Bible Problem: Does Genesis 6:3 Say That God Limited Man’s Life to 120 Years?
Problem:
In Genesis 6:3 we read:
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.
If God said that people could live for up to 120 years why are there Biblical figures who lived much longer than that, even after this statement from God?
Noah lived to be 950 years old!
A French woman lived to be 122 years old and she died in 1997!
Solution:
God never said that people would live up to 120 years old.
Genesis 6:3 does not refer to the life span of human beings. God was stating that His judgment would come in 120 years after His initial warning to Noah. The 120 years was a countdown to judgement. And it did come 120 years later as the Flood.
1 Peter 3:20 confirms the waiting period until the Flood:
“God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”
Psalm 90:10 shows us that the average life span of a modern human being is about 70 to 80 years old. 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.”