Sir Godfrey Gregg OHPM

Grand Commanding Officer

The Number 10

The number 10 is a very significant number in the Bible. In examining the uses of the number 10 in Scripture it seems to represent human failure and God’s provision. For example:

• The 10 spies failed to see God’s power and provision, so they brought back an evil report:

Numbers 13:32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature.

• The 10 tribes failed to walk with God and to do His will. Therefore, they established a separate kingdom given to idolatry:

1. Kings 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: `Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you
2. Kings 17:22-23 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, until the LORD removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day.

– The magicians and astrologers were 10 times as weak and insufficient as Daniel:

Daniel 1:20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.

• The 10 lepers were unable to cure themselves, they needed Jesus:

Luke 17:12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.