A Eulogy, in Brief
A Eulogy, in Brief
Joshua 13:1 Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess.”
What a contrast to the biography of Moses that encompassed five entire books of holy Scripture. Between the moment Moses was thrust as a newborn baby into a handwoven basket and placed in the Nile River to escape Pharaoh’s death edict in Exodus 1, it was clear to readers that he was a special soul, an anointed soul, a protected soul, which is why his story reads like one mountaintop experience after another. In fact, to read his story from cover to cover is to venture up Theophany’s Mountain alongside him, through all the twists and turns, through all the open vistas and narrow passes, and to come back down to earth as it were with faces aglow.
But why has Joshua’s biography been such a blur? He just finished blazing through the five-king coalition that formed against the Gibeonites (chapter 9), and he followed up that victory by taking out all the giants in the land, including the 31 tribal kings whose cities dotted the Southern and Northern Canaanite lands (chapter 10-11). So I’ve been picturing a ruddy, 50-year-old general in the peak of his wisdom and strength, with enough dark hair left to keep up with the eager youths, but enough streaks of gray to command respect from seasoned warriors. Not an old man, advanced in years. Just when it seemed like he's beginning to pick up steam, we discover he’s almost out of it.
Yet, this gives us pause to reflect on the fact that the significance of a saint’s value to God isn’t measured by the number of lines he takes up in the biblical text. Some heroes only get one or two lines—such as Enoch, who, for all we’re told, “Walked with God and then he was not,” and Simeon, a faithful old saint who prophesied a few remarkable words before his death, and Lydia, a wealthy, influential early church member who aided Paul during turbulent, difficult days—but the full recounting of their many deeds is reserved with Christ on high.
Friend, whether you’ve got five volumes of life left to live or a few meager chapters, give it all you’ve got for the glory of God!