Still Ready

"Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, 'You know the word which the Lord spoke to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh-barnea. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart. Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear; but I followed the Lord my God fully. So Moses swore on that day, saying, "Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God fully." Now behold, the Lord has let me live, just as He spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness; and now behold, I am eighty-five years old today. I am still 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. Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken.'" -Joshua 14.6-12

The land is being divided and Caleb, the other faithful spy, comes to Joshua to make a request. He shares how God promised he would live to enter the land because he had fully trusted God, and he has. He was forty years old at that time, and now forty-five years later we see that he is still strong, still ready, and still able to fight. He asks Joshua for the hill country where the Anakim live in their fortified cities.

At eighty-five, if I'm still alive, I really don't think I'll be wanting to march up any hills to fight anyone, let alone a bunch of giants behind strong walls. But we see that Caleb asks for the challenge. He could have requested a nice little piece of the Jordan River Valley where no enemies were still living. He could have asked for a place on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and spent the rest of his years fishing on the shore. But he doesn't, he asks for a challenge.

Lets scale back the age to fit our modern life span, and say at retirement age what is the ambition of most men? Move some place warm, and spend the rest of my time relaxing after thirty or forty years of working. Golf, fishing, a life of ease. That sound really boring, and I kind of doubt that's what a man really wants. We need a challenge, we need a battle to fight, always.

Men, what is your passion? Just because you get old doesn't mean you have to stop living passionately. Yes, there are things that age will eventually no longer allow us to do. I won't be able to carry a forty pound pack through the woods forever, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy nature forever. There will come a time when our influence shrinks, when we hand it over to a younger man, but that doesn't mean we no longer have any influence.

Caleb was still ready to go at age eighty-five. He was still willing to march into battle and do something. He wasn't content to spend the last years of his life wasting away and getting fat on the beach. He never stopped living passionately.

Let us be men who seek to live with passion always. Let us never be content to slip into obscurity. Let us always be ready.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor