Hey guys. The number seven in the Bible.
What does it mean exactly? Is it just a number?
Is there more to it? Why is the world obsessed with the number seven?
We have the seven wonders of the world, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,
the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the mausoleum at Halicarnassus,
the Collossus of Rhodes, and the lighthouse of Alexandria.
And have you heard about the seven liberal arts
that formed the foundation of learning of medieval education?
Which includes the Trivium, which is grammar, logic, and rhetoric?
And also the Quadrivium, which is arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy?
Some also say that each side of the Great Pyramid of Giza represents one of the seven
planetary forces or that the seven steps of the pyramid symbolizes the stages of spiritual ascent.
Then there are the seven deadly sins, according to the Catholics.
Pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, sloth, and greed.
Why does our week have seven days? Some say it's named according to the
seven planets. Sunday Sun.
Monday Moon.
Tuesday Mars.
Wednesday Mercury.
Thursday Jupiter.
Friday Venus.
and Saturday Saturn.
And why do people think that the number seven is lucky?
Used for gambling, especially when we look at the gambling machines?
Many religions use the number seven. The Quran speaks of seven heavens.
And Muslim pilgrims walk around the Kaaba in Mecca seven times.
In Hinduism, there are seven higher worlds and seven underworlds.
In Buddhism, the newborn buddha rises and takes seven steps.
In Chinese culture, seven represents the yin
and yang combined with the five elements of water, fire, earth, wood, and metal.
The ancient Babylonians considered the number seven as magical.
There are also seven colors in the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
The number seven is also a prime number, meaning it is only divisible by one and itself.
And there are seven basic mathematical operations - addition, subtraction, multiplication, division,
exponentiation, square root, and factorial. The number seven is almost everywhere you
look, even in our stories. In fairy tales and folklore.
It is common to have seven dwarfs - seven princesses.
The lucky number seven concept is found in numerous stories,
where the seventh son or the seventh of something is bestowed with special powers or blessings.
There is so much more, like the average human who can remember basically seven things.
That's why the phone numbers that we use basically just have seven numbers.
It's about our memory capacity, and it's also the most popular number.
The mathematician Alex Bellos asked 44,000 people to name their favorite number and most
people chose seven. Let's stop here.
Why is the number seven so special and is it really special?
To find out the truth, we need to go to the source of absolute truth, which is the Bible.
The most famous book in the world. And we're gonna go to the beginning.
[Genesis 1:1]
How much time did God take to create the world? Six and on the seventh day, He rested.
And that's why the seventh day is special.
That is why we still have today seven days in a week.
That is where it all started. The seventh day is unique from the other six
days and God even said to the Nation of Israel, this is the sabbath that ye should keep holy.
[Deuteronomy 5:12]
Now, right through the Bible we see that God uses the number seven but He uses it symbolically.
So don't think that the number seven is something special.
And there's power in the number. And you write it on paper.
And put it in the house and think that it will bring you some kind of luck or something. As
Christians, we don't believe in luck. We believe in God's divine will
and blessing for our lives. But it is interesting that we see
that God uses normal things symbolically to explain certain things to us humans.
He uses them as signs. For example, the wine as His blood.
The bread as His life. And new life for us.
The rainbow as a sign that He will not flood the Earth again.
Now in this modern world that we live in, people use the rainbow for something else but when I see
the rainbow, I think about the flood. And the promise God made to us.
The Lion of Judah - referring to Christ the Messiah.
The snake on the stick of the Old Testament, referring to Christ on the cross.
A lamp stand, which symbolizes the people of Israel.
And the list goes on. The number seven is
first used for the day of rest. A day that should be set apart.
Holy, according to what He commanded the nation of Israel.
So it shows us something that is done. Perfect.
Complete. He created the whole world in six days.
The seventh day - it was a day of rest. It was done.
Completed. It was perfect.
And this theme of what the number seven means - we can see that right through the whole Bible.
And it's also interesting that He uses the number seven for the following things.
The seven churches in Revelation 2-3. Seven spirits of God in Revelation 4 verse 5.
And in Isaiah, the prophet speaks of the sevenfold Spirit of God that will rest upon the Messiah,
representing the fullness of the Holy Spirit's attributes in Isaiah 11.
Then we have the seven miracles in the Gospel of John, Chapter 2 to 11.
The seventh day after the rain stopped that Noah sent out a dove from the ark.
The seven days of Jericho's fall in Joshua 6:1-20.
The seven seals, trumpets and bowls in Revelation 6.
Seven years of plenty and famine in the time of Joseph.
Seven loaves and fishes in Matthew 15. Seven parables of the Kingdom in Matthew 13.
The seven sevens and seventy sevens in the prophecy of Daniel 9.
The seven powerful lost statements of Jesus in Luke 23 and John 19, which
include Father forgive them, and it is finished. The seven pairs of clean animals in Genesis 7.
Elisha, who told Naman, to wash himself seven times in the Jordan to be healed from leprosy.
King Nebuchadnezzar heated the furnace seven times hotter before
throwing Daniel's friends into it in Daniel 3. In Acts 6, the apostles appointed seven men known
as the seven deacons to serve and distribute food among the early Christian community.
Alright, let's just stop there for a moment, because that's a lot.
And the number seven is actually used over 700 times in the Bible.
We won't be able to cover all of it in this video.
Sometimes the number seven is just used because it happens to be seven things of something.
We should be careful not to add our own interpretation of what the number seven means.
That's dangerous. We should never add to scripture.
You know, some people get obsessed with certain things, like the number seven or
the end times or the Sabbath or oil or now blowing the ram's horn of the Israelites,
or suddenly they blame everything on the devil instead of dealing with their own sinful flesh.
In this way, you can get distracted on one thing so much that the devil has you.
Because you're so distracted on this one thing, the whole time
that you're forgetting the whole bible. To read it in a healthy and balanced way.
To look at all truth and to connect the dots through that way.
It is dangerous to just read what you want to focus on the whole time.
If there are parts of the Bible that you feel uncomfortable with and don't want to read,
it that is probably a sign that you need work in that area of your life.
And that you actually need to read it and understand that part of scripture
because that's where you lack. You need to grow in that area.
You can't ignore certain verses in the Bible just because you feel uncomfortable with it.
You can't change the Word to mean something it doesn't mean to fit in with your lifestyle.
How you want to live your life. You are now a reborn Christian.
You need to deny your old sinful lifestyle. Your old self.
You now follow Jesus Christ. He lives in you and through you.
That means you need to change your lifestyle according to scripture.
And not just those parts of scripture that you like.
All of scripture. Now, back to the number seven.
I covered this series where I talked about the book of Revelation,
a four-part series. And it's interesting how the number seven is used in the book of Revelation.
There are references to the seven churches - seven spirits of God - seven seals - seven
trumpets - and seven bowls - among other symbolic occurrences.
These repetitions of the number seven in the book of Revelation is almost like they
are highlighting to us the completion and perfection of God's ultimate plan.
His plan of redemption and judgment. The number seven points to Holiness.
Completion to divine order. To perfection.
It ultimately points to God. And our aim is to strive to be like Him.
To live like Jesus. You need to remember
a lot of people complain today about the devil this and the devil of this and my sinful nature.
Yes, some of those things are true. But we forget that we are already
victorious through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, His work on the cross is complete.
It is done. It is perfect.
We are now saved through the blood of Jesus Christ.
And after three days He was raised from the dead. And our aim is to strive to be like Jesus.
To live like He lived. You know, a lot of Christians
complain, and they're they're stuck in their comfort zones because they do not walk in the
truth of scripture that says that they have already received all spiritual blessings.
They don't know how to access it and that is because they are still living in their flesh.
Just through their soul level. But you have been given God's Spirit,
and you need to live in and through the Spirit. God has not given us a Spirit of fear,
but of power, of love, and self-control. That means that we are victorious through Christ.
The devil cannot do anything to you if you rebuke the devil.
You resist him. Of course you have to submit to God.
But then if you resist the devil, he will flee from you.
A lot of Christians, they give too much to the devil.
Stand your ground. Stand firm in the faith.
Act like men and women of Christ. Children of God.
If you are victorious in Christ, then live that way.
[1 John 2:6]
[1 Peter 2:21]
Now, this was a video request.
Some of you asked me to make a video about the number seven.
If you have any more questions because a lot of you come to me with questions
and don't realize that I already have videos about what you're actually asking,
we've created this whole playlist here. There's a spiritual growth playlist.
And there's one with questions and answers. Watch these videos.
I'll see you there. And always remember, God loves you.
And I love you, too. Bye.