What is the Biblical Significance of the Number Seven / 7?

What is the Biblical Significance of the Number 7? Throughout the

Bible, God often gives symbolic significance to mundane items or concepts. For example, in Genesis 9, 12 -16

God makes the rainbow the sign of His promise to Noah and by extension to all of mankind that He will not flood the whole earth again.

God uses bread as a representation of His presence with His people, of the gift of eternal life, and of the broken body of Christ, sacrificed for our sins.

The rainbow and the bread are obvious symbols in Scripture. Less obvious meanings seem to be attached to some numbers in the

Bible, especially the number 7, which at times provides a special emphasis in the text. The first use of the number 7 in the

Bible relates to the creation week in Genesis 1. God spends 6 days creating the heavens and the earth, and then rests on the 7th day.

This is our template for the 7 day week, observed around the world to this day. The 7th day was to be set apart for Israel, the

Sabbath was a holy day of rest. 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.

So we see the command for animals to be at least 7 days old before being used for sacrifice, the command for Leprous Naaman to bathe in the

Jordan River 7 times to effect complete cleansing, and the command for Joshua to march around Jericho for 7 days, and on the 7th day to make 7 circuits, and for 7 priests to blow 7 trumpets outside of the city walls.

In these instances, 7 signifies a completion of some kind, a divine mandate is fulfilled.

Interestingly, man was created on the 6th day of creation. In some passages of the Bible, the number 6 is associated with mankind.

In Revelation, the number of the beast is called the number of a man. That number is 666.

If God's number is 7, then man's is 6. 6 always falls short of 7, just like all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3 .23.

Man is not God, just as 6 is not 7. Series of 7 things crop up often in the

Bible. For example, we find 7 pairs of each clean animal on the ark, 7 stems on the tabernacle's lampstand, 7 qualities of the

Messiah in Isaiah 11 .2, 7 signs in John's Gospel, 7 things the

Lord hates in Proverbs 6 .16, 7 parables in Matthew 13, and 7 woes in Matthew 23.

Multiples of 7 also figure into the biblical narrative. The 70 week prophecy in Daniel 9 .24

concerns 490 years. Jeremiah 29 .10 predicted the Babylonian captivity would last for 70 years.

According to Leviticus 25 .8, the year of Jubilee was to begin after the passing of the 49th year.

Sometimes, the symbolism of 7 is great comfort to us. Jesus is the 7 -fold,

I am in the Gospel of John. Other times it challenges us. Jesus told

Peter to forgive a wrongdoer 70 times 7 times. And then there are passages in which the number 7 is associated with God's judgment, the 7 bulls of the

Great Tribulation, for example, or God's warning to Israel in Leviticus 26 .18. Speaking of the book of Revelation, the number 7 is used more than 50 times in a variety of contexts.

There are 7 letters to 7 churches in Asia and 7 spirits before God's throne, 7 golden lampstands, 7 stars in Christ's right hand, 7 seals of God's judgment, 7 angels, and 7 trumpets, etc.

In all likelihood, the number 7 again represents completeness or totality. The 7 churches represent the completeness of the body of Christ.

The 7 seals on the scroll represent the fullness of God's punishment of a sinful earth, and so on.

And of course, the book of Revelation itself, with all its 7's is the capstone of God's word to man.

With the book of Revelation, the word was complete. In all, the number 7 is used in the

Bible more than 700 times. If we also count the words related to 7, terms like 7 -fold, or 70, or 700, the count is still higher.

Of course, not every instance of the number 7 in the Bible carries a deeper significance. Sometimes a 7 is just a 7, and we must be cautious about attaching symbolic meanings to any text, especially when scripture is not explicit about such meanings.

However, there are times when it seems that God is communicating the idea of divine completeness, perfection, and wholeness by means of the number 7.