What Can You Do With A General

 "Now it came to pass, a long time after the Lord had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua was old, advanced in age." Josh.23:1

By the end of Joshua's life it had been years since the fighting stopped and the land was divided and the people began to occupy their inheritance. Joshua had led the people after the death of Moses. He had followed the Lord faithfully. And by the end of this book Joshua had been long retired. His sermon in these final chapters was the final address Joshua would give publicly.

We think that we will live at our prime years forever. We think that we will never slow down. We think that God will sustain and support us and that we, if we are lucky, will die in the saddle.

"Old soldiers never die, they just fade away." is how Douglas McArthur said it in his final address to Congress in 1951. His war fighting was over long before he faded away.

"What can you do with a general, when he stops being a general" Bing Crosby sang in White Christmas.

Joshua had stopped being a general long before he died. He did nothing noteworthy after he retired. Could this be one of the reasons why pastors never retire, they are afraid of having nothing to do and becoming irrelevant? You can become irrelevant and still be in the pulpit.

Back in olden days men retired and then wrote books about what they learned. Too bad no one reads books anymore.