I'm going to take a slightly divergent path today and discuss a number we've already seen twice, ran across today and will see again numerous times in the future. In today's reading, we see the well-known interpretation of Pharaoh's dream of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of lean. Since we know this story well, I'm going to discuss just what was so powerful about the number seven back to the folks of that day.
As we are well aware, seven in Biblical terms usually connoted completeness. I like to check crackpot websites of dubious veracity from time to time to see what modern-day "geniuses" of the world have to say on the subject. Among the gems I unearthed are:
1. The Hebrew word for seven occurs a total of 392 times in the Bible. This is not only a multiple of seven but of seven times seven, 392 = 8 x 7 x 7. 392 is also remarkable for being the sum of the square of seven and the cube of seven, ie. 392 = (7 x 7) + (7 x 7 x 7) or 392 = 72 + 73.
2. It may be nothing more than a strange coincidence that the word seven is used exactly seven times in Genesis chapter seven.
This kind of stuff cracks me up. If you think I'm weird because of some of the stuff I research, I got nothing on these people. But for seven to have the meaning it does, the other numbers have to have meanings also. Going back to when Jerome Nathan and I taught a class on Revelation about (wait for it) SEVEN years ago, notes I had credit Pythagoras with giving meaning to numbers, and subsequent reading I've done since then supports this. As such, here are (generally Pythagorean) interpretations of what each number means from 1 to 7:
1--unity, unique, increased strength
2--companionship, increased strength
3--a divine number in many religions, including Christianity
4--the universe
6--an evil number, because it falls short of the perfect 7
7--the sum of 3 and 4 (divinity and universality), implying perfection
By this logic, you can see the power in the number seven--since it contains both divine and universal properties, this is the very definition of God. Another way to look at this would be omnipotence, or an all-powerful, all-encompassing God. This is what hearers of that day would connect with hearing the number seven--it merely cemented the nature of God.
I don't get too lost in the purported symbolism of numbers in the Bible other than to understand that certain numbers do have significance--not hidden meaning, but instead importance or emphasis. For example, how many candles are on our candelabras? In many ways, we've internalized these meanings and have taken them for granted. When we get into Revelation, I'll have much more to say on the number seven, but this is enough for now.
So when we consider the seven years of fat and seven years of lean prophesied in Pharaoh's dreams, think about that in terms of who would cause that to come about. Egypt of that time existed for the most part on the banks of the Nile because if you got too far away from the Nile, you were in desert. The only thing that made the land arable was the Nile, and if something were to happen--drought or some other calamity, there would be NO agriculture, and to envision a seven-year drought would be an unimaginable disaster beyond the comprehension of anyone alive at that time. Simply put, absent divine intervention, NOTHING could survive seven years of lean. But God gifted Joseph with not only the aptitude to interpret what the dreams meant, but the knowledge and skills to plan and carry out how to survive it. Seven years indeed--only a universal divinity could create the seven years of prosperity and follow that with seven years of lean AND in the process fulfill the dreams he had given Joseph years earlier. Pretty heady stuff when you take the time to ponder it and see what it really means.
Scott
1--unity, unique, increased strength
2--companionship, increased strength
3--a divine number in many religions, including Christianity
4--the universe
6--an evil number, because it falls short of the perfect 7
7--the sum of 3 and 4 (divinity and universality), implying perfection
By this logic, you can see the power in the number seven--since it contains both divine and universal properties, this is the very definition of God. Another way to look at this would be omnipotence, or an all-powerful, all-encompassing God. This is what hearers of that day would connect with hearing the number seven--it merely cemented the nature of God.
I don't get too lost in the purported symbolism of numbers in the Bible other than to understand that certain numbers do have significance--not hidden meaning, but instead importance or emphasis. For example, how many candles are on our candelabras? In many ways, we've internalized these meanings and have taken them for granted. When we get into Revelation, I'll have much more to say on the number seven, but this is enough for now.
So when we consider the seven years of fat and seven years of lean prophesied in Pharaoh's dreams, think about that in terms of who would cause that to come about. Egypt of that time existed for the most part on the banks of the Nile because if you got too far away from the Nile, you were in desert. The only thing that made the land arable was the Nile, and if something were to happen--drought or some other calamity, there would be NO agriculture, and to envision a seven-year drought would be an unimaginable disaster beyond the comprehension of anyone alive at that time. Simply put, absent divine intervention, NOTHING could survive seven years of lean. But God gifted Joseph with not only the aptitude to interpret what the dreams meant, but the knowledge and skills to plan and carry out how to survive it. Seven years indeed--only a universal divinity could create the seven years of prosperity and follow that with seven years of lean AND in the process fulfill the dreams he had given Joseph years earlier. Pretty heady stuff when you take the time to ponder it and see what it really means.
Scott
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