A Revelation Invitation

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21-22 ESV)

Even to a reader new to the Bible, it’s pretty obvious that there is some wordplay going on in this exchange between Peter and Jesus. While Peter may have meant the number seven literally, Jesus was clearly stressing a greater principle. That Peter even used the number seven shows that he had some appreciation for its symbolic meaning even if missing the point of forgiveness. In Jesus’ rejoinder he calls Peter to forgive seventy-seven times multiplying the symbolism of seven to stress the necessity for complete forgiveness.

Think about some of the famous sevens in Scripture: Seven days of creation (Genesis 1); Jacob served Laban seven years for Rachel (Genesis 29); Pharaoh’s dream of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of drought (Genesis 41); no unleavened bread for the seven days leading up to Passover (Exodus 12); the seventh day is a Sabbath rest to the Lord (Exodus 20:8-11); the Israelites’ encircled Jericho for seven days before its walls fell (Joshua 6); Elisha instructed the leper Naaman to wash in the Jordan seven times (2 Kings 5); and Revelation is written to seven churches in Asia (Revelation 1:10-11). Seven meant something to their literature and culture. And we can infer its meaning from this list and other passages. But one verse that’s fairly explicit is in Psalm 12.

The words of the Lord are pure words,
  like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
  purified seven times. (Psalm 12:6 ESV)

Hebrew poetry (think Job, Psalms, Proverbs and much of the prophets) were often written in couplets. The two lines of the couplet were sometimes set against each other to emphasize a contrast between to ideas or things. More often, as is the case in Psalm 12:6, they words of the first line parallel the second to enhance a concept or quality. Above we read that the Lord’s words are pure. How pure? As if they had been refined in a furnace seven times. Ore that has been refined seven times is expected to be completely pure. In light of this Jesus’ wordplay with Peter (above) the significance of the number seven begins to make sense. When Jesus said to forgive your brother seventy-seven times, we know that Peter would have received the message loud and clear, “Forgive your brother completely. There is no limit on forgiveness.”

Now we can turn our attention to Revelation where even a casual reading reveals the number seven to be scattered throughout the book. How many of these sevens can you think of? List some in the comments. Not all of the sevens can be discovered simply by searching on the word seven. Can you think of any of the more subtle uses of seven in Revelation? I’d love to see what you come up with. I will discuss the sevens of Revelation in my next post.

(Part 2 of “Seven” is posted here.)