Forty Years in the Wilderness
Numbers 14:29-34
When God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt, an estimated 2.4 million people (this number varies greatly depending on what you read), His original intention was to bring them to the land of Israel. God gave them provisions of food and water during the journey, but the people murmured and complained and begged Moses to go back to Egypt. God was angry with the people, so He made them wait 40 years in the wilderness until all the people of that complaining generation had died before He let them enter the land of Israel. The number 40 appears many times in the bible and relates to a period of judgement or trial.
Israel
The books of Numbers through Malachi
After the 40 years in the wilderness, God commanded the people to enter the land of Israel. For the next several thousand years, Israel went through periods of prosperity and peace where they were in obedience to God, and periods exile, war and destruction when they were disobedient to God. During this period, many prophets of God arose to warn the people of the coming destruction if they didn’t obey. Like today, most of these prophets were ignored or killed because the people didn’t want to hear what God had to say. But an undercurrent of prophecy remained that foretold of a savior to come in the future called the Christ. This savior did not come in the form of a conquering king as they had expected, but came in the form of a humble servant who sacrificed his own life to save all mankind.
Time of Jesus
The book of Luke – New Testament
Around 1-2 BC Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Israel to a virgin woman named Mary who had been impregnated by the Holy Spirit. By this time, Israel was under Roman rule. During this time in history the Roman Empire would conquer nations and then let them rule themselves to a certain extent. Israel was still under the heavy hand of the Roman Empire, but it had its own King, Herod, who of course was appointed by the Roman Empire to rule over Israel. Herod was a wicked man full of greed and lust who tried to destroy the child Jesus because he was afraid of another king arising and taking his position, having misunderstood the ancient prophecies of a new king arising. What he didn’t realize is that Jesus’ kingdom was not an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly kingdom.
Jesus started his ministry around the age of 30 when he was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. John, while he was baptizing Jesus, saw the Holy Spirit descend on him as a dove and heard a voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
After being baptized, Jesus went into the wilderness where he fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights and was tempted by Satan. This number 40 is significant, remember earlier the Israelites were tested 40 years in the wilderness before entering the land of Egypt. After abstaining from Satan’s temptations, Jesus returned and began a 3 year intense ministry where he preached the word of God and performed many miracles. During this time he chose twelve men to be his disciples who would go on to spread his message to the rest of the world.
The first miracle recorded that Jesus performed is that of turning water into wine at a wedding feast. Remember earlier in the article I mentioned the first plague that God unleashed on Egypt was turning water into blood. Wine represents Jesus’ blood in the New Testament portion of the bible.