Tag: Methuselah

The Tree of Life and Abnormally Long Life in the Old Testament

Many people expect to live around 80-90 years, but the current maximum lifespan is 120 years. In the past, people lived longer, with biblical figures reaching nearly 1,000 years. Some seek to extend life through science or technology, but the true promise of eternal life lies in faith and connection with God.

How long do you expect to live in this life? Most would say 80 or 90 years. The average in the United States is 78. That seems young-ish to me. I have no aspirations to live to be 100. Perhaps that is because I visit many people who have significantly cognitively declined by then and I don’t wish to join that group.

The actual current maximum lifespan is 120 years, which sounds like a real burden to me. Life expectancy varies by gender, location and time. People in the not-so-distant past were lucky to make it to 50. Jesus is crucified at age 35 (I believe), a young man to us, but not so much for when He lived.

When you dig back into the Old Testament people were living enormously long lives: Enosh 905, Kenan 910, and the record holder Methuselah at 969. They were cranking out kids in their 100’s. It is clear that they were not elderly until much later. Is this a myth? I don’t think so. These people all lived before Noah’s flood, so some attribute the difference to the environment in some way, but I think it is a genetic change that God brought about.

 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

Genesis 6:3 (ESV)

So we have been capped at 120 for a while. It is interesting that this limit seemed to phase in. The mechanisms that age us and result in our physical death didn’t come into full effect for a couple generations.

There is a branch of science today that seeks to undo the genetic cap on our lives. Others, clearly fearing death, seek immortality through capturing our consciousness as a computer code. The former might produce some lengthening of life for those who seek it. I am pretty skeptical about the later.

God limited human life, but when God created it, we were not built to die at all. Adam and Eve were immortals, physically and spiritually. God warned them to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil lest they die. Satan said they wouldn’t die. Immediately. Adam lived for 930 years and then he kicked the bucket, just as God said.

Adam and Eve also had the benefit of the Tree of Life. What wear and tear life produced in the body, eating from the tree could fix. I don’t think there was anything miraculous about it. It was designed to work that way. Similarly, I don’t think the impact of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was miraculous. It was a genetic modifier created, likely by Satan, to poison mankind and the world.

The Tree of Life was forbidden Adam and Eve by God after their encounter with evil. God did not want to leave them physically eternal and evil. Hence, our need to die. Sin is a part of the body not the spirit. Our soul, the interaction of body and spirit, is likewise corrupt.

The Tree of Life makes another appearance by name in the Bible– at the end. In Revelation 22 it says:

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:1-2 (ESV)

As I have discussed in previous blogs, we will have a Heavenly body for Heaven, but we will also have a resurrected physical body for a New Earth. It will be a modified, superior version of what we have now. The Trees of Life described in the verse above have some role in the eternal preservation of that body. What exactly, I do not know.

I do not aspire to unnaturally prolong physical life as I am experiencing now, even though I am very blessed compared to many. I have confidence in the one who is my original Creator. I have confidence in His ability to deliver far superior and eternal life to me. All of it is because of things God has already done. Jesus has already successfully fulfilled God’s Law and paid the price for my evil. Already I am connected to Jesus and benefit from His work through being baptized in His name. It is a great, loving offer that is there for the taking. May God help you to receive it.

Here’s to truly long life.

Why Must We Die?

Considering that death comes for everyone, it may seem like a ridiculous question to ask why we have to die. The question, however, comes up when we are facing the death of either ourselves or someone we love. As it turns out, it isn’t a ridiculous question at all.

Scientifically, we could site the fact that our bodies seem to be programmed to age and die. Our cells can only divide a limited number of times. This sets the outer limit on how long we can physically live. Usually before we hit our full potential lifespan (120 years), death caused by damage or illness takes us. The oldest among us do top out at 120.

The Bible has an interesting explanation that fits nicely with observed facts. When Moses wrote down the first five books of the Bible, He relayed God’s feelings about the lifespan of humans:

Then the Lord said, ” My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”

Genesis 6:3

Prior to this the Bible records some amazing lifespans, with Methuselah holding the record at 969 years. I’m sure most people consider these lifespans to be fictitious, but why? If our DNA were different, so that it could replicate more often, why couldn’t we live for 969 years? It seems that God dialed us back because we were getting on His nerves.

It is interesting to note that after this passage, people didn’t just hit the wall at 120. It takes several generations to arrive at this limit.

For that matter, why should we die at all? Indeed, God can make an indestructible body. Adam and Eve were not engineered to die. Their rebellion seems to have genetically modified them. Death was just one of the negative outcomes. People scoff at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil story in Genesis 3. It smells of myth to them. Is it? What if the Tree was real and “knowing Good and Evil” was a euphemism for being modified from God’s original design. Evil isn’t just a human social construct, it is the sum of deviations from God’s plans and His ways. Those deviations included genetic modification and failure, inherent tendency to God forbidden behaviors, and physical death.

We die because we are sinners. We are sinners because it is encoded in our DNA. It is encoded in our DNA because our truly, free-will capable ancestors decided that God wasn’t good or trustworthy. Now there is no way around death, only through it.

More frightening than having to die is the fact that humans were made to be eternal beings and remain so even with built-in physical death. Spiritual death is different than physical death. In physical death our bodies break down and eventually cannot sustain functioning. Decay soon follows. Our consciousness is not a part of body after physical death. The Bible warns of post-mortem judgment, first in Sheol, the after a resurrection in Gehenna (or what we call Hell). These two places share common conditions: fire, despair, suffering. Hell holds a unique condition: forsakenness. Only here does God completely abandon you.

All but physical death is avoidable. Jesus Christ died and was forsaken in our place. A connection to Jesus, makes Jesus’ sinlessness ours and Jesus’ forsakenness ours as well. It is a promise of God’s delivered through baptism.

Physical death remains a requirement since physical death is a part of our physical bodies. We need to shed this. Death is both a terrible thing because it is the product of sin and produces an “unnatural” separation of body and soul, and it is a sought after relief if we are connected to Jesus.

Fear it, fight it, live in denial that it exists. Death still comes for all.