BIBLE NUMERICS
The Number TEN
We come now to the number Ten. Now Ten, of the numbers in the Bible that are
given, is by far the easiest number to locate outside of Five and Seven.
Only Five and Seven are easier to locate than the number Ten. The number Ten
is called a round number or number of completeness by Bible writers who are
lazy and irreverent, and who do not believe the Authorized Version is
reliable; but for those of us who believe it to be the word of God preserved
in the form in which He intends for us to have it, the word "Ten" is of easy
location. It can be located immediately, dogmatically, without fear of
contradiction, and it will stand. The Bible is right, and whoever disagrees
with it is off base. The number Ten can be located.
The tenth man from Adam is Noah, who is the father of the Gentiles. Isn't it
a strange coincidence that Gentiles could by ten's? If that weren't enough,
in Genesis 10 you have the first Gentile kingdom ever started, and the last
Gentile kingdom has ten nations in it, Daniel 2. If that weren't conclusive
enough, you ought to read the entire tenth chapter of Genesis and find this
is the list of the genealogies of the Gentiles. If that weren't enough, in
Acts 10 you have the opening of the door to the Gentiles in the New
Testament. In John 10 is the sheep of the "other fold," and the missionary
call and message to the Gentiles is found in Romans 10. And it is in
Revelation 10 the Lord puts His foot on the earth and takes possession of
the Gentile kingdoms. There is no doubt about ten; it has to do with the
Gentiles. It is a Gentile number.
Twelve is plainly a Jewish number, as we are going to see when we get to it.
In contradiction with Twelve is Ten, which of course is Gentile.
This might give the argument of Garner Ted Armstrong some precedence,
although he's not aware of the truth involved (otherwise, I'm sure he would
have used it long before now). As you remember, his argument was that the
ten northern Tribes of Israel scattered out through Europe and became
England and the United States. This "British Israelism" put out by Armstrong
is about a hundred years out of date; and it is amazing that you'd find
anybody who would subscribe to such a harebrained theory any more, but
scores of people do. This will leave the two southern Tribes--Judah and
Benjamin--as Judah with the tribe of Levi. That's the position of Garner Ted
Armstrong.
The first time the word "ten" occurs in the Bible, it occurs in Genesis
5:14. (Five plus one plus four equals ten.) The days were 910 years in a
man's life, the word ten occurring here for the first time, which is a
reference to the life of somebody before the law. They are all Gentiles
before the law. Of course I know that they're divided off into Gentiles
coming from Japheth, and then the Shemites and Ham under another one, but
the division in the New Testament is Gentile, Jew, and church; and before
the law, Abraham is an uncircumcised Gentile.
The next time the word ten occurs in the Bible is Genesis 16:3. (One plus
six plus three equals ten.) Notice also in Genesis 18:32 the ten is found in
Sodom and Gomorrah, not inhabited by the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, but by the Canaanites. And the next time the word ten occurs, it
occurs three times in a row. As a matter of fact it occurs three times in
Genesis 24:10; 24:22; and 24:55 where ten camels go out, and the damsel is
said to abide ten days, and the damsel is from the still uncircumcised
progenitors of Abraham, where back there Laban and the rest of them stayed
in the other country before God circumcised Abraham and made him a peculiar
people and race. The term "ten," then, is plainly Gentile.
The last world power on this earth under the United Nations will be a ten
kingdom federated kingdom of Gentiles represented by the toes on Daniel's
image, and represented by the ten kings of Revelation 17. This is the
Gentile world dominion when Christ Jesus returns to set up an Everlasting
Kingdom. This first Gentile kingdom was set up in Genesis 10 by Nimrod, the
thirteenth from Adam.
That is, we're dealing here with something that is as scientific as anything
the world has set up. We're not dealing here with a thing that occasionally
works. We're dealing with a thing that is an underlying law with deep
significance as it affects all numbers. We may not be able to state a
theorem that will meet all the demands of each number. We may not be able
to, in the Bible itself, trace down every case and prove every case as it
comes up and connect it with what we're talking about; but we're dealing
here with a general law that is as generally true as the law of gravity. You
say, "The law of gravity is always true." It most certainly is not! The law
of gravity is no more scientific than the law of numbers. It will be
discovered some day that the law of gravity is based on the law of numbers.
Numbers, as used in the Bible, gives the reader the clue or key to the basic
meaning of each number. Ten is the Gentile number.
Index of Preacher's Help and Notes
These documents are free from BelieversCafe.com, the complete christian resource site with more than 5000 webpages.