A river runs through it

March 26, 2008

A lot of people would say that older people cannot do what God has called them to do since they are weak and frail. That is not the way it was in the time of the Israelites.

Joshua 14:6-15 MKJV
(6) Then the sons of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, You know the thing that Jehovah said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea regarding you and me.
(7) I was forty years old when Moses the servant of Jehovah sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land. And I brought him word again as it was in my heart.
(8) But my brothers that went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I fully followed Jehovah my God.
(9) And Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your feet have trodden shall be your inheritance, and your sons' forever because you have fully followed Jehovah my God.
(10) And now, behold, Jehovah has kept me alive these forty-five years as He said, even since Jehovah spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now, lo, I am eighty-five years old today.
(11) As yet I am as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me. As my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in.
(12) And now give me this mountain of which Jehovah spoke on that day. For you heard in that day how the giants were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. If Jehovah will be with me, then I will be able to drive them out, as Jehovah said.
(13) And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.
(14) And Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, to this day, because he fully followed Jehovah, the God of Israel.
(15) And the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba; that one was a great man among the giants. And the land had rest from war.


You see, when the spies went into the land the first time, only Joshua and Caleb came out with the good report. Caleb was promised land and even though he is now 85, he plans to go up, take the land and conquer it.

There are always new lands for us to take, new experiences to learn. If we do not keep trying to learn and do, we become like a lake. A lake is where water comes in but does not go out. If left by itself it becomes stagnant and death takes over. If the lake has a river coming into it and also one going out of it, then it is constantly changing and will keep life in it. We may feel old, we may even not move as well as Caleb did when he was 85 (at 55 I am not sure that I do), but our mind can be out there fighting the fight. And that is where Satan would like you to die, in the mind, because there he will have you beat.


Read through the Bible in one year in Historical order
Today
Joshua 12:1-15:63
Tomorrow
Joshua 16:1-18:28
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