Joshua 13:1: “Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the LORD said to him: ‘You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed.’”

April 3rd, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Joshua must have felt really ancient after God Himself called him “old, advanced in years.” Someone once said that an elderly person is any person who is 10 years older than you are. There is a funny story about 3 retirees, each with a hearing loss, who were taking a walk one fine March day. One remarked to the other, “Windy isn’t it?” “No,” the second man replied, “It’s Thursday.” The third man chimed in, “So am I. Let’s stop and have a Coke.” There is a strong sense that once we are old there’s really nothing left we can do. But God, even while acknowledging Joshua’s advanced years, tells him about a job that still needed to be done. He urged Joshua on to higher things than just worrying about his retirement, speaking to him about the land that still remained to be possessed.

No matter how much we have done in our Christian lives, there are still many things yet to be accomplished. Evidentially there is no retirement in the Kingdom of God. Economists tell us that the very concept of retirement is a relatively new one that only came about in the mid-20th century. Retirement hasn’t really been an option for anyone but our most recent ancestors. That may sound like a radical idea but we see that God was urging Joshua to keep going even when he may have been as much as 100 years old.

What would the body of Christ look like if all the retired, older people didn’t really retire but found other ways to serve their church in their communities? Or what if, as God is suggesting to Joshua, they even went into other parts of the world. It seems clear from scripture that the American view of retirement is far from God’s view for His disciples. We saw that God required the priests who were older to stop carrying the Ark and to step down from heavy labor as they advanced in age, but they were still available to help with lighter tasks. God’s view of advancing age actually frees up retirees from the depressing idea of uselessness and challenges them and all of us to serve the Lord until the day He comes to take us home.

“LORD, show us the way to serve You by becoming more others-centered rather than increasingly more self-centered.”