Alive and Well

Sunday 3-22-15 (Martinez, Argentina)

Scripture reading:    Josh 12-14     1 Cor 7

S.   Josh 14:10-12 "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. So I'm asking you to give me the hill country that the LORD promised me.” NLT

O.  Forty-five years earlier the Israelites had camped across the Jordan River from the promised land after a long journey through the desert.   Joshua and Caleb had been chosen to travel throughout the promised land with ten others from other tribes to check it out.  Only Joshua and Caleb had brought back words of faith, “Let’s go for it.  We can take it.”  The other ten spread fear among the people.  

Now 45 years had passed.  The entire fearful adult generation had died off except Joshua and Caleb.  Much of the land had been conquered.  But Caleb had not yet taken the land that he had been promised by the late Moses.  So he takes a delegation of his young relatives and asks permission of Joshua to go take possession of that mountain.

A.  I know what you are thinking.  Yeah, you, that are reading this devotional.  You are thinking, “I knew it!  Brother Ralph is getting old like Caleb and is hanging on to Caleb’s encouraging spirit.”  Okay, I admit it.  But there is more. 

I am impressed by the submissive spirit that brings Caleb to Joshua.  They had been comrades, intimate friends.  They thought the same thoughts.  When they were about 40 years old they traveled together and returned with one mind.  But Caleb stood by and observed while Moses chose Joshua to replace himself as the top ranking leader among all this vast more than a million people.  There is no indication of jealousy on Caleb’s part.  Now another 45 years have passed.  There are only two elderly people left in this entire multitude.  Caleb, like Joshua, was a born leader.  Still he shows total submission to his fellow comrade’s authority. 

And there is something else that impresses me about brother Caleb: He gives God the credit for his strength and long life… saying, “the LORD has kept me alive and well.”  I wonder how many push-ups Caleb did every morning before his shower.  Did he jog for 2 miles to keep his legs working?  Probably not.  But I seriously doubt that he sat for hours in a “Lazy-Boy” chair with his feet up… drifting off to sleep while watching TV… with others serving him hands and feet.  At 85 he was a man of action that probably rose with the sunrise.  Every muscle was trim and working.  Ah… but still he recognized that he was not the master of his days.  It was Jehovah God that kept him… and me… alive and well… and that for a purpose.  Our lives had not yet reached their fulfillment.  God still some a victories ahead for him… and for me… to win.  

P.  Lord God, I woke up this morning!  That is a complete sentence… for it represents a miracle.  You are the life giver.  Every breath filling my lungs and every heartbeat is a gift from Your throne.  According to my calculations You have given me 3,706,840,144 heart beats to date.  And I have to add about 70 to that each minute as I write this!  This speaks vision to the eyes of my soul.  It tells me that there is still a mountain to conquer.  It says You are not ready for me to hang it up yet.  Somebody is out there waiting for Your love to reach him or her.  Help me to be faithful to Your highest purpose for my life until that final heartbeat… which is already marked on Your calendar.  Amen. 

Ralph