Abraham was 100 years old when it happened to him. Moses was 80 years old when it happened to
him. What happened? At 100 God called Abraham to be a
father. At 80 God called Moses to lead
his people out of Israel. Imagine becoming
a father at the age of 100. My word, my
grandkids wear me out now when I am with them and I am only in my 50’s. My worst nightmare would be to have another
child at this point in my life. I have
grown accustomed to the way my life is without children in the home. And imagine starting a whole new career at
80. What would an 80 year old know about
computers and social media and all of the new-fangled electronics that are used
today in the workplace? The workplace
would have to seem to be a foreign place.
And who at 80 would want to be starting a whole new career. Too much work! And yet Abraham embraced fatherhood and Moses
embraced leading Israel.
While these two men were “old” physically and in number of
years, they certainly weren’t “old” in the way they thought and acted. I would dare to say that one of the things
that kept Abraham and Moses young was the faith that the Lord had authored and
perfected within them. These two men had
grown to the point where their faith had become so deep and wide that they
began to see their lives and the world they lived in, not with their own eyes,
but with God’s eyes. They reached the
point where they were more interested in what the Lord wanted than what they
wanted. It was indeed, all about HIM! And so they were able to put off to the side
and out of the equation any thoughts they might have had that were tied to time
and age.
So does faith help keep us young, and if so, how so? When Jacob was administering the rationing of
food for Pharaoh there came a point where he introduced his father, Jacob, to
Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he
was. The secret to staying young in heart
and living life to the full well into “old” physical age is found in Jacob’s
response. He said, “The years of my
pilgrimage are a 130. My years are few
and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my
fathers.” Jacob didn’t look at his life
in terms of numbers and age like most of us do.
Most of us look at our lives in terms of life in this world and then we
die and that is it. Hence we mark the
number of years we have “lived”. Jacob,
due to faith in the redemption that was his in the promised Savior, looked at
his life in terms of eternity—eternity comprising life here in time and then in
glory with the Lord where there is no time.
Time when compared to forever and ever is a pinpoint on a
“timeline”. Thus Jacob says that his
years, even though they are 130 in time, are by comparison to eternity,
few.
Secondly, by faith Jacob looked at his life as a pilgrimage,
a journey if you will; he saw himself walking with God in time and then in
eternity. Life wasn’t about how long one
“lived” but about being in fellowship with the Lord forever. Jacob’s life was all about growing in the
knowledge and wisdom of God. His life,
like that of his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham, was all about his
relationship with God and serving Him and not himself. Faith had so shaped these men that they saw the
world from God’s point of view rather than from a worldly point of view.
