The Forty Days Experience

I recently saw a joke on social media where someone was wondering why a journey of 600kms (estimated distance between Egypt and Israel) took the Israelites 40years to complete rather than 40days. I remember even arguing with a friend about this where I tried to explain that it took 40years because the Israelites decided to take their time. They had set up camp as they wandered through the wilderness and would only move when the felt compelled or directed to move so.

Now I know that was not entirely the case.

While the Israelites lived in Egypt, they mixed up with the Egyptians and in the process adopted some of their ways. They inter-married with the Egyptians and took up some of their practices including the worship of the Egyptian gods.

When God delivered them from Egypt, they needed to be purified and prepared to enter into promised land. He needed them to abandon all the foreign practices they had picked up while in Egypt and to remember the ways of their forefathers. The planned purification period was 40days.

But the Israelites were stubborn and remained obstinate in their ways. Above all they did not believe that God will give them the land of Canaan which was, at the time, inhabited by another nation that they perceived as more powerful. Their obstinacy in sin and their refusal to believe that God had the power to give them the promised land elongated their time in the wilderness from 40days to 40years.

If we think about it, the Israelites probably didn't even need the 40days to start with; based on the distance to be covered, the group could have made an effort to cover at least 5kms in a day which is a very conservative number. Even with this, they could have completed the journey in 30days. However, we see the number 40 in scripture  as a significant number. In fact when talking about wilderness experiences, the number 40 carries even greater significance. I will cite some examples of prophets who went through the 40days wilderness experience.

- Moses went through the wilderness experience while receiving the Ten Commandments. He was with the Lord on Mount Sinai, fasting for forty days and forty nights, eating no bread and drinking no water. And after this experience, he came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments written on the tablets of stone (Read Leviticus 34:10-28). His wilderness experience prepared him to receive the commandments.

- When Elijah the prophet killed all the prophets of Baal, Jezebel plotted to kill him in retaliation and when Elijah got word of this, he ran away. While on his way, the angel of the Lord appeared to him giving him food to eat and water to drink in preparation for his forty days and nights sojourn to Horeb (also called Mount Sinai). It was on this mountain that Elijah encountered God in the still wind and received further instructions on who will succeed him as prophet (1 Kings 19:1-18). His wildernessexperience led him to receive God's message on the kings and prophet to anoint as his successor.

- Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and spent forty days and nights after which he was tempted by the devil. It was after this that Jesus started his public ministry (Matthew 4:1-17). Jesus as man went through the wilderness experience to prepare him for his public ministry.

Every year, the church creates an opportunity for the faithful to go through this wilderness experience during the season of Lent. It is a period of forty days and nights of praying, fasting/abstinence and alms-giving which culminates in the celebration of the resurrection of Christ and his triumph over sin and death. At Easter, we receive anew grace and strength for the pilgrim journey.

Like the patriarchs of old, it is important that we make the most of this wilderness experience. Let us use the time to purify and prepare ourselves to encounter the risen Christ. We must endeavor to ensure that obstinacy in sin or an adequate lack of preparation does not prolong our time in the wilderness.

More so in a special way this year, as we are guided by the Holy Spirit, let us come through this experience with a firm resolve to live out the commandments of God, to be docile to his prompting as he teaches and instructs us on what to do, and to be committed to the mission of evangelization.

May God bless us all and grant us a fruitful wilderness experience.