At what point in the Bible did God begin limiting how long man would live?

Sincerely,
Time’s Running Out

Dear Time’s Running Out,

The shortening of human life began to happen after the Flood, but there is no specific answer as to why God allowed the age of man to deteriorate down to seventy to eighty years (Ps 90:10) from the hundreds of years that people lived during the pre-Flood era.  However, many creation scientists attribute the drop to genetic degradation.  As mankind’s genetic pool has deteriorated from the perfect specimens of Adam and Eve, the length of our lives has suffered.  At least, that is one theory.

Think of it this way, Adam and Eve were the most healthy, well-made humans ever.  They were genetic royalty!  Everyone since them has been just a little less perfect.  That is the way genetics work.  Slowly over time, genetic mutations (like hemophilia, Down’s Syndrome, etc.) have crept into the genetic code of mankind, and other genetic traits have been lost.  This slow process of erosion has brought us to the point where we are today.  Our bodies are genetically inferior to the earlier generations of mankind, and consequently, can’t survive as long.  Another factor may simply be that the post-Flood world is harsher than the pre-Flood world, and that has added to our shortened lifespans.

My question tonight is coming from the Old Testament in Genesis.  I understand and have read that Adam was the first being created, and, of course, his helper, Eve, was created from his rib.  They came to know each other, and Eve conceived her firstborn, Cain, but Cain slew his brother, Abel, and was exiled from his home into the land of Nod by God for his sin, according to Gen 4:16-17, and Cain knew his wife, and she conceived.  My question: where did this female that Cain married come from?  Gen 4:17 states that Cain knew his wife.  That word ‘knew’ – does that mean intercourse, or does it mean that he knew her because she was in the Adamic family bloodline, or perhaps both?  In Gen 5:4, it reads that Adam did have other children, but it was after the birth of Seth, and I am also looking at the fact that there were timeframes (such as the eight hundred years), but Cain's wife was not mentioned, neither was her name. Please help me in this study.

Sincerely,
Mystery Woman

Dear Mystery Woman,

Eve is the mother of all living (Gen 3:20).  In the beginning, there were only Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve had multiple children (Gen 5:3-4).  In the genealogies of Genesis 5, none of the daughters are named – only the sons.  This is because Jewish genealogies (and Genesis is a Jewish book) follow the male lineage – we never know the dates or names of the daughters that are born.  Cain was Adam’s firstborn son (Gen 4:1).  When Cain went to find a wife, the only logical person he could marry would be his sister.  Therefore, Cain’s wife was also his sister (Gen 4:17).  It is morally repugnant in today’s society for someone to marry his sister, but it wasn’t that way in the beginning.  In the beginning, they had no other choice.  God told the family of Adam to “go forth and multiply” (Gen 1:28).  When Adam’s sons and daughters intermarried, they fulfilled God’s command.

Today we worry about children having deformities if the mother and father are too closely related.  This is because of genetic mutations and defects in our DNA.  Adam and Eve wouldn’t have had these defects.  When God made Adam and Eve, they were genetically perfect, and their descendants wouldn’t have had to worry about biological deformities.  God didn’t prohibit close intermarriage until almost 2,500 years after Adam and Eve (Lev 18:9-17); it took that long for genetic mutations to increase enough to become a real issue.

So the conclusion is… Cain married his sister.

In Genesis 22, Abraham goes to sacrifice Isaac.  The "do not kill" commandment was not established until later, but there must have been a moral law in effect during Abraham's time.  How could Abraham think it was okay to sacrifice his son, Isaac?  How could God ask Abraham to, and by asking Abraham to, violate God's own moral law?  How was any of it okay?  Why should we esteem Abraham as someone who did what was right?  I have struggled with this issue for quite some time.  Thank you!

Sincerely,
Why Do That?

Dear Why Do That,

Abraham is held in honor because he did what God commanded even when it went against every desire of his heart and character.  “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17).  The most basic example of faith is to hear what God says and do it without wavering.  Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son is the epitome of faith.  That is why the Scriptures call Abraham the “father of the faithful” (Rom 4:16).

When Abraham took Isaac to be sacrificed, he trusted God completely.  God had promised Abraham that Isaac would be his legacy (Gen 17:19).  So when God told Abraham to kill Isaac… Abraham would have been very confused.  Rom 4:17-18 says that Abraham hoped and believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead.  Abraham trusted God to save his son’s life… he had total faith in God.  That is why Abraham is such a spectacular example of faith.

Abraham trusted that God would not command him to do anything that was sinful.  God knew that Abraham would never actually need to kill his son (God provided a alternative sacrifice at the last moment – Gen 22:11-13)… Abraham only knew that God wouldn’t lead him astray.

I have a family member that believes that we are descendants of Hebrews and who we know as Jesus is named Yashua, and God is Yah, but from reading the Bible’s Life Applications, it gives the definition of Jah (which is short for Jehovah).  What do I tell them?  They’re trying to say I’ve been misled by what I have been taught, but I need to know how to combat my faith in what I know about my personal Lord and Savior.

Sincerely,
Prefer To Remain Nameless

Dear Prefer To Remain Nameless,

Jesus’ name is ‘Yeshua’ in Hebrew, and in Greek it is ‘Haysoos’.  In Hebrew, God’s name is ‘Yahweh’, and sometimes it is shortened into ‘Yah’.  There is no contradiction between the Bible and what your family member told you.

The only incorrect statement they made was that christians are descendants of the Hebrews.  Christians are not descendants of the Jewish nation… they are the replacement for the Jewish nation.  Christians are the spiritual Israel (Rom 2:28-29); they have replaced the physical Israel.  Both Jew and Gentile are allowed into the kingdom of Christ – His church (Rom 9:22-24).

I've been reading through Proverbs recently, and I've noticed a repeating pattern that I don't understand.  It seems like there will be a verse, then several verses later another verse that reads almost identically (for example, Proverbs 20:10 and 20:23, Proverbs 20:8 and Proverbs 20:26, Proverbs 21:9 and 21:19).  At first, it seems like these should be bookends that group together a related set of thoughts, but the intervening verses don't seem to be very related to each other.  Is there some significance to this pattern?

Sincerely,
Proverbially Puzzled

Dear Proverbially Puzzled,

Proverbs is full of repetitive verses just like the ones you have mentioned.  The first nine chapters of Proverbs are absolutely saturated with that sort of repetition.  The most likely reason for this is that it is designed as a teaching aid.  The Old Testament was often memorized by the Israelite people (the printing press wasn’t invented until 1439), and the Proverbs and Psalms are especially well designed for memory work.

For example, Psalm 119 starts each verse with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the equivalent of having an A-to-Z poem.  The Psalms and Proverbs use assonance (words that make a rhythm), repetition, rhythm, and melody (many of the Psalms were meant to be accompanied by instruments) to help people memorize them.  The repetition you are seeing in Proverbs is most likely due to a God-designed structure to help ingrain these ideas into the mind of the reader.