by: Gloria Copeland
The Bible has a lot to say about God’s will concerning our life here on the earth—how we are to live and for how long. God has a good, long life planned for us. But without that revelation, when we reach 60 or 70, we may start winding down and getting ready to go.
God never meant for us to die young. It’s His will for us to live out the full number of our days. Traditionally, Psalms 90:10 has been quoted in regard to man’s life expectancy. It says: “The days of our years are threescore years and ten (seventy years)—or even, if by reason of strength, fourscore years (eighty years)…” (The Amplified Bible). But what most people don’t realize is that reading this verse alone is taking it out of context. A footnote to Psalms 90 in The Amplified Bible explains:
This psalm is credited to Moses, who is interceding with God to remove the curse which made it necessary for every Israelite over twenty years of age (when they rebelled against God at Kadesh-barnea) to die before reaching the promised land (Numbers 14:26-35). Moses says most of them are dying at seventy years of age. This number has often been mistaken as a set span of life for all mankind. It was not intended to refer to anyone except those Israelites under the curse during that particular forty years. Seventy years never has been the average span of life for humanity. When Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes, had reached 130 years (Genesis 47:9), he complained that he had not attained to the years of his immediate ancestors. In fact, Moses himself lived to be 120 years old, Aaron 123, Miriam several years older, and Joshua to 110 years of age. Note as well that in the Millennium a person dying at 100 will still be thought a child (Isaiah 65:20).
Here we learn that the Israelites who died at 70 were living under the curse caused by disobedience. According to Galatians 3:13, Jesus has redeemed us from the curse being made a curse for us. If we have made Jesus our Lord, freedom from all the conditions the curse causes belongs to us—that includes sickness, destruction and early death.
So don’t have the mindset that you should only live to be 70. What God actually said about man’s lifespan is found in Genesis 6:3: “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.”
Think about it. That means at 60 you are just middle-aged. That’s not the time to start slowing down. Instead stand on this scripture and others like Psalms 103:2-5: “Bless the Lord…who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction…who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Be determined to enjoy to the fullest the many productive years the Lord has promised you.
