Post # 70: Thoughts on Forgiveness

"Then Peter came up and said to Him, 'Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  As many as seven times?'  Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.'"  Matthew 18:21-22

I'm not a big numbers guy (ask my wife, who has to keep up our checkbook!).  Yet, there is something to consider with particular numbers throughout the Bible.  And with this being my 70th post, I thought I would focus on this time when Jesus makes use of the number.

It seems that when I teach the younger people about Matthew 18, when we read this section, they invariably want to have a number of times to forgive someone.  I think that's human nature.  We want to know when we have done what is required, or done enough.  We like a hard, fast number to hold to.  If Jesus says forgive seven times, then I'll forgive seven times, but woe for the eighth!

But that is also where numbers take on a greater meaning than their literal figure.  God created the world in seven days, and, yes, I believe that is literal.  Because He did it all in 7 days, that links the idea of completeness to the number.  So when God uses the number 7, quite often He means something is complete.

So think of that.  Peter wants to forgive seven times, and that should be the end of it.  But Jesus says that even that many times is incomplete.  Then He throws in 70.  Now, 70 appears a few times in the Bible, at times to intensify the meaning (see Genesis 4:24), but to also express an idea of completeness (all of Joseph's family, 70 in number, went to Egypt, as one example).  So Jesus intensifies the action of forgiving, going beyond simply bringing it to a point of completion to seemingly wiping it away as though it never existed.  Seven times seventy.  Complete forgiveness, as if it never happened.

Of course, such complete forgiveness isn't going to be possible for us as people who bear grudges and who tend to have long memories.  Only God's forgiveness through Jesus can be that complete.  God has forgiven you seven times seventy, so completely that it is as though that sin never existed.

So what do we do as people who have been forgiven that much?  We strive to be forgiving in our lives.  While we may never be able to forgive as completely as Jesus says here, we strive to be forgiving, just as God has forgiven us through Jesus.  So with this, my 70th post, I hope that you practice much forgiveness in your life, and that you rejoice in God's forgiveness toward you!