What significance does the number “40” have in salvation history? Most Rev Joseph Osei-Bonsu answers your questions?
Nana, the number “40” is commonly used in both the New Testament and Old Testament. What significance does it have in salvation history? It has now even become a cliché in the local parlance where people now say life begins at “40”. Question by Thomas Asamane
Answer:
The Number Forty in the Old Testament
The period of forty days or years is an important one in Scripture and in Jewish tradition. As the church fathers observed, it is most often associated with hardship, affliction and punishment (cf. Augustine, De Con. Ev. 2.4.8-9). According to Hebrew numerology, the number forty symbolizes trial. It suggests a long period of time in which a person, or people, face challenge. The number 40 in the Bible is symbolic of a period of testing. Noah’s faith was put to the test of 40 days and nights of rain (Genesis 7). In the Old Testament, when God destroyed the earth with water, he caused it to rain 40 days and 40 nights (Genesis 7:12). Abraham tried to bargain with God not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if forty righteous people were found (Genesis 18:29). After Moses killed the Egyptian, he fled to Midian, where he spent 40 years in the desert tending flocks (Acts 7:30). Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights (Exodus 24:18). Moses interceded on Israel’s behalf for 40 days and 40 nights (Deuteronomy 9:18, 25). The Law specified a maximum number of lashes a person could receive for a crime, setting the limit at 40 (Deuteronomy 25:3). The Israelite spies took 40 days to spy out Canaan (Numbers 13:25). The Israelites wandered for 40 years (Deuteronomy 8:2-5). From the time they entered the promised land, to the time of King Saul, Israel was sporadically governed by a number of individuals known as Judges. Though they did not rule like a king, they nevertheless had a tremendous influence on the people, as they represented God and were inspired to execute his will. Judges who served 40 years include Othniel, Deborah and Barak, Eli and Gideon.
The number forty can also represent a generation of man. Because of their sins after leaving Egypt, God swore that the generation of Israelites who left Egyptian bondage would not enter their inheritance in Canaan (Deuteronomy 1). The children of Israel were punished by wandering in the wilderness for 40 years before a new generation was allowed to possess the promised land. Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, takes his stand in front of the Israelite army for forty days before David faces him (1 Samuel 17). After Elijah kills the prophets of Baal, he eats and drinks and is able to travel for forty days and forty nights on the strength of that food (1 Kings 19). Before Samson’s deliverance, Israel served the Philistines for 40 years (Judges 13:1). Goliath taunted Saul’s army for 40 days before David arrived to slay him (1 Samuel 17:16). Forty days is the length of time Ezekiel lies on his side to symbolize the punishment of Judah (Ezek 4:6). When Jonah prophesies to Nineveh, he declares the city’s destruction in forty days (Jonah 3).
The Number Forty in the New Testament
In the New Testament, after Jesus is baptized in the river Jordan, he is driven into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, where he is tested for forty days (Matthew 4; Luke 4; Mark 1). In Matthew 4:2 Jesus’ experience of “forty days and forty nights” recapitulates Israel’s forty years in the wilderness. Like Israel, he is tempted by hunger (Exod 16:1-8), tempted to put God to the test (Exod 17:1-3) and tempted to idolatry (Exod 32). Furthermore, in his answers to Satan, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13, 16 and 8:3 – texts about Israel’s wilderness experience. Most commentators, beginning with Irenaeus, also find a deliberate allusion to the lengthy fasts of Moses and Elijah: these too last “forty days and forty nights”. After his resurrection from the dead, Jesus appeared to his disciples over a period of 40 days, after which he ascended into heaven. When the Apostle Paul recounts his suffering to the Corinthians, he says received the punishment of forty lashes minus 1 on five separate occasions (2 Corinthians 11).
What is the Significance of the Number 40?
As has been shown above, the number 40 is most often associated with hardship, affliction and punishment. However, it has other references or associations. The number forty can also represent a generation of man. Forty is usually just a round number or estimation, not a precise reckoning. The ancients, who had neither wristwatches nor appointment books and did not live with technology’s demand for exact numbers, did not in general share our preoccupation with numerical or chronological precision. The New Testament, like Plato, supplies only relative dates: things are placed successively, not on a time line. To judge from ancient Jewish epitaphs, people often did not even accurately know their own age: the excessive number of tombstones with ages ending in zero or five show that often just a round estimate was made. The lack of numerical exactness explains why in the Bible three, seven, and forty appear with inordinate frequency: three is a few, seven a few more, and forty a lot more. These numbers are approximations. Matthew can even use “three days and three nights” for the time Jesus is in the tomb, from Friday evening until Sunday morning (Matthew12:40). In accord with this sort of imprecision, forty days means a relatively long time (e.g., 1 Sam 17:16; Acts 1:3); as does forty years (Judg 3:11; Acts 4:22; 7:23). There are, however, occasional instances in which forty seems to be a precise reckoning (e.g., forty stripes, Deut 25:3; cf. 2 Cor 11:24).