Genesis 6:3 KJV — 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.
This verse is where God makes a covenant with man, granting him a minimum of 120 years of life.
This verse follows the genealogy of Genesis 5 which lists people living for many hundreds of years, including Methuselah who lived for 969 years.
This verse is an expression of God’s grace. He is so good that despite man’s wickedness, He is establishing the provision for man’s longevity on the earth through placing a minimum lifespan of 120 years.
However: what about Moses?
Specifically, Moses – who lived to 120 years – writing in Psalm 90:10 about man’s days being 70 or 80 years.
The answer is quite simple when you understand the difference between law and grace.
Roughly speaking, the story of humanity can be broken down into
- 2000 years of Grace (Adam to Moses)
- 2000 years of Law (Moses to Jesus)
- 2000+ years of Grace (Jesus)
The covenants God made under Grace precede and supersede the covenants made under the time of the Law.
And when you see in Galatians 3:24-27 that the Law was simply a schoolmaster, designed to bring us unto Jesus, you can see the statement about 70 or 80 years old was simply a temporary placeholder that is superseded by the covenant we have in Jesus.
All this to say that the question of Moses writing about 70 or 80 years, when he himself lived to 120 years, isn’t a contradiction in Scripture, but a collaboration of Scripture.
It’s a moment of tension, like the burning bush, where two things that don’t make sense are an invitation to enter into the revelation of Truth that exists outside the limits of your understanding.