The Sevens

Various numbers make their appearance in Revelation, chapter 1. Seven is the most visible explicit number, but there are other implicit numbers. Three shows up in verses 5 and 6 for the Trinity, and elsewhere in chapter 1 there are "trinity" kinds of of descriptions where things are described in triplets.

The first number seven in Revelation is used for the seven churches the book is sent to. These are seven historical churches. They are listed in order that a messenger would travel to the seven churches to read the book. The NASA photo on the left (click to enlarge) shows the location of the seven churches in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). You can see path is an "inverted V."

The seven churches were not the only churches in Asia Minor. The language of Revelation 1 seems to be to more than the seven specific churches. Drawing upon biblical knowledge, seven is a number used in the Old Testament to indicate fullness, completeness. We will see that in Revelation 1 shortly with the seven Spirits of God. Because of that, seven appears to be not only a literal number of seven historical churches, but also stands as a figurative number speaking of all the churches.

Three shows up as a description of God:

"... from Him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth." (Revelation 1: 4b-5a)

In this three-fold description, we see:

(1) (The Father) Him who is and who was and who is to come,
(2) (The Holy Spirit) The seven Spirits,
(3) (The Son) Jesus Christ.

These describe the Triune God: the Father, Holy Spirit, and the Son. The Father further has a triple description: who is, who was, and who is to come. This is very remeniscent of the I AM WHO I AM that God gave to Moses at the burning bush (see Exodus 3:14). This is a clear reference to Yahweh. This speaks of God who transcends time.

What are we to make of the seven Spirits? Is the Holy Spirit divided into seven parts? Clearly not. Seven refers to the completeness of the Holy Spirit, the complete work of the Holy Spirit. Seven in reference to the Holy Spirit is completely figurative, at least there is nothing we can safely identify in the literal sense for seven with the Holy Spirit.

For Jesus Christ, we see he is the basis of our grace and peace. Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth -- this is present tense. Christ is currently ruling. Christ is also the faithful witness, and John implies that because Christ was the faithful witness, we are too. We can see we will be faithful witnesses also from other passages because we are in union with Christ. Christ is the first born, meaning we will following in his path. We follow in His sufferings with our tribulation that occurs now, along with Christ's reign. This fits in the "already-but-not-yet" mentioned in a pervious post. Thus it is important to note that Christ's death and resurrection secures not only our salvation, our forgiveness of sins, but it causes us to be faithful witnesses too, to persevere and endure. We are a kingdom of priests, ruling with Christ, directly accessing God. This is great news, a great promise, a great blessing.

John sees in his first vision seven golden lampstands. One golden lampstand has seven branches, each containting an oil lamp. A lampstand is pictured on the left. The lampstand vision also alludes to Zechariah 4:2-10, where the single lampstand in Zechariah symbolizes the temple, which stands for faithful Israel, which lives not by might or power, but by the Holy Spirit.

In Zechariah, one lampstand represented God's chosen people, Israel. What are we to make out of seven lampstands in Revelation 1? Verse 20 says the lampstands stand for the seven churches. Given that the seven refers to the completeness or fullness of a thing, we can reasonably conclude that the universal church is the true Israel, that the true Israel is no longer limited to a nation, but it emcompases all peoples.

In Christ's right hand he holds seven stars. We are told the stars angels of the seven churches. In chapters 2 and 3, messages are given to the angels of the seven churches. They are held responsible for the seven churches. What are we to make of this. It is possible that the seven stars can be:

(1) heavenly beings,

(2) heavenly beling who represent the churches,

(3) human leaders or representatives of the churches (understanding one of the meanings of angel to be messenger, heavenly or human),

(4) personification of the prevailing spirit or character of the church,

(5) the eternal personification of the church.

It would not be out of character for John to use a personification for the churches. John does that in his second epistle where John personifies the church as the woman and her children. It could be that the stars are the eternal aspect of the church. Our church has a temperal, earthly aspect to it. But it also has an eternal aspect. What our church does now has eternal consequences and will carry on into eternity.