Over the past several months I’ve
been writing about some basic numerology as it is found in the Bible, and
especially as it pertains to worship. I’m going to skip six (a number that
represents fallen man) and go to seven this month. Next month I’ll
conclude this series of articles with the number twelve.
Seven represents so many ideas in the
Bible. The first meaning is found in the first chapter of the Bible. God
created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day. Seven represents
creation and completeness. It also represents rest, which plays heavily into
our understanding of Sabbath and worship. God has made us to live lives of
rhythm: work and rest.
Sometimes numerology in the Bible
requires a little addition or multiplication. Why? Because in ancient times,
people thought in terms of pictures. That’s really what numbers and letters are
anyway: pictures that represent something else. If I wrote a big red ‘N’
you would probably start thinking about Nebraska football or volleyball. If I
wrote next to it 1994, the number would represent a national championship. The
letter and the number derive meaning from each other.
The same is true for the number 7. If
we jump to the end of the story, we see the number 7 occurring 54 times in the
book of Revelation: seven churches, seven lampstands, seven angels, seven
seals, seven bowls of wrath, seven stars. Why is the number seven so prominent
in these passages? It could be that 7 represents the sum of 3 and 4, numbers
that represent God (Trinity) and creation (4 corners of the earth). If
Revelation is about the return of Christ to rule the earth and bring about the
new creation, it would make sense to see seven a lot in this context: the
reunion of God with his restored and renewed creation, forever.
In worship, these ideas should always
provide context for our songs and prayers. We are part of God’s
creation, so we worship Him as our Creator. We are called to step away from the
world in a Sabbath rest, so we gather as the Church to reflect and be refreshed
by God. We speak of faith and hope in worship because we know that Christ is
coming soon to right all that is wrong and to restore what is broken in and around
us. We live in-between creation and new creation. Worship, in a way, connects
the past and the future of God’s great story.
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