“Now, as you can see, the LORD has kept me alive and well as he promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. [Joshua 14.10-11]
Caleb is the one speaking in the passage above.
If he was as strong at 85 years old as he was at 40 years old, then aging was having little physical effect on him.
Notice what is said in Deuteronomy about Moses' condition when he died:
So Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, just as the LORD had said. The LORD buried him in a valley near Beth-peor in Moab, but to this day no one knows the exact place. Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyesight was clear, and he was as strong as ever. [Deuteronomy 34.5-7]
Moses was "as strong as ever" when he died at 120 years old.
Shouldn't it give us reason to question why we deteriorate so much as we pass 50 years old? For most, it is a real struggle once they approach their 70's and 80's. And almost all die of some disease or ailment instead of just "breathing their last breath."
Why is this? Don't we have better medicine and health than ever? Obviously not.
Regardless, aging today involves a lot of pain and suffering for, what I believe, is far too many people. If the Bible speaks of men 85-120 years old that were as strong as ever, what has changed in our modern age of science and medicine that exempts us from such good fortune?
I believe we, as a society (Christians included), have become so worldly and Godless - so educated and proud - so sinful and unaware, that the Bible and its clear indicators of what are blessings and what are curses has no REAL meaning to us. Instead, we have an explanation for everything - an explanation that excludes sin. And, because our explanations exclude sin, naturally there is no need for repentance. On a wholesale scale, we get old, we get broken down and sick, and we die. Quality of life is now dependent upon fitness, diet, and medical advancements with no mention of holiness. And, with all our advancements, we still, at very best, lose all our energy and die. At worst, we contract cancer or any number of debilitating diseases or conditions and die. The Bible remains the most widely-sold book in publication and yet no one questions why what it says differs from what we experience. How stupid are we?
Father, I am indicted here that my life does not display anything of Your holiness and the blessings associated with Your holiness - as clearly defined in the Bible - in my life. Please forgive me for being so worldly and calloused to Your Word, Forgive me for not repenting to the point that Your health and well-being overcome my body and situations in clear evidence of Your blessings. Forgive me for getting all excited about "Christ redeeming me from the curse of the law" [Galatians 3.13] but having nothing to show for it. Forgive me for not seeing Your glory in me and for not showing Your glory to others. Forgive me for being satisfied with my pitifully faithless and powerless condition. Forgive me, Father.
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