I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Three Score and Ten

Three score and ten.

Now, that is a lot of years to be involved in any one activity. But as of Sunday, June 5, 2011, it is the measure of the number of years I have been involved in one activity, the activity of life.

The phrase, three score and ten, comes from the King James translation of the Bible. Moses (he is the author of this particular psalm) was having one of those “talking to myself and feeling old” kind of days when he wrote it. He said, “Our days may come to seventy years (three score and ten), or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.”

Moses certainly knew his share of trouble and sorrow. After all, God called him to lead a stubborn nation of people who were forever resistant to what God asked of them.

The best of those seventy years we might get on earth are trouble and sorrow. They quickly pass. Then we’re gone!

That is where I am now. The best of my seventy years are history, forever consigned to old photographs and writings. If my “strength endures” I have about ten years left, according to Moses.

So, what will I do with these next ten years, assuming, of course, that I will actually have them. The same thing I have done with the last fifty: Serve the Lord Jesus Christ. It has been a blessing to be His servant all these years.

It is not that I have been called to minister to people who were better than the ancient Hebrews Moses led. People are people. They are all sinners, every last one of them. When a sinner ministers to other sinners, you can expect trouble. And sorrow, too, just as Moses said.

Servants of Jesus Christ must remain focused on Jesus Christ; if they don’t, they will fall into depression and failure. Jesus never disappoints. Jesus never fails. Jesus never resists the will of God. Keeping my attention on Him brings joy and satisfaction. Keeping my attention on myself or on people He calls me to minister to makes me think the best of my seventy years are filled with trouble and sorrow.

Funny thing is, Moses was 120 years old when he died, and Deuteronomy 34:7 says that “his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.” Apparently there is no Biblical mandate that we live on this earth for 70 or 80 years and then we are gone. If I follow Moses’ example, then I still have fifty years more to live in this old world!

The most important thing is not how many years we get to live on this earth. The most important thing is whether or not we are prepared through faith in Jesus Christ to live for eternity in Heaven with Him after our three score and ten, or whatever we wind up getting, conclude.