A period of forty days is significant in scripture, and is repeated over and over:
We heard in the Penitential Rite on Ash Wednesday that the forty days of Lent are the Church’s preparation for the great feast at Easter, and that that preparation takes the form of “self-examination and repentance, prayer, fasting and self-denial, and reading and meditation on God’s holy Word” (BCP pp. 611-612).
- Genesis 7 – in the great flood, rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
- Exodus 24 – Moses was on the mountain with God forty days and forty nights.
- Numbers 13 – the Hebrew spies were in in the land of Canaan forty days.
- 1 Samuel 17 – the giant Goliath tormented the Israelite army for forty days before David killed him.
- 1 Kings 19 – when Elijah was on the run from Jezebel, an angel fed him a meal of bread and water, and on the strength of it he walked forty days from Beer-Sheba to Mount Horeb.
- Jonah 3 – Jonah’s prophecy to Nineveh was that they had forty days to repent.
And Mark tells us in his Gospel that after Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, he went into the wilderness for forty days and was tempted by Satan.
Continue reading “Lent 1, 2021 – Sermon”