Your Life Expectancy...Any Ideas?
Psalms 91:14-16, (King James Version) says, Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation. The life expectancy of a group of people, race and nationals has been severally defined. Life expectancy is the expected (in the statistical sense) number of years of life remaining at a given age. Bands have been given as to the expected number of years that people under consideration are expected to spend more upon the face of the earth. It gives an idea of how long people are expected to be here for. The question however is what exactly is the life expectancy of a child of the nation or kingdom of heaven.
At the beginning of the release of man upon the face of the earth, it appears the intention of God was that man should live on the earth forever. Genesis 2:16-17 says, And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Then in Genesis 3:22-23, we read, And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
From the passages above, the only tree that man was not supposed to eat was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it appears from the passages above that if man had complied with the intention of God, man one day would have eaten of the tree of life and would have lived forever. However man sinned and man started to die, so the first man died at 930 years! Subsequently a number of people were recorded dying at ages significantly high with a benchmark of the Lord's one day of 1000 years (2 Pet 3:8).
In Genesis 6:3, The LORD said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years and thereby limited the age of men to 120 years, which means by implication men are allowed only to be 120 years old. This was later reduced to between 70 and 80 according to Moses in Psalm 90:10, The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
The interesting point however is that shortly after the statement in Psalm 90:10 above, in Psalm 91:16, God spoke again through the mouth of David that God will (which was a definite statement) satisfy any one that loves him with long life. I checked and found out that long here means 'dealt with to have an extended life span than usual'. This therefore means long life starts after what people are used to. It means longer than whatever has been defined to be the extent of life of whatever classification is being used or one falls into! Now the point to also consider is that God said the extended life span must be satisfying to the one who loves God. I am yet to find a man who will say he is satisfied with an under-70 life! Based on previous knowledge and with the realization that society sees 70 to be a kind of benchmark in some quarters.
So the wisdom in all of these is that if a man loves God, his life expectancy is long, and he can determine how long he lives from whatever age they are now, because he must be satisfied. If 70 satisfies him, so be it, if it is 80, 90 or more the scripture provides for such living. John 14:15 says the proof of setting one’s love on God, is to keep His commandments, so keeping God’s commandments which is living by God’s word guarantees long life and increased life expectancy. Since all believers are all expected to love God and keep His commandments, the life expectancy of a christian is not such as is determined by the race or the earthly nation to which they belong but by the dictates of the of heaven which gives long life.
Are you despairing that you will die young? Are you battling a life-threatening situation, health condition? The promise of God is still long life; a life not bounded by normal indices, a life extended beyond the normal, if you are a child of God, you need to claim your inheritance and if you are yet to be saved, then you need to give your life to Christ and start to obey the Lord to demonstrate your love for him. This is very necessary because the days of anyone yet to be on the side of God (not saved by consciously accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour) is scheduled to be short because he lives anyway under the wrath of God, and nothing except the mercy of God stops it from falling to killing him. John 3:36 says He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Hezekiah was supposed to die by the revelation of God, but he told God he was not yet satisfied and got an extension of 15 years! How did he get extended years? He had previously been qualified as one that loved God, that walked after his instructions. Isaiah 38:1-5 says, In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
God also directly instructed an honor to parents, and he gave the benefit of long life and wellness to all that heed this commandment, that obey, that demonstrates love to him.
We can indeed live long and expect a better life expectancy than we have imagined before now irrespective of what is threatening it!
Hallelujah!
At the beginning of the release of man upon the face of the earth, it appears the intention of God was that man should live on the earth forever. Genesis 2:16-17 says, And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Then in Genesis 3:22-23, we read, And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
From the passages above, the only tree that man was not supposed to eat was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it appears from the passages above that if man had complied with the intention of God, man one day would have eaten of the tree of life and would have lived forever. However man sinned and man started to die, so the first man died at 930 years! Subsequently a number of people were recorded dying at ages significantly high with a benchmark of the Lord's one day of 1000 years (2 Pet 3:8).
In Genesis 6:3, The LORD said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years and thereby limited the age of men to 120 years, which means by implication men are allowed only to be 120 years old. This was later reduced to between 70 and 80 according to Moses in Psalm 90:10, The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
The interesting point however is that shortly after the statement in Psalm 90:10 above, in Psalm 91:16, God spoke again through the mouth of David that God will (which was a definite statement) satisfy any one that loves him with long life. I checked and found out that long here means 'dealt with to have an extended life span than usual'. This therefore means long life starts after what people are used to. It means longer than whatever has been defined to be the extent of life of whatever classification is being used or one falls into! Now the point to also consider is that God said the extended life span must be satisfying to the one who loves God. I am yet to find a man who will say he is satisfied with an under-70 life! Based on previous knowledge and with the realization that society sees 70 to be a kind of benchmark in some quarters.
So the wisdom in all of these is that if a man loves God, his life expectancy is long, and he can determine how long he lives from whatever age they are now, because he must be satisfied. If 70 satisfies him, so be it, if it is 80, 90 or more the scripture provides for such living. John 14:15 says the proof of setting one’s love on God, is to keep His commandments, so keeping God’s commandments which is living by God’s word guarantees long life and increased life expectancy. Since all believers are all expected to love God and keep His commandments, the life expectancy of a christian is not such as is determined by the race or the earthly nation to which they belong but by the dictates of the of heaven which gives long life.
Are you despairing that you will die young? Are you battling a life-threatening situation, health condition? The promise of God is still long life; a life not bounded by normal indices, a life extended beyond the normal, if you are a child of God, you need to claim your inheritance and if you are yet to be saved, then you need to give your life to Christ and start to obey the Lord to demonstrate your love for him. This is very necessary because the days of anyone yet to be on the side of God (not saved by consciously accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour) is scheduled to be short because he lives anyway under the wrath of God, and nothing except the mercy of God stops it from falling to killing him. John 3:36 says He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Hezekiah was supposed to die by the revelation of God, but he told God he was not yet satisfied and got an extension of 15 years! How did he get extended years? He had previously been qualified as one that loved God, that walked after his instructions. Isaiah 38:1-5 says, In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
God also directly instructed an honor to parents, and he gave the benefit of long life and wellness to all that heed this commandment, that obey, that demonstrates love to him.
We can indeed live long and expect a better life expectancy than we have imagined before now irrespective of what is threatening it!
Hallelujah!
