755. The symbolism of the six hundredth year, second month, and seventeenth day as the next stage of their trials follows from what has been said so far. From verse 6 up to this point, verse 11, the text has dealt with the first stage of trial, which was a challenge to the concerns of the intellect, but the present passage deals with the next stage, a challenge to the concerns of the will. This is the reason for the restatement of Noah's age. It is expressed the first time as the fact that he was a son of six hundred years but here as the fact that the Flood took place in the six hundredth year of his life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day.

No one can possibly guess that the years of Noah's life, specified down to the year, month, and day, mean a condition of struggle in respect to the promptings of the will, but this was the way the earliest people spoke and wrote, as noted [§66]. They took particular delight in being able to specify periods and names in order to construct an authentic-sounding history. This is what their wisdom consisted in.

[2] I have already shown, at verse 6 above [§737], that six hundred years simply symbolize the first stage of trial. The six hundred years here have a similar meaning, but the months and days are added in order to symbolize the second stage. In fact, two months (or in the second month) is added, symbolizing the actual combat, as can be seen from the symbolism of the number two, given above at verse 2 of this chapter. It was shown to have the same symbolism as six: hard work, combat, and dispersing something. (See the demonstration there.) ¹

The number seventeen, however, symbolizes both the beginning and the end of trial, because it is composed of seven and ten. When seven symbolizes the beginning of trial, it implies the phrase in seven days, or a seven-day week, which was shown above at verse 4 of this chapter [§728] to symbolize the beginning of trial. But when seven symbolizes the end of trial, as it does below in Genesis 8:4, it is a holy number. Ten, symbolizing the things that remain, is added to the seven because without a remnant we cannot be reborn.

[3] The symbolism of seventeen as the beginning of trial can be seen in Jeremiah, where he was commanded to buy a field in Anathoth from Hanamel, his father's brother. Jeremiah weighed out silver for him, seventeen shekels of silver (Jeremiah 32:9). This number also symbolized the people's captivity in Babylon, which represented the trials suffered by the faithful and the devastation suffered by the faithless. In fact it represented the start of trial and at the same time the end of trial, or liberation. All this can be seen from later verses in the same chapter of Jeremiah: verse 36 concerns their captivity, and the next, verse 37, their liberation. A number like this would never have shown up in Jeremiah had it not, like all the other details, entailed secrets from heaven.

[4] The symbolism of seventeen as the start of trial can also be seen from Joseph's age — he was a "son of seventeen years" — when he was sent to his brothers and sold into Egypt (Genesis 37:2). The fact that he was sold into Egypt has a similar representation, as will be demonstrated in the appropriate place [§§4670, 4788, 5886], with the Lord's divine mercy.

That passage in Genesis contains historical details with a representative meaning, and events happened according to the description there. The events of the current passage, though, are made-up history with a symbolic meaning and did not happen according to the literal description here. Yet the components of Joseph's story down to the individual words still involve heavenly secrets as much as those of Noah's story do.

This fact necessarily seems strange, because anywhere that an item of true or made-up history occurs, the mind lingers over the literal meaning, unable to extricate itself, and it therefore believes no symbolism or representation exists beyond the letter.

[5] But any intelligent person can see that the Word has some kind of inner meaning in which its life resides. (Its life is not in the letter, which apart from the inner meaning is dead.) Without a deeper meaning, how does a historical fact [in the Word] differ from one reported by any secular author? What use would it be to know in what year, month, and day of Noah's life the Flood took place, if this did not involve some heavenly mystery? Can anyone fail to see that all the springs of the great abyss burst and heaven's floodgates opened is a prophetic turn of speech? Other similar arguments could be offered.

Footnotes:

728. The symbolism of in seven days here as the beginning of their inward trials can be seen from the inner meaning of all the words in the current verse, which deal with the trials of the people referred to as Noah. The general subjects are both the inward trials of the "Noah" element and the total devastation that befell some in the earliest church. As a result, in seven days symbolizes not only the start of trials but also the end of ruin.

The reason in seven days symbolizes these things is that seven is a holy number, as has been said and shown at verse 2 of this chapter [§§716-717], at Genesis 4:15 and 24 [§§395, 433], and at §§84-87. It symbolizes the Lord's arrival in the world and his entry into glory, and it specifically symbolizes every time that the Lord comes to us.

Every arrival of the Lord entails a beginning for those who are regenerating and an end for those who are being destroyed. For the people of this church, his coming was the start of adversity, because when tested, an individual begins to turn into a new person and to regenerate. At the same time it was the end for those in the earliest church who had developed in such a way that the only possible outcome was extinction. By way of a parallel, at the time of the Lord's advent into the world the church was in the final stage of its destruction and a new church was formed.

[2] This symbolism of in seven days can be seen in Daniel:

Seventy weeks have been decreed upon your people and upon your holy city, to bring an end to transgression, and to seal up their sins, and to atone for wickedness, and to introduce everlasting justice, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holiest One. And you will know and perceive that from the issuing of the Word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem up to the time of Messiah the prince, there will be seven weeks. (Daniel 9:24-25)

The seventy weeks and the seven weeks here symbolize the same thing as seven days: the Lord's Coming. But since this is explicitly a prophecy, the numbers involving a seven mark the period as being even more holy and certain. The use of seven to describe this period symbolizes not only the Lord's arrival but the start of a new church at the same time, as indicated by the statement that the Holiest One would be anointed and Jerusalem would be restored and rebuilt. It also symbolizes a final devastation at the same time, as indicated by the statement that those weeks were decreed upon the holy city in order to bring an end to transgression and to seal up its sin.

[3] Similar words occur elsewhere in the Word, as in Ezekiel, where the prophet says of himself:

I came to the captives at Tel-abib, who were sitting by the river Chebar, and I sat there seven days, thunderstruck among them, and it happened at the end of seven days that the word of Jehovah came to me. (Ezekiel 3:15-16)

Here too the seven days stand for the start of a divine visitation, seeing that after the seven days during which Ezekiel sat with the captives the word of Jehovah came to him. In the same author:

They will bury Gog, in order to cleanse the land for seven months. At the end of seven months, they will make a careful search. (Ezekiel 39:12, 14)

Again the period of seven stands for the final point of devastation and the start of divine visitation. In Daniel:

Nebuchadnezzar's heart will change from [that of] a human, and the heart of an animal will be given to him, and seven seasons will pass over him. (Daniel 4:16, 25, 32)

This likewise stands for the end of devastation and the start of becoming a new person.

[4] Seventy years of captivity in Babylon represented the same thing. Whether it is seventy or seven, it involves the same meaning — seven days or seven years or the seven "ages" or decades that make up seventy years. The process of devastation was represented by the years of captivity; the beginning of a new church was represented by the liberation and rebuilding of the Temple.

Similar things were represented by Jacob's service with Laban, described in these words:

"I will serve you seven years for Rachel," and he served seven years. Laban said, "Fill out this week and we will give you her as well for the service that you serve with me yet another seven years." And Jacob did so and filled out this week. (Genesis 29:18, 20, 27-28)

The seven years of servitude here involve a similar meaning, as does the fact that marriage and liberty followed the days of the seven years. This span of seven years was called a week, as it also was in Daniel [9:24-25].

[5] The command that the people circle Jericho seven times to make the wall fall represented the same thing. It says that on the seventh day they got up at dawn and circled the city in the customary way, seven times, "and it happened on the seventh time that the seven priests blew their seven horns and the wall fell" (Joshua 6:1-20). Had such details been devoid of symbolic meaning, it never would have been ordered that they circle seven times or that there be seven priests and seven horns.

These and many other passages (such as Job 2:13; Revelation 15:1, 6-7; 21:9) show that in seven days symbolizes the beginning of a new church and the end of the old. Since the present verse deals both with the people of the church called Noah and their trials and with the last descendants of the earliest church, who destroyed themselves, the seven days more cannot symbolize anything else than the start of Noah's trials and the end of the earliest church, or its final ruination and death.