Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...32

We began yesterday looking at the 40 day and night length of the wilderness experience of Jesus and other places in Scripture where things happened for the same duration. We looked at the 40 days and nights of flood-causing rain Noah experienced. Today we look at Moses' 40 days and nights on the Mountain with God.

In Deuteronomy 9, Moses recalls his experience on the mountain of revelation. He states that he ate nothing for those days, like Jesus. God gave him revelation of how to order and supply the worship of Israel. God also gave the 10 Simple Rules for Living known classically as the Decalogue.

God used these 40 days and nights without food to bring humanity closer to Him in behavior reflected in the 10 Commandments. This way of living comes closer to His moral perfection than unrestrained, lawless living. God also uses the place and practices of worship to act out the way to Himself. Substitutionary death, washing, prayer, confession, and the Tabernacle layout with many barriers show forth what we need to come near again to the God we rebelled against. In precept and practice God invites us to fellowship.

Jesus in the wilderness also goes 40 days and nights without food. He is alone with the Father, just as Moses was alone with God. He shows more clearly what God is like. He lives out moral perfection in human experience. One "greater than Moses" had come.

Thank God for the Way and  not just a way, back to Him!