The next moment—the forty-first.
Just one more.
There are 40 days.
But the forty-first day is the day Jesus ascended. For forty days, a man over 9 feet tall taunted God’s people, but was slain by a shepherd boy after. For 40 days, it rained on the world to purify it from its wickedness, and the next day it stopped. For 40 years, there was someone ruling who was imperfect, just another ruler, another man, but the 41st year is reserved for him who rules forever. For forty years, one man stayed with a troubled people, but in the 41st year, he went to where his true family was. 40 days to repent, forty days of fear, but that next day was a day of mercy. 40 days of fasting and temptation, but the next day, he overcame this person’s deceit. 40 days in the presence of the Lord, and that following moment, he brought down truth, he brought down the Law. 40 days of traveling with no food, but the next day, he heard the Lord’s whisper. 40 years of eating manna from above, to be sustained for the next day. 40 days of seeing the promised land from God to see what was in store, and to have that hope. 40 years in the wilderness because of unbelief, but the promised land was following, so stay faithful until the end, to receive that crown of Life.
Hold fast to that faith because just that next moment, there he is. That next moment is God’s mercy, it is his steadfast love, it is his enduring faithfulness, it is his promise, it is our hope and faith. It is the Resurrection and the Life, if you believe in him, though he die, he shall surely live, and whoever lives and believes he shall never die.
The 40 stripes were known to kill a man, but that next moment, that belongs to the Lord.
Genesis 7:4
“For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”
Exodus 16:35
“The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They are the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.”
Exodus 24:18
“Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”
(Moses’ fellowship with God/Commandments)
Numbers 13:25
“At the end of forty day they returned from spying out the land.”
(Spying out the promised land)
Numbers 14:33-34
“And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’”
(Israel’s rebellion caused 40 years in the wilderness)
1 Samuel 17:16
“For forty days the philistine came forward and took his stand, morning and evening.”
(Goliath taunting Israel)
2 Samuel 5:4
“David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.”
1 Kings 11:42
“And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.”
1 Kings 19:8
”And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.”
(Elijah traveling)
Jonah 3:4
”Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
(Jonah preaching repentance)
Luke 4:2
“for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.”
(Jesus fasting)
Acts 1:3
“He presented himself alive to them after alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.”
(Jesus Ascension)
Acts 7:23
“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.”
(Moses returning to his people)
Acts 7:30
“‘Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.”
(Moses on Holy ground)
Acts 13:21
“Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.”
(They asked for a king who displeased God)
2 Corinthians 11:24
“Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.”
(Paul suffering for the Gospel)