Why Seven Years?

Happy Monday!  It was a bit of a struggle to get up this morning, but I'm telling you, I am debt-termined and the smell of the coffee already brewed helped get me out of bed.  I love programmable coffee makers!  Another free tip!

I think I've explained that we figure there is a 3 year or less time-line on getting out of debt.  We have calculated this based on Renaissance Man's past income, but there is another calculation based on the Biblical number "seven".  I have to admit, I have not necessarily done a serious study about all numbers in the Bible, but I know numbers in the Bible are significant. 

Just for example, the number "40" is all over the Bible.  Have you ever noticed this?  It rained for 40 days when Noah was in the ark.  When Moses was accused of killing the Egyptian man, he fled and lived in the land of Midian for 40 years before God used him to free the Israelites.  The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years.  King David reigned for 40 years.  King Solomon reigned for 40 years.  Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40 days.  Are you starting to see what I mean?  During the period of 40 days or years, God is often preparing a people or a person for ministry (such as Noah, Moses and Jesus).  When I was about to turn 40, I did read the Bible intentionally noticing how often the number forty came up and I was amazed.  I couldn't help but wonder how God had used my first 40 years and what he was going to do with my next 40 years.  I prayed in light of that knowing the significance of the age was no small thing and it actually got me excited about the age instead of depressed knowing I was getting older!

Seven is another interesting number in the Bible.  As a side note, last night some of our family went to the evening service at our church where a missionary from Lebanon spoke.  I love listening to missionaries.  What always amazes me is they do the work of several men and women - none of this 7 1/2 hours a day, 5 days a week stuff.  Not only did he wear multiple hats, i.e., he was a church planter, a discipler, an evangelist, etc, but he also was a song writer!  He brought his guitar and played one song in particular he's written about King Nebuchadnezzar who was cast out into a field with wild animals and became like a wild animal right after he proclaimed, "Look how great Babylon is!  I built it as my capital city to display my power and might, my glory and majesty!"  Wrong thing to say.  The next thing you know for 7 years he is a beast.  At the end of the 7 years "he acknowledges that the Supreme God has power over the human kingdoms and can give them to anyone he chooses."  (Daniel 4:32)

There is a pattern in scripture with the number 7.  It seems to be connected to a time of slavery, indebtedness, and in Nebuchadnezzar's case, punishment.

When I went back to look more closely at this command in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, it was very interesting.  Deut. 15:1,4,9, says, "At the end of every seventh year you are to cancel the debts of those who owe you money."  And, almost to calm any Israelite who is panicking, thinking,  "Someone will take advantage of this law and borrow at the last minute, then I'll get ripped off, forget it", God says, "The Lord your God will bless you in the land that he is giving you.  Not one of your people will be poor if you obey him and carefully observe everything that I command you today.....Do not refuse to lend him something, just because the year when debts are cancelled is near.   Do not let such an evil thought enter your mind.  If you refuse to make the loan, he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be held guilty."

A little further down in verse 12 and 15, "If a fellow Israelite sells himself or herself to you as a slave, you are to release them after they have served you for six years.  When the seventh year comes, you must let them go free....Remember, that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God set you free, that is why I am now giving you this command." 

Do you see?  God said it himself why he even gives these commands.  This is why I love scripture so much.  He spells it out for us because he knows we need to be reminded why the laws are even there.  He knows we would forget and start doing it mechanically with no thought to why we do what we do. 

In Nebuchadnezzar's case, God knew 7 years would be a suitable punitive time period to teach him to never, ever again say he was higher than God and sure enough he says it himself, "When the seven years had passed, I looked up at the sky, and my sanity returned.  I praised the Supreme God and gave honour and glory to the one who lives forever."  Good thinking, Neb.  So it seems in this case God knew just how long it would take for him to learn his lesson so the mistakes he made wouldn't be made again.

In the case of the debts being cancelled and the slaves being set free, God wanted the Israelites to also never forget the slavery they themselves had been in.  It was also a matter of faith.  If they started thinking all selfishly and refused to help a poor brother, things would not go well for them.  But if they trusted God and still helped out a brother, he promised to take care of them - a true test of their faith in God's laws, wouldn't you say?

So, is it coincidence that we are in our 5th year of being hard core, really trying to get out of debt?  We look back and consider when we first bought the lot (that we built a house on) the beginning of this journey.  We have just over 2 years left in the 7 year journey which is interestingly what we thought it would take us to get out of debt completely. 

I needed to do my little numbers study for myself as Barry Cameron had mentioned seven years as his own personal goal to be debt-free as well.  Larry Burkett, another Christian financial guru, had used this slavery passage for his debt-free-time-line-reasoning.  The truth is, in many cases, I think anyone can get debt-free in a much shorter time, but I don't think those people are including the mortgage - this seven year idea is including the mortgage.  I think this is a very reasonable goal, especially if you are being as serious as we are intending to be.  Remember, God blessed Barry and it took him much less than that time frame, so I'm not stating this to mark a date in stone.  I'm saying it as more of an encouragement that there is light at the end of the tunnel.  I think it is more the principle that is important here -

In our case, he wants Renaissance Man and myself to never, ever forget what slavery looks like.  He wants us to remember what the punishment of bad decisions feels like.  Once we are out of debt, may we be a generous people and always reflect on that time remembering God set us free not just from financial debt but spiritual debt through his son Jesus.  Before I grasped this, I actually felt quite hopeless.  I knew we were trying to get out of debt, but there was no time line, no end in sight, no feeling of hope.  Once RM and I got a hold of this thinking, for the first time we had hope - there was an end in sight.  So seven isn't a magic number, but I think it is God's way of saying - it isn't forever, there will be an end.