Audio Download

The Spiritual Significance of Numbers – The Number 40

[Study Aired March 29, 2026]

In this study we will see that the number forty in its positive application signifies periods of trials and testing, purification, and preparation, always leading up to and producing a more mature and fruitful place of service. This period of being tried, whether for forty days or forty years precedes a new and much better beginning. This positive application of the number forty is first demonstrated in the forty days of rain which brought in the world wide flood:

Gen 7:4  For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

The old world was completely destroyed in the flood, and out of that death and total destruction a new world was born signified by the number eight.

2Pe 2:5  And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

Noah also waited forty days after the tops of the mountains appeared before he sent out a raven:

Gen 8:5  And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
Gen 8:6  And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
Gen 8:7  And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

The number forty is the product of 5×8. Five signifies God’s chastening grace, through the faith of Jesus Christ, and eight signifies new beginnings or the new man. Therefore the number forty signifies the grace through faith, which is required to put our old man to death and to begin the birth of our new man, “Christ in [us] the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). Our “fiery trials” should be seen as the chastening hand of the Lord in our lives. The Lord’s chastening is the work of His grace with which He favors His elect and chosen disciples:

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [G3811: ‘paideuo’], and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Paul also tells us that God’s grace chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811: ‘paideuo’, Chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously , and godly, in this present world;
Tit 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

The number five signifies that work of grace through faith, and the number forty consists of  5X8=40. Grace through faith produces a new man who has endured forty days of afflicting his soul.

Lev 23:26  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:27  Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
Lev 23:28  And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.
Lev 23:29  For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.

The prophet Elijah spent forty days walking to Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai), where he was given to know that he was about to enter into a new stage of his life after fleeing for fear of Jezebel’s threat to take his life:

1Ki 19:8  And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
1Ki 19:9  And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
1Ki 19:10  And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1Ki 19:11  And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
1Ki 19:12  And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
1Ki 19:13  And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
1Ki 19:14  And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1Ki 19:15  And the LORD said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria:
1Ki 19:16  And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.
1Ki 19:17  And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.
1Ki 19:18  Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

Again we see forty days of fasting preceding an epochal change in the life of Elijah as it was in the lives of Moses and the life of Christ.

The number forty eight times amplifies the significance of the number five. The number eight signifies a new beginning in which the flesh begins to be put off on the eighth day, and a new man begins to be formed on the eighth day. Expressed in another way the number forty is a five times amplification of the number eight. Since eight signifies new beginning or divine intervention, that concept is amplified five times signifying the function of grace through faith, which is the significance of the number five.

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/numbers_five/

https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-spiritual-significance-of-numbers-the-number-eight/

The number forty therefore represents a time of trial which produces a spiritual transformation, where the old self begins to be stripped away and a new existence as a new man begins. Christ Himself began an entirely new life only after forty days of fasting and confronting the beast in the wilderness.

Mar 1:13  And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

As this story demonstrates, the number forty is associated with those times of adversity and spiritual combat. The worst ‘beast’ any of us will ever face is the ‘beast’ we look at in the mirror every morning. There is no worse enemy any of us will ever confront. Christ’s own flesh was the worst beast He ever faced yet, because He was given the spirit without measure, He never once succumbed to those fleshly desires. His subjection to a new and much better man is signified by the number forty. Christ spent forty days dying daily to the physical desires of His flesh, followed by a lifetime of dying daily to the pulls of the flesh of His old man.

Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

On a national level Israel spent forty years waiting for the death of that generation which came out of Egypt. The carcasses of that unbelieving generation died in the wilderness typifying what must be done to our own old man:

1Co 10:5 But not in the majority of them does God delight, for they were strewn along in the wilderness.
1Co 10:6 Now these things became types of us, for us not to be lusters after evil things, (CLV)

Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

In the stories of the forty days of rain which brought on the worldwide flood of Noah, and in the forty years of wandering in the wilderness until the generation which came up out of Egypt had died, and Christ fasting forty days while dealing with wild beasts in the wilderness, these stories all admonish us that the Lord is in the process of purifying us for His service as “saviors” of “the rest of the dead” who do not come up out of their graves in “the resurrection of life.”

Joh 5:25  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
Joh 5:26  For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
Joh 5:27  And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [“The first resurrection]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920: ‘krisis’ judgment, “the great white throne judgment”].

Christ had to endure this time of forty days of afflicting His soul to prepare Him for the temptations of the adversary which He faced “afterward”.

Mat 4:2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Mat 4:3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Being hungry ‘after forty days’ is not telling us that Christ was not hungry from day one. If that is not true, then Christ was not “in all ways tempted as we are” (Heb 4:15). The point being made is that it was after the forty days of fasting that the tempter came to tempt our Lord. However, Christ was given His Father’s spirit without measure and rebuffed every temptation of the adversary:

Joh 3:34  For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

Christ received of His Father an unlimited anointing. Christ was given “the fullness of the holy spirit”, which enabled Him to speak His Father’s Words perfectly and to do all His Father gave Him to do without any constraint.

Fasting forty days prepared Christ for the new life He would now live in His Father’s service during His ministry:

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

‘The will of [His] Father’ was revealed in all of the ‘…but I say unto thee’ changes of the law made by Christ in His new “law of the spirit of Christ”, which He revealed in His teachings in Matthew 5-7. This new way of life began to be taught by Christ only after He fasted for forty days.

Mat 5:38  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

“Resist not evil” is the exact opposite of “an eye for an eye…” Here is another ‘But I say unto thee… change in the  law’ of Moses:

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

“Love your enemies” is the exact opposite of “hate your enemy”. Truly Christ has brought in “the times of reformation”:

Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

The law of Moses has indeed been changed to “the law of the spirit” (Rom 8:2). “The time of reformation” is now upon us, but it had to be preceded by Christ fasting forty days.

“The letter of the law… for the lawless” (2Co 3:6, 1Ti 1:9) which the Lord gave to Moses was also given to him only after Moses had fasted forty days:

1Ti 1:7  Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
1Ti 1:8  But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

Christ enjoyed another forty days which he spent with His disciples preparing them for their new life which they would experience after His resurrection:

Act 1:1  The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
Act 1:2  Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
Act 1:3  To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Such an incredible reformation from dying letter to living spirit had to be preceded by a forty-day fast. Even the “carnal commandments” of the law of Moses were given only after Moses had fasted for forty days.

Exo 34:28  And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Upon seeing the golden calf Aaron had made for the people, Moses broke the tables of stone on which the Lord had written the ten commandments, and Moses returned to the mount and fasted a second forty days:

Deu 9:9  When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
Deu 9:10  And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
Deu 9:11  And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.
Deu 9:12  And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

The second forty days are recorded in this same chapter:

Deu 9:18  And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

This was all done in preparation for entering into the promised land where all the mind of God was ideally to be put into practice in the lives of the Lord’s people. Moses fasting for forty days on Mount Sinai, and Christ spending forty days with His disciples after His resurrection were both in preparation for the new mission He had in store for His Israel.

Gal 6:15  Certainly, it doesn’t matter whether a person is circumcised or not. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.
Gal 6:16  Peace and mercy will come to rest on all those who conform to this principle. They are the Israel of God. (GWV)

Another observation we can make concerning this number forty is that whether it is the forty days of rain which brought on the flood of Noah or the forty days of fasting which Moses and Christ experienced, this number is used to separate two epochs of time in our lives. Those two times are the time we spend in the first natural realm and the time we begin to experience in the realm of the spirit:

1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Just as Abraham mourned over the loss of his own flesh, his first son, Ishmael, and just as King David mourned the death of King Saul, it is only natural and even Biblically proper that we mourn the loss of our own flesh, both through the forty days of those who are embalmed and the total of seventy days mourning of the loss of our old man, signified by the death of Israel in Egypt:

Gen 50:2  And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
Gen 50:3  And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.

2Sa 1:11  Then David took hold on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise all the men that were with him:
2Sa 1:12  And they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.
2Sa 1:13  And David said unto the young man that told him, Whence art thou? And he answered, I am the son of a stranger, an Amalekite.
2Sa 1:14  And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the LORD’S anointed?
2Sa 1:15  And David called one of the young men, and said, Go near, and fall upon him. And he smote him that he died.
2Sa 1:16  And David said unto him, Thy blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the LORD’S anointed.

One of the negative applications of the number forty is that King Saul’s reign was forty years:

Act 13:21  And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.

Another entry which can be considered as a negative application is that Moses permitted a maximum of forty stripes for corporeal punishment:

Deu 25:2  And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.
Deu 25:3  Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.

While we want to overcome the fear displayed by the ten spies who gave the land a bad report, yet it is good to take the time, to ‘spy out’ what we are going up against before we go where the Lord is leading us. Moses sent spies to spy out the land for forty days, and Christ Himself teaches us to “count the cost” before we begin building a tower or go to war:

Luk 14:25  And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,
Luk 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:27  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:28  For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Luk 14:29  Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
Luk 14:30  Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Luk 14:31  Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Luk 14:32  Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
Luk 14:33  So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

The Lord is very honest and straightforward with us. If we put anything – wife, children, mother, father, or country – ahead of our love and devotion to Him, then we are not worthy to be His disciple. This admonition is telling us to be aware of this requirement before we commit to becoming a good soldier of Christ:

2Ti 2:3  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2Ti 2:4  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Exactly how does a “good soldier of Jesus Christ do battle? Exactly what are his weapons of war?

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Those are the weapons of our warfare, and the minute we take up physical and natural weapons we have at that moment lost all the protection that Christ and His Word afford.

As ‘soldiers’ and ‘spies’ we are employed by the same king, and that king is Christ, who tells us to spy out the land for forty days and become aware of the strength of the enemy, but at the same time realize that even our greatest enemy, even the greatest giant in our land, our own ‘old man’, is nothing more than a tool with which the Lord is forming a new child within the womb of His church.

Num 13:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Num 13:2  Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe [twelve men] of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.
Num 13:25  And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

It takes forty years of a life preparing us to be worthy of beginning to enter into our new life. During that forty years we are sustained on physical manna, protected from the heat of the Sun by a cloud by day, and given light by night by a pillar of fire. In other words, at this stage we “come behind in no gift [and yet we] are still carnal babes in Christ, typified by the church at  Corinth:

1Co 1:4  I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
1Co 1:5  That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
1Co 1:6  Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7  So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

That may sound like a real blessing, and indeed it is a blessing for an immature babe in Christ who must be given everything needed to stay alive. But when we have everything handed to us on a silver platter we are not yet capable of accepting the concept of dying with, and being crucified with Christ. At this earlier state of our spiritual development we are simply thankful to learn that Christ died for us:

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

The fact that Christ did die for the sins of a repentant world is what the holy spirit calls ‘the milk of the word’ and none of us can begin life eating strong meat. Paul makes us all aware of this spiritual fact in the very next chapter of 1^st Corinthians:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The Lord has ordained that forty weeks followed by a short period of extreme pain are required for the normal birth of a healthy child. If indeed the invisible things of God are understood by the things that are made, the Lord is indeed demonstrating how His mind works to bring forth His firstfruit manchild with whom He will rule this world.

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Christ tells us that “many are called but few are chosen” are the concluding words of the Lord’s parable of the wedding feast. That may sound disheartening to the natural man, but for those few who are chosen, nothing can come between them and their Lord:

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Those verses are the epochal transformation for which our forty years in the wilderness and our forty days of fasting are preparing us to inherit, and nothing will rob us of that inheritance nor separate us from our Savior. Our lives are of Him, through Him and to Him:

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.