Ten, A More Notible Number in Scripture Than You May Think

I may use this blog to start dumping all the different Revelation thoughts I have been thinking lately. This is not the beginning of that process. Instead, it is a summation of some thoughts I have been expressing at times about the number ten.

Most people may not have noted this fact in scripture, but ten is often a significant symbolic number. It indicates both completeness, like the number seven, and can represent a larger collective group. For example, the ten plagues on Egypt were targeted at the ten most important "gods" in the Egyptian society and come to represent the complete judgement of GOD against the nation of Egypt. In the same way, the ten commandments become the cover page representing all the commandments given by the LORD to Moses, which by tradition, total 613. The ten spies who rejected the Promised Land, come to represent the rejection of the Promised Land by the entire nation of Israel. The ten kings of Revelations (Rev 17:12), which are the same as the ten horns in Daniel (Dan 7:7, 7:24) and the ten toes on the statue in King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan 2:27-45), come to represent the entire world turning against the people of GOD under the authority of the Beast.

After the reign of these kings will come the promise of a time spoken by the prophet Zechariah…
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, 'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.'" (Zech 8:23)

"Ten men from all languages and nations" becomes a picture of the entire world turning to the LORD in the days when the MESSIAH reigns on HIS THRONE.

The number "ten" takes on significance early in Genesis when Abraham intercedes with the LORD for his nephew (Lot), in particular, and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in general.
Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." (Gen 18:23-26)

Ultimately, the LORD told Abraham that HE would "spare the whole place" (Gen 18:26), for the sake of ten (Gen 18:33). Ten righteous people became the number sufficient to intercede with and move the CREATOR of the entire universe to spare an otherwise wicked place. Originating from this story, or the consequence of judgement on the nation for the ten wicked spies, ten became the number of a Jewish "minyan," which is necessary for holding a synagogue.

In the context of this understanding, the number of people on Noah’s Ark, only eight, now takes on new significance. If ten righteous people had lived on the earth, would GOD have saved the entire world? We know, from the genealogies given in the Bible, that Methuselah (Gen 5:27) died in the same year that the flood occurred. Did Methuselah die because of his sin or did the LORD sustain Methuselah, along with another, to maintain the minimum number of ten righteous people to preserve the earth until the Ark could be completed. We receive a clue from Enoch, the father of Methuselah and a prophet (Jude 14), who named his son Methuselah, which literally means, "When he dies it will comes." "It" would appear to be a reference to the flood that would occur in the year Methuselah died. It appears that Enoch saw the coming judgment on the earth over 900 years before the flood came.

What a powerful thought, just ten people can save the entire world. Think about this concept, the world might be spared judgment because you and nine other people are found to live righteously in JESUS CHRIST. Right now, the BFS group has ten members including our children who live at home with us. What an impact we can have on the world. I believe that the ultimate judgments of GOD on the earth might be delayed until there are less than ten righteous people in the world. Such a belief is consistent with the concept of a "rapture" or a gathering of GOD’S people (such as to the desert) away from the world to permit GOD to judge the world.

Shalom