10.10.10

Sunday, 10 October 2010

Today is an interesting date in history. It happens to be the 10^th of October, 2010, or in numerical form 10.10.10. Perhaps for many young couples in Singapore, this would be an auspicious or special date to tie the knot. I can imagine restaurants and hotels being popular and fully booked, and many a wedding dinner happening tonight.

In the Bible, the number ten, linked originally to reckoning by the fingers, is a favorite round figure in the O.T. e.g. the Ten Commandments, the ten plagues, the ten patriarchs before the flood, the tenth (tithe) as an offering to God, and ten as a measurement in relation to the ark, tabernacle, and temple (Gen 6:15; Ex 26-27; 1 Kgs 6-7). In the N.T., ten plays a lesser role. It is a round number e.g. Lk 19:13; Matt 25:1; Rev 2:10. Jesus displays His messiahship by ten miracles in Matthew 8 and 9. The genealogy in Matt 1 fits into a ten-period schema. The ten horns in Revelation represent a totality of power (as in Dan 7:20). In Rom 8:38-39, ten powers are unable to separate us from God, and in 1 Cor 6:9-10, ten vices exclude from the kingdom of God.