Why people do not live 900 years today?

Question:

Why is there such a great difference between the ages of the first people, for example, it is said that Adam lived 900 years and the following generations, like Isaac, who lived only 180 and not to mention the people of nowadays, that very few get to or more than 100 years?

The story about the second day of Creation says:

Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. (Genesis 1:6-8)(NASB)

So, according to this narrative, there was an expanse of water above heaven, something like the very thin layer of ozone that protects us from space radiation now.

In the story about the Flood waters are called “floodgates of the sky” and they together with the deep waters flooded the whole earth:

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:11-12)(NASB)

By the way, here it is also first mentioned the fall of rain on earth. You will ask then how plants were watered up to that time? Here is the answer:

Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. (Genesis 2:5-6)(NASB)

That is why, because until then there had not been such a phenomenon, sinful people of Noah’s time did not believe that God could not punish them that way, they did not believe that there might be rain. When talking about how it will be at His coming, Lord Jesus said:

And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. (The Gospel of Luke 17:26-27)(NASB)

Be careful, dear reader, do not ignore the reality of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, repent and live holy in the midst of this “perverse nation,” as the Savior said.

So, during the Flood, the layer of water that was above the heaven, or atmosphere, fell onto earth and only that thin ozone layer remained on earth to protect us from radiation, which obviously doesn’t do it as well as it was before the flood. This is one of the reasons why people do not live so long lives.

God, however, decided to shorten the days of human life even before the Flood and the wickedness of men because, as we find reported:

Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:1-3)(NASB)

I know someone who though he is a servant of the church is concerned more about living a longer life on earth than about preaching the eternal life that is in Christ Jesus. He has as a purpose to get over the age of 100 years and makes great efforts for it. I do not know if this is really useful. If someone succeeds in great efforts to overcome the age of 100 years, how is it compared to eternity – a steam, showing a little and then disappears… God help us all to believe in Jesus to inherit eternal life and to strive for the things from above.

Translated by Felicia Rotaru