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.
