Here is a one-sentence summary of Moses' condition at the time of his death:
Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; he was as strong as ever, and his eyesight was still good (Deuteronomy 34:7, GNT).
Because he was 120 years old, we may tend to dismiss his age as an aberration, an indication that people lived to be older "back then." But if that's the case, why would the Bible make sure we understood Moses' condition if it was so common then? Let's see if we can find out.
Of course, the most important reason is that God was with Moses and empowered and strengthened him. But what made Moses so special that God would preserve him for so long in the condition described? My bias leads me to conclude that Moses was a man of purpose and God was providing a lesson in the power that resides in living and not just dabbling in God's will for one's life.
Moses understood what his purpose was early in life: "Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not." (Acts 7:25). The people weren't ready to be rescued, however. What's more, God had more work to do in him, so Moses fled to Midian when he lived and worked for forty years (see Acts 7:23). Then we are told, "After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai" (Acts 7:30). So Moses went back to Egypt for 40 years of service until he died at the age of 120.
I'm not insinuating that when you find your purpose, you're guaranteed to live to 120 and will never need glasses. But I am saying that purpose is energizing and gives you a reason to get up in the morning and fill your days with more than mindless television or meaningless recreation. Purposeful people don't buy into the thinking that "I'm old and old people are frail, decrepit, and forgetful." To prove this point, let's look at a purpose hero of the church, John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church movement. Here is Wesley's entry in his diary on his 72nd birthday:
This being my birthday, the first day of my seventy-second year, I was considering, How is this, that I find just the same strength as I did thirty years ago? That my sight is considerably better now and my nerves firmer than they were then? That I have none of the infirmities of old age and have lost several I had in my youth? The grand cause is the good pleasure of God, who doth whatsoever pleaseth him. The chief means are: 1) My constantly rising at four, for about fifty years; 2) My generally preaching at five in the morning, one of the most healthy exercises in the world; 3) My never traveling less, by sea or land, than four thousand five hundred miles in a year.
Now that's the summary of a person of purpose! What is the "good pleasure of God" where your life is concerned? Are you fully involved in it or only dabbling? Is your focus your well-being or that of others? Have you bought into the thinking that old is old and old people are meant to serve out their days while waiting for the end?
God wanted us to know about Moses' condition at his end so we could have faith that life is to be lived to the fullest no matter our age. Take a page from Moses' and Wesley's book and determine to be a person of purpose right up to the end, for the truth is as we've learned in this lesson, you're never too old for purpose. Have a blessed week!
Comments