A Revelation Invitation

(Part 1 of “Seven” is posted here.)

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:11-12 ESV)

In my previous post I showed that the number 7 in Scripture often symbolizes completeness. So when reading a passage like Proverbs 26:13 which declares, “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly” (ESV), we understand that the sluggard is so sure of his own understanding that he will not heed advice even when it is indisputable.

How many of Revelation’s sevens did you uncover? Here are some of the major ones:

• Seven churches – representative of all churches everywhere.
• Seven spirits of God – the Holy Spirit, fully God.
• Seven horns on the Lamb – showing that Christ rules with all authority.
• The Lamb has seven eyes – Christ is omniscient, he sees all things, nothing escapes his notice.
• Seven trumpets – God fully warns the world of his coming judgments, announced so clearly that men are without excuse.
• Seven golden bowls of God’s wrath – God’s judgment is thorough and complete upon the world. No one deserving of condemnation will escape.
• The dragon has seven heads with seven crowns on the heads – A parody of the authority of the Lamb. He claims to have all authority, but will be found lacking.

Through the images and symbols of these sevens, John imprints on our minds truths that words alone cannot. With our minds’ eyes we picture his wonders and are left astonished, moved to greater faith and action.

Not all sevens in Revelation can be uncovered using a concordance or a BibleGateway search. Did you know that there are seven beatitudes in Revelation? The first one is, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near” (Revelation 1:3 ESV). I’ll leave it to you to discover the other six. You will find that a study of those seven beatitudes to be most rewarding.

Another example not uncovered through a concordance is found in the passage at the top of this post. Before reading on, reread it and see if you find the seven. Revelation is a book of contrasts. And in this context God receives from his creation blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power and might—seven characteristics of God that we should attribute to him alone, the very praise that Caesar in John’s day and most political leaders in ours illegitimately crave from their subjects. But God alone is worthy of all praise. There is no praise to spare for Caesar or anyone else in heaven or on earth. We should direct all our praise to God.

Seven. The number of completeness. A beautiful way to stress God’s nature and his working in our world.

Lord God Almighty, you alone are worthy of blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might. If my heart is divided, help me surrender to you and you alone. Thank you for revealing things in Revelation in such a vivid and moving way. Amen.