7

Someone asked me a few weeks ago why '7' was God's number. I wasn't sure that was the right way to say that, but certainly - from the seven days of Genesis in the beginning to the seven seals of Revelation at the end, Scripture is saturated with the number seven.

The word 'seven' occurs 287 times in the Bible. 'Seventh' happens 98 times. 'Seven-fold' is written 7 times. Just a bit of trivia - or maybe it's more than that, but those numbers are all factors of the number 7. Kind of weird, like the fact that President Abraham Lincoln's secretary was Mrs. Kennedy and President John Kennedy's secretary was Mrs. Lincoln - like John Wilkes Booth (President Lincoln's assassin) shot the president in a theatre and was caught in a book depository - and Lee Harvey Oswald (President Kennedy's assassin) shot the president from a book depository and was caught in a theatre.

In the Hebrew, seven is 'shevah.' It is from the root 'savah', to be full or satisfied, to have enough of. So on the seventh day God rested from the work of Creation. It was full and complete, good and perfect. Nothing could be added to it or taken from it without marring it. From that comes the word "Shabbath," Sabbath, or day of rest.

Most Biblical scholars, regardless of their stance regarding the meaning of numbers in Scripture, have recognized its significance. It is impossible to miss.

- God rested on the seventh day.

- Noah took every clean beast and bird onto the ark by sevens.

- God blesses Abraham with a seven-fold blessing (Genesis 12).

- Jacob served seven years for Leah and then seven years for Rachel.

- Egypt had seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.

- God makes a seven-fold covenant with Israel (Exodus 6).

- In Leviticus, the priests are told to sprinkle the blood of the offering seven times before the Lord.

- Joshua was told to march the Israelites seven times around the city of Jericho.

- Elisha instructed Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan RIver to be healed of his leprosy.

- David sang: "Seven times a day do I praise You, O God" (Psalm 119).

- In Proverbs, there are seven things detestable to the Lord.

- The New Testament has the miracle of seven loaves and fishes feeding 4,000 men with seven baskets full left over (Matthew 15).

- Jesus says to forgive seventy times seven.

Whatever you might believe, seven certainly gives a sense of persistence. Jesus said: "If someone sins against you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times asking for forgiveness, you should grant it." If Naaman had washed only four times in the Jordan River and then said, "Aw, this isn't working - just forget it," he wouldn't have been healed.

And remember ... 'Though the upright fall seven times, they get up again' (Proverbs 24:16).

And be blessed.

And be blessed.

And be blessed.

And be blessed.

And be blessed.

And be blessed.

And be blessed.