For those statistically inclined, who might want to know what could be considered as the scriptural long life, the following truths of the Bible should be of help. I might as well address the famous “threescore and ten years” or “fourscore” years supposed Biblical prescription oft-quoted from the Psalms. It reads: “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” (Psalm 90:10). Over the years I’ve heard this verse quoted as God’s idea of long life today. I am sure you’ve heard it too! But is it true?
I did not plan to return to the subject of longevity and death when I signed off the column last time. But as the last week wore on, I kept getting the feeling that I was a wee bit facetious about a serious matter or isn’t that how issues of life and death are described? I sensed that those who, upon reading the headline might have expected a deeper Scriptural perspective on the subject were probably underserved. My sincere apologies.
We concluded last week that David Livingstone, the explorer, hit bull’s eye when he said: “I am immortal until my task is accomplished.” And that is simply the truth for those who have a revelation of their true position in Christ Jesus. I might as well just explain this perspective at its most basic. The Bible says we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for certain pre-assigned tasks. My favourite rendition of the relevant verse of the Bible is from the New Living Translation and it says: “…we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). The Bible also quoted God the Father as saying in Psalm 91:16: “With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.” The Hebrew root word translated “satisfy” here is sabea, and it connotes “enough”, or “suffice,” in addition to “satiate.” The combined effect of these two verses of scripture is that God has assigned each of us to certain tasks, equipped us for them and provided us enough “length of days” to accomplished them. That is the reason Livingstone could boldly make the assertion he was quoted as making. That is the reason; every child of God can make the same claim.
For those statistically inclined, who might want to know what could be considered as the scriptural long life, the following truths of the Bible should be of help. I might as well address the famous “threescore and ten years” or “fourscore” years supposed Biblical prescription oft-quoted from the Psalms. It reads: “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” (Psalm 90:10). Over the years I’ve heard this verse quoted as God’s idea of long life today. I am sure you’ve heard it too! But is it true?
The direct answer is “No”. If it were it wouldn’t have been said of Aaron: “And Aaron was an hundred and twenty and three years old when he died in mount Hor (Numbers 33:39). Nor would the Bible have recorded of Moses himself: “And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated “(Deuteronomy 34:7). And remember Miriam? She was believed to be the sister who “stood afar” watching what would happen to her baby brother, Moses as he laid helplessly in “the ark among the flags” in Exodus chapter 2. Yet, she outlived both Aaron and Moses.
More important however is the historical context of Moses’ declaration in Psalm 90. Studies have located it at shortly after God had pronounced judgement upon the rebellious children of Israel in the book of Numbers. He had told Moses pointedly: “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun… (Numbers 14:27-30). It was the curse of the Law foreshadowed at its deadliest, and Moses was simply echoing the status quo in his prayer recorded in this Psalm. It was a status quo limited to a season of unconscionable, mindless repudiation of God’s faithfulness and omnipotence, by a people who, above all else had tasted of both.
But the enemy had sold the lie for so long and so successfully that a vast majority of us Christians begin to wind down our activities from age 60, fully persuaded that it would take a miracle to go beyond the next 10 or 20. Yet 60 is but middle age! No, don’t laugh. It’s the truth of God’s word, if you’ll check out the sixth chapter of the book of Genesis. The Lord God, the Source of life, said in verse three: “And 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.” Yes, God’s life span floor for his children is 120 years, not 70 or 80. And if you consider the circumstance against which this floor was set, you’ll see that it was a big come-down, the result of the then on-going perversion.
You see, brethren, we need to renew our minds to the truth of Scripture, reject the lies of the enemy, no matter how long entrenched; so we can come into the fullness of our inheritance in God. That is what the likes of Evangelist Otis Clark, approaching 107; unbent, medication-free, clear-sighted enough to thread a needle, certified as having the heart of a 35-year-old, prove conclusively. And all it takes, says this man who still enjoys cooking his “own breakfast of steak and eggs or bacon and eggs…and make a pot of beef stew with garlic cloves, tomatoes and potatoes” is, “get on God’s side and stay there. No matter how many times you mess up, repent and stay on the winning side.”
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