THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEVEN

The Bible is beyond amazing - it is supernatural!  Authored by God and written by at least forty souls (2 Pet. 1:21) over a period of hundreds of years, its message remains constant:  God wants to share Himself in fellowship with man (1 Cor. 1:9).  However, God is holy (Ps. 99:9), and man is not (Rom. 3:23)!  So, God, motivated by His own nature (God IS love! - 1 Jn. 4:8), sent His Son who willingly exchanged His own righteousness for our sin (2 Cor. 5:21), so that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8)!

It is interesting how a book, written by so many, over so long a period, can be studied for a lifetime, and still provide new and incredible things to its students!  For instance, today as I was preparing to write, I discovered the word "seven" appears fifty-four times in the last book of the Bible:  the Book of Revelation.  That is more times than all the rest of the New Testament books combined!  And ironically, it is the exact same number of times it appears in the first book of the Bible:  the Book of Genesis! 

"Seven" is the number of wholeness; it always relates to something that is entirely complete.  God's Word begins and ends with two identical settings:  a perfect, complete home for mankind (the Garden of Eden - Gen. 1-2; the New Earth - Rev. 21-22)!  With that in mind, I wanted to look at what all the "sevens" in Revelation represent; here they are:

*     Churches/Candlesticks - 1:4, 11, 13, 20; 2:1.
*     Spirits - 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6.
*     Lamps - 4:5.
*     Stars/Angels - 1:16, 20; 2:1; 3:1; 8:2, 6; 15:1, 6, 7, 8; 16:1; 17:1; 21:9.
*     Seals - 5:1, 5.
*     Horns/Heads/Crowns/Mountains/Kings - 5:6; 12:3; 13:1; 17:3, 7, 9, 10, 11.
*     Eyes - 5:6.
*     Trumpets - 8:2, 6.
*     Thunders - 10:3, 4.
*     Thousand - 11:13.
*     Last Plagues/Vials - 15:1, 6, 7, 8; 17:1; 21:9.

Before you read the Book of Revelation again, you might want to study each of these "sevens" in order to better understand what God is saying through the Apostle John.  Revelation is filled with symbolism, but the vast majority of the symbols are explained or identified within the book itself.

Revelation was written to be understood (Rev. 22:6, 7, 10, 16, 18)!!!!!!!