Sweat Of Thy Brow

Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Psalms 90:10 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.

Ever since the Fall, we have been trying to overcome the death sentence that was given. We will fail at that and I think most people realize it so the alternative is to try and delay it as long as possible. At one point, long life was really long with 969 years being the greatest age ever achieved. Then God lowered the possibility to 120 years or as some think there were 120 years before the flood and then ages started decreasing. (Genesis 6:3) Jacob lived to be 130, but 120 may have been an average just as we see in Psalms 90. Even in David's time, the average was 70 though by reason of strength you might make it to 80. Obviously, not everyone made it to 70 because of war, disease, murder and such. Some lived longer, but in the end, the average was 70-80.

Medical science was not very advanced until many centuries after David and even then many died of various epidemics and numerous wars. The 2oth Century saw marvelous achievements in medical science. We have a vast array of labor-saving devices to the point of we once were paid to exercise by working to be paid and now most of us work to pay for our exercise at the club. In fact, the mental stress we put on ourselves and the massive debt we accrue puts us in constant fear of losing it all and killing us by MIs caused by that fear. We were meant to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, not the furrow of the brow causing us to enter the furrow we call a grave at much earlier ages than 70.

So with all the advancement of medical science and science in general have we extended the average age of man? Not really, if you look at the stats in the link below. The world average is actually barely over 67. True some countries squeak a tad past 80, but so many are far less that the world average for men is 65 and women 69.5.

Before ladies started entering the workforce and developing the bad habits of men they used to average living 7 years longer than men and now 4.5. I suspect as we go on that may shrink some more. Ironically, the US with its medical marvels is 38 on the list, but we are right in the 70-80 range. Guess we are not getting the bang for the buck we wished we would have gotten.

So, while we have some centenarians and centenarian-plus folks around the globe, we are still stuck on a 70-80 cycle. Someday, with much surgery and replacement parts, we may get a VIP to live to 150 or so, but that rarity will still not get us over the hump.

Indeed, some of that age decrease has most likely come from tampering with our foods to try and make farming more productive and overcome the pests and thorns that hamper production. Again, technology had removed the sweat of the brow for most of farming and animal husbandry, but that furrow of the brow thing is still more deadly.

Maybe we should have shunned technology for many things so we still could exercise and earn at the same time rather than having to work to pay for it and take more of our time to do it. We will one day escape the curse in the new Heaven and new earth with a bit of reprieve in the Millennium where someone dying at 100 will be considered a child. (Isa 65:20) Until then make your 70-80 count and be sure you receive Christ and are saved early because you may leave long before 80. Maranatha!

Average Life Span Expectancy Statistics

https://www.disabled-world.com/calculators-charts/life-expectancy-statistics.php