this bondage for seven years in the number 770, 77's in the Bible, is used in a variety of ways to describe a time period that is set out by the Lord. And it depends on context, how you understand the 770 or the 490 years that the children of Israel had their probationary time period pointed out. But it's a time period that is identified as being under the control and dictation of the Lord. In Deuteronomy 31 verses 10 and 11 give one of the key understandings of this seven year time period. It says this, Deuteronomy 31 10 and 11, And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel has come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. And you can see more of this concept in Deuteronomy 15 1 through 15, Jeremiah 34 8 through 22, Jeremiah 29 10 through 12, Daniel 9-2, Zechariah 7-5, 2 Kings 8 1 and 2, Genesis 29-20. Whether it was the seven years that Jacob worked for his wife, or the seven years that Gideon's people here, Israel, were in bondage to Midian, or the 70 years that the children of Israel went captive into Babylon, it's a divinely identified time. This bondage that is being described in the story of Gideon is pointing forward to the spiritual apostasy, the Laodicean condition that's in Adventism today, and although time prophecy no longer is to be applied in prophecy here at the end of the world since 1844. Nevertheless, the story of the seven years here in Gideon tells us that the Lord is in control of the events that are going to take place within Adventism, and at the appropriate time, he is going to deal with the oppression that is holding down God's people here at the end of the world. Now, when Midian comes in this passage of the first ten verses here in Judges, when they come up against Israel, they are identified as grasshoppers for multitude, and that their camels were without number. And this grasshoppers, and the phrase sand of the sea, is used 19 times in the Bible, and it means a multitude. And depending on the context, if it's talking about the wicked, such as it is here in the story in Judges, as it's prefiguring the end of the world, it