Listen to the exasperated, depressed Job’s thoughts on the matter…
Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with Thee, Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
(Job 14:5)
Job believes God has his days numbered, that the Lord has set a countdown timer to tick down to the moment when He will take His servant’s life. Is that true? Are his days really so determined that even the number of his months are tallied, and cannot be altered? Is it true that God has appointed the boundary of our life and made it so that we cannot live past that point? Job thinks so.
I don’t know if Job is right, though. It wouldn’t be the first time someone in this book had a misconception about God. Certainly it’s true that God knows how much time we have left to live. He can see and know all things, past, present, and future. But God knowing a thing and directly affecting a thing are two different things. God has extended the lives of people who would have otherwise dies (King Hezekiah for a famous example, as well as the times when someone was raised from the dead to continue living for a time).
Those examples don’t imply, however, that God has put a limit on the number of days any given person is going to be allowed to live. And wouldn’t such a doctrine also also imply that we are guaranteed to live up to that divinely-designated point? That doesn’t pass the Biblical smell test. We have free will and if we choose to act foolishly, we can expect to die young. On the other hand, if we are wise, we will live longer. Solomon says that (Proverbs 9:11) and it directly contradicts the notion that God locks us in without us having any say in the matter.
~Matthew