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.

Concerning Donkeys

If God rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) – if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.  This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.

Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord. But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.

They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, revelling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed – an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.  But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey – an animal without speech – who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

I was reading an article by a (Baptist as it happens) Christian who referenced the thoughtlessness of people who believe too easily - say in (to use his words) talking donkeys.  It was an interesting thought to publish, especially as the article had an overall heading containing two New Testament verses.  

This is why it is interesting:

1.  It is not wise in the same article to claim the authority of the Bible by text headings and undermine it by throwaway insults aimed at the same source.  And this is an abiding problem in the church.  Most unbelievers I meet don't really believe the Bible is true but explicitly or implicitly seem to grasp that if they did believe it they would believe just about all of it.  Christians, on the other hand, notably as they get older (when they rather need the Bible to be largely simply true you might think given their shortening days), jettison bits and pieces unaware that they really have nothing left to meaningfully believe. The ageing article writer suffers this curse I think.

2.  It is not wise to ridicule what the apostles and post-apostolic era church straightforwardly believed and recorded.  They are the source of what has been handed down to us, not least about our Lord.

3. The plural in the writer's article is interesting and a device that is frequently misused by peddlers of falsehood.  There are not talking donkeys.  There was ONE donkey that talked, and it not as a rule! Specifically 2 Peter references what we know by broad experience - donkeys don't talk. Balaam was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey – an animal without speech – who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.  The donkey that carried our Lord into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday said nothing (well, quite a lot - but not verbally). But once . . .  Similarly you do not make light appear by speaking.  But once . . .  Similarly, you do not leave an exit for corpses to leave the tomb.  But once . . .

4.  Where is the madness in the Peter reference?  Not the donkey; not the people who believe that the Creator of donkeys can utilise one to speak; the madness is that of a prophet who will not take God's side.  And in 2 Peter, the main danger for religious teachers, preachers and article writers does not appear to be animals that are momentarily like humans but humans who traverse the other way: Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from the Lord. But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.