An Interesting Number - 40

This is the liturgical season of Lent. For the western church, this is the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday (excluding Sundays).

Most of my adult life, Lent was a time of prayer and fasting. Lent was a time of soul searching. Lent was a time of giving things up and a commitment to starting others. I never really associated Lent with the number 40. It was just 40 days.

Here are a few other events that happened in the Bible that associate with the number 40;

• Noah and the flood – 40 days and nights (Gen 7)
• Moses on Mt Sinai for 40 days (Ex 14)
• The Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years (Num 4)
• Elijah on Mt Horeb for 40 days (1 Kings 19)
• Ninevah had to repent in 40 days (Jonah 3)
• Jesus was tempted after 40 days in the wilderness (Mat 4)
• Jesus was in the tomb 40 hours (traditional belief)

Looking at that list puts a whole different perspective on the importance of 40. Is God emphasizing something with 40?

Maybe 40 is the right number of hours / days / weeks / years that it takes for God to break through to our hardened hearts. Maybe 40 is taking what is in the world (4 seasons, 4 corners of the earth, etc) and multiplying by God’s divine perfection (10) so that we are “in the world but not of the world”.

Maybe it’s just enough time for us to break old habits and to be transformed into a new way of living.

Here is one more interesting fact …

On Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) , some people call it Carnival. Sounds like a party! Sounds like the last day before we go into the season of Lent. The word carnival in Latin means - farewell to meat. Consider giving up meat for Lent. Giving up the flesh. Giving up yourself.