3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
Jonah 3:3-5
Most of us are familiar with the story of Jonah when he was commissioned by Jehovah-God to proclaim judgment on the great Nineveh because of the evil that its inhabitants had accumulated in all their actions,
Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
Jonah 1:1-2
What calls the attention of history, is the number of days between the proclamation and the fulfillment of the fall of the judgment: Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
‘Forty’ has been in all the pages of the biblical history a number that has to do with judgment, precisely; of the best known stories we have as an example, the forty days of the flood,[1] forty years of pilgrimage through the desert because of the doubt imposed by ten of the twelve spies sent to recognize the land of Canaan,[2] and forty lashes of punishment to the one found to have committed a crime in some civil matter;[3] Ezekiel also presents a judgment on Egypt for forty years.[4] In other cases, the number ‘forty’ appears related to a period of probation, such as the case of the forty days that Moses was on Mount Sinai in the presence of the Lord.[5]
<p class="has-drop-cap" value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80">There are, on the other hand, other accounts that include the number ‘forty’ and appear to be related to the intervention of a person, such as the stories of the kings who reigned over Israel, or over Judah, and did so for a period of ‘forty’ years;<a href="#_ftn6">[6]</a> also are cited the forty days of Jesus on earth after he rose from the dead.<a href="#_ftn7">[7]</a>In these cases the number ‘forty’ shows that the judgments do not necessarily have to do with the occurrence of calamities in the region, but they are also the warning of situations that are fighting spiritually in the air with respect to the future of the region; in that sense, ‘forty’ years of the reign of David, and even of Solomon, speak of spiritual battles of David and Solomon against satanic forces of apostasy, which already by the end of Solomon’s reign begin to exercise dominion over Israel. Jesus’ forty days on earth after His resurrection speak of the adjustment of situations according to the righteousness of the Kingdom. ‘Forty’ is the number of spiritual warfare against the demonic forces that are placed in the air of a region.
The case of the Philistine Goliath of Gath, who went out for forty days to challenge the army of Israel,[8] shows with the number ‘forty’ the violent and dangerous aspect of the spiritual warfare against the forces of darkness; of David not having defeated Goliath that day which completed the cycle of the ‘forty’ days, Israel would have lost authority over the Philistines.
There is still one more case we need to study, and it is the main purpose of our teaching, that of Jesus’ forty days of fasting,
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
Matthew 4:2 (Luke 4:2)
Both texts, Matthew’s and Luke’s, describe the spiritual warfare aspect of the ‘forty’ days of fasting;
being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
Luke 4:2
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Matthew 4:3
With this first activity, Jesus began the process of re-conquering the inheritance that Adam had lost in Eden, the apostle Paul ‘named’ Jesus as “the last Adam”,
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1st. Corinthians 15:45
The ‘forty’ days of fasting began the battle to overcome on the cross, after three and a half years, the one who had the empire of death, that is, Satan,
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Hebrews 2:14
Was it all about fasting for forty days? Is that what the struggle was all about? No, it was not reduced to fasting alone, it had to do it during the ‘forty’ days in countdown before the celebration of the day of Atonement,[9] Yom Kippur, celebrated on the tenth day of the seventh month (Tishrei).
The importance of the forty days of fasting consisted in the fact that this day was the day of Atonement, a day of proclaiming freedom and reconciliation to the people; it was also, above all, the day when Jesus would be initiating his saving ministry.
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luke 4:18-21
The ‘forty’ days of fasting marked the spiritual value of the work of God that was about to begin. The value of the ‘forty’ days of fasting marked the value of obedience to God’s Word as a requirement of reconciliation,
And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.
John 8:29
The apostle Paul emphasizes in his apostolic doctrine that the path of human reconciliation consists in obedience to the Word; disobedience brings about perdition,
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Romans 5:19
In conclusion, the ‘forty’ days of Jesus’ fasts were not only a protocol preamble to inaugurate a time of ministry, they were the basis of the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit in the work and teaching of Jesus, which concluded with the establishment of the Truth that freed from the death sentence all who believed in Him.[10] The ‘forty’ days of Jesus’ fasts overthrew the empire of evil and perversion by which man and woman are inclined to evil, overthrew the empire of death by which man and woman were condemned to eternal death, and overthrew the empire of falsehood by which man and woman hide themselves in hypocrisy and lying to live at the expense of darkness; they were truly days of spiritual warfare.
By way of application, we are about to repeat a story similar to the ‘forty’ days of Jesus’ fasting. Next Wednesday, September 23, we will enter into a forty-day countdown to the celebration of the date of the presidential elections of the United States of America on November 3, an event that affects not only the nation per se, but the future of many nations of the world.
These forty days before the date of the elections are crucial, the next four years of the government of the United States of America will be decided within those forty days; there is a spiritual push to try to tip the balance to either side; the advances —or setbacks— of what will happen in Israel during the next four years will be decided within those forty days, it is a crucial date.
What is at stake in this upcoming election is more important than what was on the table for decisions in past elections; it means moving forward on God’s agenda, or going backwards and establishing a government of confusion.
Donald Trump was chosen by God to establish upon Israel the fulfillment of the most powerful prophecy we have seen in modern times, the worldwide declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of the Kingdom,
But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
Micah 4:1
And with the fulfillment of this prophecy, the time of Israel’s restoration began, a teaching originally presented within the doctrine of Jesus as the time of recollection and peace over Israel,
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
Luke 21:24
This same teaching was established and ratified among the Gentiles, years later, within the teachings of the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans,
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Romans 11:25
So, what is under discussion not only has to do with the United States of America, it is a matter of God’s prophetic agenda about Israel, and the consummation of Jerusalem as the capital of the Kingdom of God to establish from there that Jesus is Lord and Christ, because that is what is written in the prophecy of Isaiah,
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Isaiah 2:3
But not everything that is in projects of the Spirit of God has been completed, there is still more to do, and these next four years are decisive for that.
Therefore, these forty days of countdown before the date of the elections should not only serve us to draw conclusions based on the information we receive, but above all, to be alert to the instructions that God wants to give us, because although the agenda is prophetic and God is in control of it, some action of spiritual establishment could He give us to distort the operations of darkness.
Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews.
Esther 4:13
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The biblical quotations are taken from the Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
Pastor Pedro Montoya
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[1] Genesis 7:4
[2] Numbers 14:34
[3] Deuteronomy 25:3
[4] Ezekiel 29:11-13
[5] Exodus 24:18
[6] 2 Samuel 5:4; 1 Kings 11:42; 2 Kings 12:1
[7] Acts 1:3
[8] 1 Samuel 17:10-16
[9] Leviticus 16:29: And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:
Leviticus 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.
[10] John 18:37
Treasure in Earthen Vessels 