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I confess I find your recent interest in numerology quite amusing, especially as regards astrological predictions of one’s fortunes or future. As a pastime I can see little harm, though I often wonder at how so many people come to depend on stars and numbers and astronomical signs to show them their way.
That said, numerology not necessarily a whimsical little diversion, but might in fact give us some insight into the divine. I know my departure from the material and scientific might take you by surprise, but I cannot deny that numbers play an important role in a faithful life.
Consider the forty days of Lent—that period of fasting, prayer and preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter—forty days to coincide with Jesus’ own vision quest in the wilderness that culminated in his triumph over the tempter’s tests. That the ministry of the messiah might begin with forty days of fasting should come as no surprise, for there are so many echoes of the number in Hebrew scripture.
The Lord God flooded the earth for forty days and nights, and Noah and his crew waited another forty days to open the windows of the ark. After deliverance from slavery, the Israelites wandered the Sinai desert for forty years. Each time Moses communed with the Lord God on the holy mountain, he lingered forty days. The Israelite spies scouted out the land of promise for forty days. Goliath, the Philistine champion, challenged the Israelites for forty days before losing his head to David. Elijah was sustained by one meal for his forty-day trek with God on the holy mountain. And the Jonah gave wicked Nineveh forty days to repent…and they did.
What each of these periods of forty has in common is a time of testing, challenging, repenting, renewing, connecting or reconnecting with God. That Jesus would fast forty days and be tested should come as no surprise. Forty is a holy number of fasting—of self denial and connection to the divine.
The forty days of Lent mark out a holy time with a holy number in preparation for a holy day. And after that day, the resurrected Jesus appears to his disciples to challenge and connect with them for…you guessed correctly…forty days.
If there is such a thing as a holy number, then forty is a holy number indeed.
I remain, as ever, sincerely yours,
S.H.