Seven seven seven

Originally posted on July 07, 2007 – by Andre Piet

It has likely not escaped your notice that today is the seventh day, of the seventh month, of the seventh year.

Of all the numbers in the Bible, the number seven may well be the most striking. It begins already in Genesis 1: on the seventh day God had completed His work and therefore sanctified this day. The seventh year is a sabbatical year, in which the land was to rest. After seven times seven (sabbatical) years, the jubilee year would commence. From the day of the first sheaf of the barley harvest, seven sabbaths had to be counted, and then came the ‘feast of weeks’. In Daniel we read the prophecy that within a period of seventy year-weeks (= seventy times seven years), the Messianic era would begin. Naaman had to go under seven times in the Jordan. Israel had to march around Jericho for seven days, and on the seventh day seven times. In Revelation there is mention of seven churches, seven seals, seven bowls. And so on, and so forth.

The Tenach, our Old Testament, contains according to the Hebrew count twenty-two books, and together with the twenty-seven books of the ‘New Testament’, this gives a total of seven times seven books. “The sayings of YHWH are pure sayings… refined sevenfold” (Psalm 12:7). Very striking is that the root meaning of the Hebrew word for ‘seven’ (seba) is ‘satisfaction’ (e.g., in Lev. 25:19 also translated that way). The number seven stands for fullness, completion, and therefore also for satisfaction. Just as six is the number of man (think of 666, and man was also created on the sixth day), so seven is the number of Him who also completes everything He begins.

The world entirely misses the seven of fullness and satisfaction. Understandably so, for it does not know the God who guarantees it. The world worries about the future of ‘mother earth’. Is it not telling that this day, 07-07-07, is globally marked by concern over global warming? On all seven (!) continents, famous pop artists are giving concerts to reach billions of people with the message that humanity must combat climate change. Which, in my view, is an absurdity, because the human factor in global warming is virtually nil (click here). Climate fluctuations are a completely natural phenomenon. During the centuries around the year one thousand, the global average temperature was even a few degrees warmer than it is now. The North Pole was even ice-free! But man likes to convince himself that he is very important, and hand in hand with that comes the idea that he must worry about the future of the earth. Completely unnecessary, for according to the Bible this earth is guaranteed to last another thousand years. Indeed, I am speaking of the coming seventh Millennium.
God is going to save this world… that’s what I like to think about on 7-7-7.

P.S. Shortly after I wrote this weblog, I read in the newspaper that the organization running the worldwide concerts is called SOS. Save Our Selves. Very telling!

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