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.

3260. 'That God blessed Isaac his son' means the start of the representation [of the Lord] by means of Isaac. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'God blessed'. When any task was to be begun it was customary for the ancients to say 'May God bless!' by which was meant the same as by the wish, 'May it be happy and prosperous!' Consequently in the more remote sense by 'May God bless!' as by 'May it be happy and prosperous!' the start was meant, here the start of the representation by means of Isaac, because it follows directly after the ending of the representation by means of Abraham, meant by his death.