In the sermon Sunday, we noted that Joshua was very old, and he needed to pass down the work of fighting to a younger generation. We don’t know Joshua’s precise age, but it seems like that he was at least as old as Caleb, who was at this time eighty-five (Josh 14:10). Because every man of fighting age (twenty years or older) had died in the desert wanderings over forty years, there was a gap of at least twenty years between the oldest men in Israel and Joshua and Caleb. Joshua had been their commander throughout the taking of Canaan, but it was now time for the tribes to rely on God and move forward and take what was left of the land.

We see here a call for older saints to pass on skills, responsibility, and authority, to the coming generation. We see this principle several times in the New Testament. The apostle Paul mentored young Timothy and then told him to do the same to others. “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Ti 2:1–2). Titus likewise was to instruct older women to teach younger women.

“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” (Tt 2:3–5)

And of course our Lord Jesus was the preeminent example, training twelve men over the course of three years to be able to continue His mission by the power of the Holy Spirit He would pour out on them. The Great Commission serves to link the “generation” of the apostles to their “father,” Christ, but also to those whom they would baptize and teach–their “children” after them. As I have noted before, the Great Commission (Mt 28:18-20) is a reiteration of the Dominion Mandate (Gen 1:28).

My mid-week challenge is this: think about who you are training to come after you. This is a task not only for men and women in their later years. Parents ought to think of child-rearing in terms of training for service to God. It is a mistake to think in terms of a strict discipleship-then-service sort of progression. Service is part of discipleship. Studies show that children and youth who are involved in ministry earlier in life are more likely to continue walking with the Lord and not fall away from the faith in early adulthood. We must take care not to thrust new believers into positions of leadership (1 Tim 3:6), but there ought to be many ways in which young people or those new to the faith can serve others.

One of the wonderful gifts that God gave our church through Pastor Tim for the decade he was with us in leadership was a heart for mentorship–what he called apprenticeship because of his background in trades and education. Let us not lose that focus. Look for potential in others. Be deliberate about teaching what God has taught you. Be ready to share your very life.

“So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.” (1 Th 2:8)

We have many goals and desires in the brief time we are in this world. If one of our accomplishments is that we leave others after us better prepared to serve Christ and His church–we will have done well.