Tag: tree of life

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.

Thy Kingdom Come (Health)

You can have everything (money, power, beauty, fame, etc.) but if you don’t have health, you don’t have much.  Certainly, there are those with chronic health conditions who learn to overcome and make big contributions to society and enjoy their existence; but the loss of health has probably more to do with the loss of both productivity and happiness than anything else.  Wouldn’t it be great if there were no such thing as bad health–no infectious, malicious microbes, no breakdowns in our DNA, and no wearing out of our organs?

Jesus demonstrated His dominance over illnesses several times.  He cured the blind, the deaf, lepers and the paralyzed.  Every vector of illness, He proved He could fix immediately.  He used no surgery, no medicines, just the power of His words.  The biblical explanation for illness is the existence of the curse.  What exactly is the curse?  The Bible doesn’t describe exactly how the curse works.  The result of the curse is that a creation that worked flawlessly now seems unbalanced (even though it is still complex and amazing)  The healing miracles of Jesus are physical demonstrations of a promise regarding Heaven and the New Earth.

No longer will there be any curse.  Revelation 22:3

This may seem like a superstitious, impossible dream; but if the creative genius that made all living things in the first place decides to put His original system or even a new system back in place, a system that is not “out of balance”, why should this be hard for Him?  Jesus demonstrated the ease with which He could do it.

The curse must run its course.  God does not promise anywhere that people with “enough faith” can avoid the effects of the curse today.  Freedom from the curse is a future thing.  Nor does God command that we not find ways to bring healing through medical means.  Direct, miraculous intervention by God to undo the impact of the curse requires more than prayer.  It requires a God approved purpose.  Often God can use the negative results of the curse, even illness, to accomplish a good purpose.  He did so with Paul in 2 Corinthians 12.

Wholeness of health, even to the point of the elimination of physical death is a part of God’s plans for the New Earth.  It is definitely something for which to look forward–especially when you are sick.

In Revelation 22, mention is made of the “Tree of Life”.  The leaves of the tree are for the “healing of the nations”.  What sort of healing could be required in a place without the curse?  The Garden of Eden had the Tree of Life as well.  Adam and Eve where permitted initially to eat from this tree.  There was no curse until they disobeyed God.  Something about the tree promoted the eternal sustenance of their bodies even then.  While that may remain true in the New Earth, there is no concern about its absence.  The phrase “yielding its fruit every month” is something similar to “always in stock”.

Many aspects of Heaven and the New Earth are hard to even imagine.  Permanent, flawless health is something we can grasp and hold on to.