Luke 1:7
I’ve collected stories all my life, and one of my favorites is about a Russian-born violinist named Mischa Elman, among the finest violinists of the twentieth century. He was a child prodigy who began performing when he was a mere boy. He kept playing for audiences until his death in old age. Someone reportedly asked him if he could tell any difference in audience reactions between his early and his late performances. “I haven’t noticed any difference,” Mischa replied. “When I was a boy, audiences would exclaim, ‘Imagine playing the violin like that at his age!’ Now, they’re beginning to say the same thing again!”1
The Lord has a plan for your life that spans your days and doesn’t stop until He takes you home. I firmly believe that whatever our age, God can use us. We begin where we are and the Lord takes it from there.
Luke 1:7 says about Elizabeth and Zechariah:
But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
Luke was blunt. Not just old, but very old.
He reminds me of my great-grandson, Clay, to whom this book is dedicated. He’s four years old. The other day something came up about my age, and I foolishly asked him, “Do I look old to you?” He looked at me with the sweetest eyes, and in the kindest possible way he said, “You don’t look old in your body, but you do in your face!”
I have a feeling Zechariah and Elizabeth looked and felt their age too.
Yet they were busy from morning till evening in whatever God called them to do. In the first chapter of Luke, we see Zechariah working in the temple and Elizabeth entertaining in the home. They may have been very old, but they weren’t ready to quit. And after a lifetime of devotion, their point of greatest impact came when many of us are tempted to feel we’re past our prime.
Try to imagine them inside their home — probably a typical small, four-room Jewish dwelling in a village surrounded by desert hills near the Dead Sea.2 Like most Judeans, they probably slept most summer nights on the roof, where it was cooler. They likely had a small oven outside the house, and in the main room a table and lamp. In the corner, a couple of pallets were stored for rainy or cool nights.
In that humble setting, see them reading their Hebrew scriptures, praying, and perhaps singing together. The Lord lived with them in their humble abode, for almighty God occupies two addresses:
I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit. — Isaiah 57:15
This couple was lowly, but they were certainly literate. They could read and write. Later in this passage we see Zechariah writing a message with a stylus on a board covered with wax, and Elizabeth could read his words.
All Ages
We also know these villagers — especially priestly families — had access to the Hebrew scriptures, or, as we now say, the books of the Old Testament. Near their home was the community of Qumran, a scribal village that produced copy after copy of Old Testament books; today we call the recovered writings the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition, Zechariah’s duties in Jerusalem would have provided ample opportunities to copy or purchase portions of Scripture.
As a result, this couple knew 1 Samuel 2:11, which says about Samuel,
The boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest.
They would have known about the “young girl” who had directed the mighty Syrian general, Naaman, to obey the Lord’s words in 2 Kings 5:2. They would have known how God used teenagers like Joseph and David, and how when Josiah was sixteen and “still young, he began to seek the God of his father David” (2 Chronicles 34:3), and how as a youthful king he brought about a great revival in the land.
They would have known how priests began their official service at thirty years of age (Numbers 4:3) and how David, anointed as a teenager, began his royal reign at age thirty (2 Samuel 5:4).
They had read how God called eighty-year-old Moses to deliver the Israelites from Egypt (Exodus 7:7), and how hearty Caleb told Joshua,
So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. — Joshua 14:10–12
In other words, the Old Testament presents an eternal God who can use us from childhood all the way to old age, and our ability to serve Him depends on His strength and provision, not on our chronological mileage.
You are never too young to serve the Lord, and never too old.
Zechariah and Elizabeth would have known and were actually living out Psalm 71:18:
Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.
They undoubtedly knew Psalm 92 by heart:
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in Him. — vv. 12–15
Perhaps they reminded each other of Isaiah 46:4:
Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
They also knew the ending to the book of Job:
The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. — 42:12
That’s a verse worth claiming for oneself, isn’t it?
And I’m sure they often sang Psalm 103, which says:
Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits... Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies... So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. — vv. 2, 4–5 NKJV
That’s why this couple, described as “very old,” was faithfully serving the Lord, still viewing themselves as on active duty, relishing the daily renewal of divine enthusiasm.3
All Our Days
When, as a teenager, I surrendered my life to the Lord as fully as I knew how, it was like a surge of electrical enthusiasm ran through me, and God has never turned off the switch, praise His name! Yes, I do get weary, perhaps more than I did when I was younger. But I direct my thoughts to 2 Corinthians 4:16:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
The other day I visited a friend of mine who is ninety-three years old, somewhat feeble, walking with a cane, and strictly sticking to her low-sodium diet. Her health is reasonably good. But she asked me why the Lord was keeping her alive so long. I suggested she still has work to do. But what was it? she wondered. She has an active habit of personal prayer and Bible study, but what could she do beyond that?
I had no idea, but I suggested she put a tablet on the kitchen table for a week and every day spend a little time thinking and praying about anything she could possibly do for the Lord. I made a few obvious suggestions to get her started, and I’ve not checked back to see if she followed my advice. But if she did, I suspect by the end of the week she had a good half-dozen possibilities. Then she could prayerfully choose one or two to pursue.
My friend Don Finto is a Nashville legend among pastors. During the COVID season, he and I, along with several others, met with the governor of Tennessee for prayer. I hadn’t seen Don for several years, and I said to him, “Don, you look wonderful.” He said, “I’ve just gotten back from Iraq where we have a ministry going on.” Then he said, “You know, I’m ninety-four years old.” I was shocked because he looked twenty years younger.
“What’s your secret?” I asked.
- He said, “The Lord spoke to me several years ago and told me, ‘Don, I never want to see you acting like an old man.’”
Not all of us have Don Finto’s genes, but we can all take his advice!
Novelist Pearl Buck wrote, “I have reached an honorable position in life because I am old and no longer young. I am a far more useful person than I was fifty years ago, or forty years ago, or thirty, twenty, or even ten. I have learned so much since I was seventy.”4
Are you a child reading or hearing this book? God can use you!
Are you a teenager? Perhaps you’re graduating from high school or college? What an exciting time to serve the Lord! Don’t miss your opportunity!
Are you a young adult? That’s just when God strikes many of us with His lightning bolt of divine guidance and ardent aspiration. Take advantage of it!
Are you facing middle age? Bypass your midlife crisis and embrace your midlife Christ.
Or are you older? Good for you! You’re in good company. Zechariah and Elizabeth are your neighbors, and you can peer through the window of their humble house and get a vision of how God can use you. You’ve never before in your life had so much experience, accumulated so much grace, or learned so many lessons.
Isn’t that wonderful?
There are two important keys to this. First, start where you are. Don’t worry about lost time, because it cannot be retrieved, and the Lord is able to “repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25).
Second, begin each day with the attitude of Psalm 118:24:
This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it. — NKJV
I try to quote that aloud every morning when I awaken. Most mornings I succeed.
Tonight I’m entertaining a young missionary couple with their children. I don’t know them very well, but their children are small, it’s a hot summer, and I have a pool. So I invited them over to swim. A couple of years ago, I invented my own vegetarian Greek pasta, and it’s chilling now in the refrigerator. A young adult from my church asked if he could join us. I have one simple goal for the evening — I want these young people to leave knowing something about the Lord or about the Christian life they hadn’t yet realized.
Maybe a verse, a habit, an insight, a word of encouragement. I want to gently spur them on.
When I was a college student, some of us were entertained in the home of Ruth Bell Graham while her husband, Billy, was away preaching. I asked Mrs. Graham what she would say to a student like me who was battling discouragement. She asked me if I knew about the twelve spies Moses sent into the promised land. Ten of them were shaken by the giants they saw there, and they came back to discourage the people. The other two — Joshua and Caleb — told the people to trust the Lord and conquer the land. Did I know that story? Ruth asked.
Yes, I did.
“Well,” she said, “you realize the difference between the ten and the two, don’t you?
The ten spies compared themselves with the giants; the two compared the giants with God.”
I’ve never forgotten that, and it’s come back to me over and over in my life.
Oh, that I might say a word that will stay with the young people with whom I interact, one that will help them for years to come. Ruth Graham was a treasure trove of quotes, quips, poems, truths, insights, and Bible verses. I’ve always yearned to be like that.
Whatever your age — young or old — start making the most of every day, and do it for the glory of God! Try to find ways of encouraging people with a word they’ll remember for years to come. The Lord wants to use you whatever your age, starting now.
Get a start right now by quoting aloud the affirmation from Psalm 92:12–15:
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in Him.”
1. Steve Allen, Steve Allen’s Private Joke File (Three Rivers Press, 2000), 184.
2. Since the 500s, the village of En Kerem has been traditionally named as the town of Zechariah and Elizabeth. It’s now a lovely suburb on the west side of Jerusalem. The name of this village means “spring of the vineyard.” The infancy gospel of James hints that John was born in Bethlehem. It’s best to stay with Luke’s wording. He doesn’t name the village, in my opinion, because he wants us to realize how obscure was the couple who were about to do great things.
3. According to Alfred Edersheim, Levites could only serve actively in the temple from the ages of thirty to fifty, but priests were not disqualified by age. See Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1971), 135.
4. Pearl S. Buck, Mrs. Stoner and the Sea and Other Works (Ace Books, 1976), 164.
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Excerpted with permission from God Hasn’t Forgotten You by Robert J. Morgan, copyright Robert J. Morgan.
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Your Turn
Does your youth or older age dishearten you? Don’t let it! Ask the Lord to use you in whatever capacity He wants to and He will! What is an area in your life that God has allowed you to continue growing as you age? ~ Devotionals Daily