THE NUMBER SEVEN: #4 The New Testament Sevens

The Book of Revelation hosts more symbols, imagery, and numeric codes than any other book in the Bible. Let's explore the overview...

REVELATION SEVENS

Reality check! The Book of Revelation hosts more symbols, imagery, and numeric codes than any other book in the Bible. This is typically why most people avoid reading or studying this book. Since it is filled with mystery, portraying things seen and unseen in the form of strange mystical characters, most do a fly-by regarding its content. It is home to imagery associated with angels and demons and principalities of God’s Heavenly hosts. It depicts fire from Heaven, bowls of wrath, and a host of other peculiar events.

The reality is, if the Holy Spirit does not reside in the person reading it, few details will make sense. As with most of the Bible, without the Holy Spirit, the words are mere descriptives for movies & fictional writings. Sad though, this book is the key that unlocks all the prophecies stated from Genesis to Revelation.

For starters, most believe the Bible is broken up into two main categories: the Old and New Testaments. This is not completely accurate. The Word of God comes to us in a triune – the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Book of Revelation. Since God conducts business in threes and sevens, it makes perfect sense. When they canonized the Word, they didn’t know where to put it. So…they attached it to the end of the New Testament.

The way it works is simple. The Old Testament contains the prophecies setting up for the arrival of Jesus Christ – the past. The New Testament is the Life of Christ in present form (the Lamb). The book of Revelation is the future Life of Jesus, the Lion. Since most Bible readers don’t understand this, they continue to view Jesus as a lamb of peace. However, if you have basic knowledge of the future appearance of Jesus, it is filled with imagery of revenge, an immovable warrior, and a global leader who will rule the earth with an iron rod. Since this imagery is too harsh for most compliant believers to embrace, they find it almost impossible to view the Second Coming of Jesus as a man with a mission – a mission to destroy Satan, his demons, followers of Satan, and ultimately the Earth itself. The book of Revelation is a clean and clear depiction of Jesus as a roaring Lion who devours. It is no wonder the masses of Christianity avoid this book.  

The last third of the triune of the Word, the book of Revelation, comes with a promise not offered to the Old and New Testament readers.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3)

The book Revelation, privately, in the indwelt believer’s mind, family, and church are commanded to read this book out loud. They, we, are instructed to be careful and diligent in reading it. We should produce a desire to understand it and publicly read it to the authentic Church of God while endeavoring to open and explain it to others who are passionate about understanding its content. This is the Old Testament's method of informing the Hebrew people of the Laws of God and the purpose of the prophets while publicly reading the Word within the synagogues. In many measures, the book of Revelation returns readers to the methods God originally established for the people, which were not to be excused or avoided but expounded as a life source (Act 13:15). This book has serious consequences if NOT read aloud privately and publicly. Since Satan cannot read our minds, reading aloud becomes an expression of warfare against the schemes of Satan. Simply put, it puts him in his place.

Revelation comes with a requirement to listen attentively to the reading and verbal exposition of this book. It emphasizes that those who have ears to hear to gain an understanding of the prophecies contained in it: in the exactness of how John, the writer, had it delivered to him. John was called to write of the future appearance of Jesus Christ. As scripture notes, even when John saw the image of the present Jesus, our future Jesus, he fell on his face acting as if he was dead – white hair, fire in His eyes, and clothed with the glowing garments of eternity. The bottom line, John was commissioned to write the future events of existing prophecies unfolding within the timeline of God the Father. If anyone added a word or deleted a word, God will remove them from their place in the Tree of Life (Rev. 22:18-19). It is a serious offense to tamper with the book of Revelation.

John, Jesus’s beloved, wrote the book of Revelation. At the time, he was in exile on the island of Patmos. The horrid Roman Empire under the degenerate Emperor Domitian was mounting an all-out campaign to remove all believers of Jesus and the churches they were proactive in establishing. This book became the greatest threat to the rulers of the age. It was written with Jewish imagery and for a good reason. It was not only code-talk for the Jews; it took a Jew to understand it. The Roman authorities had to hire interpreters to understand what John was writing. This is why I decided to learn and read John’s writings from Pictorial Hebrew. Without understanding this context, the book remains mysterious – when it is not.  

Today, translators work relentlessly to write the Bible in their own languages. While there is good in this, when it comes to the book of Revelation, a glitch occurs. The glitch is in not understanding the method of imagery God used to communicate with His Hebrew people – Pictorial Hebrew. For example, when God used the imagery of seven eyes, we see seven eyeballs. The Orthodox Jews see seven spirits. Eyes to a Jew are the windows of the spirit of the man. Another example is when we read about a seven-headed creature, we think of some kind of dragon with seven heads. The Jews see seven heads of state, nations, or dominions. For the Jews, heads are symbolic, code talk, for superpowers. In a nutshell, the book of Revelation drew so heavily on Jewish apocalyptic imagery from the Old Testament that no one but informed scholars or readers could understand it. That remains the case today. 

The most significant factor in this book is the prominent usage of numbers, particularly the number seven. It has been used 54 times. Even though many numbers are used within the book, the number seven is showcased the most. The reason? The number seven is the symbolic code number for completion. This is why, throughout the Old and New Testaments, God bases all things Holy on the number seven.

Within Revelation, we will detail the importance of seven days, seven feasts, seven sayings, seven secrets, seven churches, seven spirits, seven lampstands, seven stars, seven lamps, seven seals, seven horns, and many more. All these references disclose the completeness of the revelation of Almighty God in one single book. Due to this, it self-defines as the completion of humanity as we see it today. The book of Revelation closes the era of the number six and opens the door to the perfection of God’s seventh day of rest, which is one thousand years to humanity in the form and function of the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, let alone the New Heaven and Earth that will follow.  

We need to explore all 54 “sevens” of Jesus’s Revelation in the order they appear in the book that John wrote. Remember, I am covering the basics. I implore you to study this book with due diligence daily. Don’t forget to pray openly as you study this power-packed book while getting in the habit of reading out loud.

In our next episode, we will begin with the Seven Letters to the Seven Churches. John blessed us with this verse:

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne… (Revelation 1:4)

The stage is set.

It will be by the Grace of Christ that we understand. This will produce peace that comes directly from the indwelling Jesus, who had already come as a man and who will come again empowered by the Seven Spirits who are constantly before the throne of the Father. John reveals a shift of power. In Jesus’s first coming, it was in and through the Holy Spirit. In His second coming, He will be empowered by all Seven Spirits. The Seven Spirits before the Father’s throne refer to the fullness and completeness of the power of the throne in Heaven, which are managed by the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit that lives in God the Father, Jesus the Son, and His beloved Bride, the indwelt believers. We will detail this and much more.