But when it comes to days, 40 days, for me, seems to be associated with various trials.
Turn to Mark chapter 1. Well, I'll just tell you of a few.
Moses fasted and was with God in the mount for 40 days and 40 nights on both occasions.
In Numbers, they searched out the Promised Land for 40 days.
In 1 Samuel 7 16, it says that Goliath was challenging them for 40 days.
It said, and then Philistine drew near morning and evening and presented himself 40 days.
1 Kings 19, Elijah fasted whilst fleeing Jezebel for 40 days and 40 nights.
And in Jonah 3, the Ninevites were given 40 days to repent before the city was to be overthrown.
Now, in Mark 1, Jesus has just been baptised.
Okay, Mark chapter 1 and look at verse 12 says, and immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
And he was there in the wilderness 40 days tempted of Satan and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto him.
Now, Matthew's and Luke's gospels give us more details, but don't miss that in verse 13 again, where Jesus was with the wild beasts for those 40 days.
And for me, that's no coincidence that Noah was 40 days in the ark with the wild beasts.
And do you know what it tells me?
Well, what's the point in that?
Well, it tells me that Noah was going through a trial and temptation at that time.
That's what I think.
I mean, because I think it's easy to just again, we might see the kids books and just think they had this jolly time on the ark,
you know, stroking the animals and all going isn't this great while the rain is coming down and everything else.
But can you imagine how horrendous that must have been?
I mean, this isn't just rain.
This is like a full on storm.
Eventually we see the mountains covered.
I mean, it must have been unbelievable that that ark must have been getting just thrown about everywhere.
Right. That must have been pretty scary.
That must have been a hard time.
But but they probably were hearing people dying outside.
People may be trying to cling on from the outside and things like that.
I mean, that must have been a pretty rough time.
But have you ever thought about this?
Can you imagine the smell on that ark?
Forty days with pairs of every animal in the world and no, no, I don't think they had any sewage pipes on that ark.
It must have absolutely stunk.
And themselves as well.
I mean, it must have been horrendous.
The whole thing must have smelled terrible.
They're on there.
They're there.
You know, obviously they've got this storm going on outside.
They've really got their faith in God that they're going to somehow survive through it, or need that faith in God.
It must have been a scary time.
But maybe there was also a temptation to give up in some way.
Maybe he was going through a temptation just to maybe just give up, want to end their life.
Like I said, that must have been horrific.
I don't know if I should say this.
I'm going to say this story that for some reason I read this story not long ago.
And you know why?
Because I was looking for stuff on giants.
Okay.
And the story was this, yeah.
You might not like this story.
I don't care.
Okay.
It's where it was basically that once Andre, anyone know who Andre the Giant is?
So Andre the Giant was this old WWE wrestler.
And he was like a famous guy in a couple of movies.
A guy I think was seven foot four.
And he was huge.
Absolutely huge.
And the story was that once he used the toilet on an aeroplane.
And it was so horrendous that people were apparently crying, puking and sobbing at the back of the plane.
Just funny things you come across sometimes, yeah.
However, you can understand why, can't you?
I mean that was a big guy and I think apparently when he used the toilet it was pretty horrific, right?
Okay.
Especially on the small aeroplane.
I would imagine he caused the blockage.
Apparently it was a 12 hour flight as well.
It was going over somewhere in Japan.
Somewhere to Tokyo.
But my point is that was a 12 hour flight.
Imagine if you had 40 days of that where there's a family of, what is it?
There's eight of them.
Eight of them still needing to use the toilet.
Then you've got, who knows what coming from all those animals.
I mean that must have been rough in there.
Because they didn't open the window until later.
Because it's lashing down with rain.
That was a trial, wasn't it?
Because I never really thought about it like that.
I just always thought that must have been a bit boring.
But you know I'm sure they kind of know I was preaching to good servants and stuff.
But I think that was a hard trial.
They were probably vomiting.
And imagine the seasick.
Anyone ever suffer from seasickness?
Yeah, I have.
It's horrible.
I mean that's bad enough when you, you know, a couple of hours choppy trip.
Like if you've got a ferry from Dover to Calais.
You know, this is a bit rough, you know.
If only we'd gone on a calmer day.
Forty days of probably the worst storm the world's ever seen.
That must have been rough, yeah.
So that was a big trial he was in.
But for me, yeah.
And then we see obviously, look, you see that Jesus Christ here.
He was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan.
And was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto him.
Now who could have been tempting, anyone ever wondered this?
Who could have been tempting Noah maybe?