How the Number 40 in the Bible Can Explain A Lot About Your Life

The number 40 is significant in the Bible…and it helps us understand an awful lot about ourselves.

Hang in there for this ride…whether you are in your 20s and have no idea what’s coming but don’t know what you don’t know or you are a bit older and confused…this is for you!

So back to the number 40…

• It rained 40 days in the flood with Noah
• Moses was 40 when he fled to the wilderness after killing an Egyptian.
• 40 years later he encountered God at the burning bush telling him to confront Pharaoh.
• He had 40 years in the wilderness leading the Hebrew people from Egypt and the Promised Land.
• Jesus fasted 40 days also in the wilderness.

Notice anything? 40 is tied to the wilderness.

That’s not all…40 + wilderness = identity formation.

It is little wonder that we often don’t figure ourselves out until our 40s.

Why the Wilderness Struggle Is Essential

It takes the wilderness (which are not 1-39 but more like 40+ years old) to get everything stripped down to the basics…to learn our need to trust God or else we won’t make it. The seeming self-sufficiency of youth is replaced by aches and pains, existential questions of identity and purpose…as has been said many times before…when we come to the end of ourselves to come to the beginning of God.

While we hate the wilderness…it is a necessary catalyst for our truly finding ourselves…and finding God. It helps us to truly connect with others with fewer agendas because we have come to understand the frailty of life and our utter dependence upon God and neighbor. It is when and where we truly learn to love others instead of seeming to love others but really mostly love ourselves in the guise of loving others.

There is hope!

If you are in the wilderness…it is going to be miserable, especially miserable if you don’t understand WHY you are in the wilderness. Once you understand that, the path to the Promised land will become far more bearable. You will find more joy in the suffering, more promise in the challenges and a greater capacity to be a blessing to those around you.

Hang in there! Great things are ahead!

Read more about how God equips people to lead via what we learn from Moses – Read it here “Moses: A Man of 3 Words and what that teaches us about how God equips leaders”