blood, this is the bull's blood, and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. So this sprinkling of the blood seven times pictured the total forgiveness of sin offered by Jesus Christ, who is the true high priest, and something that Jesus Christ himself would do in the future. He would shed his blood as the ultimate lamb of God. Going back a few chapters, we won't go there, but in Leviticus 16, on the day of atonement itself, the high priest would perform a similar ritual in the holy place. If we had time, we could look at chapters 12 through 16, and we could see that the number seven is often used to represent the completeness of healing. Now let's go to Leviticus chapter 23. Leviticus chapter 23, a scripture we're very familiar of, and maybe we haven't quite looked at it this way. The numbers of seven represented in multiple ways. Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 5, on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover, 14 days, or two sevens. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That's when it begins.

Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. This reflects the perfection of Christ's complete sacrifice. The feast occurs on the fourteenth day of the month. That's two sevens. The spring feast lasted another seven days, representing the ability of Jesus Christ, the bread of life, to put away all sin, to pay the price for our sin. That's a total, including to the end of the feast, of 21 days, three sevens.

Two sevens for the 14 days before Passover. The seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, the use of three sevens. Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 15, Another holy day you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheep of the wave offering. Seven Sabbaths shall be completed. So the Feast of Pentecost was to occur on the day after seven Sabbath weeks, or 49 days.

This represented God's complete acceptance of his first fruits and the outpouring of his spirit on all of those whom God calls. Representative, of course, on that first day of Pentecost. God says, these are my people. I seal them. It's my covenant with them. They are precious. They are special to me, represented by the number seven. They are sacred in my eyes. Their mission is holy. That's what the number seven represents. Dropping down to Leviticus 23 verse 34. Of course, we know there are more holy days in the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar than any other month. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.

So the Feast of Tabernacles is in the seventh month. It was the last for seven days. It symbolizes the completeness, the total establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. Not maybe, not perhaps, but a promise, an established totality of God's kingdom on this earth. Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 2. Speak to the children of Israel, saying to them, when you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit.

But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is the year of rest for the land.

We'll just stop right there. The Israelites were to remember the land that it also needed a Sabbath rest, permitting it to lie fallow in the seventh year. The sabbatical year represented a complete rest of the land, because the land needed to be renewed, it needed to be healed so that the following year it would receive the nutrients of that year, of what grew that year as the land was fallow, and it would be able to produce more.

Leviticus 25 and verse 8, something else attached to Sabbath years, and you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, and the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. And this example shows us, and again, multiples of seven, and they also frequently had symbolic meaning. The year of Jubilee came after the completion of every forty-nine years, and in the year of Jubilee, all Jewish bond slaves, or Hebrew bond slaves, were released from their debt.

And even if they sold their land to pay off a debt, they would get that land back, because it was originally part of their family's inheritance. It was part of society reshuffling the debt and giving those who were poor or disadvantaged a chance to bounce back and become part of a community and no longer be bond servants. Let's go to Deuteronomy 7 and verse 1. This is an interesting scripture that uses the number seven, because the nations that God mentions here in the mind of God represented the evil totality of pagan culture. These were cultures that sacrificed their children.

We have a different name for that today. But these were cultures that sacrificed their children to materialism and to their false gods. This is why God told them to do this. When the Lord your God, again, this is Deuteronomy 7 verse 1. When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, here they are, the Hittites, the Grgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.

You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them. It's interesting. God says these are seven nations. These are, in my mind, God says, the epitome of evil, of perversion, of degeneracy, and they need to go. Every part of their culture, every part of them, everything they believe, their religious structure, the incest within their cultures, the perversions, they need to be totally wiped out.

That's your job, Israel. But unfortunately, Israel didn't do that. And they sowed the seeds of their own destruction in the future. But it was a warning from God. It was a command from God that they disobeyed. Deuteronomy, Chapter 28, again, now this is kind of on the reverse sense. God says, when you come to me humble and you ask me to deliver you, and I decide that I'm going to deliver you, I'm going to do it completely.

Not partially, I'm going to do it completely. And here's how God says that. The Lord your God will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face. They shall come out against you one way and shall flee before you seven ways. So again, if Israel would obey God, he would give them total, complete victory, even over nations that were far greater. And mightier with technology or military might than they were. Joshua, Chapter 6 and Verse 4.

Let's take a look at the Battle of Jericho. Joshua, Chapter 6 and Verse 4. See how many sevens are in here because these represent, again, the fact that God would completely destroy this city, which was the gateway to getting into the Promised Land. It had towers. It was protected. It represented evil and paganism and the one large barrier that stopped Israel from entering fully into the Promised Land. And so here's how they're going to do it. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark, but the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times.

Think about the time seven are used in this last verse. And the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass when they make a long blast with a ram's horn. And when you hear the sound of the trumpet that all the people shall shout with a great shout, then the wall of the city will fall down flat.

And the people shall go up every man straight before him. Then Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priest and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord. And he said, Did the people proceed and march around the city and let him who was armed advance before the ark of the Lord? And so it was when Joshua had spoken to the people that the seven priests, bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord, advanced and blew the trumpets. And the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them.

We'll stop right there. Sure enough, the walls of the city came down. So this represents, again, this city represented a big barrier, a walled fortress that Israel needed to get beyond before it could fully enter the Promised Land. And all of these sevens represented the fact that God was going to do it and that the city was going to be destroyed completely and totally. Judges 16. Another one of my favorite stories.

I always like the biblical character Samson, but if I can be frank with you, he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. Before this event here in Judges 16, verse 17, three previous times, of course Delilah is offered money to find out where his strength comes from.

And three previous times, he's toying with her and he says it's one thing or another. And she startles him because she has Philistines waiting in another room to pounce on him. And three different times, she startles him to see if it's true what he told her. And he breaks the bonds and he still has his strength. And three times, she tries to fool him and he doesn't figure out that he's being used, that he's being manipulated.

So she continues the sweet talk of Samson, who obviously had a weakness for beautiful women.

And finally, here in verse 17, after three times, now this is the fourth time that he told her all his heart and said to her, No razor has ever come upon my head. I've been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, They hadn't come up once more. They hadn't come up this time because after three times they thought she was crying wolf, got tired of being in another room. The Philistines came up once more for he had told me that all is in his heart. So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. And then she lulled him to sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him and his strength left him. So that was the key. At that time he was powerless. He was arrested by the Philistines and we kind of know the rest of the story. And again, the strength, the seven locks, represented God's blessing. It represented his total strength given as a miraculous gift from God. Some of us are to the point in life where if we just have seven hairs left, we're happy. But he had seven locks of hair in his head that gave him strength. There are many other references to the number seven in the Old Testament and obviously in the time that we have we can't cover the overwhelming majority of them. But think of this. In the second Kings chapter four and verse thirty-five, Elisha healed a child and the child sneezed seven times after Elijah raised him from the dead.

Seven times represented total complete healing from death once again to life being made whole and complete. Proverbs chapter six mentions seven things that are detestable to the Lord. Proverbs chapter nine verse one mentions seven pillars of the house of wisdom. Remember the story in Daniel chapter three of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They wouldn't obey the priest's command and worship an idol. And it says here, quote, this is verse nineteen, the Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury. The expression of his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And he spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.

I want these people. I want to see shake and bake. I want them fried to a crisp. So hot that even the guards who got close to it were destroyed. But here the seven represented the fact of the anger of the king of Nebuchadnezzar. He wanted them totally dead. So those are examples in the Old Testament. How about a few in the New Testament? Let's take a look at Matthew chapter fifteen verse thirty-four. And we'll see the miracle of the loaves. Very profound meaning. In seven here and again, we usually don't pick this up when we read this story. Matthew chapter fifteen verse thirty-four, Jesus said to them, how many loaves do you have? And they said seven. And a few little fish. So he commanded the multitude to sit on the ground. And he took the seven loaves of the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to his disciples. And the disciples gave to the multitude, so they all ate and were filled. And they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. Now remember, the disciples wanted to send the multitudes away hungry. The seven loaves represented the good news, the message from the bread of life himself.

When he asked how many loaves you have, they had seven. His gospel message to that audience was absolutely, positively complete and filling as he gave the good news of the kingdom of God. The seven large baskets, remaining full of fragments, represent that that same message, there was plenty left over, would go to future generations who would hear the preaching of the gospel. A hundred years later, people were still being transformed by hearing the gospel message. A thousand years later, people were still being transformed by that large baskets full of fragments. The good news of the kingdom of God, their lives were still being changed. Two thousand years later, our lives have been changed, represented by the seven large baskets full of fragments that were left from the bread of life himself. The positive and encouraging news of the kingdom of God, it still changes lives to this very day. Mark 16, verse 9. Now when he rose early in the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons. So Jesus had cast out seven demons from someone who became one of his most devout and loyal disciples. She was going to go that day and visit the tomb. She didn't care what anyone thought. She didn't care if she'd be arrested, beaten, humiliated, mocked. She said, I'm gone. That's how loyal and devoted she was. The seven demons represented all of the evil forces in the world and Christ's total power over the spirits of darkness. That's what it means when it said she had seven demons. And they even manipulated the culture to cause his death. But he was resurrected from the dead. So he overcame Satan and this world. And the message here, and I oftentimes have people call me, oh, Mr. Thomas, I've really messed up. I've sinned. I've done something really foolish. I wonder if God can work with me. I wonder if God can forgive me. Even someone filled with evil spirits, seven demons could be healed, converted, and become a loyal disciple of Jesus Christ. That was Mary Magdalene, and that can be ourselves as well, upon repentance. Acts 6 and verse 3. Acts 6 and verse 3.

We've actually read about this account of the dispute in the early church between those who were Hellenistic widows and those who were Jewish widows and the controversy that occurred in the church. We're just going to take only a look at verse 3 here in context today. Brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. The number 7 here represents men of good reputation, and it symbolizes God's promise to provide for his church and never forsake it throughout history. As God is saying here, and this is the time of controversy, my church throughout history is going to go through a lot of trials, a lot of tribulations, a lot of problems, splits, heresies. It's going to be pressured on all sides until the day I return, but I promise one thing. I will always provide leadership for my church. And that's represented by asking for seven men of good reputation, seven leaders who would solve that problem, who would keep the church together in spite of its trials and difficulties. In this case, this literally could have torn the church apart and didn't. And it's God's promise that I will always provide leadership for my church when it's needed. I will never allow the gates of hell to prevail or destroy my church. Revelation, chapter 1 and verse 11. Just a few verses from Revelation. Revelation, chapter 1 and verse 11. Picking it up here, saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. And what you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. These churches all existed at the same time in history. To Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. Now the temple had one. Here each of these churches has, is represented by a golden lampstand. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the son of man representing Jesus Christ of self, clothed with a garment down to his feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. The seven churches here in Revelation, chapters 2 and 3 described here, are symbolized by seven lampstands. And much like the lampstand in the temple, with its seven branches, they were required, expected, to be a righteous spiritual light to the world. And those that aren't are given some pretty stern warnings here. These seven churches represent the complete end-time characteristics and challenges and attitudes of the church of God that exist. But again, the number seven is very profound here.

Revelation chapter 5 and verse 1. Revelation chapter 5 and verse 1. And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside, and on the back sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it, so I wept much. Because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals. And verse 6, when he looks, does he see a lion? No. Does he see something that's horrible, ferocious, vicious? No. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb, representing Jesus Christ the Lamb of God. As though it had been slain, the scars and the marks still on this lamb symbolically, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out in all the earth. These seven seals here represent the complete conclusion of mankind's rulership and some things that occur on the earth very powerfully and painfully before the return of Jesus Christ. The lamb here has seven horns that represent total authority, total complete kingship, omnipotent, all powerful. The seven eyes represent a God who is all-seeing through his angels who report back to him all knowing, omnipresent, able to see and know everything that goes on the earth and individually in our own lives.

All here again represented dominantly by the use of the number seven. Revelation 15, verse 1. Then I saw another sign in heaven, chapter 15, verse 1, great and marvelous seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete. These seven last plagues represent God's wrath poured out on a rebellious world in an attempt to bring it into submission to his laws and his commandments, and also providing justice for all the evil and sin and deviancy that's been committed on the earth.

Let's take a look now at Revelation, chapter 17, and verse 9, a prophecy about a powerful religious institution that will be united with secular governments. It says, here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are the seven mountains on which the woman sits.

There is a city on earth that's known as the seven-hilled city of Rome, and that's what this represents, in which the woman sits. The woman is a false religious organization, philosophy. There are also seven kings. This refers to the resurrection of the Roman Empire, seven resurrections of that original Roman Empire, five have fallen, one is and the other has not yet come. This refers, of course, to a beast power that's going to be created and united with that religious authority. When he comes, he must continue for a short time. So again, to recap this prophecy here, this is a prophetic time when a powerful Roman church merges with their religious influence with a European beast power, a military power. The woman has her own capital located on the seven hills of Rome. It's still there today, and it is the epitome of religious deception and evil in God's eyes. Also, throughout history, there have been seven resurrections, here referred to as kings, of the original Roman Empire. At the time of this prophecy, the sixth kingdom is about to fall and be replaced by a seventh and a final resurrection of the Roman Empire.

Well, there's one more scripture to be read. Just one. It's actually the last place that the number seven is used in the Bible, in the book of Revelation. And the interesting thing is, is amidst all of the terror of seven bulls and seven last plagues, it quickly changes the scene from something very negative and ugly and painful that must happen to this earth, to something that's very beautiful. So let's see what that is in Revelation 21, verse 9. The last place in scripture that seven is used. It says, then, one of the seven angels who had the seven bulls filled with the seven last plagues. It's kind of nasty. That's kind of discouraging. But the angel has some very powerful and encouraging news. This angel, who was one of the seven, who had the seven bulls filled with the seven last plagues, says there's hope. And here it is. He came to me and talked with me, saying, Come, and in spite of all of this negativity, in spite of all of this terror, I'm going to show you something beautiful.

Come, I will show you the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

So here, brethren, the seven angels, filled with seven last plagues, that were there to portray the absolute total destruction of the nations, punishment on this world, and mankind's rule coming to an end is replaced by the rule of the lamb and his wife, the church of God.

And this includes you. You are the lamb's wife. And we will be transformed from physical to spirit, and we will be the lamb's wife.

And after all the horrible events portrayed in the book of Revelation, following the Great's Revelation and then the Day of the Lord, there is a beautiful scene represented by three sevens, seven angels, seven bowls, seven last plagues, and that is the awful and beautiful vision of the lamb's wife. And that's you and your future destiny, and you are calling. And that is so encouraging. In conclusion, I'd like to mention just a few other multiples of seven that are emphasized in Scripture.

If you look at it closely and look at the accounts of the four Gospels, you will see that there were seven last phrases or words used by Jesus Christ as he was dying on the cross, sometimes referred to as the seven last words.

Jesus taught that forgiveness is not to be limited, and he used the number seven to prove his point. He said we are to forgive not merely seven times. Oh no! Seventy times seven, meaning limitless forgiveness, beyond even keeping count. That's how much we are to love one another.

There are seven parables in Matthew chapter 13. There are seven woes. Jesus said woe in Matthew 23.

If you examine the Gospel of John, you will see that Jesus said, I am. There are seven I am statements in which Jesus said, I am. And then followed that with a statement seven times in the Gospel of John.

If you were to look in the Old and New Testament and examine them, there are seven suicides mentioned in the Bible. We can all look forward to a day when that will totally and completely end and will stop.

We were reading the book of Revelation just very quickly. Here's the number seven used in the following in the book of Revelation. Golden lampstands, we read that. There are seven stars, seven torches of fire, seven seals, seven angels in their trumpets, seven last plagues, seven golden bulls, seven thunders, seven horns and eyes, seven diadoms, and seven kings.

So I hope that what we've been able to see today is that Scripture uses the number seven very powerfully, very symbolically, to represent, depending on the context, a number of things.

It can represent perfection. It can represent completion or fullness of an event. It can represent the absoluteness of a promise that God makes.

So God doesn't use numbers frivolously. He does things with a purpose. And I hope in the sermon today that we were able to see that there is an amazing number that is not just simply throughout Scriptures, but throughout our culture, throughout pagan cultures that has influenced the entire world. And that is the number seven. Be sure to have a wonderful Sabbath, and we look forward to seeing all of you a little bit later.

Thank you.