Joshua Bible Study Lesson Snippet
Who in the Bible was full of zeal and life at 85?
Jos 14:11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.
Here you have got the words of an aged man, he is 85, and yet what you see in his life is someone who is full of faith, full of zeal, full of courage, and full of vitality for life. How many 85 year old people do you hear talk like this? 'I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me.' How long have we been in Christ? Is there anyone here that has been saved 40 years, 60 years? Could you say that you are as strong now as when you first began? When I read this, I thought, this is a real challenge to me. When you first get saved you are full of zeal, do you have the same zeal for those that are unsaved as you did when you first began? Do you have the same zeal for discipleship, for the church, for the purposes of God? Do you have the same zeal to inherit everything that God has for you as when you first began? Caleb is a picture of someone who said 'I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me.' Can you say about yourself such as this; everything that concerns me, the purposes, the will and the inheritance that God has for me, nothing has changed? It's a real challenge.
Caleb had a real vitality for life, a real 'get up and go'. In my workplace I am surrounded by aged people. There are lots of them playing golf and you get a real mixture among the aged. I was thinking about this and it came to me that in the natural sphere your body starts to break down. I was talking to a man on the golf course the other day; and he must have been in his late seventies, who said that there are two men that play golf every morning and we call them the speed golfers. They are in their seventies and they can do 18 holes in the time that everyone else takes to do 9. These two old guys just motor, hit and run, hit and run. They get out before everyone else and they just keep going.' I was talking to him and I said 'what are you doing this Waitangi weekend?' 'Well' he said 'I have wrecked my Achilles tendon and I can't tramp' (because he is right into tramping). 'However, I am going to bike it.' It was a three day bike ride and he said 'I can't walk, but I am going to ride.' When he said that, I thought he had just the type of character that Caleb had, they are just into it. One little hindrance doesn't stop them; they just find another way to do things. I think Caleb would have been like that. He just had a zest for life, a zest for God, and vitality about him. At 85 he is saying 'I am as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me. As my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in.' That term there is used quite a bit in scripture. You need to be strong for going out to war, and we can all understand that. If you are going to go out into battle you need strength in God and you need human strength. We can understand going out for war, but for coming in, what is that about? Why do you need strength for coming in? That term is spoken about a few times in scripture. The only thing I could come up with is that when you return from war you are coming back into normal life. You are back to all the responsibilities you have, the mundane things. You need strength to go out to fight for God but you also need strength to come in. You need strength for both. There are times of waiting; periods of time when you are not actually at war. The same faith is needed for both, and this is what Caleb is saying 'I am strong for both going out and for coming in.'
Do you remember what age Moses was when he was called into his ministry? He was called at the age of 80, so there is time for us all! So if you are looking at your retirement thinking this is the time to ease up, you need to look at this picture of these guys; Caleb at 85 full of zeal and life, and Moses called to start his ministry at 80, so you never know when you might just have a burning bush experience. God may actually call you into your ministry even though you may think it is time to retire...age is not a factor to Him.
From: Joshua Chapter 14: Caleb - Wholehearted unto the end