257. Because in this prophetical book numbers are often mentioned; and as no one can know the spiritual sense of what is contained in those numbers unless he knows what the particular numbers signify; for all numbers in the Word, as well as all names, signify spiritual things; and because the number seven is often mentioned amongst others, I am desirous here of showing that seven signifies all, and all things, also what is full and complete for that which signifies all, and all things, signifies also what is full and complete. For what is full and complete is said of the magnitude of a thing, and all and all things of multitude.

That the number seven has such a signification is evident from the following passages. In Ezekiel:

"The inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall set fire to and burn the arms, the shield also and the buckler, with the bow and the arrows, and with the hand-staff, and with the spear; and they shall kindle a fire with them seven years; and they shall bury Gog and all his multitude, and they shall cleanse the land seven months" (39:9, 11, 12).

The subject here treated of is the desolation of all things in the church. The inhabitants of the cities of Israel signify all the goods of truth, to set on fire and burn signifies to consume by evils. The arms, the shield, the buckler, the bows, the arrows, the hand-staff, the spear, denote everything pertaining to doctrine; to kindle fire with them seven years denotes to consume them all and fully by evils. Gog signifies those who are in external worship, and in no internal worship; to bury them and cleanse the land denotes to destroy them all, and completely to purge the church of them.

[2] In Jeremiah:

"Their widows shall be multiplied more than the sand of the seas, and I will bring to them upon the mother of the youths the waster at noon-day. She who hath borne seven shall languish, she shall breathe out her soul" (15:8, 9).

By the widows which will be multiplied are signified those who are in good and desire truths, and, in the opposite sense, as in the present case, those who are in evil and desire falsities. By the mother of the youths is signified the church; by the waster at noon-day is signified the vastation of that church, however much they may be in truths from the Word. By she that hath borne seven shall languish, she shall breathe out her soul, is signified that the church, to which all truths were given because the Word was given them, should perish; for she that hath borne seven signifies those to whom all truths were given. This is specifically said concerning the Jews.

[3] Similarly, in the first book of Samuel:

"They that were hungry ceased, so that the barren hath borne seven, and she that hath many children hath failed" (2:5).

The hungry who ceased denote those who desire the goods and truths of the church; the barren who hath borne seven signifies those who are outside the church and are ignorant of truths because they have not the Word, as the Gentiles, to whom all things will be given; she that hath many children failing signifies those who have truths, from whom they will be taken away. Again, in David:

"Render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom" (79:12).

And in Moses,

That the Jews should be punished seven times for their sins (Leviticus 26:18, 21, 24, 28);

seven times here signifying fully.

[4] In Luke:

"And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him" (17:4).

Here, to forgive seven times, if he shall return seven times, denotes to forgive as often as the offender should return, and thus at all times. But lest Peter should understand seven times to be meant by these words, the Lord explains His meaning to him, as recorded in Matthew:

"Peter said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times, but until seventy times seven " (18:21, 22).

Seventy times seven is always, without counting. In David:

"Seven times a day do I praise thee for the judgments of justice" (Psalms 119:164).

Seven times a day denotes always, or at all times.

[5] Again:

"The sayings of Jehovah are pure sayings, as silver refined in a furnace of earth, purified seven times" (Psalms 12:6).

Here silver signifies truth from the Divine: purified seven times denotes that it is altogether and fully pure.

[6] In Isaiah:

"The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days" (30:26).

The light of the sun signifies Divine truth from Divine good: and that this light should be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, signifies that the Divine truth in heaven should be without any falsity, thus that it should be altogether and fully pure.

[7] In Matthew,

The unclean spirit "shall take with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and he shall dwell there" (12:45; Luke 11:26).

Here profanation is treated of, and by the seven other spirits with which the unclean spirit is said to return are signified all falsities of evil, thus a plenary destruction of good and truth.

[8] Similar is the signification of the seven times which were to pass over the king of Babylon, in Daniel,

"His heart shall be changed from man, and the heart of a beast shall be given unto him; while seven times shall pass over him" (4:16, 25, 32).

By the king of Babylon are signified those who profane the goods and truths of the Word. By his heart being changed from that of a man to that of a beast is meant that nothing spiritual, that is, truly human, should remain with him, but that instead there should be everything diabolical. By the seven times which were to pass over him is meant profanation, which is a complete destruction of truth and good.

[9] Because the terms seven, and seven times, signified all things, and also what is full, the following commands were given to the children of Israel:

Seven days their hands should be filled (Exodus 29:35).

Seven days they should be sanctified (Exodus 29:37).

Seven days Aaron should put on the garments when he was being initiated (Exodus 29:30).

Seven days they should not go out of the tabernacle when they were being initiated into the priesthood (Leviticus 8:33, 34).

Seven times expiation should be made upon the horns of the altar (Leviticus 16:18, 19).

Seven times should the altar be sanctified with oil (Leviticus 8:11).

Seven times should the blood be sprinkled before the veil (Leviticus 4:16, 17).

Seven times should the blood be sprinkled with the finger towards the east, when Aaron went in to the mercy seat (Leviticus 16:12-15).

Seven times should the water of separation be sprinkled towards the tabernacle (Num. 19:4).

Seven times should blood be sprinkled for the cleansing of leprosy (Leviticus 14:7, 8, 27, 38, 51).

The lampstand had seven lamps (Exodus 25:32, 37; 37:18-25).

Feasts should be celebrated for seven days (Exodus 34:18; Leviticus 23:4-9, 39-44; Deuteronomy 16:3, 4, 8).

Seven days of the feast there should be a burnt offering of seven bullocks and seven rams daily (Ezekiel 45:23).

Baalam built seven altars, and sacrificed seven oxen and seven rams (Num. 23:1-7, 15-18, 29, 30).

They numbered seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, and then should cause the trumpet of the jubilee to be sounded in the seventh month (Leviticus 25:8, 9).

From the signification of the number seven, it is evident what is signified

By the seven days of creation (Genesis 1).

Also by four thousand men being filled from seven loaves, and that seven basketsful of fragments remained over (Matthew 15:34-37; Mark 8:5-9).

Hence now it is clear what is signified in the Apocalypse,

By the seven churches (1:4, 11).

By the seven golden lampstands, in the midst of which was the Son of man (1:13).

By the seven stars in His right hand (1:16, 20).

By the seven spirits of God (3:1).

By the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne (4:5).

By the book sealed with seven seals (5:1).

By the seven angels to whom were given seven trumpets (8:2).

By the seven thunders which uttered their voices (10:3, 4).

By the seven angels having the seven last plagues, (15:1, 6).

By seven vials full of the seven last plagues (16:1; 21:9)

and elsewhere in the Word, where seven is mentioned.

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." Psalm 20:7

Additional readings: Isaiah 31, Matthew 11:1-19, Psalm 19, Psalm 66, Psalm 67

It is good for a nation or for nations to set aside a specific day for remembering those who have given their lives for their country on the battlefield and for united thought of the ideal of human brotherhood and peace and of the means by which this ideal is to be attained. It is an ideal which has been before the world since the beginning of human life on the earth. All religions past and present, as revealed in their sacred books, rise to the plane upon which mankind is thought of as one.

The Christian Scriptures are above all clear and definite on this teaching. "One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren" (Matthew 23:8). If this ideal should be realized, the threat of war would be removed, and not only would nations cease to fight each other but they would not "learn war anymore" (Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:3).

At the close of the last world war the people of all nations, and especially of the victorious nations, were hopeful that the peoples of the earth could unite in a firm bond of peace; but today the leaders everywhere have great misgivings, and the masses of the people are uneasy, fearing some new and frightful world catastrophe. This fear comes from a lack of belief in any power, human or, divine, which can prevent another global war, and which can control the use of nuclear energy in the interest of mankind. Modern man has left his Father's house and like the prodigal son has wandered into a far country, believing that he could find happiness and security in the things which technology has put into his hands. He can see the possibility of plenty and security except for one things his new power may be made destructive through selfishness, greed, and the lust for dominion in the human heart. Even if international agreements are made, what is to guarantee that the agreements will be kept? Will they be more than scraps of paper? So, the advances of science generate among us growing tensions, suspicions, and hatreds.

We have never been afraid to face the test of battle, but we are filled with fears and misgivings in the face of the task of controlling ourselves, that we and our neighbors may live together in peace. And again, we are being told that our only safety is in the force of arms and in the old formula of the balance of power. Since the dawn of history these devices have failed, and wars of increasing destructiveness and violence have occurred. These devices simply do not work. Surely we should not trust them again.

The problem is not with the advances of science and technology. There is nothing in atomic power that necessarily leads those who possess it to use it for the destruction of other people. The problem is the soul of man, in the evils within him which his education, secular and religious, has so far failed to eradicate. In the Writings of the church we find this statement: "Where men know and think according to doctrine, there the church may be, but when men act according to doctrine, there alone the church is."

Love to the Lord and to the neighbor have been taught and preached for two thousand years. Men know that peace cannot be attained by the amassing of material goods, nor by military efficiency, however great. They know that it cannot come through national advantage and supremacy, that in our own time the seeking of these things brought on two world wars. Security and peace come only from the Lord as men learn His laws and live according to them. These laws, summarized, in the Commandments, are fixed and certain in the eleventh chapter of Matthew we read concerning John the Baptist: "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?" (Matthew 11:7, Luke 7:24).

John the Baptist is one of the representatives of the letter of the Word. The reed, shaken with the wind is a picture of the Word interpreted at man's pleasure Since in its letter it consists for the most part of apparent truths, it is capable of different interpretations and may be made to teach not only different but even opposite doctrines, as we well know.

To those who refuse to look into it more deeply the Word is a reed shaken with the wind—made to yield to the breath of current opinion. In this way man forms his God to suit his own purposes. When he desires his neighbor's land and possessions, his God is a God of war. When he is established and content with his acquired possessions, his God becomes a God of peace and righteousness. In the two world wars of our generation all nations, the aggressors and the threatened, prayed to God, and at the close of the war, every loyal and patriotic citizen of the victorious countries greeted the victory with prayer and thanksgiving. But almost before his prayers were ended new and greater fears invaded his mind. The war had been fought in vain, the ideals of the Atlantic Charter and of the Four Freedoms had been emptied of all their hope. There seemed, to be nothing on which he could base any sure reliance.

There is need of eternal truths on which to base a new faith. Men need a new set of values—a new formula by which to live. In one sense the formula Is not new. The Two Great Commandments stand unchanged. But the interpretation of them must be new. We must have a new idea of the Lord and of the neighbor, and a new idea of love. The writings of the Second Coming tell us: "The life itself of a man is his love, and such as his love is such is his life, in fact such is the whole man." "What a man loves above all things is perpetually present in his thought, as well as in his will, and makes his very life itself. For example, whoever loves wealth above all things, whether money or possessions, is continually turning over in his mind how to procure it; when he obtains any he inwardly rejoices; when he loses any he outwardly grieves, for his heart is in it. Or a man who loves himself above all things—he bears himself in mind in the least things, he thinks of himself, he speaks about himself, he acts for the advantage of himself; for his life is a life of self."

It is wrong desires that cause all conflicts and wars. For what a man desires above all things is the ruling motive of his life—it is the man himself. From good loves come all good, things and from evil loves come all evil things. Good and evil are diametrically opposed to each other and bring forth opposite results. And we are told what are the good, loves and what are the evil loves. The good loves are love to the Lord and to the neighbor. The evil loves are love of self and of the world. The first two make heaven with a man, and are the loves which reign in heaven. The latter two reign in hell and make hell with man.

There is not the slightest use of bemoaning the present state of the world and crying out for a new and better world unless at the same time we seek to eradicate from our own life and character those evils which have brought about the present condition. The world is made up of individuals and it is only so far as individuals are "made new" that there can be an improved world. If we ourselves seek to learn, understand, and keep the two great commandments, we are doing the only possible thing that will contribute to the betterment of the world.

To love the Lord and the neighbor is not "other world idealism," as many have thought. It involves above all a practical life in this world—the outward expression in our daily lives and occupations of these laws. These doctrines are called the doctrine of life, the carrying out of which will bring an end to all unrest, civil, social, national, and international. The welfare of each person is bound, up in the welfare of all. We are dependent upon each other.

The story of a self-made man is a fairy story. We are dependent upon others for most of what we have and are. The two great commandments enjoin a life of love to God and man, a life expressed in cooperation of man with man and of man with God, "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." "And in the name of our God. we will set up our banners." The name of the Lord our God, which we are to remember and to inscribe on our banners, is the essential Divine qualities: the Divine Love, the Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Power. The Lord Jesus Christ overcame in His own strength all the powers of hell and holds all evil in subjection. History and reason unite in declaring that the only power able to overcome the forces of evil is the power of love, not the love of self but the love of others. The supreme law of Christian life is the law of love. As individuals and nations learn to live in mutual love and helpfulness, looking to the Lord instead of to self for guidance and strength, there will be peace, for peace comes from the Lord alone.