120 Years Prophecy of Genesis 6:3.

Jeff Unsworth
 

Gen 6:3  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. 
 

An hundred and twenty, מֵאָה עֶשְׂרִים - meah 'esserim).
Hebrew spelling: Ayin- Shin- Resh- Yod- Mem.  – Mem- Aleph- He.

There are different interpretations of this verse.
Some believe that the hundred and twenty years is the life span of man cut down after the flood.
However, this does not stand up to scripture. Man continued to live longer than this for a while after the flood.
Noah lived to be 950 years. As did many others.

Shem

600

Genesis 11:10–11

Arphaxad

438

Genesis 11:12–13

Shelah

433

Genesis 11:14–15

Eber

464

Genesis 11:16–17

Peleg

239

Genesis 11:18–19

Reu

239

Genesis 11:20–21

Serug

230

Genesis 11:22–23

Nahor

148

Genesis 11:24–25

Terah

205

Genesis 11:32

Abraham

175

Genesis 25:7

However, as time went on.  man lived in a different system after the canopy of water that was above the earth fell. Men were then living in a world under the sun and the ultra violet light affected his life span.
In Psalm 90, God tells us how eventually man’s general life span would decrease.
 

Psa 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. 

In fact the one hundred and twenty years was the time given by God for Noah to preach righteousness before the flood came.
The time was a warning till the time the Holy Spirit stopped striving with man.

Gen 6:3  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. 
 

At the end of the hundred and twenty years, the flood came. This was God’s wrath and judgement on an evil and wicked generation.

The Jews teach cyclical prophecy. If you want to know what is to happen in the future, look at what happened in the past.

Genesis 6:3 is a prophecy of what will happen in the end times.

Jesus spoke of the end days and told what would come about.

In Matthew 24:37-39 Jesus said,

Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe (Noah) were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 

Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 

Mat 24:39  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 

God has told us what will happen in these last days. The spirit of iniquity is already at work. One day the Holy Spirit will be removed from the earth and then the man of Perdition, the man of lawlessness, will appear.
Then shall the flood of God’s wrath will be poured out on a sinful and wicked generation.
What happened then, in the days of Noah, will happen again. However, not with a flood. For God has promised that He would never flood the earth again.
 

Gen 9:11  And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 
Gen 9:12  And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 
Gen 9:13  I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 
Gen 9:14  And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 

The Holy Spirit is the withholder, He who letteth but one day will be taken out of the way.
 

2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan: This is the antichrist.

God has given man a time to repent. From the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, God has given a time of grace. He commands that all men repent and be saved from the wrath to come, by repenting of their sins and believing in the only mediator between man and God, Jesus Christ the Messiah.

The spirit of Noah is also in the world, the church, preaching righteousness to an evil generation.
God has given a hundred and twenty prophetic years for man to turn from his sinful ways to repent and believe the gospel.
Noah preached righteousness and called for men to enter the Ark, to escape judgement. So, the church is calling for men to enter the Ark, (which is Christ) to escape the wrath to come.

As Jesus told us, the Spirit of God strove with men before the flood. Wickedness became widespread.
This will happen more and more in the last days preceding the second coming of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is striving with men but this striving will be removed sometime in the future and lawlessness will increase.

So, what are the hundred and twenty years?
Well we know it is not literal, because it has already been over 2000 years since the death and resurrection of Christ.
This figure is of course, prophetic. God is a God of perfect timing.

God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh.
A day in the sight of God is as a thousand years.
 

2Pe 3:8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 
For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night.
Psalm 90:4

This world is on the eve of six thousand years since creation and the Millennial reign of Christ will be one thousand years.
2021 is the Hebrew year 5781.

The interesting thing is the Jubilee years in Judaism. The year following the forty ninth year is a Jubilee year. Forty nine plus one equals 50.

Is it possible that what God is telling us here, is that 120 Jubilees is the time that God has given for men to repent and turn to Him?

120 years X 50 years = 6000 years.
 

Matthew 16:3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

Mathew 24: 32,33 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

We may not know the day or the hour but we can recognise the times and seasons.

Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
 

It will be as it was in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:36‑42). Noah was apparently told that the flood was coming 120 years before it occurred (Genesis 6:3). Then, when the ark was finished he was given only seven days advance notice that it was time to enter into his place of safety (Genesis 7:4) and then AFTER seven days, the wrath came.  Meanwhile, the rest of the world was oblivious of the need to take shelter.

God will give seven prophetic days notice. Daniel’s seventieth week.
In Daniel 9: 24, Gabriel says, “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city.” Almost all commentators agree that the seventy “sevens” should be understood as seventy “weeks” of years, in other words, a period of 490 years. These verses provide a sort of “clock” that gives an idea of when the Messiah would come and some of the events that would accompany His appearance.

At the end of that week, Christ will return and God’s wrath will be poured out.

Similarly, faithful servants of God facing an end‑time “flood” of war and terrors will receive a very short advance notice of when (and where and how) to seek refuge.  But God’s promise of protection applies only to those who are really watching — to those who are staying spiritually sober and alert, enduring in the way of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, etc., and truly serving God in building up (rather than tearing down) relationships within His Church, the modern‑day “ark” that must be built (Malachi 3:16‑18; Ezekiel 14:12‑20).

Just to finish off, let us return to the word one hundred and twenty. In Hebrew it is twenty and one hundred.

מֵאָה עֶשְׂרִים

Does this number point to the end times?
Remember, Hebrew is written right to left.
We have seen that something will happen before the second coming of Christ and the gathering of the church at the Rapture..
The antichrist will come.
 

2Th 2:1  Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 
2Th 2:2  That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 

There is an interesting fact in the word Twenty and Hundred in the numerical value of the letters.

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Rev 13:18  Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. 

Just in the same way that 50 years is a Jubilee. So 120 Jubilees amount to 6000 years.

 

Coincidence???

Well! there are many such co incidences in the bible, if indeed, that’s what they are.

This is not the only place that the word hundred and twenty comes into play.

We read in the book of  Deu 34:7  And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 
Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land because of disobedience. This was an end of one era and the beginning of a new one.

Another time a hundred and twenty people gathered in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came.
This was an end to the old and a new beginning for the church of Christ.

Another new beginning was begun a hundred and twenty miles from Jerusalem in Caesarea, where Cornelius and the first Gentiles were to join the church.

The mileage from Nazareth to Jerusalem is approximately hundred and twenty miles. The journey that Jesus took, to redeem man from sin. The end of an old life and the beginning of a new birth.

The Circle is unique amongst all two-dimensional objects in that it, and it alone, is infinitely symmetric. Any two-dimensional figure has a degree of symmetry that can be measured by its behaviour under rotation. An equilateral triangle, when rotated about its center, returns to its original orientation only when the angle is a multiple of 120 degrees, or one third of the Circle. It has, therefore, a three-fold symmetry.
One circle, three equal parts.

Quote from an internet source:

Most objects are not symmetric at all, and of all that are symmetric, the degree of symmetry is always finite, except in the unique case of the Circle which can be rotated through any angle with no variation in form. It is, therefore, a natural analog of the relation between God, "with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning", and everything else in his creation. It is He, and He alone that is infinite and unchanging, as it is written, "For I am the LORD, I change not," and again, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and forever." Thus, the spiritual significance of the Circle as the most excellent symbol of things divine is impossible to miss and to behold "the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" to be supernaturally structured on this eternal pattern strikes the mind that has faith to see as nothing less than an immutable miracle, endlessly ablaze.

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