Does the number 70 have some meaning in the Bible? It seems to come up a lot, and I also noticed it seems to come up frequently with the number 12. What is God saying, or why is the number 70 so prevalent?
I was thinking it might have something to do with judgment, but that idea doesn't always seem to mesh.
Any ideas?
Well, this is my take on it (something I recently posted on a Christian Website of which I am the Super Moderator).
In the Biblical Hebrew way of understanding God's plan and timing the number seven and its derivatives all have to do with fullness or completeness of a Divine activity.
Today we talk in terms of decades, ie., the eighties, the nineties, etc.
The bible does not talk in terms of decades but of heptads; the cardinal number that is the sum of six and one or seven - God's timing of things which His people lived by and understood, Anyone who studies the bible will recognise the constant and frequent occurrence of the heptads in God pattern and plans of things starting with creations itself right through to 'sevens' of the Book of Revelation!
The Bible speaks of a series of ‘complete periods’ of Divine activity. Bible history was seen as God’s activity during heptads in much the same way as we (in the UK) would refer to decades by saying, “Food rationing finally ended in the fifties.” We must also have in mind that a Biblical year was not our 12 month year; nothing like it in fact!
Daniel 9:1-3 (KJV)
“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes
Daniel 9:24-27(KJV)
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
SEVENTY YEARS of desolation because they had broken His laws and despised the privilege of being the chosen people of God (Isaiah 40:1-2)
So we come to the seven ‘sevens’ which has to do with the restoration of Israel.
“They were decreed for Your people and Your Holy City”
Israel as an ethnic people must be redeemed because God promised it to Abraham and said, “If I fail in my promise to Abraham regarding his descendants, then no one has any security in My Word.”
Israel is redeemed even though she is as far from God, if not further then most gentile nations. Its done in the Heavenlies and has yet to be worked out on earth.
Now the sixty two ‘sevens’. It has to do with the salvation of the Gentiles. “The anointed One would die. The holy City would fall again. Wars and desolations would continue.” It is completed, finished, accomplished in the work of God. It is being worked out in our lives. All the power necessary to save us and keep us saved has been stored up for us in Heaven and awaiting our faith to be exercised (1 Peter 1:39)
Now to the single heptad ‘seven’ that somehow came adrift from the other two heptads ‘sevens’…
The one who slays the Anointed One
The one who destroys the city
The one who brings abominations or idols
The one who causes desolation in lives
Satan has attempted to steal God’s final ‘seven’ and rendeer redemption impossible but he will received the end that is already decreed.
In the middle of this ‘seven’ when the purposes of the Kingdom of darkness are in full swing and the possibility of redemption are at the lowest ever. God will intervene. He will put an end to what is going on. God will take His ‘seven’ back and complete His work.
Daniel 12:7 “A time, many times, and a time cut short”
Mathew 24:21-31 Jesus said, “The days will be cut short so that my people will be saved.”
God says today, THE HEPTADS (THE SEVENS) ARE MINE!
Remembering the Heptad is the cardinal number that is the sum of six and one we now look at the SIX infinitives of GOD’S PUPOSES:
TO FINISH ………………TRANSGRESSION
TO PUT AN END…………TO SIN
TO ATONE………………..FOR WICKEDNESS
TO BRING……..…………IN RIGHTEOUSNESS
TO SEAL………………….VISION AND PROPHESY
TO ANNOINT…………….THE MOST HOLY ONE
“But when Jesus had offered for all time one sacrifice for sin. He sat down on the right hand of God. Since that time He saits for His enemies to be mad His footstool because by one scrifice He has made perfect forever thse who are being made holy
THIS IS THE COVENANT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THAT TIME says the Lord.” (Hebrews 10:12-17)
It is amazing that there is a correlation between these Divine ‘heptads’ and our own calender.
Decree of Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem 538 BC
Restoring of the temple and the City 440BC
Birth of the Messiah 6BC 434 years 62x7
IF the ‘stolen’ week (hepted) reached its midway point in 1945 when God put an end to the sacrifice and offering of the Jewish people on the altars of Pagan Germany, it would mean we are now well into the final half of the final seven and God’s work is soon to be totally completed and His Kingdom to come on earth.
In the love of Jesus
David