The Reason Jesus Fasted for Forty DaysWhen I heard the words, "whether you eat or drink," the first Person that came to my mind was Jesus. Many other people in the Bible deal with the issue of eating and drinking. This applies to the apostle Paul who wrote this First Letter to the Corinthians, and Moses and David had experiences that had to do with eating and drinking. Jesus was quite frank about the issue of eating and drinking; at the same time, however, He often spoke in a way that was difficult for us human beings to understand.Before Jesus dealt with eating and drinking, Jesus first fasted. Before He appeared before people in this world and did His work, He was tested in the wilderness by the devil for forty days, and He fasted.Jesus is God, but He lived a short life as a human being. He lived in this world as a man and He spoke clearly about the issue of eating and drinking. He did the work of glorifying God through the matter of eating and drinking. This is revealed in the Bible. When Jesus chose to take a certain path or to have a conversation with a certain person, or when He made certain statements, Jesus most definitely did not speak as He thought of them, as we human beings might. Jesus did everything and made all His choice in accordance with the Words revealed in the Old Testament. We might think that the verse, "whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God," has been given to us human beings as duty, without having anything to do with Jesus, but Jesus came to this world in the form of a man and accomplished this verse first. Therefore, this remains as our task.Let us consider the image of Jesus. Jesus was born in the world and before He went before people to do work, He fasted for forty days. What would happen if a person does not eat for forty days? If you do not eat, then fatty structures and the fat and the protein in the muscle can be broken down to be used for energy. They say that you can survive like that for five to eight weeks. Forty days is about six weeks, so Jesus was tested to a man's limit.When people hear this, they take it lightly and say, "He is the Son of God, so fasting for forty days should not be a problem, should it?" Could that be the case? In Hebrews, there are detailed descriptions of Jesus, the High Priest who came to this world for all of us, saying, "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (4:15). In light of this verse, we might remember the fact that the God, who had been speaking to the Israelites in the Old Testament, came to this world in the body of a man, and fasted and did not eat for forty days, which is close to man's limit.So, why did Jesus fast? Did He fast in order to show His power? He is God, but He came in the body of a man so He was young, at about age thirty. What kind of thoughts must He have had, as He, as a young man, fasted for forty days? Various questions come to mind.Also, why did He choose forty days? In the Old Testament, we often encounter the number forty many times. All the way from the Book of Genesis, the first time that we encounter the number 40 is at the time of the flood of Noah. It rained for forty days. Then, Moses spent forty years in Egypt, and He had fled to the wilderness for forty years. Then, it says that Moses led the Israelites and spent forty years in the wilderness. As such, there are many instances where we encounter the number forty.We encounter the number forty in the Bible, and it is quite unique. After forty days, or forty years, a certain period of time passes, and a new period begins. At the time of the flood of Noah, it rains for forty days, and the world becomes the world that we know today. Before that, the world looked different from now. There was one land and there was a layer of water in the air. There was water above the firmament. After Moses spends forty years in the wilderness with the Israelites, the Israelites become a nation under the leadership of Joshua ? rather than nomadic tribes centered around patriarchs ? and they come to enter and live in the land of Canaan for the second time. We read about this in the Books of Joshua and Judges, in the Old Testament.Did the Israelites enjoy themselves as they lived in the wilderness for forty year? Or, did they suffer? Imagine carrying your tent around a desert for forty years. It may be convenient if fifteen or sixteen people, but several millions of people moved together. Furthermore, they did not move according to a schedule; rather, whenever the pillars of fire moved, they had no choice but to move. Through Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus, which Moses wrote, we can see how the life in the wilderness for forty years was. In them is the image of Israelites moaning. They are the people that God chose in order to reveal His power and glory in this world, and He spoke the Law to them, but as those people lived in the wilderness, they did not reveal a holy image, glorifying God in joy. Rather, they were miserable and  they worshiped idols for forty years. During those forty years, the Law is written down by Moses' hands.What then could the number forty mean? Does it have nothing to do with Jesus? Forty years later, something new was begun, and Jesus fasted for forty days before beginning His work in public.Medically speaking, they say that a person can survive eight weeks without eating. So then, why did Jesus fast for forty days, instead of fasting for about fifty-six days? While Jesus fasted for forty days, perhaps He remembered how He made it rain for forty days, and how He lead the Israelites for forty years in the wilderness. This God is none other than Jesus. He is God the Son, who came in the body of a man. What happens to the body when a person does not eat food for forty days? When you begin fasting, then on what would the blood in the body feed? Let us hear from a medical doctor.