Bible Question: During the OT ERA many people lived over 1oo years , but due to their disobedience to the Lord's commands God shortened the life span to 3 scores plus 10[70].Does this mean that God has relented because we are now more obedience? |
Bible Answer: Dear FytRobert, A lot of principles in Scripture may seem to have a mathematical correlation, but I think that that is sometimes a bias our mind imposes on the language. Certainly causal connections exist, but I think that they are far more complicated than we are able to grasp. Furthermore, there is always a possibility that our logic will break down going from the general (what we see in Scripture) to the specific (what we see around us). If we don't have all of the variables in a circumstance, one of those missing variables might throw the whole thing into question. Consequently, we frequently see "innocent" and "righteous" people die at an early age; we see old reprobates passing the century mark; and we see a whole mixture of life spans with no rhyme or reason relative to the person's moral character. No man lives his life out in an isolated way. As we have pointed out frequently on the forum, God is fully in charge of every single molecule in the universe. However, we are not told on what basis He chooses to do things. The particulars are simply the secret/hidden things of God (Deuteronomy 29:29). We see this very clearly in Scripture when you think about how often the answer to "why" is given. The wisdom books, for example, never answer the why question. I think that there are several possible reasons for this: (1) we do not have nor were made with the mental capacity to understand the answer -- we are dealing with God things here, after all; (2) the answer is none of our business -- clear from the Deuteronomy 29:29 passage I cited above; and (3) we would reject the answer -- how often do people ask "Why oh why" but are not really wanting an answer. So drawing a clear causal connection between human obedience (which we know from the Word is growing worse everywhere) to human lifespans (which experientially is increasing in length), would be very difficult, if not impossible, to do. However, I would suggest that you think of shortened lifespans as an act of mercy by God. We shudder to think what would have happened had our ancestors eaten from the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-24). God was very merciful to draw human life to close. Furthermore, we know that the believers death is a desirable thing (Psalm 116:15). I can barely wait to be in His presence, entirely free of sin! I hope that some of the above was food for thought. In Him, Doc |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Bible general Archive 4 | Author | ||
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DocTrinsograce | ||
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peadar oceallaigh | ||
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pepe45 | ||
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agood6faight | ||
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oldsargesplane | ||
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DLH_blessed | ||
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DLH_blessed | ||
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DLH_blessed | ||
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DLH_blessed | ||
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FytRobert | ||
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DocTrinsograce |