7 Times

I had a residual thought today as I was driving concerning my sermon yesterday. I mentioned Proverbs 24:16, the first part of which reads, “for the righteous falls seven times and rises again”

The number 7 represents perfection or completion. In the story of Naaman he was commanded to dip in the Jordan 7 times, while this may have several significance's I would like to explore the one that I think most closely correlates to Proverbs.

Yesterday I shared that once we have accepted Christ as our Savior and have surrendered our life to Him that he would then send his messenger, the Holy Spirit, to guide us so that we might become more like Christ in character. And that our response to that leading is to submit and do our best to follow where the Spirit is leading. I also shared that while we try to surrender to Jesus there might be times when we turn aside and go outside of Gods direction, that we may stumble and fall. Which led me to share this verse in Proverbs. When those times come all we can do and all that God expects us to do, is to acknowledge our inability and seek him for the strength and will to change.

I believe that Naaman dipping 7 times in the Jordan river symbolizes his complete inability to cleanse himself and his total dependence on a power outside of himself. If he had only dipped 6 times it would have come short of total dependence on the word of God which he had received. Had he dipped 8 times he would have demonstrated that he still thought that he had something to add to the work of God.