Why don’t people live as long as Noah?

Question: I’m in 7th grade and in my Sunday school group they asked us to find out where God changed how long you could live from 9 hundred and something to 1 hundred and something and I looked and looked and could not find it. I was wondering if you may know by any chance.

Answer: It was apparently a gradual thing, to some extent. After the flood it says Noah lived to be 950 years old (Genesis 9:29). But his son Shem lived to 600, his son lived 438 years, his son 433 years, his son 464, his son 239, his son 237, his son 230, his son 148, and his son, Abraham’s dad, lived to be 205 Genesis 11). This suggests the possibility that there was some factor in the environment after the flood that was different than before the flood (UV rays stronger, certain plants with certain enzymes no longer available, etc.) or that a combination of several factors worked to diminish how long someone could live. But the Bible does not specifically mention why people were no longer living to be so old. It is one of the mysteries of God that he hasn’t chosen to reveal.