Fortieth Year

Deuteronomy 1:1-3 – These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the wilderness east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah—opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.) In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them.

Ezekiel 47:8 – He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh.

Numbers 20:11 – Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.

Deuteronomy 4:1-2 – Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

Numbers 14:34 – For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’

Deuteronomy 8:3 – He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Hebrews 3:14 – We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.

Application:

• ·         Arabah is the waterless region between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.
• ·         In his rage Moses disobeyed the Lord’s instruction to speak to the rock. Moses’ rash action brought a stern rebuke from the Lord.
• ·         The Lord had condemned the Israelites to 40 years of wandering in Sinai as punishment for not entering Canaan as He had commanded them to do at Kadesh.
• ·         God’s call to His people to hear and obey is a frequent theme in Deuteronomy and elsewhere in the Old Testament.
• ·         The revelation the Lord gives is sufficient. All of it must be obeyed, and anything that adulterates or contradicts it cannot be tolerated.
• ·         The 40 days of the travels of the spies became the numerical pattern for their suffering: one year for one day—for 40 years they would be reminded of their misjudgment, and for 40 years the people 20 years old or more would be dying, so that only the young generation might enter the land.
• ·         Bread sustains but does not guarantee life, which is God’s gift to those who trust in and live by His word: his commands and promises. God’s discipline of His people by bringing them through the wilderness taught them this fundamental truth.
• ·         To share in Christ is to belong to Him and participate in the blessings He gives.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV