Biblical numbers --- seven

And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. (Joshua 6:4)

In the Bible, numbers have spiritual significance. Of all the biblical numbers, seven is the most familiar because it appears about 600 times. Seven denotes spiritual perfection. It means divine fulness, completeness and totality. It comes from a Hebrew word meaning “to be full,” “to be satisfied,” and “to have enough.

Many times seven is important as a symbol rather than as an actual number. Whenever you read seven, it does not always literally mean seven things or seven occurrences. It is symbolic of the whole or the completion or the ideal situation or the perfect picture of things. Seven constitutes a complete cycle.

One of the most profound examples of the use of the symbolic number seven is related to the fall of Jericho in the Joshua 6:1-20. Notice how many sevens appear in the scripture above. The use of the number seven simply means fulfillment or enough. Enough priests blew the trumpets and enough people marched around the walls enough times for the walls to come tumbling down.

Revelation, the last book of the Bible that completes the word of God contains more sevens than any of the other books. There are seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven personages, seven vials, seven woes, and seven new things. Additionally, there are seven glories of the Son of Man, and seven blessings. The word “Jesus” is found seven times, “Jesus Christ” seven times and the wrath of God seven times.

In just one verse in Isaiah 11:2, the Holy Spirit rested on Jesus in seven distinct ways: Spirit of God, wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge, and fear of God. Our desire should be that the Holy Spirit will rest within us in the same seven ways.