To try to encourage myself in these things I turned to the best book ever written: Bible. So here it goes, any hidden secret message that will get me get to be happy about this next decade, please step forward.
Here it goes....
FORTY< Well according to blueletterbible.org the KJV> there are over 157 times in 145 verses that the number appears in.
I am going to look at FORTY YEARS to narrow down thing I think. (only 54 or so verses on this one)
HUMM Happy reading to me. Stay Tunned...
Okay I am back after exploring the Bible to look for something to encourage me for this next decade ahead. (that seemed fast right but actually it took me a few days in-between kid duty, husband duty and attending to normal daily life haas)
So what did I discover, HUMMM, That 40 years is 40 years. LOL
After looking over these scriptures I realized that to some 40 years meant a turning point in their lives. Some where ending an era of judgement and wanderings; others were embarking on a new venture in life. 40 years completed a phase and commenced the beginning of a new one. For example, the children of Israel wandered for 40 years in the dessert (oh I mean desert, you see where my mind is) and they finally entered the promise land. Others got married after 40 years and still other started to reign the nation. Moses left the house of Pharaoh at 40 years and returned 40 years later. Hummm you don't say. In Acts a man older than 40 was healed. (I like that because no matter how old we are, God still works in our hearts to heal us. I needed to read that. Thank you God)
So it would seem to me that yes, 40 years could actually be a turning point of such for me. Maybe I will start a new adventure, maybe this will start a fresh era of intentional living, or maybe it's just a new decade for God to be greater in my life then ever. (Don't want to sound like a fortune cookie, but I think I do Daniel Son), yet no matter what, I am finally looking forward with anticipation to what may just be right around the corner this year for me.
All I know that no matter what happens, I am loved and He is with me.
That doesn't seem so bad after all, yet the getting older thing still bothers me. Does that mean I have to be more mature? Wear different clothing? Drive a different practical car? LOL Does that mean I am not a kid anymore? (I guess as Christians we are always to be with "child like faith") So scratch that one.
Well, I posted some of the scripture below if you care to gaze at them. (P.S.there are more comments at the end of the blog...)
Okay so here are the ones I thought were interesting.
OLD TESTAMENT references of 40 years and some 40 days
The Flood: It rained 40 days and 40 nights (Genesis 4:7 & 12)
Noah opened the door to ark after 40 days (Genesis 8:6)
Sodom: God would spare the city if there were 40 righteous people found there (Gen 18:29)
AGE OF 40 This seems Interesting
Marriage: Issac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah (Gen 25:20) (I am already married)
Esau was 40 when he took Judith to be his wife (Gen 26:34)
Joshua: 40 years old when he spied out the land (Joshua 14:7) (I don't know where to spy)
Ishbosheth Saul's son was forty years old when he began to reign (2 Samuel 2:10) (ohh I like this but what could I reign? lol)
Judge/Reigning:
Eli judged Israel 40 years (1 Sam 4:8)
David reigned for 40 years over Israel (2 Sam 5:4; 1 Kings 2:11)
Solomon reined for 40 years over Israel (1 Kings 11:42)
Jehoash began to reign; and fortyyears reigned he in Jerusalem (2 Kings12:1)
Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem (2 Chron 24:1)
Land Rested: And the land had rest forty years (Judges 3:11; 5:31; 8:28)
Land Desolate: (Ezekiel 29:11-12)
Animals: 40 kine (Gen 32:15) What's that?
Embalming: Jacob was embalmed for 40 days (Gen 50:3)
Food: 40 years the Israelites ate Manna in wilderness (Exodus 16:35)
End of wanderings:
And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, evenforty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, evenforty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise (Numbers 14:33-34) (Exodus 32:13)
For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey (Joshua 5:6)
Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you fortyyears through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite (Amos 2:10)
God Grieved:
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It isa people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways (Ps 95:10)
God's Provision for Israel:
For the LORD thy God hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the LORD thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing (Duet 2:7)
And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot (Duet 29:5)
Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so thatthey lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not (Neh 9:21)
God Proved the heart of people:
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years (Duet 8:2-4)
Moses: 40 days and 40 nights on the Mountain with God (Exodus 24:18 &28)
Tabernacle: 40 sockets of silver to hold up curtain on one side (Exo 26:21)
Spy: 40 days they spied out the Land (Numbers 13:25)
Israel was in the hands of the Philistines 40 years (Judge 13:1)
Eli judged Israel 40 years (1 Sam 4:8)
NEW TESTAMENT References
Man Healed at above 40 years old (Acts 4:22)
Moses tried to free people at 40 years old (Acts 7:23)
After 40 more years Moses was sent back to Egypt (Acts 7:36)
Wilderness experience 40 years (Acts 7:42 & 13:18)
Saul reigned 40 years (Acts 13:21)
Provocations saw God's works 40 years (Heb 3:9)
God grieved with Israelites in wilderness (Heb 3:17)
Well, there are more scriptures but this is where I decided to end this post. Who knows 40 years might actually be better than I could imagine.
What about you; what's your sign? (I mean age lol)
Has God done wonderful things for you this year, I pray He opens your eyes to see all the marvelous things He has and will do for you.
Enjoy the Journey
(I am off to bed since my baby woke with a crazy cough and so I started this new decade with baby in hand and prayers to God for healing.Lol and Loam (Life of a mother)