I take no responsibility for the consequences of my assertion that by far the funniest books ever written (in English) are "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" series.
In the first of five books in the trilogy (sic) we are introduced to the concept that the answer to "Life, the Universe and Everything" is: 42.
The answer is easy; it's The Question they spend so long ascertaining.
In the end, we discover the question: "How Many Roads Must A Man Walk Down?"
The Author, Douglas Adams, must have been a Bible Scholar. I'll go even further, a student of Chassidic explanations to the Torah. This week we read in the Torah about the forty-two Massaot--journeys—that the Children of Israel undertook in their peregrinations through the desert. The Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chassidism, equated these journeys to the various stages of life. Over a lifetime of experience, we each undertake forty-two journeys, forty-two self- transformations, before (hopefully) ending up in our promised land.
To stand still is to stagnate. Life has to be a constant voyage of discovery. Resting is for year 121+.
The Torah recounts of 42 journeys. It doesn't describe 42 arrivals, 42 outcomes. That's significant, but not as important as the way we travel.
Every tumble is a precursor for a boost. Been bumped? Next flight, expect an upgrade.
Maybe not Adam's original intention but I LIKE IT! Chassidic interpretation is a form of midrash agadah and the whole point is to read the Torah and life in general from one's own perspective. This is something literary scholars are just discovering today. This is from wikipedia, "Reader-response theory recognizes the reader as an active agent who imparts "real existence" to the work and completes its meaning through interpretation. Reader-response criticism argues that literature should be viewed as a performing art in which each reader creates his or her own, possibly unique, text-related performance." So it doesn't really matter what Adams was thinking with 42. Once he puts it out there, we are the ones who find meaning in it.