The guy with the pointy tail and the pitchfork comes in handy in cartoons and costume parties, but how can we take such an image seriously? In the Bible, they say, let’s read “Satan” merely as a symbol of human evil. Since the sixties, it has been fashionable in some quarters to dismiss the devilas a relic of ancient mythology or medieval fantasy. When Jesus begins his mission of liberation, there is another slave master who is no more willing than Pharaoh to let his minions go without a fight. Pharaoh did not take the loss of his cheap labor lying down. There was someone who did not want them to go out into the desert to offer sacrifice to their God. The Slave Master resists Liberationīut think back to the story of Moses and the Israelites. For the nomadic Israelites, it was the start of a new, settled existence in the Promised land.Īnd Jesus Christ? What did his forty days in the wilderness signify? The imminent birth of a new Israel liberated from sin, reconciled to God, and governed by the law of the Spirit rather than a law chiseled in stone. In Moses’ case, it was the birth of the people of the covenant. In Noah’s case, it’s the rebirth of a sinful world that had been cleansed by raging flood waters. So why all these forties? Probably because it is forty weeks that a woman carries her developing baby before a new life can come forth from the womb.Īll these “forties” are a necessary and not-so-comfortable prelude for something new. The Israelites wandered around the desert for 40 years. Moses was up on Sinai receiving the 10 commandments for 40 days. Noah and the passengers in the Ark watched rain fall for 40 days and forty nights. But did you ever wonder why he was out there for forty days rather than seven or ten or fifty? OK, we do penance for forty days because Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness. But other languages, such as Spanish, have a name for this season that is derived from the word for forty. In the English language, the special season before Easter is called “Lent.” The word comes from the “lengthening” of daylight hours as we progress from the darkness of winter to the new light of spring. Why Lent has forty days, the meaning of the number 40 in the Old and New Testaments, and the meaning of the fasting and temptation of Jesus Christ in the Desert. This post is also available in: Spanish, Italian
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