Have you ever found yourself in a time of waiting? Maybe it is waiting to get your driver’s license. Waiting to get out of school. Waiting for your wedding day to arrive. Perhaps you’re waiting on a job offer to arrive, or a difficult storm in your life to pass. If you’re like a majority of people these days, you are waiting intently for the coronavirus pandemic to end, and for life to get back to normal. Whatever you are waiting on, just know that you’re not alone in waiting. 

Many times, throughout the Bible, God used a waiting period to help test, refine and purify His people. Proverbs 17:3 says, “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.” The number 40 is one of the most commonly used numbers in the Bible, especially as it relates to waiting periods. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see the number 40 used in waiting, testing or trying periods for God’s people. 

We see the number 40 show up frequently in the life of Moses, including his time spent with God up on Mount Sinai when Moses was permitted to see God as He passed by the cleft of the rock. Moses also received the Ten Commandments a second time during his 40 days on Mount Sinai. “And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat break nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Exodus 34:28). 

Why did God spend 40 days with Moses on Mount Sinai? Perhaps God waited 40 days before sending Moses back down to the people as a means of allowing the children of Israel to experience a form of purification in their hearts following their sinful deeds of the Golden Calf only a month before. Other occurrences in the Bible where God used the number 40 include: 

• The Flood where it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.

• Moses spent 40 years learning who God was in Midian while tending sheep.

• The Israelite spies spent 40 days spying out the promised land.

• Israel was forced to serve the Philistines for 40 years before Samson delivered them. 

• Elijah traveled for 40 days and 40 nights to Mt. Horeb after fleeing from Queen Jezebel.  

• Jesus fasted and was tempted in the desert for 40 days.

• Jesus’ ascension occurred 40 days after the resurrection. 

Why God used the number 40 throughout the Old and New Testament is a mystery – perhaps one we will come to understand in Heaven someday. Until that time, we can be confident that whatever trials or time of purification comes our way is being done as a means for making us stronger believers and drawing us closer to the Father. “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7).

So, whether you’re waiting for that next big step in life, a storm of testing to pass, or for the coronavirus to be gone, just know that God sees you and He loves you. And He wants to continue to refine and purify us so that they will be found worthy when His beloved Son returns. 

God’s blessings on your day!  

Bluffton North Ministry Group