Exhortation, November 14

Scripture has a lot to say about the blessings of old age. �The gray head,�Ethe Proverb says, �is a crown of glory; it is found in the way of righteousness.�E According to another Proverb, the elderly have another crown: �Grandchildren are the crown of old men.�E The Psalmist says that the righteous will �still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green.�E As Macbeth put it, old age should be accompanied by �honor, love, obedience, troops of friends.�E In a very young church like Trinity, we are greatly blessed to have a number of older members, whose lives radiate the truth of these Scriptures.

Yet, our sermon text contains an exhortation for the elderly members of the church, an exhortation that is sometimes neglected. We often think that there is a magic age at which the Christian life becomes easy. We work hard, persevere, struggle against sin, but when we reach fifty or sixty or sixty five, our besetting sins will finally dissolve like a bad dream and we can ease into retirement, and coast to glory. But this is false. There is no age of accountability at the front end of life; and there is no age of retirement from the Christian life at the back end. Old age has yet his honor and his toil, but old age has also his unique temptations.

Solomon no doubt began accumulating wives and concubines in his youth and middle age. He could hardly gather a harem of 1000 in a few months or a few years. But apparently, for a long time Solomon was able to resist the temptations that these wives and concubines presented. Whether out of complacency, pride, senility, Solomon turned from the Lord in old age: �It came about when Solomon was old,�Ethe text tells us, �his wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not complete with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father.�E

For those of you who are old, take this to heart. Enjoy the blessings of age, but while you enjoy the blessings of age, do not be fooled into thinking that you can go into neutral for the rest of your life. And those of you who are younger, don�t anticipate early retirement from Christian life. It is not those who begin strong who win the race, but those who finish well. And those who persevere to the end shall be saved.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, November 14, 2004 at 08:54 AM

Permission is given to use material on this site, provided the source is cited, blog entries are republished in full, and the author is notified in advance.