I thought I would share a short comment on a Bible Verse which served as a lesson on retirement and continued responsibility and duty for us old folks found within a passage when Joshua was parcelling out the Promised Land according to God’s instructions.
Joshua 13:1
3King James Version (KJV)
“Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the Lord said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.”
There is still much to do in the midst of taking possession of the Promised Land. To remain faithful and obedient. Same goes for us as we are in the midst of the promise of retirement. Things to do. Places to see. But the gifts we possess remain. And there is much to be done.
And then in the next chapter, we have Caleb, now an old man whose inheritance was not an easy one with much to do. Forty years previously, Caleb was a young man sent into Canaan to “espy” what was before them, and although the others on this mission saw obstacles, Caleb saw the promise of God.
And here is Caleb now 40+ years later being given his inheritance in the land. Caleb accepted the “mountain” God had given to him, and this is what he said In Joshua 14:11-12.
“11 As yet I am as strong this day 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 Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.”
As begin throttling back, I am reminded of the last stanza from Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”