THE BIBLE AND RETIREMENT
The Bible and retirement:
It is usually recommended that after a long service in one’s carrier, retirement becomes inevitable. Countries have different age limits for their citizens to go on retirement. Sometimes, persons who do not plan in advance for their retirement become paupers after retiring and deteriorate very quickly. It appears good for one to work for several years and get to a stage where you are honorably sent home to rest for the rest of your life. What can we say about the Bible and retirement?
Firstly, it is surprising to note that there is no such word as ‘retirement’ in the bible where people retired from their service to God and mankind. We shall be discussing a few important characters in the bible who served till the time they were called by the Father.
Abram was seventy five years old when he was called by God to leave his father’s house to an unknown destination. God told Abraham “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing….” (Genesis 12:1-2). At age 75, can one expect Abram to be strong enough to play his role in achieving God’s dream for his life? When Lot, Abraham’s nephew, was captured by an alliance of kings, Abram “armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan…..and he brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people” (Genesis 14:14-16). Unbelievably, he went to war and rescued his nephew, Lot, from the hands of his enemies. At 100 years old, Abraham gave birth to a son, Isaac (Genesis 21:5). In spite of some errors he made, Abraham still believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness (Romans 4:3).
Moreover, on the bible and retirement, Caleb was 40 years old when he became one of the assistants of Moses (Joshua 14:7). As one of the leaders of the army of Israel, they fought several battles and won. After several years of battle, Caleb said this about himself “…. and lo I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet, I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out and to come in” (Joshua 14:10-11). At 85 years old, Caleb was still strong for battles. A similar story is told about Joshua, a servant of Moses. Joshua provided leadership for the people of Israel to fight many battles and died at the age of 110 years. Indeed, the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). There is a kind of strength that is beyond physical strength.
Retirement from a career is a choice and a thing of the spirit of man. It is important to make this choice by yourself rather than allow systems to determine it for you. Formally, systems may retire you because of laid down rules of that system but you can decide not to retire after leaving your place of work by actively making yourself useful to yourself and society. Once your mind is made up to continue working, you will always receive supernatural strength from God to continue your service to God and mankind. This is very possible. Secondly, we are not saying that one should not plan for retirement. It is very important to plan for it, however, also plan beyond retirement because it is a better option.
