Forty Days of Trials, Probation and Testing
The number forty is significant throughout the bible. Biblical scholars suggest the number is not so much a signal of literal days or years but more pointedly associated with periods of trial, probation and testing–heavy words–forty is a weighty number.
The better known bible stories include: the forty-day flood (Genesis 6:17), the tribe of Israel’s nomadic wanderings for forty years (Deuteronomy 8:2) and Jesus’ forty-day desert experience (Mathew 4:2; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2).
As the stories go Noah in his ark, the sore-footed homeless Tribe of Israel and dust laden Jesus are in situations requiring increased reliance on God. With distractions removed and self-sufficiency stripped to the bone this relationship comes into stellar focus. Crystal clear is God’s offering of self but in stark juxtaposition against other enticing or seemingly reasonable choices (read about reasonable choices in blog post “FAITH UNFURLED Evil’s Influence”: http://carolinmparadis.com/2018/02/04/faith-unfurled-evils-influence/).
The typical accompaniment to “forty-days” is desolation, anxiety and loneliness before a return to new life.
After a forty-day flood God gives Noah a rainbow and a promise. After forty years of homelessness the Tribe of Israel is led to the Promised Land but not before God’s hand opens a tunnel to the other side of the Red Sea allowing escape from Egyptian bondage. After forty days of desert testing a depleted Jesus evolves intact. But evil tries to convince there is no end to suffering, there is no tunnel to the other side, there isn’t any Promised Land nor after a deluge dry shore or hope filled rainbow.
Blind Faith
How do we trust in things we can’t see particularly in times of trial, probation and testing?
We do it all the time.
Who among us understands the myriad connections of the World Wide Web and electricity? But we find people in our age and time that know and explain. Our faith in such things doesn’t rest on blind trust, but the kicker, nor does our faith in God need to either.
The challenge if we don’t have faith is how we gain faith. Wishful thinking or self-talks rarely achieve a lasting end–saying or thinking something long and hard enough doesn’t make it so. How do we get faith? Does it have an anatomy; is it a learned process, a practised procedure, a blind trust or a gift? Maybe faith is all these.
Try them out. Test your relationship with God. Start small and build. That’s what Noah did, he tested the ark and thank God it floated. The Tribe of Israel, a stubborn lot, took forty years of a God providing daily resources before learning to trust in his provisioning and then they were ready for the big move. And Jesus endured a grinding workout in inhospitable conditions; faith taking time and building in degrees. Spiritual growth often requires a barren landscape with few distractions.
It takes courage, though, that first leap of faith. To say “yes” to someone you can’t see can barely communicate the language and never assured of a physical presence may seem foolish. We may have to give up the driver seat, push over and make room for a more competent driver familiar with the roadway. It’s hard to admit we don’t know the way.
Faith Needs Struggle to Flex Muscle
Faith is a gift from God, too, but we must un-wrap the gift box and put the present to use. It needs tension and stress to activate and grow. That’s where the rest of the anatomy comes into play-procedure, practice and trust in an outcome not yet realized. It’s a gradual build like exercising muscles.
Biceps and quads don’t fill out after one or two workouts. And probably they feel terrible–tight, sore, locked up–and we ask why put ourselves through the aggravation. If we quit we won’t hurt. But persistence and time lead to toned muscles. We feel better, stronger and healthier. Many fitness professionals note with regular training muscle gain shows meaningfully around the sixth week mark–by my count pretty close to forty days.
To be continued…