1807AFC021618 – Top Forty Countdown
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Mark 1:13 – 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Matthew 4:11 – 11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
¡Que la bendición esté siempre con ustedes y que Dios los bendiga, Amados! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd!) Good morning and welcome to the first Friday of Lent. Some of us look upon these forty days of preparation for Easter with dread. We sometimes get stuck on the idea that we have to “give up something” for Lent. “Jesus made a sacrifice and so must we.” That’s an OK way to look at it I suppose, but I’d much rather look at it as 40 days of good, strong spiritual discipline (often lacking in my day-to-day endeavors). That means I have 40 days to really work hard on making my relationship with Jesus, others, and myself better. Do you recognize that formula J-O-Y? J is for Jesus, O is for Others, and Y is for you. Lent can be for us a season of sorrow and mourning, of struggle and denial of personal comforts, or it can be a time of waiting filled and willed with great hope!
Why do we wait with hope? Well, it is certainly for the joy of Easter Morning, but it is because of what happened before that stupendous day. Not the Passion, not the Ministry, not the waiting, but only the long-held HOPE that began in Genesis and was perfectly expressed by Job. Here is how he confidently expressed his hope: Job 19:25-27 – 25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; 26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, 27 whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! If you’d like to hear that in a very special setting, try this: “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth” (↔ Music Link) MY Redeemer went into the desert for 40 days as preparation for his ministry.
This period of preparation is described in the Gospels as forty days and forty nights. We see that phrase in Scripture often. One can be quite literal about it and claim it covered 40 calendar days; another way to think of it is as an expression of “a really long time.” Either way, a period of waiting that lasted 40 units of time is a common occurrence in Scripture:
The most famous perhaps belongs to Moses as we read in Exodus 24:18 – 18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. Again, after Moses smashed the tablets because of Israel’s sin of idolatry, we read in Exodus 34:28 – 28 He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. Equally famous is the forty days of rain we learn about in Genesis 7:4, 10-12 – 4 “For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
There are more:
- There were forty years of peace during the leadership of Gideon (Judges 8:28)
- Goliath presented himself to the army of Israel for forty days. (1 Samuel 17:16)
- After eating a loaf of bread and drinking a cruse of Elijah fled from Jezebel traveling to Horeb for forty days without stopping(1 Kings 19:8)
- David rules over Israel forty years (1 Kings 2:11)
- Jonah announced that Nineveh would be overthrown in forty days, but they repented and the Lord stayed his anger (Jonah 3:4-10)
- 40 stripes was the maximum whipping penalty (Deuteronomy 25:3).
- The holy place of the temple was 40 cubits long (1 Kings 6:17)
- Ezekiel bore the iniquity of the house of Judah for 40 days (Ezekiel 4:6)
- Jesus remained on earth 40 days after resurrection (Acts 1:3)
When 40 is used in terms of time, it often represents a period of testing, hardship, and reprimand. It is a time of waiting, growing, and preparing for the blessings that are sure to follow. For Jesus, his 40 days in the wilderness were a time of resolution to do his Father’s will. Satan came to test him, perhaps because he suspected Jesus was indeed the Son of God, and Jesus was victorious in the test. At the moment of that Great Victory, Jesus was attend to by angels. Satan had seen enough, and he took off. We sometimes need a reminder of who and what Satan is.
We first hear of Satan in 1 Chronicles 21:1 – he “stood up against Israel, and incited David to count the people of Israel.” He is first referred to as the devil in the New Testament. The terms are roughly equivalent. Satan is a devil and a devil, like Satan, is one who “stands against” – opposes, accuses, contends – against us, the earthlings. Satan, also referred to by his angelic name Lucifer, the “Angel of Light,” is that angel which rebelled against God by desiring to be “greater-than-or-equal-to” God. When he was cast out of heaven (See Isaiah 14:12-15), he took many of his followers with him. He is the prosecutor who charges us with sin and attempts to bend us to his will by twisting the truth; he is a liar. Satan looks like this in Hebrew: שָּׂטָן (Satan) {saw-tawn’}, meaning “enemy” or “adversary,” who is always opposed to God’s will, constantly plotting against God and all of humanity. In the Greek version of the Old Testament, he is referred to as διάβολος diabolos {dee-ab’-ol-os}, a slanderer who throws misrepresentation of Truth into our path.
He is the Prince of Demons, the Old Serpent, Old Scratch, and Prince of the Air. He gained Adam’s right to God’s Garden when Adam gave the Serpent a higher level of trust than he gave God. Satan’s minions (which are not at all like the cute little yellow creatures so popular these days) are called Fallen Angels – δαιμόνιον (daimonion) {dahee-mon’-ee-on} – evil spirits who are the messengers and ministers of the devil. They serve him by plaguing us with lies and more lies attempting to get us to trust ourselves rather than God; in short, they try to get us to commit their sin of opposing God in all things. Jesus saw Satan fall and I sincerely believe he was expecting him to show up when he went into the desert to fast and pray.
That is what we are to do during this season of Lent – fast, pray, wait, and HOPE. Jesus knew what was ahead of him. He did not cower when facing his enemy. Jesus knew he was God’s only begotten Son, and he had a job to do. If you are alive and reading this today, you, too, have a job to do.
God said, “This is my Belovéd Son in whom I am well pleased.” Satan leads with “IF you are the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” Satan tells us as well, “Don’t just stand there! Do something!” This is the same lie he told Eve: “Don’t wait for God to make life better. You can do it yourself.” In this Gospel passage, Satan quotes – or rather misquotes – Scripture. We often hear of folks who decide to “test their faith” by testing God. How do we test God? By taking risks with sinful things we know will hurt us – everything from addictions to misplaced piety. Our holiness does not come from within us – it comes from God and returns to God when we choose to be righteous.
In the Gospel of Mark, the whole forty days and the temptations therein are summed up in one sentence. Jesus was with the wild beasts (μετὰ τῶν θηρίων). This describes for us the intense seclusion of his trial. In addition we can infer that due to the virtue of our Redeemer he was unafraid and unmolested by any beast or vermin as did Adam in Eden. Jesus is indeed the Savior promised in Genesis 3:15, the Redeemer Job anticipated, and the prophet Moses declared God had prepared for his people in Deuteronomy 18:15-18 – 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. 16 This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.” 17 Then the Lord replied to me: “They are right in what they have said. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.
What Jesus spoke to us was to “repent and believe the Gospel.” In these coming 40 days (minus three for Wednesday, Thursday, and today), we can do just that. These can be the best 40 Days of 2018 if only we live these days in Hope and make them our Top 40 Countdown to Victory in Jesus (↔ Music Link). Belovéd, let’s do this together – let’s make these Forty Days and Forty Nights (↔ Music Link) as authored by George Hunt Smyttan in 1856 the Top Forty Days of 2018. Remember, we each have our own Guardian Angel (↔ Music Link), and all over Heaven we know that we can sing Angels Watching Over Me (↔ Music Link). Perhaps you also will remember to sing one more hymn with reverent joy and hope:
These Forty Days of Lent, O Lord (↔ Music Link)
These forty days of Lent, O Lord,
With you we fast and pray;
Teach us to discipline our wills
And follow Lord your way.
As you with Satan did contend,
And did the victory win,
O give us strength in You to fight,
In you, to conquer sin.
As thirst and hunger you have known
So teach us gracious Lord,
To die to self and only live
By your most holy word.
And through these days of penitence,
And through your Passiontide,
Forever more, in life and death,
O Lord with us abide.
Abide with us, so that this life
Of suffering once past,
An Easter of unending joy
We may attain at last.
There is such J.O.Y. in Hope! Instead of giving up something for Lent, take up something instead. TAKE UP HOPE! You might just end up in the company of angels.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Belovéd!
Share-A-Prayer
Pray for an end to the anger that is tearing this nation and this world apart. Anger is one of Satan’s favorite tools (he tried to use it against Job), so use Hope and Joy instead of anger.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
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