With our young and our old
After Moses and Aaron had announced the eighth plague to Pharaoh in Egypt, his servants appealed to him to finally let the Israelites go so that they could serve the Lord their God (Exodus 10:7). Pharaoh then summoned Moses and Aaron again and asked, “Who are all those who are to go?” Moses gave the ultimate answer: “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters” (Exodus 10:9).
God’s intention
On the one hand, these words express God’s intention. For God wanted to save the whole people; He wanted to free them all together from Egypt. Therefore, they were all to leave Egypt together. For God had a plan and a goal for this people, whom He called His people. He wanted to “bring them up” to the Promised Land (Exodus 3:8). That was God’s “long-term goal” for the people.
On the way there, His people were to worship Him. Together they were to serve God in the desert. That was their “short-term goal,” which they would reach after three days (Exodus 3:18; 5:3; 8:23; 10:25).
The common goal of the people
The “children of Israel” obviously had the same interest, the same goal. Otherwise, Moses would not have been able to say, “We will go with our young and our old.” At the very least, they all had the desire to leave Egypt. They all longed for liberation from Pharaoh’s bondage and the hard slave labor in Egypt.
But the common desire to leave Egypt could not permanently lead the redeemed people on a common path. To do so, they needed a common goal they all shared. Otherwise, after their liberation from Egypt, the redeemed people could have gone their separate ways. In order to walk together, as was God’s intention, they needed—in addition to the awareness that they together formed the people of God—a common goal toward which they were journeying.
Common worship
To ensure that God’s people would walk together through the desert, God had provided them with a “near goal,” a common occupation, and a common leader to follow.
Their leader was Moses. They had professed their faith in him, and they had been baptized into him in the Red Sea (1 Cor. 10:2). And before them went the pillar of cloud, showing them the way.
And what was the “near goal” of God’s people? It was what Moses repeatedly presented to Pharaoh: “Let my people go, that they may serve me!” (Ex. 9:1, 13). Their goal in the desert was worship. That was to be their common occupation on their journey to Canaan.
So it was not only their redemption that united God’s people on their journey through the desert. Nor was it the fact and awareness that they were God’s people together that kept them on a common path. God also wanted to unite his people in a common activity: worshipping God together.
Spiritual transfer
We want to apply to ourselves the statements made in the Old Testament with regard to Israel. For the events of that time happened as examples for us (1 Cor. 10:6).
As Christians, we are also a people of the redeemed: we have redemption through the blood of the Lamb, the forgiveness of our sins (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14). Furthermore, we are freed from the bondage of sin and the devil. Figuratively speaking, we have left “Egypt” and, as redeemed people, are on a journey to a destination that God has determined for us.
The destination is heavenly glory, the Father’s house. That is our true home. For we are fellow heirs of a heavenly calling, God’s upward calling (Heb 3:1; Phil 3:14).
But the mere fact that we are redeemed and children of God and are journeying toward a common heavenly goal does not unite us and keep us together as God’s people on a common path “through the desert.” Even the awareness that we, as redeemed people, are joined together in unity and form the assembly of God does not yet bring about a common “pull.” For this, a common worship service is necessary.
The goal in sight
Nevertheless, we must keep our “long-term goal,” the goal in glory, which is actually very near (Phil. 4:5), in sight so that we have the right orientation in life on earth and live according to our heavenly calling.
Only when we keep this goal in sight, to which God has destined us, will we take the right attitude toward the world. Only when Christ in glory is truly our goal in life will we live with our eyes fixed on the future. We will look ahead and reach out for what lies ahead, and, with our eyes fixed on the goal, run the race before us with energy and perseverance in order to win the prize of God’s calling (Phil. 3:13-14; Heb. 12:1-2).
With the heavenly goal in mind, we are also motivated to run with perseverance and patiently endure the difficulties and trials that the journey through the “desert” brings.
When we lose sight of the goal
If this is not the case, if we lose sight of our “long-term goal,” our perspective becomes distorted, and we turn our attention to other things. When we lose sight of the heavenly goal and the heavenly reward, we begin to seek our purpose and fulfillment in earthly things.
The result is that our spiritual life increasingly falls by the wayside. We lose touch with those who live in awareness of their heavenly calling and are on their way toward the heavenly goal.
Demas, a co-worker of the Apostle Paul, is a sad example of this. He had grown fond of the “present age” and had strayed from the common “journey” and fallen behind (2 Tim. 4:10).
We find something similar with the people of Israel. There were times when they longed to return to Egypt because they were dissatisfied with God’s leadership. Strangely enough, they forgot what Egypt had actually meant to them. They also forgot God’s great work of deliverance that they had experienced. Only what made Egypt attractive in their eyes stood before their unbelieving hearts: the pleasures and joys it offered, the pots of meat and the bread they ate to their fill without feeling any lack (Exodus 16:3; Numbers 11:5).
The goal determines the purpose of life
But if our perspective is right, if we as citizens of heaven have our “long-term goal” firmly in sight and await Christ from heaven, if He is truly the goal of our lives, then our entire orientation in life on earth is right.
Then we have the motivation to persevere in running the race toward the goal, which leads through many trying circumstances. Then we also have the motivation to truly live as strangers on earth, knowing that our citizenship is in heaven.
We will not turn back, live with our eyes fixed on “Egypt” (the world), or long for the attractions of the world from which we have been taken.
When we have our eyes on the goal, and Christ in glory is our goal in life, we also set the right priorities on our journey through the desert. We also have the right purpose in life and the right activities God has planned for us on our journey. For even as Christians, we have—like Israel back then—a “near goal,” a goal that is connected to the “desert.”
Occupation in the “desert.”
Better said: We have a noble occupation in the desert, to which God has destined us. It consists of serving God and worshipping Him together. It is a sublime occupation that unites us as God’s people and holds us together on a common path[1]that we want to walk with “our young and our old.”
According to God’s plan, His redeemed are not loners, not solitary wanderers on the way to a common goal in heavenly glory. For we have been joined together into one. And as such, we are all on the way to that goal.
A worship service that unites us
We are a holy priesthood and have the privilege of approaching God together to offer Him sacrifices of praise, spiritual sacrifices that are pleasing to Him through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 13:15). Is it important to us, as God’s people, to walk together in worship, where we, as a holy priesthood, worship together “with our young and with our old,” in a way that is in accordance with God’s will?
As born-again Christians, we share the common experience of being redeemed and having left “Egypt.” We also have more than just a common heavenly goal. A common purpose and a shared occupation in the desert also unite us. We have a common worship service that connects us and reminds us of the unity God has bound us to. [2]
When we gather at the Lord’s table to proclaim his death, we see in the one bread a representation of this unity: “For we, though many, are one bread and one body” (1 Cor. 10:17). Are we committed to worshiping together according to his will? Is it important to us to preserve the unity to which we have been brought and to move forward in this spirit “with our young and with our old”?
Service for the whole congregation
In addition to the common worship service, which we are privileged to hold as a holy priesthood, we have another form of service on our “journey through the desert.” It bears certain parallels to the service of the Levites and also has a unifying effect. Just as the Levitical service in the Old Testament was “for the whole congregation” (Num. 3:7), our “Levitical service” is for the whole body: for the edification of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12).
While we, as a holy priesthood, all have the same privilege, the same area of activity, and the same worship service as “Levites,” we are entrusted with different areas of responsibility and different services. To this end, we are all equipped with different gifts of grace. Nevertheless, we all work in the same field and build the same house: “for you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9).
We work together—as far as is biblically possible—and complement each other in our ministries, according to God’s intention. Together we “carry” God’s testimony throughout the world; together we are allowed to uphold the truth expressed in the Old Testament examples and encompassing Christ, His work, and the results of His work.
In principle, all ministries and gifts should benefit the “whole church” (the whole body); they should serve the good of the whole body, the perfection of the saints, and the building up of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). A very important goal in this regard is the promotion of the common priesthood (cf. Num. 3:7).
Therefore, we also want to “pull together” in this regard—with our young and with our old.
Genuine togetherness
“With our young and with our old”—this speaks of commonality, of genuine togetherness. It presupposes exchange and fellowship with one another, genuine interest in one another, understanding for one another, patience with one another, and consideration for one another. And that we are subject to one another in the fear of Christ (Eph. 5:21).
If we truly strive to pull together and move forward in godly fellowship, we will endeavor to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. To do this, we need humility, longsuffering, and gentleness. We must bear with one another in love (Eph 4:2-3).
If the older generation is committed to “moving forward” together with the younger generation, they will make an effort to explain to the younger generation what it means to walk together according to God’s will. They will explain to them what the unity is that God has bound us together in and how we can preserve it according to His will. So that we can all “pull together” on a common path, based on a conviction grounded in God’s Word. To do this, we need to test our convictions against God’s Word continually. We do not want to rigidly and dogmatically hold on to something that we cannot substantiate with God’s Word. Nor do we want to change everything that is not explicitly commanded in God’s Word at any cost.
If, conversely, it is also important to young people to “move forward” together with the elderly, they will not “overtake” or ignore them. Still, they will show consideration for them, even if the elderly sometimes show a certain inflexibility that unfortunately sometimes comes with age. Young people are also aware that they lack experience and can easily be led astray by “youthful desires.”
Satan wants to disrupt and destroy the fellowship of believers in every way. Therefore, let us avoid any potential for conflict and eliminate anything that impairs our harmony by consciously reaching out to one another, remaining in open communication, walking together with our young and our old, following our Lord together, and walking a common path based on God’s Word. To this end, let us continually align ourselves with this word. Then we will have godly fellowship on a common path toward a common goal.
Footnotes:
- We know that we are connected with all believers as God’s people—not only with those with whom we walk a common path and worship God in practical terms. Even though it is unfortunately not possible to walk the same path as all believers, we still want to walk the biblical path, aware of the spiritual unity of all believers. Depending on the context, “we” or “together” in this article therefore refers either to all believers or to the believers with whom we gather.
- This is in accordance with God’s thoughts. In practical terms, however, there is not much evidence of this: Christianity is divided into many groups that have no basis in God’s Word, and God’s Word calls us to separate ourselves from all evil.