Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
William is asking in Genesis 6:3, before the flood, God said man shall live to be 120 years old. Why didn’t we see that happen until generations later?
Speaker 2
Alright, so there’s a couple of different parts to this question and actually I’ll say upfront, it’s not something everybody agrees on. As to what this verse means, there’s at least two different understandings. So one is God saying I’m cutting everybody’s lives short, people aren’t going to live longer than 120 years. And there’s another interpretation which I’ll get into also. So if the truth is the second interpretation, then that might explain why there seems to be a delay. First. Let’s assume actually God does say I’m going to be shortening people’s lives. And there’s some good reason to think, okay, that’s what God’s talking about. Because when we well, first let’s look at the verse. It’s Genesis six. Let’s start at verse one. We’ll start at verse one. Genesis six, verse one. And it reads now it came to pass when men began to multiply in the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them. Next verse, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful and they took wise for themselves of all whom they chose. Okay, so there’s mingling of daughters of God, sons of men. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh, yet his days shall be 120 years.
Speaker 2
So question is like who is this man God is referring to? What does it mean striving with them in the spirit? But let’s assume for right now that it’s actually the lifespan of a person. If you look at the genealogy in Genesis, you see people reliving 900 years plus easily. Adam and we have Methusla who lived the longest? I think 969 years. Noah himself lived I think 600 something years, or maybe more like 700, let’s say he was 700 years. Now that’s a lot shorter than his grandfather. If we jump forward to Genesis 47, verse 28, we see that Jacob died at the age of 147. So Jacob, we just got a few generations. We have Abraham, we have his son Jacob. Jacob’s, now, sorry, Abraham, isaac and then when we get to Jacob, he’s 147 years old, his son Joseph. Oh, we have a little graphic here that shows it all. So you can see Jared live a long time, bethuza live 969, Noah live, oh, 950. Wow. Okay, so Sham, his son 600. And you just see people starting to die even before their great grandfathers, before them, abraham was 175, isaac, if we get his age, but by the time we get to Jacob, now he’s 147 and Joseph dies at the age of 110.
Speaker 2
Bam. Now all of a sudden we actually are seen, recorded someone’s less than 120 years that was Joseph. And I’ll just recognize there are different timelines. If you’re looking at the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Bible that Jesus had during his day, that one has people living different, it works out differently. But I agree. I think the one that we tend to have today is the correct timeline. There’s good textural evidence that that’s accurate. But what’s interesting is there’s a couple of operations where we have Erin Aaron, numbers 33 39 says he lived to be 123 years old. Deuteronomy 34 seven says Moses lived to be 120 years old. So right on the money, Moses was 120 and then Joshua lived to be 110 years old. But what’s interesting about these people is they all were part of the Israelites who were supposed to go into the land of Canaan. And in fact, they were supposed, these three especially were supposed to live and enter, and Joshua in fact did. But because of sins, Moses and Aaron died just before the Israelites entered the land. But God had kept them alive during the 40 years when the Israelites were sort of waiting around for this whole central generation to die off.
Speaker 2
A guy kept Joshua, kept Moses, kept Erin, and then another one, Caleb, who I believe we don’t have his age when he died, he kept all those alive. So this is unique exception. And I don’t think God was necessarily saying, oh, because I said people live 120 years, that therefore I’ll let Moses die at 120. That’s not what was going on. I believe. And why do I say this? Because if you look at some 90, verse 1090, verse ten, it says in Days of our Lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength they are 80 years, it’s interesting. So you have this verse that’s a little bit in tension with the 120 years that we see earlier. Granted, this one is not a decree of God, but maybe it’s just a recognition of how people actually live. But we see even this today, most people live to be in their 70s or eighty s, and we have just a few people who might live beyond that, which is actually interesting. That still the longest people we see live to about 120. I think we recently had the oldest person on record die at the age of 122.
Speaker 2
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. It’s possible that that’s one interpretation. Gus, I’m going to let people live 120 years. But why did it take time to evolve? As Peter says in second, Peter three, verse eight, do not forget that one thing that with the Lord, one day is 1000 years, and 1000 years is one day for God. God has a totally different concept of time. So when God says something is going to happen, that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen the next second, the next moment, in terms of our time as we perceive it, that could be a long delay. But even to God, it’s like nothing. But God is not slack concerning his promises. As we go on to read, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises is some counts lackness. So God is faithful. God did deliver. If you think God said he’s going to shorten people’s lifespans, well, he did deliver on that eventually. And if we just look at even other historical events in the Bible, we have one where in Isaiah 39 we have this king, hezekiah who takes the Babylonians on the tour of Israel, doesn’t tell them about God, and he just glorifies himself.
Speaker 2
And God says, because of this, the Babylonians are going to come back and they’re going to invade your Judea and take everybody away. And it’s going to be devastating. But don’t worry, hezekai is not going to happen in your lifetime. Good, that’s fine, God, because it won’t happen to me. But it didn’t happen right away after he died, there were still several generations before this prophecy came to pass. Why did it take forever? That’s how God works. He wastes for the right time. He lets things play out. God doesn’t necessarily intervene immediately. He lets things naturally take the course at times. But here’s another theory of what that 120 days means. If we go back to that genesis, verse six. Sorry, chapter six, verse three. And the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh. Who is he struggling with? He’s struggling with man. And we just heard that daughters of men married sons of God married the daughters of men. It could be he’s talking about the people of that particular time who were extremely wicked. Because if we keep reading now to verse four, it says there were giants on the earth in those days and afterwards.
Speaker 2
And then we go into verse five. It says, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So he’s still talking about the people when he’s saying man. It’s talking about the world in general. At that time they were evil, just thinking evil all the time. And the Lord was sorry that he had made them. Verse seven. So God says, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast. Creeping thing. So why do we think when God says, I’m going to shorten life of man to 120 years? He talks about people in general going forward, but then when we get to just a few verses later, we’re understanding, is he’s going to destroy the anti diluvians to people at the time of the flood? If you read this verse consistently, he’s talking about the same man. The same man he’s going to give 120 years is the same man he’s going to destroy with the flood. And if we look at it, we understand that Noah started building the flood around the time before he had his kids.
Speaker 2
So it’s not exactly clear the timeline when no exactly started, but we’re told he was 500 years when he first began sham. This is in Genesis five, verse 32. So he has his first kid when he’s 500 years old, and it looks like he built the ark over about 100 years. And he is ministering to the people during this time. He’s building a giant arc, telling people it’s going to rain. They’re like, you’re crazy. He’s never rained before. What’s a flood? We’ve never seen a flood before. So he’s probably drawing lots of attention. God is giving people warning, giving them an opportunity to get in that arc and be saved, because that’s the type of person God is. And they did it. So that’s how I more understand. What is this 120 years? I really think it’s God’s saying, I’m going to give 120 years for these people to turn around, to get onto the boat, to get onto the method, the method of salvation I provided for them. And if they don’t, then they will be destroyed after that 120 years. So God came right on time. It was a time prophecy. So those are two options, two ways of looking at it.
Speaker 2
Hope that explains it.
Speaker 1
Do you have anything to add on that.
Speaker 2
You’Re at again? Oh, no. The meme of the year last year, right? 2020.
Speaker 1
I don’t want to cut you guys short. If there’s something else you wanted to say no okay.
Speaker 2
It could cover everything. No, I hope you got other insights.
Speaker 1
No, I always have thought about that verse, and I think it’s really interesting. I really think it’s interesting that Moses is the only one that’s 120. I think that’s sort of significant as far as prophetically speaking, because he’s kind of the next one that we see. I mean, there was obviously Abraham, but I feel like Moses fulfilled a lot of things that God had promised as far as he’s like a type of Christ and that he delivers God’s people. And when you talk about Moses, in the New Testament, it says God’s people were baptized into Moses when they walked through the Red Sea, and now we’re baptized into Christ. And so Moses kind of encapsulated the Old Covenant, whereas later on Jesus gives us the New Covenant by his blood, which is writing God’s law in our hearts. So anyways, I think the whole 120 years is just so fascinating and I think to me, there’s a connection to the fulfillment of it in Moses. But really what I think too, I kind of more lean towards. I don’t think God is saying, like, everybody gets 120 years to live. No, it’s not what it’s saying.
Speaker 1
But I do think God was saying people after the flood are going to live around that time frame. I think that’s kind of what more God’s leading towards, because people are living to be in the then their life span got cut short dramatically. And I think God did that in his mercy more than anything, just because so that evil wouldn’t continue or become so rampant, at least the evil people can sadly but die off. And the reason I think you see that to me in the Bible is when you look at the life of Moses, it’s very interesting. And this is why I say that, because in the Bible, 40 years always equals a generation. And there’s a verse that specifies that in the Book of Psalms 95, verse ten, it says 40 years long was I agreed with this generation and it was talking about the Israelites when they were in the wilderness for 40 years. But what you see in the life of Moses that’s kind of interesting is the first 40 years of his life he spent in Egypt being trained and educated in the Egyptian culture, which was pagan, and it was a false system of worship.
Speaker 1
And then God pierces his heart and Moses feels this burden to help his people, but he doesn’t know how because he knows he’s a Hebrew, but he’s kind of torn as to what to do. And so he ends up killing one of the taskmasters and the Pharaoh finds out about and he runs for his life. And then he’s out in the wilderness for 40 years being basically a shepherd and being, in a sense, reeducated in the knowledge of the true God and then got in the next 40 years he spends leading his people out of Egypt and through the wilderness for those 40 years until they reach the Promised Land. And so to me, it’s kind of like this god gives us chances in a way. Like the first 40 years, that generation of his life he spent in darkness, the next 40 years he spent in learning and the last 40 years he spent in leading and his ministry. And so I don’t know, to me there’s just something so significant about that. I think that God is so good and merciful and he’s always trying to teach us something in these stories. And so to me, in a way, what I feel like God is saying is like in your time passed, you might have been raised one way, but if you’re willing to listen, God will intervene and he’ll reeducate you and he’ll give you time to learn about Him.
Speaker 1
And once you come into a knowledge of the truth and you accept it, god will also give you an opportunity then to share your truth, the truth that God has given you in His Word. And I think that that’s such an important thing as far as what God is maybe kind of teaching us in those 120 years. If God is giving you time, it’s not for the purpose of you just doing whatever. What God wants to do is find you, educate you and train you into somebody who’s ready to share his truth and his love and be ready to go home and to be a citizen of heaven because it’s God’s will that everyone is saved. I don’t know if you guys do that as well.
Speaker 2
I love that. I think we could go on and on instead of there’s probably so many different parallels between Noah and Moses. In fact, Moses start off in a little boat, and he’s pulled out of it.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 2
A little ark and yeah, you’re right. Maybe Noah’s Moses life was sort of like that period of 120 years that the Antediluvians had with Noah to sort of minister them and provide them a way out of their situation that they were going to have.
Speaker 1
Yeah. And I think, too, when it came to the Antidelivians, a lot of them started out believing or Noah and started maybe even listening to Noah preaching the gospel, but they just kind of were like, this doesn’t really seem to be working out. I’d rather spend my time doing other things. And, you know, doubt creeped in. And I think that that’s kind of the difference you see between God’s true people like Moses, as opposed to people who don’t follow the truth, which is everybody gets a chance. God speaks to everybody in some way, whether it’s through nature, whether it’s just the Holy Spirit speaking to their heart. I believe God speaks to everybody in some way on this planet. And obviously it’s wonderful if you have the privilege of learning the Bible, which contains all the truth, but I think everybody has a chance, and it’s always God’s will to save and to heal and basically to give you salvation. That’s what God wants to do. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God wants us to be saved so desperately.
Speaker 2
Amen.
Speaker 1
And I think what I just see so clearly is the Antidiviving, those who were lost in the flood, as opposed to Noah as well as Moses, who were saved from the waters, that there’s just this difference of, am I going to keep my faith? Am I going to stay faithful to the end, or am I going to get distracted and get bored or start having doubts and just kind of slowly drifting away from the truth until it’s just too late? Because even if Jesus doesn’t come in our lifetime, jesus will come, and his reward is with Him. Only those that have put their trust in God and have a saving relationship with Him are going to be able to have access to the kingdom of life. I just think it’s so important that we learn from these things, and we make a decision every day. Who do I want to serve? Do I want to serve myself, or do I want to serve God? And am I going to educate myself and the knowledge of the truth, or am I going to basically, when you’re just not studying God, you’re in a sense. Educating yourself in the things of this world.
Speaker 1
Like how do I make more money? How do I be entertained? Things like that. Those are just distractions. And I think it’s so important that we keep our eyes focused on our savior. Again. I think that’s important. Why? We need to study God’s word in the Bible. Because it just keeps our relationship alive and fresh with him. Exactly.
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BibleAsk Team
