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Spiritual Significance of the Number 17

Seventeen Signifies Divine Intervention in Pivotal Events

[Study Aired March 6, 2026]

The first mention of the number seventeen is:

Gen 7:11  In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

This seventeenth day of the second month in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life is the day the fountains of the great deep were broken up; a never before recorded event. This event began the universal flood of Noah.

The next mention of this number seventeen is the day of the month on which the ark came to rest on solid ground for the first time since the flood began on the seventeenth day of the seventh month in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life.

Gen 8:3  And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
Gen 8:4  And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

The beginning of the flood and the end of the flood both occurred on the seventeenth day of the second and seventh months respectively. Both were the result of divine intervention.

The next time we see this number ‘seventeen’ is in:

Gen 37:2  These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph,  being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.
Gen 37:3  Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours.

This seventeenth year of Joseph’s life is also a time of divine intervention in a pivotal event as Joseph will later reveal to his brothers when he reveals himself to them when they come down to Egypt to buy grain. This seventeenth year is the year in which Joseph informed his father of some evil his brothers were committing. This is the year his father made him a coat of many colors because he loved Joseph “more that all” of his other sons. This seventeenth year is the same year the holy spirit once again intervened to give Joseph two dreams which he, by divine ordination, shared with his brothers and his father, Jacob. Revealing that God has ordained that His elect will rule over their fellow Christians, who must be given “an evil report” (Gen 37:2), is exactly what made Christ so hated by the church of His day. Revealing that God’s elect will rule over “those who say they are Jews [Christians] and are not [Rom 2:28-29]”, is the very same message which causes the Lord’s elect to be “hated of all men” (Mat 10:22) until this very day.

The gift from his father of the coat of many colors, and Joseph sharing the dreams the Lord had given him with his brothers and his father was a recipe for what then occurred:

Gen 37:4  And when his brethren saw that their loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Gen 37:5  And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren:  and they hated him yet the more.
Gen 37:6  And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7  For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8  And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Gen 37:9  And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10  And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?
Gen 37:11  And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.

This hatred of Joseph and the dreams the Lord gave him in his seventeenth year are also divine interventions, and it is Joseph himself who tells us that is the case. He twice states specifically that his ten brothers, signifying fellow Christians, did indeed sell him into Egypt as a slave. Then Joseph confirms what the apostle Paul tells us about how our own will is a work of God, even when that will is to do evil:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Now let’s look at what Joseph tells his brothers about their own will:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother,  whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

When Joseph tells his brothers, “It was not you that sent me hither, but God”, he is telling us the same thing Paul tells us:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

The next mention of this number seventeen is at the death of Jacob.

The number 17 is 2×8+1. Those factors indicate our progression toward spiritual maturity signified by (2×8) plus divine intervention, signified by (1). It was divine intervention which brought the flood upon the earth on “the seventeenth day of the second month” (Gen 7:11), and it was divine intervention that brought the ark to rest in the mountains of Ararat on the same “17^th day of the seventh month” (Gen 8:4).

Joseph himself tells us in Genesis 45:8 that his brothers selling him into Egyptian slavery in his seventeenth year was also by divine intervention. Here again is where Joseph reveals this Truth:

Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me [typifying God’s elect] a father to Pharaoh [typifying the Father], and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt [Typifying the elect being given to rule this world during the thousand-year reign].

Pharaoh installing Joseph as the ruler of Egypt signifies the Father giving Christ and “His Christ” the rulership over all the earth during the thousand-year reign. Joseph’s brothers signify the churches and religions of this world who hate anyone who is faithful to the words of Christ and are not afraid to say that they are the true sons of God while their brothers are worthy of the evil report of not doing the things Christ tells us to do:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord [Claim to be a Christian], and do not the things which I say?
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Joseph telling his dreams to his brothers might appear provocative, nevertheless him doing that signifies Christ telling the “Jews that believed on him [but would not] continue in [His Word], that they were “of your father the devil”, and “ye seek to kill me” (Joh 8:37). Christ is telling these Jews that they are not Jews, and that in the end they would come and bow down to Him to the earth:

Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Joh 8:45  And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world [For 1,000 years]? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels [In the great white throne judgment/lake of fire/ second death]? how much more things that pertain to this life?

The great white throne judgment is God’s judgment on “the rest of the dead” (Rev 20:5) who live only after the thousand years are “fulfilled and expired” (Rev 20:5, 7), and it is this “resurrection to judgment” (Joh 5:29) which will effectuate all men having the mind of Christ and His Father because the scriptures tell us that ‘learning righteousness’ is the product of any and all of God’s judgments:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness [Be given the mind of Christ and His Father].

Even though Joseph told his brothers that it wasn’t they who sold him into Egypt, but it was God who caused them to do so, and even though Joseph promised to ‘nourish and care for them’ (Gen 45:11), they did not believe him, and instead they projected their own carnal mind upon Joseph and convinced themselves that Joseph was intent on taking revenge on them at his first opportunity. When Jacob died they were certain Joseph would now get his revenge upon them, and they told Joseph that Jacob had told them to tell Joseph to forgive them:

Gen 50:15  And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. [The last thing on Joseph’s mind]
Gen 50:16  And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Gen 50:17  So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him
Gen 50:18  And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
Gen 50:19  And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Gen 50:21  Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

Gen 47:27  And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly.
Gen 47:28  And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.

The death of Jacob, after living in Egypt for seventeen years, signifies the greatest divine intervention in the affairs of mankind of all time. Jacob was signified by ‘the sun’ which bowed down to the earth before Joseph in the dream the Lord gave Joseph when he was seventeen years old. For that reason Jacob, in this story, signifies the death of the carnal-minded ‘old man’ of Joseph’s brothers and “the fulness of the Gentiles” (Rom 11:25-26) when “all Israel shall be saved” in the lake of fire. That is the ultimate divine intervention, and it occurred after Jacob had lived in Egypt for ‘seventeen years’.

Even though the word ‘seventeen’ or the word ‘seventeenth’ are not to be found in the New Testament, the number is still to be found in its negative application in reference to “the beast” and his “father the devil” (Joh 8:44). Instead of the number ‘seventeen’ we see a dragon and a beast with seven heads and ten horns. The head signifies the intellect, and horns signify power in scripture. The only difference between the “great red dragon” and his child “the beast” is that the crowns are on the seven heads of the dragon and the crowns are on the ten horns of the beast:

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Rev 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Rev 17:7  And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

The crowns being on the seven heads of the dragon suggest that the beast which has crowns upon its ten horns is capable of being tempted and manipulated by the dragon.

Indeed the dragon who is also called ‘Satan and the Devil’ is also called “the tempter”:

Mat 4:1  Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Mat 4:2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

It was Christ who made it clear that our old man, ‘the beast’  within us, is “of your father the devil.”

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The beast within each of us is signified as having seven heads and ten horns with ten crowns on his ten horns. These crowns on his horns signify that our beast thinks of himself as very powerful while our father the devil with seven crowns on his seven heads instead of his horns is called “the deceiver” (Rev 12:9) who is given to manipulate all that power and to “deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth”:

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

This final pivotal battle between a beast with seven heads and ten horns, led in his rebellion against Christ and “the camp of the saints”, by his father the devil, a great red dragon who also has seven heads and ten horns, adding up to 17 forces of evil, once again signifies divine intervention in pivotal events in the history of mankind, which is the most prominent significance of the number seventeen in the scriptures.

Before closing we must point out how the various integers of this number seventeen also have great spiritual significance. For example 9+8=17: Nine, as we have seen, signifies judgment, and 8 signifies new beginnings and our new man. Therefore, these two integers of the number seventeen also signify the judgment of our new man leading to his salvation and deliverance from sin and death:

1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death [By the utter destruction of both the seven-headed, ten-horned dragon, and his seven-headed and ten-horned son, the beast].

11+6 = 17: Eleven signifies the destruction and dissolution of the kingdom of the beast, and six signifies the beast himself. The subjugation of both through their utter destruction will take place at the great white throne judgment/ lake of fire/ second death:

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

12+5=17: We will conclude our study of the spiritual significance of the number seventeen with the spiritual significance of these two integers, 12, the scriptural and spiritual number which signifies foundations, and 5, which signifies grace through faith.

It is “by grace [we] are saved through faith” (Eph 2:8-10). While Christ in us will produce good works, those works are not ours, but they are the works of a living Jesus Christ who lives within us and causes us to want to produce good works, which we, of ourselves could never perform:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

That is the spiritual significance of the number 5, and when it is combined with the number 12 we become part of the foundations of the city of our God, the New Jerusalem:

Rev 3:12  Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Rev 3:13  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Rev 21:14  And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.