THE SEVENTH — NUMBER OF PERFECTION
By G. Edward Reid
1. WEEK OF DAYS — a. Memorial of Creation. b. Ceremonial sabbaths
2. WEEK OF WEEKS — linking the Spring Feast days (from Wave-sheaf to Pentecost).
3. WEEK OF MONTHS — of the Scared Year in which all Annual Feast days occur.
4. WEEK OF YEARS — the Sabbatical Year or Year of Release.
5.WEEK OF WEEKS OF YEARS — the 49th year ended the cycle.
6. WEEK OF DECADES — a. Seventh decade (70 years) b. 7 x 7 decades — 490 years
7. WEEK OF MILLENNIUMS — 7 Millenniums — 7000 years: the 7th being the 1000-year Millennium of rest for this world.
Introduction
The following statements show that God has allowed only 6000 years for the demonstration of sin and the period will be immediately followed by the 1000 years of the Millenium which is the great Sabbath of rest for the earth.
"A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations. He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that are wicked to the sword.’ Jer.15: 31. FOR SIX THOUSAND YEARS THE GREAT CONTROVERSY HAS BEEN IN PROGRESS: The Son of God and His heavenly messengers have been in conflict with the power of the evil one, to warn, enlighten, and save the children of men. Now all have made their decisions; the wicked have fully united with Satan in his warfare against God. The time has come for God to vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law. Now the controversy is not alone with Satan, but with men. The Lord hath a controversy with the nations’ ‘He will give them that are wicked to the sword.’ " GC 656.
"For SIX THOUSAND YEARS, Satan’s work of rebellion has ‘made the earth tremble.’ He has ‘made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof.’ And he ‘opened not the house of his prisoners.’ For SIX THOUSAND YEARS His PRISON HOUSE HAS RECEIVED God’s people, and he would have held them captive forever; but Christ has broken his bonds and set the prisoners free.
"Even the wicked are now placed beyond the power of Satan, and alone with his evil angels he remains to realize the effect of the curse which sin has brought. ‘The kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory everyone in his own house (the grave). But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch…Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people.’ Isa. 14:18-20.
"The great plan of redemption results in fully bringing back the world into God’s favor. All that was lost by sin is restored. Not only man but the earth is redeemed, to be the eternal abode of the obedient. For SIX THOUSAND YEARS Satan has struggled to maintain possession of the earth. Now God’s original purpose in its creation is accomplished. ‘The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.’ Dan. 7:18. PP 342
- Seventh-day Sabbath.
"Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God…for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hollowed it." Ex. 20:9-11.
The seventh day Sabbath was not a type to pass away with the death of Christ. It is the SEAL OF God imbeded in the very center of the holy ten commandments, the MORAL LAW.
This week of seven days which was established in Eden spans all time and covers all history. It is only the seventh day Sabbath (which begins Friday evening at sundown) that marks off the week. It is deeply engraven in the history of God’s saints. Over 300 thousand Sabbaths line the road of the people of God, each as it were, pointing with out-stretched hand, like so many guide-posts, each in the same direction to the eternal city. Each is proclaiming in overwhelming testimony, "It is therefore the duty of the people of God to KEEP THE SABBATH." Heb. 4:9.
- Ceremonial sabbaths.
These are a prophecy of seventh day Sabbath’s ("a shadow of ‘seventh-day Sabbath’s to come." Col. 2:17). They may come on various days of the week each year because of their being calculated from the new moon. These ceremonial Sabbath’s are highly significant when aligning with seventh-day Sabbaths. In the Bible this occurrence was termed "an high day." John 19:31.
This period is found between the Passover and Pentecost and begins on the 16th day of the first Jewish month of the Sacred Year. The first month of the year must be calculated by the new moon nearest the time of the barley harvest. In the Holy Land, barley ripens around the middle of April. "And ye shall count unto you, from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath…" Leviticus 23:15, 16.
The annual feasts within Israel’s sacred year prefigured the history of redemption. This occupied a week of months. This period comprised the first seven months of the year. They began with the Passover; this was on the "fourteenth day of the first month." Lv. 23:5. The last feast was held in the seventh month and at its conclusion the sacred year closed. (See Patriarchs and Prophets 358, 540; Great Controversy 421.) Thus the period for holy annual gatherings was seven in character, a week of months.
In the plan of God the land was also to keep a Sabbath. The Lord said in Leviticus. 25:2-4, "When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord." The servant was likewise to serve six years and go free on the seventh. "Six years he shall serve; and the seventh he shall go out free." Exodus. 21:2.
This period of years had an exact beginning and ending year. The sequence of this has been recorded and is still on record. AD 26 was a Sabbatical year, making 1986 also a Sabbatical year.
"Thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years." Leviticus. 25:8.
This larger week was similar in character to the others, having an exact beginning and ending year and at its close, bondage, debt, and poverty passed away. AD 26 ended one of these cycles. Then came the JUBILEE of rest, joy, and liberty.
- Seventh Decade
In Psalms 90:10, we find the law of weeks embraces all, both Jew and Gentile. "The days of our years are threescore and ten." Human life is a week—a week of decades.
- The Week of Weeks of Decades
Dan. 9:24 states "Seventy weeks" or as the Septuagint Version "Seventy weeks of years" or 490 years were allotted to the Jewish nation, so even in this scale of the centuries God has again adhered to the law of sevens. It is a week of weeks of decades.
Rev. 20 "the thousand years" are mentioned in this chapter six times, the 1000 years follows the 6000 years of sin. It will be the Sabbath Millennium when the saints "live and reign with Christ a thousand years." Meanwhile, Satan is on a desolated earth. Then the earth will keep its Sabbath. God sent Israel into captivity because they "transgressed very much," "They mocked the messengers of God and despised His words and misused His prophets" 2 Chron. 36:14, 16. They had brushed aside God’s Sabbath so God removed them. This was "to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land enjoyed the sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath." 2 Chronicles. 36:21.
"The Jewish nation is before us as an example of the termination of God’s long forbearance. In the destruction of Jerusalem the destruction of the world is typified." S.D.A. Bible Commentary. V. 3, pg. 1133.
For six thousand years our Lord’s holy day has been trampled underfoot. For the seventh thousand year period it lies desolate. "for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath." 2 Chronicles. 36:21.
The number seven occurs often in Scripture. Here is a list of some of the better known Bible references to seven:
Seven days of creation;
Seven days before the flood the animals came into the ark;
Seven days Noah and his family stayed in the ark before the rain started;
Seven fat and seven skinny cows, and seven healthy ears of corn and seven withered ears of corn in Pharaoh’s dream;
Seven years times two that Jacob worked for Rachel;
Seven times that Elijah prayed on Mt. Carmel before the rain came;
Seven times Naaman dipped in the Jordan river to be healed;
Seven "sabbaths of years" before the great year of release—the jubilee;
Seven days the Israelities marched around Jericho with seven priests with seven trumpets and then seven times on the seventh day;
Seven years Nebuchadnezzar was humiliated before all the world;
Seven times ten weeks set apart for the Jews;
Seven times the priest cast the blood of the sacrifice toward the temple;
Seven eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth;
Seven times seventy that we are to extend forgiveness;
Seven devils cast out of Mary Magdalene;
Seven deacons chosen to help with the work of the church;
Seven churches representing seven characteristics and time periods in the history of the Christian church;
Seven golden candlesticks;
Seven stars in God’s right hand;
Seven angels;
Seven thunders;
Seven trumpets;
Seven seals;
Seven last plagues;
Seven hills surrounding the New Jerusalem;
Seven pillars supporting the temple; and
Seven crowns of Jesus—crowns within a crown.
Why is the number seven used so often? Is there some mathematical reason? Are multiples of seven in any way significant in nature? We base our time calculations from the movements of the heavenly bodies and the stars. We call the orbit of Earth around the sun over a time period of 365 days a year. A month is measured by the moon’s orbit around the earth every 30 days. And a day passes when the earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours.
But what heavenly body determines the weekly cycle? There is none. There is no mathematical formula or principle that establishes a week. It is based solely upon the weekly cycle established by God at Creation and memorialized by Him in the Sabbath celebration. There simply is no other explanation.
If God had asked us how many days there should be in a week we probably would have chosen five or six, because they both divide evenly into a thirty-day month. But God chose seven days for a week, because to Him that number symbolizes completeness. This completeness is demonstrated both in creation and redemption.
The March 20, 1879, issue of the Signs of the Times, contained an article by Ellen G. White entitled "Disguised Infidelity," which dealt with the Creation week and the seven principle.
"The first week, in which God performed the work of creation in six days and rested on the seventh day, was just like every other week. The great God, in His days of creation and day of rest, measured off the first cycle as a sample for successive weeks till the close of time. ‘These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created.’ God gives us the result of His work on each of the days of creation. each day was accounted of Him a generation, because every day He generated, or produced some new portion of His work. On the seventh day of the first week God rested from His labor, and then blessed the day of His rest, and set it apart for the use of man. The weekly cycle of seven literal days, six for labor and the seventh for rest, which has been preserved and brought down through Bible history, originated in the great facts of the first seven days.
"When God spoke His law with an audible voice from Sinai, He introduced the Sabbath by saying, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ He then declares definitely what shall be done on the six days, and what shall not be done on the seventh, he next gives the reason for thus observing the week, by pointing us back to His example on the first seven days of time. ‘For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hollowed it.’ This reason appears beautiful and forcible when we understand the record of creation to mean literal days. The first six days of each week are given to man in which to labor, because God employed the same period of the first week in the work of creation. The seventh day God has reserved as a day of rest, in commemoration of His rest during the same period of time after He had performed the work of creation in six days.
"But the infidel supposition, that the events of the first week required seven vast, indefinite periods for their accomplishment, strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It makes indefinite and obscure that which God has made very plain. It is the worst kind of infidelity; for with many who profess to believe in the record of creation, it is infidelity in disguise. It charges God with commanding men to observe the week of seven literal days in commemoration of seven indefinite periods, which is unlike His dealings with mortals, and is an impeachment of His wisdom.
"Infidel geologists claim that the world is very much older than the Bible record makes it. They reject the testimony of God’s word because of those things which are to them evidences from the earth itself that it has existed tens of thousands of years. And many who profess to believe the Bible are at a loss to account for wonderful things which are found in the earth, with the view that creation week was only seven literal days, and that the world is now only about six thousand years old. These, to free themselves from difficulties thrown in their way by infidel geologists, adopt the view that the six days of creation were six vast, indefinite periods, and the day of God’s rest was another indefinite period; making senseless the fourth commandment of God’s holy law. Some eagerly receive this position; for it destroys the force of the fourth commandment, and they feel a freedom from its claims upon them." (Spiritual Gifts, vol. 3, p. 9)
Five years later, in a Signs of the Times article entitled "The Creation Sabbath," Ellen G. White makes the following statement: "When God created the earth and placed man upon it, He divided time into seven periods. Six He gave to man for his own use, to employ in secular business: one He reserved for Himself. Having rested on the seventh day, He blessed and sanctified it. Henceforth, the seventh day was to be regarded as the Lord’s rest day, and to be sacredly observed as the memorial of His creative work. It was not the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth day that was sanctified, or set apart to a holy use, neither was it a seventh part of time and no day in particular; but it was the seventh day, the day upon which God had rested. We are every day to think of God and live as in His sight; but when the six days’ work is done, we are to ‘remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’—to cease from labor and devote the day exclusively to meditation and worship." (Signs of the Times, Feb. 28,1884)
Once the cycle of seven was established at Creation God used it in other ways in dealing with man. He used it not only every seventh day but also every seventh year. "Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land." (Leviticus 25:3-5)
God even took further steps to emphasize the cycle of seven in the fiftieth year Jubilee which, of course, was preceded by seven times seven years. "And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family." (Leviticus 25:8-10)
Do we have any clues as to why God chose seven for His "cycle number"? I believe we do.
"Christ fulfilled still another feature of the type. ‘His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men; so shall He sprinkle many nations.’ Isaiah 52:14. In the Temple service, when the animal brought as a sacrifice was slain, the high priest, clothed in white robes, caught in his hand the blood that gushed forth, and cast it in the direction of the tabernacle or Temple. This was done seven times, as an expression of perfection. So Christ, the great antitype, Himself both High Priest and Victim, clothed with His own spotless robes of righteousness, after giving His life for the world, cast the virtue of His offering, a crimson current, in the direction of the holy place, reconciling man to God through the blood of the cross." (Manuscript Released, vol. 12, p. 397)
With regard to the number of times one should forgive another, the significance of the number seven again is pointed out. "Peter had come to Christ with the question, ‘How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ The rabbis limited the exercise of forgiveness to three offenses. Peter, carrying out, as he supposed the teaching of Christ, thought to extend it to seven, the number signifying perfection. But Christ taught that we are never to become weary of forgiving. Not ‘until seven times seven,’ He said, ‘but, until seventy times seven." (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 243)
We are also told, "The names of the seven churches are symbolic of the church in different periods of the Christian Era. The number seven indicates completeness, and is symbolic of the fact that the messages extend to the end of time, while the symbols used reveal the condition of the church at different periods in the history of the world." (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 585) It is very significant in light of this statement that we, by common consensus in our church, recognize that we are living in the time of the Laodicean church—the very last one in the cycle.
By looking at the seven principle we can see that:
God uses the number seven throughout the Bible as a cycle or chronological sequence;
The seven cycle is based on the Creation week model of six days for work and one day for rest;
The seven-day cycle is repeated in a seven-year cycle, six years to work and the seventh year—the "sabbath years"—as a rest year. Then there is the seven times seven-year cycle culminating in the Jubilee "sabbath year";
As we saw earlier, the description of the land of Israel during the "Sabbath of years" parallels the desolate description of the earth during the millennium;
Seven indicates completeness or perfection;
It is the worst kind of infidelity to believe that Creation took place over seven indefinite periods of time;
It is not like God to deal with men in indefinite periods of time;
God divided time into seven periods—six for work and one for rest; and
We are living in the time of the seventh and last church.
The various "seven cycles" listed in this chapter demonstrate that God frequently uses a cycle of seven for a complete picture of a given illustration. The seventh item in each cycle was the final event or era of each sequence. The cycles listed are of various lengths but each is complete in itself.
It follows by logical extension that God will use His cycle of seven, in this case 7,000 years, to complete the cycle of the great controversy—6,000 years for the great controversy struggle with evil followed by the Sabbath rest of 1,000 years for the earth. (Even At The Door—By G. Edward Reid, Chapter 13.)