I was reading Acts 7:20-43 with the littles for our Bible Class the other morning and a few things really stood out to me that I wanted to lay out here. It is a comforting word that God is not into numbers, age is just a number to Him. And the fact that you are never too old to be used by God.
In the verses mentioned above, we find Stephen talking to the Sanhedrin, a religious sect of that day. And he is telling them about the story of Moses, that we also find in the book of Genesis.
Recall the story of Moses, how at 3 months old He was sent off down the river by his mother. In order to escape death at the hands of the Egyptians because of Pharaoh’s orders to kill all firstborn males of the Israelites.
Pharaoh’s daughter finds Moses, and draws him from the water. His very name meaning “to pull out or to draw out of water”. Pharaoh’s daughter raises Moses as her own, in the Egyptian ways and learnings.
Then verse 23 says, “But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.”
His age stood out to me here. Maybe because I’m now in my forties, lol.
But I thought about the time that it took for the thought to visit his brethren to come into his heart. He had been away from them for 40 years.
During this time, Moses witnessed the harsh treatment that his brethren were facing at the hand of the Egyptians. It affected him so much so, that he ended up killing a man over it. Then having been found out, he fled to Midian.
So then, it goes on to say in Verse 30, “And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.”
Now we are familiar with this story, also known as the “burning bush” story.
And we always tend to take note of how awesome of an experience it must have been to have seen a burning bush that was not being consumed by the flames.
How awesome it must have been to hear the voice of the Lord telling him to remove his sandals because the ground that he was standing on was holy ground.
But most often we do not take note that another whole 40 years had passed when Moses experienced this. It means that Moses was at least 80 years old when he had this burning bush experience.
The burning bush experience changed everything.
It was where Moses experienced God in a most profound way.
He experienced this at or around the age of 80.
And THIS is the encouragement.
If you think that you are too old or getting too old and feel as if you do not know what your purpose is, or you have not fulfilled your calling, know that God is still speaking.
And as long as there is still breath in your body, God still has purpose for you. And God can still use you.
We may never have a burning bush experience but God is always speaking through His Word, through His Spirit and through His church. Even as we age.
Because age is just a number to God, time is not a factor with Him. He is not limited by time as we are.
“With the Lord, a day is like a 1000 years, and 1000 is like a day.” 2 Peter 3:8
So no matter how old you get, you are never too old to be used by God.
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