02 Oct Why Forgive 490 Times?
When the disciples asked Jesus ‘how many times should I forgive?’ they even suggested what seemed like a generous answer to their own question… ‘up to seven times?’ Matthew 18:21
You might assume various things about how God in Jesus might have answered, but his answer was at face value a little odd. He said, ‘not seven times, but seventy times seven.’ Matthew 18:22
Seventy times seven is in fact 490. So apparently we are to forgive 490 times when they sin against us.
Putting a number on forgiveness is a strange thing in itself. Firstly if you are counting how many times you forgive, have you really let it go? Isn’t keeping a forgiveness score a bit of an oxymoron. Well the reality is that this number has a meaning that goes far beyond keeping a score.
A quick overview of how we get to 490 in the Bible.
Firstly Cain kills his brother in Genesis 4. There are consequences for his sin, but the Lord also cares and protects him, by putting a mark on him, which is designed to warn people that they will have seven times the consequences for harming Cain. Genesis 4:15
Next Lamech, a descendant of Cain, kills someone, and says to his two wives… ‘I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.’ Genesis 4:23-24
Now the number has gone from seven to seventy-seven.
Do you notice a theme appearing with sevens and multiples of seven, and all of it has to do with the ideas of vengeance, justice and retribution?
Later in the Old Testament the people of Judah, fail to keep the commandments of the Lord, and the prophet Jeremiah decrees they will be exiled out of the land for seventy years. The Lord said to Jeremiah, ‘This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.’ Jeremiah 25:11
So Judah, the southern part of the original nation of Israel has a seventy year punishment as consequence for sin.
Later Daniel is the prophet is one of those people who are in fact exiled away to Babylon and realises the seventy years are nearly up. He goes to seek the Lord about what will happen next.
‘I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.’ Daniel 9:2-3
During Daniel’s prayer he received a response that is one of the most astounding prophetic words in the entire Bible.
‘Seventy “sevens” are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.’ Daniel 9:24
God had a plan to fully atone for sin. This plan would bring in everlasting righteousness. It was a plan that was uniquely special. God had more to say about it.
‘Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven “sevens,” and sixty-two “sevens.” It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two “sevens,” the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.’ Daniel 9:25-26
Scholars and Bible readers have known for a long time that the ‘seven’s described are sets of seven years. What God was saying to Daniel was that there would in fact be a period of seventy of these sets of seven years. In other words 490 years. This period of time would lead to ‘the Anointed One’ being put to death. And this would ‘bring in everlasting righteousness’ and ‘atone for wickedness.’
The anointed one is Christ.
Christ was to come as part of a plan about 490 years after Jerusalem was commanded to be rebuilt.
Christ was to fully atone for sin, and bring in everlasting righteousness, a righteousness that could not be removed and would last forever.
So sevens, and sets of sevens have appeared through the Bible here and there until Christ. Then the ultimate combination of them in the number 490 is a symbol of complete forgiveness and eternal righteousness.
When Christ forgives, you are forgiven. He isn’t counting until you hit seven failures. He isn’t even counting until you hit 490 failures. The number 490 implies perfect forgiveness. It means, he isn’t counting.
When you truly forgive someone, as the number 490 implies, you set them free from their obligations to you. You don’t count how many times they do you wrong, even if you know they may do it again in the future, even many times. The number 490 implies unconditional forgiveness just like Christ offers to all who put their trust in Him.
‘As far as the east is from the west, this is how far he has removed our sins from us.’ Psalm 103:12
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