Take To Thee By Sevens

¹“Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.” (Genesis 7:2). When we think about Noah and his ark, we often think about how he brought on two of every animal. As God explains in the film Evan Almighty, “Well, I think it’s a love story, about believing in each other. You know, the animals showed up in pairs. They stood by each other, side by side—just like Noah and his family. Everybody entered the ark side by side.” But in addition to bringing on two of every beast that was not clean, Noah was also commanded to bring seven. For the clean animals, it was more than just a single couple - it was a whole family of seven. Even Noah himself brought on his wife, and his three sons and his three daughters-in-law. Noah brought on seven humans - a complete family. Noah’s Ark served as inspiration for the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant would go on to inspire the altars around which couples and families are sealed in our modern temples. We often think primarily of sealing in the temple as a love story - couples joining together two by two. It is definitely about love, but it’s bigger than the love between husband and wife. The sealing ordinance is bigger than marriage. Sealings are about keeping a whole family together. Out of practical necessity in our modern times families get split and subdivided as they grow. Sometimes parents and their adult children live thousands of miles apart and see each other only a handful of times every few years. But eternal families do not get divided up. They are all part of one complete whole.