Reply To: Covenants Group Discussion 1

[Ben]

When it comes to the number of years a believer is supposed to live on earth, I won’t say there is any stated number of years or minimum age for a believer to live. However, before Christ came, many lived for very long number of years and we also see some instances in the Bible before Christ came where a minimum number of years was given to man.

We see a minimum number of years for man to live given by God in Genesis 6:3 .
In this verse, God set the minimum number of years that His people should live. God is not saying that man is supposed to drop dead the second that he reaches the age of 120 but that man should at least reach the age of 120 before he dies. When this pronouncement was made, Noah was 500 years (Genesis 5:32) and in Genesis 7:6, Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. Eventually, Noah lived to be 950 years before he died.
After the flood that covered the earth and from the time of Abraham, there seemed to be a shortened life span unlike the number of years men had lived before the flood. Abraham died at 175, Isaac at 180 and Jacob at 147. No record going forward from this point showed a person lived beyond 140 apart from Job (Job 42:16). This would mean that a person should live to be somewhere between 120 and 140 years of age.

Some Christians say that we are only supposed to live for 70 or 80 years according to Psalm 90.
But to say that Christians can only live for 70 or 80 years is ridiculous, because there are many Christians, as well as many sinners, who live well beyond the age of 80. So this couldn’t be what this Scripture is referring to.
This Scripture (the 90th Psalm) was written by Moses when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness for 40 years waiting for all the people who were adults when they first reached the Promised Land and refused to go in, to die. These people all died when they were about 70 or 80 because of their numerous sins of not believing God; murmuring and complaining during the first year when they came forth out of Egypt (Numbers 14:22–23, 26–35).
There are some verses in the Bible where God promises us long life and this should be the focus of the believer: long life. Some of which are; Exodus 20:12, Exodus 23:25-26, Deuteronomy 5:33, Deuteronomy 6:2, 1 Kings 3:14, Psalm 91:14-16, Proverbs 3:1-2, Proverbs 4:10, Proverbs 9:11, Ephesians 6:2-3.

The believer has a promise of long life and as such should not focus on a minimum age of 120 or 70/80 but should have his focus on enjoying a satisfying long life where he goes to the grave at what he sees as his ripe old age and the grave not coming to him.