40 Days: it's raining

As Lent begins, it may be worth remembering that its 40 days are reminiscent of many more such time periods in the Bible.  Many think that 40 days and nights were an expression for 'a long time' but that cannot be proven one way or another.  It is clear that wherever it occurs in Scripture this period of time is of divine significance and not a counting coincidence.

In the UK we have just come through a very wet February.

Genesis 7 may or may not be set in February but (verse 12) the rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.  Was it climate change?  Most certainly.  Was it man-made climate change?  Well, yes and no.

We don't know how the ensuing flood affected polar life, deep ocean life or many other questions but we do know that it judged human life.  It was sent by God the creator but the cause was Man the sinner.

It has been argued that this was the first rainfall, a thought more persuasive if the rainbow after the flood was also the first rainbow as is implied.  But nowhere does the Bible affirm this clearly (e.g. read here).  The significance of the rain days were that they represent a solemn length as ordained by God.  Whilst a day or two might just simply seem to happen - forty days never so.

The current fear factor of the coronavirus stems in part from its length of days.  As week follows week humans get the message that this is something to think and care about.  The forty days of rain were God's message that sin, concerning which humans are notoriously careless, is something to care about.

Lent is forty days for us to give it some thought in drier conditions.