The number 666 is a numerical anomaly in the New Testament book of Revelation – a book that has very many sevens. Seven churches, seven spirits, seven candlesticks, seven stars, seven lamps of fire, seven seals, seven angels, seven horns, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven heads, seven crowns, seven plagues, seven vials, seven kings and seven mountains. The solitary 666, which is “the number of a man’s name” is a marked contrast and “stands out like a sore toe,” as we used to say.
In the Bible the numeral seven symbolizes completion. Six symbolizes the best that mankind can achieve without God, and it falls short of the completeness that He requires.
.When the prophet Elisha instructed a leprous Syrian general “Go and wash in the river Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be clean again”, the general was enraged. He was the king of Syria’s right-hand-man and yet the prophet had not even shown him the courtesy of coming out the door, but had sent a messenger with the instruction (2 Kings 5:11).
“I said to myself, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and smite the leprosy and heal me! Are not Abana (“Swift”) and Pharpah (“Stony”), the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the rivers in Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?”
He turned away in a rage. But his servants drew near and reasoned, “If the prophet had bid you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much easier then, when he says, ‘Wash and be clean?’ So he went down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, as the man of God had instructed, and his flesh became like that of a little child, and he was clean.”
If the general had quit after dipping himself six times he would not have been healed. His problem was pride and that pride could only be broken by total obedience in subjecting himself to the prophet’s instruction – no matter how foolish he felt as he lowered himself into the water six times. Six is mankind’s best, but seven is better — and brings God’s blessings!
The good news is that seven is just one number more than six. Could this be the case in the thing you’re asking God to do for you? The distance between is so small, yet it can appear so great if pride or some other sin that God wants you to surrender is standing in between. But now you know what to do to move from six to seven, don’t you? “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you in due season.”