BIBLE NUMERICS
The Number FORTY
Now the number Forty is comparatively simple, because it is plainly
probation or a testing period of time. Practically every time the word or
number Forty shows up in the Bible it is within this connection or context.
That is, the number is connected with some type of testing. The first time
the word occurs as just plain "Forty" is Genesis 5:13 as the age of a man,
but the time the word actually occurs just by itself without the 800
attached to it is in Genesis 7:4 where the flood was upon the earth forty
days and forty nights (and again in Genesis 7:17). This context of the first
mention generally fixes the meaning for the number Forty thereafter. Notice
Esau is forty years old when he messes up and takes the wrong kind of wife.
Notice that Isaac is forty years old when he takes Rebecca to wife. Notice
the children of Israel are tested forty years in the wilderness until the
rebels are purged out from among them. Notice Jesus Christ fasted forty days
and forty nights. Notice that Moses himself was on the Mount for forty days
and forty nights fasting (Exodus 24:18). Notice Elijah the prophet was in
the same condition in I Kings 19:8. Elijah goes forty days and forty nights
without anything to eat, this being the days or time given to testing. The
man healed in Acts 4:22 is above forty years old, which is considered an
absolute limit or time limit for getting healed; hence the peculiar
expression among Americans, "Life begins at forty."
The references for the children of Israel being in the wilderness for forty
years are too numerous to mention such as: Hebrews 3:9; 3:17; Numbers
14:33,34; Deuteronomy 2:7; 8:2; and Moses fasting forty days and forty
nights in Deuteronomy 10:10. The land of Israel rests in the period of the
Judges forty years in Judges 3:11 and again in Judges 8:28. Notice Eli
judges forty years in I Samuel 4:18. If that weren't enough, it turns out
that this is the length of Saul's reign in Acts 13:21, the length of
Solomon's reign, and the length of David's reign, I Kings 2:11; 11:42--the
period is very significant then--and it's very significant as a period of
testing or waiting to determine the issue or outcome of a thing. This
probably has a tremendous bearing on the Second Coming of Christ which I
don't profess fully to understand. But the number Forty is plainly a period
of testing or probation or a kind of interim before God does something in a
certain situation.
Index of Preacher's Help and Notes
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