The example of the eighty-year-old Barzillai gives us clues of how to have happy, fruitful golden years. The way he cared for King David when he fled from Jerusalem is a beautiful example of one approaching the time of departure from this world and yet faithfully attentive to the earthly cares of others. Those who know the Lord Jesus as Savior can look for His imminent return to take all living believers home without dying, while facing the challenge of how to finish the race well, as our minds, bodies and souls wear out. “Indeed we who are in the tabernacle groan, being burdened; while yet we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now he that has wrought us for this very thing is God, who also has given to us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, and know that while present in the body we are absent from the Lord, (for we walk by faith, not by sight); we are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Wherefore also we are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to Him” (2 Cor. 5:4-9 JND).
D. C. Buchanan