One cannot but be impressed with the prominence and significance of the Scriptural number seven, as he looks down the pages of a concordance. God rested on the seventh day; the clean beasts and fowls went into the ark by sevens; there were seven years of plenteousness and seven years of dearth in Egypt; seven priests bearing seven trumpets compassed Jericho seven times; Solomon was seven years in building the temple; there were seven loaves to feed the multitude; seven deacons were chosen by the apostles; and in the Apocalypse there are mentioned, seven churches, seven spirits, seven golden candlesticks, seven stars, seven seals, seven angels. Aside from the fact that there are over five hundred instances of its use in the Bible, there is sufficient evidence to support the claim that the number seven, and especially the period seven days, originated with and belonged exclusively to the Israelites.
"God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work" (Genesis, 2: 3). Science and Health says (p. 513): "The numerals of infinity, called seven days, can never be reckoned according to the calendar of time. These days will appear as mortality disappears; and they will reveal eternity, newness of Life, wherein all sense of error disappears forever, and thought accepts the infinite calculus."
A most remarkable and peculiar institution is the arrangement of Sabbaths which the Children of Israel were commanded by Moses to observe: the seventh day, the seventh week, the seven times seven and fiftieth day, the seventh month, the seventh year, and the seven times seven and fiftieth year. (Leviticus, 23 and 25; Deuteronomy, 16: 9.) This arrangement of Sabbaths has been likened to the sections of a telescope; each part is an exact counterpart of the others, excepting in size, and fold into one another, thus having a mutual dependence the one on the other; and as the telescope assists the eye to see objects that are far away, so the sabbaths of days, the sabbaths of months, and the sabbaths of years carry the thought on, on, to the great Sabbath, the year of Jubilee, the time of restitution of all things. In this year every one who had parted with house or land was to regain possession of the same; all debts were to become void; slaves were to become free; all contracts were to be canceled; every one was to return to his family; there was to be a general restoring of all things to the original owners. And not only this, but the Jubilee Sabbath was to be "a Sabbath of rest" to the land (as in fact all the sabbaths were); there was to be no cultivation, no sowing, no harvesting, not even the gathering of that which should grow of itself in the field. Inasmuch, therefore, as there would be two sabbath years coming right together, in which there could be no harvesting, God promised that the sixth year should bring forth enough for three years. Thus does God provide for His children, that they may not suffer because of the keeping of His commandments.
