Having To Admit I'm Old

For the past couple weeks I've been unable to blog. Something was blocking me and I was not sure what it was. Each time I thought about writing I couldn't go forward. Finally I came upon what I believe has been bothering me. Its that—this is hard to say—I'm having to admit that I'm . . . well, that I'm old !

For the past six months, ever since I turned 80 on the second day of October, I've struggled with a whole host of questions having to do with old age and the end of life on this planet. Its not that I'm afraid of death. I'm not. I'm actually more curious than afraid. I'm quite confident that God's judgment upon my sinful life has long ago been satisfied in my Lord Jesus' life, death and resurrection. And now I'm very interested in what comes after this life. What stands before me—on the "other side of the river"? What amazing reality awaits? And this time it won't merely be speculation.

OK, having gotten that out of the way, I'm still here. HERE! And I don't know for how long. And I'm, well yes, old! What does that mean?

There is no general agreement about the age at which a person becomes old. We commonly use calendar age to mark the threshold of old age and assume that a person my age is old. Back in the '30's when the social security act was established it was assumed that one didn't live very much longer than 65 here in America. So if you reached the age of 65 you wouldn't be drawing on your social security very long. You were old and death was near. But now, of course, that's all changed. Make it to 65 and you probably will make it to 80. Make it to 80 and statistically you'll make it past 90. And so forth. Right now the talk is that 120 is the upper limit. 

Strangely enough the culture from which I spring, and others as well, used to think that women aged more rapidly than men. Now we know that the opposite is true. We men die off and the women keep on. Check out any retirement or nursing home if you doubt it. But little by little that too is changing—at least for some men. In my own case, the doctors have repaired my heart with a number of bypasses and put in a new aortic valve that supposedly will keep on operating for more than a decade. So am I getting old? Is the number of complaints the way by which I am to mark old age? If so, I'm getting older day by day. This arthritis is quite painful at times. 

Enough speculation. Join me as I explore what the Bible has to say about old age. 

Before the great flood we read about some preposterous ages. People lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. 

• All the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. 
• All the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died. 
• All the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died. 
• All the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died. 
• Enoch was 65 when he fathered Methuselah. He lived for another 365 before God "took him". 
• All the days of Methuselah, Noah's grandpa, were 969 years, and he died (Gen. 5:27). No one has lived as long since then. 
• Noah lived for 500 years before he fathered Shem, Ham and Japheth. The text doesn't say how old Mrs. Noah was. It only goes on to say that "the earth was corrupt in God's sign and filled with violence" (Gen. 6:11). And God decided to make an end to all flesh—except for Noah and his family and all the living things that were preserved on the ark Noah built (Gen. 6:17-22). 

What changed? What was it about the flood that changed how long we now live? There has been much speculation about that among us Christians. What caused Moses to write what he did in Psalm 90? 

The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. - Psa 90:10 ESV

The site Creation.com discusses the question of living 900+ years before the flood and the fact that the race was reduced to eight people immediately after possibly being the partial explanation for such a radically shortened lifespan. The site concludes:

Recently, laboratory results based on an enzyme that is involved with the replication of the telomere, have caused much excitement. Modified human cell lines have divided many times past their limit. Some speculate that such manipulations could cause people to live to much longer ages, providing they do not succumb to disease or accident in the meantime. Aging is certain to be much more complex than these simplified discussions, based on preliminary findings, might lead us to think. However, the evidence so far strongly suggests that genetics plays a major part.

I'll pick this up, together with some more Biblical data next time. Join me—if you're not too old yet.

By Faith We Claim The Promises To Noah

We're looking at the Hebrews letter's list of men and women of faith. The purpose is to teach us that it is only by faith, that person to person trust, that we are able to please God. Today we come to Noah. 

By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith.—Hebrews 11:7 NRSV

"Warned by God about events as yet unseen . . ." What do you make of that phrase? The phrase reminds us that history is His story and that He is intimately involved in all that happens to us and to our world. When Paul was invited to address the Greek philosophers of Athens he emphasized the point that God made the world and continues to direct all that goes on within it.

“Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.  The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands,  nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.  From one ancestor[i] he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God[j] and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.  For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Acts 17:23-28—NRSV

Paul teaches us that we are like fish swimming in the ocean. For them saltwater is their natural habitat. In turn, on a much higher level, the Lord of heaven and earth continually gives all of us life and breath and all things. He is our natural habitat. Moreover He guides the destiny of nations, allotting each its period in history and the boundaries of the land in which they live. In Him we live. In Him we move. In Him we have our being.

But the Lord did not merely make the world and all in it for Himself. He longs to share it with us and to bring peace, joy and happiness to us who are created in His image (Gen. 1:26-30). He wants us to thank and praise Him in return. This is why He put us in charge of all that He has made. This blessing brings great joy to us both.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. —Gen. 1:28-30 NRSV

But what had happened in Noah's day? The whole world had gone after other gods. They worshipped themselves and the things that God had made instead of Him. They no longer walked in faith. This was the reason for the judgment of the flood.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. —Gen. 6:5-8 NRSV

Only Noah and his family found favor, because they walked in faith. In that faith Noah built the ark and waited patiently for the Lord's plans. What a significant encouragement for us all. Give yourself to the task assigned to you. In due time God's judgment will come upon the wicked unbelievers. We know not the day and hour. Nor did Noah. But for a hundred years he labored on. He did all that God commanded him. In the end he and his family were preserved. The promises given to them are ours to claim as well.

The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.

As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,

summer and winter, day and night,

shall not cease.” —Gen. 8:21-22 NRSV