Genesis 6:3 – 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
Why all the sudden only 120 years?
I believe there are at least two easy answers to this question.
The first one being that 120 years or less is long enough for a man to be evil.
Genesis 6:5-7 – 5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”
Why was man so evil back then? One it appears that not only was man a sinner, but the supernatural got involved also.
Genesis 6:4 – 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
Chuck Missler does a great study of the Nephilim. They appeared to have somehow bread with the daughters of Eve and created an offspring of human. It is believed that these are the Giants we read about in other books of the Bible. Goliath was the most famous of them all, because of his battle with David. They were men of great strength and heroes among other men.
They were clearly evil though as they mention them only one verse before how wicked man had become on earth. That’s why it makes sense that the Son’s of God spoken of here were fallen angels.
Hitler in my book lived long enough. Stalin lived long enough. Could you imagine if these men lived longer?
Which brings us to the second thing I believe is an easy reason. It benefits man to face mortality at an earlier age.
The longer you have to face the mortality question, the longer you can put it off. Man is still bad about this even at a life expectancy of 75 years. It must have been really hard for Noah to witness to people back when they lived to be 900 that they needed God when they didn’t have Him. Holy Spirit wasn’t there the same way we have Him now, and some of them were offspring from fallen angels or fallen creatures that weren’t from earth that came from the Heavens.
Man only has up to 120 years. Spiritually that is a good thing. With that knowledge and how quickly 75 years comes to us, you would think that more humans would be inquisitive.
Why aren’t they? It’s spiritual, we are spiritual beings.
Stop thinking with the flesh and start thinking with the spirit. Now make it the Holy Spirit!