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Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted
by the devil. And after fasting
forty days and forty nights,
he was hungry. - Matthew 4:1-2

40 is for Suffering

561 words long.

Published on 2024-03-10

Forty is an extreme number.

It occurs often in the Bible, but it is so consistently associated with the same theme that there is no disagreement or confusion as to its meaning.

  • Forty brings suffering.
  • Forty brings trials.
  • Forty brings temptation.
  • Forty came to Noah, Isaac, Moses, Caleb, Eli, David, Solomon, Jonah, Ezekiel.
  • Most of all, forty came to Jesus.
  • Forty will come for us all.

Here are notable instances:

  • Forty days and nights of rain during Noah’s flood (Gen 7:4, 12, 17; 8:6)
  • Forty years old was Isaac when he married Rebekah (Genesis 25:20)
  • Moses lived in Egypt forty years, in Midian forty years, then wandered the desert with Israel forty years. (Ex 7:7; Dt 1:3; 34:7; Acts 7:30)
  • Forty years God fed Israel on manna (Ex 16:35; Dt 29:5)
  • Forty days Moses fasted on the Mountain to receive the Law the first time (Exodus 24:18),
  • Moses fasted a second forty days after the golden calf (Exodus 34:28) while God tested the children of Israel (Exodus 32:1)
  • Forty days after birth, male children were dedicated to God at the Sanctuary (Leviticus 12:1-4)
  • Forty days the Israelite agents spied out Canaan (Numbers 13:25)
  • Forty years old was one spy, Caleb (Joshua 14:7)
  • Forty years from the giving of the Law at Sinai to entering the Promised land (Joshua 5:6)
  • Forty years of peace happened thrice under the Judges (Judges 3:11; 5:31; 8:28)
  • Forty years long war between Israel & the Philistines.
  • Forty days Goliath taunted Israel, before David slew him.
  • Forty years was the length of the rule of Eli the Judge (1 Samuel 4:18)
  • Forty years did King David reign (2 Samuel 5:5; 1 Chronicles 29:26-27),
  • Forty years did King Solomon reign (2 Chronicles 9:30)
  • Forty years did King Josiah reign (2 Kings 12:2)
  • Forty days and nights was Elijah’s journey to Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19:8)
  • Forty days was Jonah in Nineveh, capital of Assyria (Jonah 3:4)
  • Forty days Ezekiel lay on his right side to symbolize 40 years of Judah's lawbreaking (Ezekiel 4:6)
  • Forty years of judgment Ezekiel prophesied against Egypt (Ex 29:11-13)
  • Forty days Jesus fasted before being tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:2; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2)
  • Forty days from Jesus’ resurrection to his ascension (Acts 1:3)

If you factor forty, you get 40 = 10 x 4.

  • Ten is fallen human completeness,
  • while four means repetitious cycles of nature.

This means that trials come in repetitious cycles. It is not one and done.

One more count of forty is forty centuries. According to my best understanding of the chronologies, the creation occurred in 4020 BC. If you fast-forward forty centuries from the creation, you reach the year 20 BC. That marks forty centuries without a savior. That is a forty that tried and tested the whole world.

Understanding that forty represents trials is crucial when it comes to discovering the patterns of history, but only because forty is so close to our next number: forty-two.

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