"The Significance of Sevens"

Give the Scriptures even a cursory reading and the number seven will appear over and over again, about--you guessed it--700 times!

Commonly known as 'the number of completeness or perfection', 'seven' derives much of its reputation from both the Book of Revelation (where it appears  54 times) and the Book of Genesis, where it's tied to creation.

In fact, the word created is used 7 times describing God's creative work in Genesis, along with a 7-day week and a 7th day Sabbath. And that's just for starters:

• Noah took 7 of every clean animal onto the ark...
• ...and after 7 days, it rained.
• Jacob served 7 years for Leah and 7 for Rachel.
• Egypt had 7 years of plenty and 7 of famine.
• There are 7 Feast Days on the Jewish calendar.

Jesus taught 7 parables in the Gospel of Matthew and performed 7 miracles on the Sabbath. Mary Magdalene had 7 devils cast out and one must forgive 70 times 7 times.

In the Book of Revelation there are:

• 7 churches
• 7 angels to the 7 churches
• 7 seals
• 7 trumpet judgments
• 7 bowl judgments
• 7 thunders
• a beast with 7 heads which are really 7 mountains on which a woman sits.

The number '7' is prominent in both the Old and New Testaments and signifies:

• God's perfection
• sovereignty
• holiness

All of nature is marked with patterns of '7'; for example:

• 7 basic musical notes
• 7 colors in a rainbow
• 7 directions (left, right, up, down, forward, back, and center
• 7 Wonders of the Ancient World
• 7 continents on the earth

'7' and its multiples permeate everything in and around us. The very cells in our bodies take 7 years to fully regenerate.

Even unbelievers associate the number '7' with good luck. What they may not realize is the association of the number '7' with God.

"Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."-- Genesis 2:3.

A wise man once said: "By God's blessed inactivity on this seventh day, He showed that He was satisfied with the work He had done." -- Moishe Rosen, Jews for Jesus

News:

• Fox News Channel: Massive Russian troop buildup on Ukraine border; Putin could invade at a moment's notice.
• CBS: Study: 'Small' nuclear war would destroy the world; relatively small regional conflict could spark global environment catastrophe.
• Reuters: Syria refugee crisis pose major threat to Lebanese stability.