Meaning Of Biblical Numbers

Forty (mem)
Trial, Probation
The number forty in Hebrew was written with the letter mem (water, flowing or coming from). Forty is the number of
trial or probation. When viewed as a time cycle, we find that Israel spent 40 years being tested and tried in the wilderness.
Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness being tested of the devil. The number 40 can be viewed negatively in terms of the
full 40 days/years of trial, but it can also be viewed positively in that it is the END of the time of trial or testing. In the
positive sense, then, forty (i.e., mem) speaks of Israel crossing the Jordan River (water) after 40 years in the wilderness.
In that sense also, Israel came from the wilderness and flowed into the Promised Land.
Forty is the product of eight and five. Eight is the number of New Beginnings, while five is grace. Thus, forty can be
seen as entering grace after a period of trial, as well as the beginning of something new. Obviously, these are both factors
in the cases of Israel and Jesus.
Likewise, Dr. Bullinger’s Number in Scripture, p. 267, points out the fact that there are eight forty-day periods
mentioned in the Bible. They are:
1. Forty days Moses in the mount (Ex. 24:18) to receive the law.
2. Forty days Moses in the mount after the Golden Calf incident (Deut. 9:18, 25).
3. Forty days of the spies (Num. 13:26; 14:34).
4. Forty days of Elijah in Horeb (1 Kings 19:8).
5. Forty days of Nineveh’s probation (Jonah 3:4).
6. Forty days Ezekiel lay on his right side for Judah (Ez. 4:5).
7. Forty days Jesus was tempted of the devil (Matt. 4:2).
8. Forty days from Jesus’ resurrection to His ascension (Acts 1:2).
The total of these eight forty-day periods is 320 days. Since 32 is the number of Covenant, we see a special
connection with the idea of covenant. In fact, God made a covenant with Israel twice while they were in the wilderness.
The Exodus covenant (Ex. 20) came at the beginning of their 40 years at Mount Horeb, and the second covenant (Deut.
29:1) came at the end of their 40 years in the wilderness of Moab, just before they entered the Promised Land.
These two covenants provided a double witness to the Old Covenant that God made with “the church in the
wilderness” (Acts 7:38). Yet they prophesied of the two-fold aspect of the New Covenant while the New Testament
Church spent 40 Jubilees in a wilderness of its own (33-1993 A.D.). The “Exodus” covenant was made at the cross
through the feast of Passover, while the Deuteronomy covenant is made as we enter the Promised Land in the Age of the
feast of Tabernacles.
The 40 th time Noah’s name is mentioned is in Gen. 10:1, “These are the generations of Noah.” It speaks of a new
beginning (eight), a new generation, as if Noah’s time of trial on earth had been completed.
The 40 th time that Abram’s name is mentioned is in Gen. 15:11, where he made a covenant with God, cutting three
animals in half, but leaving the turtledove and the pigeon. When the fowls came to consume the carcasses, “Abram drove
them away.” Here we see the covenant theme associated with this example of forty. Abram’s driving away the fowls also
speaks spiritually of driving away “the evil one,” for Jesus identified the fowls as such in the parable of the sower (Matt.
13:4, 19). And so we see that a primary purpose of a forty-day or forty-year testing period is to learn to drive away the
evil one, that is, to overcome temptation.
The 40 th time that Abraham’s name is mentioned is in Gen. 21:9, where we see Hagar “mocking” Isaac. The Apostle
Paul says in Gal. 4:29 that son of the bondwoman “persecuted” Isaac, and he makes the point that this is a pattern of Old
Covenant behavior. Hagar represents the Old Covenant, Paul says (Gal. 4:24), and her son the children (i.e., adherents) of
Old Covenant religion.
This pattern is set forth not only in Hagar and Ishmael, but also in Israel under the Old Covenant, who desired to stone
both Moses and Joshua at times. Likewise, we see King Saul persecuting David, and later, Saul (Acts 8:1) persecuting the
New Testament Church.
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