Live in Your Prime

Why am I here? That is a common question, whether spoken or not, when young people consider their lives and what they should do. I can also think of older people who have asked, “Why am I still here?” In other words, “I’m in my nineties and my vision, hearing, and mental faculties are not what they used to be. Why am I still here?” Is that the same question? It is kind of the same. It speaks to purpose. But it is not the same as one person is young and one is old. Both of these questions, whether they are the same or not, depend on time and timing.

The truth is distinctions matters. Numbers is a book that shows us that. In Numbers 1 Moses is talking about the military of Israel and what they are to do. Verses 2-3 say, “Every male…from twenty years old and upward…able to go forth to war.” There are three qualifiers here. In this particular case they were males, twenty years and upward, and able to go to war. Who better to fight, a twenty-year-old or a fifty-year-old? Generally speaking, a twenty-year-old is more capable with more strength and stamina. Who would be better to command that army? Generally speaking, the fifty-year-old would probably be better.

In Numbers 8 God is speaking about the Levites, those who were to do service in the tabernacle. Verse 22 says, “And after that went the Levites in to do their service in the tabernacle.” Verse 24 says, “This is it that belongeth unto the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward they shall go in to wait upon the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.” Verse 25 says, “And from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting upon the service thereof, and serve no more.” Verse 26 says, “But shall minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of the congregation, to keep the charge, and do no service.” There was a distinction.

In Numbers 4 the age of beginning to serve in the tabernacle is given as thirty years old. Here it says twenty-five. What is the difference? Apparently, at twenty-five they began to learn and train for that service. At age thirty, they began their official public service. At age fifty, they ceased the hard manual labor and service and became more general directors and counselors. In I Chronicles 23:24 David reduced the age from twenty-five as the beginning age to twenty to reflect the reduced rigors of the temple versus the tabernacle. The tabernacle was moved from one place to another. All the things in the tabernacle had to be carried. There was a lot of manual labor. Once there was an established temple, it was a lot less rigorous physically.

One commentator says, “These limitations insured that the Levites would serve the Lord in the prime years of their lives.” The question for you is, “What are the prime years of your life?” When it came to physical labor, the Bible gives this period between twenty-five and fifty. But what about the prime years of your life? If you are not twenty-five yet, does that mean you are just chopped liver? If you are over fifty, does that mean you are put out to pasture. There are two factors here, matching you to your purpose and to your time.

When I was first starting in evangelism, I was younger than twenty-five and had a baby face so I looked even younger. Every week I would have a little old lady say, “We were expecting someone who was a lot older than you to preach.” I knew she meant someone wiser and more dependable. It is amazing how quickly I have gone from the baby face to the realization that all the young people in my life at that time, young preachers, mechanics, doctors, etc. are in their fifties now. These were the young people. So, when are the prime years of your life? I would say you live in your prime when you do what you can when you can. There are two specific things: everyone has purpose and everyone has time.

As to purpose, God made you for a reason. God has given you your gender, tribe, nation, and family. He has allowed you to live and given you abilities. Everyone has purpose. Don’t wait. Train and learn, but life is precious so don’t be passive. Ecclesiastes 12 says, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not.” He goes on to describe senses and abilities that in every way diminish with age. So, you live in your prime when you do what you can when you can. Everyone has purpose.

Second, everyone has time. Don’t linger. If you are older now, realize that there are things you can do now that you couldn’t do when you were young and there are things you can’t do now that you could do when you were young.

Last week my fifth wheel was parked near a retirement home run by a mission board that my grandfather worked with in 1950 in the Belgian Congo. I was reminded that the people who would have worked in the 1960s and 1970s with this mission board are retired. While they do not have the ability to work in the rigorous environment they did in their earlier years, there are still things they can do now and even do better than they could do then. They can teach, train, and be an example in ways they could not when they were in their twenties and thirties. I Timothy 3 says if a man is going to be a pastor, he cannot be a novice and lifted up with pride because he is naive, prideful, and taken with himself. He is not to be a newbie, but a man who has trained and gained the trust of the people he is serving. Titus 2 says that the older are to teach the younger.

So, is it better to be thirty years old or fifty years old? The answer is another question, “For what purpose?” Do what is best with today. Nothing is worse than an old man who tries to be young when he is not or a young man who tries to be older and more mature than he is. God has given you a purpose and a time and a number of gifts tied to who God has made you to be. There is nothing better than doing what God has made you to do and being who God made you to be. You live in your prime when you do what you can when you can.