Wording of this Handout:
These days, in countries like New Zealand, most people don't live past 80 years old. Anyone who gets to 90 is given special treatment, and if someone reaches 100 they quite often turn up on a TV interview! Old age makes you famous!
But in some countries in the world today, people are lucky to reach 50 years old.
Has it always been like this?
No. In the past, people used to live more than eight hundred years.
The Bible says a man called Methuselah (Meth - 00 - see lah) lived nine hundred and sixty nine years before he died.
The first man, Adam, was created by God. He was supposed to live for ever, but he disobeyed God, and from that moment Adam started to grow old and finally he died. (That is what happens to everyone today too, because we all sin, sometimes).
Here are some of the names from the first book of the Bible (Genesis), with how tong these people lived for:
Adam 930
Seth 912
Enos 905
Cainan 910
Mahalaleel 895
Jared 962
Methuselah 969
Noah 950
It is quite possible that people were bigger and stronger and healthier in those days, since they lived so long, but nobody knows except God. (If only they'd had a camera!)
Why don't people live this long today? Because the whole world has changed since Noah's time, and ever since then most people have lived less than 100 years.
Life is short - make the most of it while you have it.