The Forty Days: 3. Days turn to Years

Forty days Moses was on the mountain.  Forty days figure in another turning point of the Exodus - the forty days the 12 spies spent in reconnaissance in Canaan.  They returned, ten expressing fears of a formidable enemy, two trusting in the power of God to help them.  The people sided with the fearful - and God was not pleased to not be trusted.  He had, after all, rescued them miraculously from Egypt.

NUMBERS 14:30 Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. 31 As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. 32 But you – your bodies will fall in this wilderness. 33 Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. 34 For forty years – one year for each of the forty days you explored the land – you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.”

The forty days is turned by God into forty years.  If such an extended time as forty days couldn't draw out a trusting faith from his people, then maybe a generation passing will do so.

Forty days is a long time for us, but nothing to God.  For all of us in some areas of our life, and for some of us in every area of our life, God will teach us long lessons if we refuse to learn them in medium time.

My Dad's Last Sermon: Part 3 Be not dismayed

But he goes on to say something else:  “Be not dismayed for I am thy God”.  I understand that word dismayed really means panicking, looking this way and that, being desperate, not knowing which way to turn.  In the earlier verses we find that was the attitude of the pagan nations in the face of the advancing armies of Persia.  They were panicking and not knowing which way to turn.  But for the Lord’s people he said, “There’s no need to do that.  Be not dismayed for I am thy God.”  He reminded them of his covenant with them through Abraham and we have an even greater covenant through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  The apostle Paul says in Galatians, “if we are Christ’s then are we Abraham’s seed.”  In other words, those promises made to Abraham about God being with his people hold good for us as much as for any Jew descended from Abraham.

So, we thank God that we do not need to be dismayed.  Those words would have had a familiar ring to many Jews who were familiar with their history because they’re very similar to the words that God spoke to Joshua when Joshua led God’s people into the Promised Land.  In Joshua chapter 1, verse 9 we find that God said to Joshua, “Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed for I, the Lord thy God, am with thee withersoever thou goest.”