I’m always amazed at how long some people lived back before the flood. From Adam to Noah, 900 years seemed like a normal lifespan. We don’t know how many other people lived to be 900 during this time, but its very possible that these mentioned in the Bible stories were not the only ones who enjoyed such a long life.
What could we do if we lived 900 years today? We could be successful at 10 plus careers! We all have talents that we have that we have not had time to develop. I love to dance but never had the opportunity to take dance classes while I was young. But if I lived to 900, I could start professional dance classes at 300 and dance for 100 years until I was 400!
If we lived for 900 years we would know our grandchildren for up to 20 generations! Today we live about a tenth of that time, and the best we can hope for is to know our great grandchildren or if we are really fortunate, possibly some of our great-great grand children.
We see the life span of man start to dramatically decrease after the flood. Shem, Noah’s son lived to 600 while Arpachshad, his son loved only around 400 years and by the end of Genesis the life span of those mentioned ends with Abraham living only 175 years. What happened during the flood that caused the life span to continually decrease? Because the people had become so wicked prior to the flood, did God just decide that 900 years in this sin cursed world was too long and he needed to take us home sooner for our own good?
I find it interesting that after the flood God told Noah that is was now okay for them to start eating meat and that this also coincided with the time the lifespan began to decrease. Yet, obviously, their longevity wasn’t solely the vegetative diet, otherwise vegans would live to be 900 today. Some Bible scholars believe it was probably rather a change In genetics that caused the decreased life span since the genetic pool had been decreased down to six people after the flood.
While we may live on earth roughly only 70, 80 or 90 years today; we are in reality eternal beings. Our life doesn’t end when we earthly body dies. Our spirits are eternal. I’m thankful that God has made a way for us to live that eternal life with Him by sending His son to die for ours sins.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
Duking Out Life 