Apocalypse Explained #257
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.
Leviticus 26
1
"'You shall make for yourselves no idols, neither shall you raise up an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh your God.
2
"'You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.
3
"'If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4
then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5
Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6
"'I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid; and I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7
You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8
Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9
"'I will have respect for you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.
10
You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new.
11
I will set my tent among you: and my soul won't abhor you.
12
I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people.
13
I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.
14
"'But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments;
15
and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;
16
I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and you will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
17
I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you.
18
"'If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
19
I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like brass;
20
and your strength will be spent in vain; for your land won't yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21
"'If you walk contrary to me, and won't listen to me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.
22
I will send the wild animals among you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your roads will become desolate.
23
"'If by these things you won't be reformed to me, but will walk contrary to me;
24
then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.
25
I will bring a sword upon you, that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you will be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26
When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27
"'If you in spite of this won't listen to me, but walk contrary to me;
28
then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.
29
You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
30
I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.
31
I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings.
32
I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein will be astonished at it.
33
I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
34
Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land. Even then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
35
As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn't have in your sabbaths, when you lived on it.
36
"'As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they will fall when no one pursues.
37
They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues: and you will have no power to stand before your enemies.
38
You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will eat you up.
39
Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
40
"'If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me,
41
I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity;
42
then I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.
43
The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them: and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
44
Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God;
45
but I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.'"
46
These are the statutes, ordinances and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.
