NUMBER SEVENTEEN (17-3)

1. Introduction

a) In the Bible the number 17 signifies "vanquishing the enemy" and "complete victory in Christ." During the days of Noah, God vanquished rebellious mankind by the flood which He began on the 17th day of 2nd month. The ark came to rest on the 17th day of the 7th month. Jesus was victorious over death when God raised Him from the dead on the 17th day of the first month. It is interesting to note what other mention(s) for 17 can be found in the Bible.

2. Who are the ten enemies that prophecy states will make Israel EXTINCT?

a) Psalm 83:6-11 gives us the ten and the seven in a different order. Verses 6-9 give us a confederation of ten enemies for the purpose of making Israel extinct, and "to cut them off from being a nation"; while verses 10 and 12 give us an enumeration of seven enemies which the Lord had destroyed in the past, with the prayer that He would do to the confederacy of the ten what He had done to the seven in the past.

b) The commentators agree that no such confederacy can be found in the past history of Israel, so that we are shut up to the conclusion that the Psalm speaks of a yet future confederacy of which the later Prophets speak more particularly. Psalm 83:6-9 tells us that this ten-fold confederation is made up of Edom, Ishmaelites, Moab, Hagarenes, Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistines, Tyre and Assyria. Then, in verses 10-12, the Bible lists the seven enemies which had been destroyed in Israel's past, which are the Midianites, Sisera, Jabin, Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah and Zalmunna.

c) The number seventeen (not the word merely) has a significance of its own, and therefore an importance which must be taken into account wherever it appears in the Word of God by itself or as a factor. It forms a great factor in the number 153.