I was listening to Leviticus and ran across several passages that spoke of a ceremony involving sprinkling seven times.

Why seven?

The obvious answer is that God created in seven days. The priest is fashioning or revealing a new creation in the ceremony.

But that doesn’t quite makes sense because the creation was completed in six days, right? “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.” So why doesn’t six come to be the significant number?

It seems that God resting and enjoying his work of the previous six days is part of the work itself. Until one has enjoyed one’s work the task is not yet done.

Thus Genesis 2 begins: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.” God had already done the work except that the work included his resting in enjoyment of what he had done. The resting counted as the finishing of the work.

This reminds me of Deuteronomy 20:

Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it. And is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit. And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.’

People are supposed to finish their tasks. And the work is not finished until it has been enjoyed.