In most places in the Word, "ten" represents "all," or in some cases "many" or "much." The Ten Commandments represent all the guidance we get from the Lord in life; the ten horns on the beast of Revelation represent all power of falsity; the ten virgins with lamps in Matthew 25 represent all people of the church.

Yet in other places, ten, or especially a "tenth," signifies representing remnants, or tiny scraps of goodness preserved for the future. These can be the remnants of a church -- a few good people that can be built up into a new church. Or they can be tiny subconscious memories of love and joy which the Lord stores in each of us in early childhood, feelings He can use later to draw us toward a life of goodness and affection.

These two meanings seem nearly opposite, but they're actually not. Love is whole and indivisible, so that the tiniest feeling buried inside someone contains all the elements of the love it can become. In a similar way, a remnant of a church that has preserved that church's knowledge has everything it needs to grow into a new church. In a sense, then, those remnants are indeed "all," they're just a version of "all" that is still in a state of potential.

121. The nature of celestial order, or how the things that constitute life progress, becomes clear from these rivers. It is as follows: The progression starts from the Lord who is the east. From Him comes wisdom; through wisdom comes intelligence, and through intelligence reason. Thus facts which belong to the memory are quickened by means of reason. Such is the proper order of life, and such the nature of celestial people. Consequently since the elders of Israel represented celestial people they were called 'wise, intelligent, and knowledgeable men', Deuteronomy 1:13, 15. So too was Bezalel, who made the Ark, of whom it is said that he was filled with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with intelligence, and with knowledge, and with all workmanship. Exodus 31:3; 35:31; 36:1-2.