Methuselah

Noah is one of the heroes of faith from the Word of God. He was born and lived during one of the most corrupt times on the face of the earth, yet lived a righteous life before the Lord. 

Genesis 6:1-8:
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them. 2That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3And 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. 4There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. 5And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth: both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

In these verses of scripture we are introduced to Noah. His name means “rest” or “comfort.” Chapter 5 tells us about Noah’s lineage; his great-grandfather, his grandfather, and his father.

Genesis 5:21-28:
And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: 22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years; 24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. 25And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: 26And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughter: 27And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. 28And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son. 29And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.

Notice, it said of Noah that he “shall comfort us”. The name Noah literally means “comfort.”
In Noah’s day the earth was corrupt. In fact, chapter six explains that the entire earth was corrupt and only Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives—just eight people were living for the Lord.
If you think it is hard to live for the Lord today, I want you to put yourself in Noah’s day and realize that Noah was swimming upstream. The whole society—everything around him was living in opposition to the Lord. About the time you think its tough in your life because you’re one of the few Christians in your organization and you’re glad for church whenever church roles around on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, or mid-week, or Friday for prayer, just to tank up on some strength to get back to work, think about Noah. There was no church for Noah to attend, there were no prayer meetings for Noah to go to because there were no other Christians. Any fellowship Noah had was with his family. Just think of the opposition he must have faced. I think of a verse of scripture talking about Jesus in Isaiah. It said that when He was born He set His face like flint. There comes a time in our lives when we have to stand against opposition and set our face like flint and realize that no matter what the world does, no matter which way the opposition goes, we’re going to serve God. We must make up our mind that “As for me and my house, we’re going to serve the Lord.” Noah had to be one of the greatest testimonies of all time. He set his face against the crowd. Can you imagine if you were the only believer on the face of the earth? Entertainment today is bad enough. We are bombarded with the world’s viewpoint, we’re bombarded with New Age, we’re bombarded with anti-God, anti-Jesus, anti-Christian attitudes. It’s so good to have a refuge we can go to—a church where we can worship the Lord, be strengthened by His Word and fellowship with other believers.

Genesis 5:8 says again, But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

This is the first time grace is mentioned in the Bible. Notice, Noah received God’s grace and served God; he didn’t use it as a license to sin. Grace was sufficient in Noah’s day. When the whole world was living in sin, Noah and his family were living righteously. Noah was striving every day to live for the Lord. For many, many years he preached and not one person accepted the Lord. Is it possible that “where sin abounds grace does much more abound”? The answer is “yes.” Even if the whole world is in sin, grace can match it and surpass it. Noah was living for the Lord.
Again, Noah’s name means “comfort” and he was the great-grandson of Enoch, the grandson of Methuselah, and the son of Lamech.

Genesis 5:21-24:
And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: 22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: 23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years; 24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

When we think of Enoch, we think of the first man who was raptured in the Bible. Most people think that Enoch walked with God all of his life, but I want you to notice that something happened at the birth of Methuselah that caused Enoch to walk with God. Apparently, before that time, he had not walked with God. But after Methuselah was born, Enoch did walk with God.

Genesis 5:22:
And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah…

The name Methuselah explains why Enoch began to walk with God after the birth of Methuselah. Every name had a meaning. Just as the name Noah meant, “comfort,” indicating God was going to bring comfort to the earth through a man named Noah, so the name “Methuselah” is significant. Methuselah has an interesting meaning. This name means, “when he dies, it shall fall.” If you’ll trace it out, you’ll find out the flood occurred the same year Methuselah died. As long as Methuselah was alive, he was a living legacy to the faithfulness and longsuffering of God. He is the longest living person in the Bible. His name was a symbol of the grace, mercy and long-suffering of God. As long as Methuselah was around, “it” (the flood) was not going to come. During the time Noah was alive and preaching, Methuselah was around and every time somebody spoke the name Methuselah they would probably say, “That’s a funny name—‘when he dies it shall fall.’ What’s going to fall?” Methuselah knew what was going to fall because his father had seen a vision of it. He knew that destruction was coming to the earth.

Jude 14-15:
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these (false prophets), saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Enoch spoke about the day of the coming tribulation, the rise of false prophets, the spreading of sin and unrighteousness throughout the whole earth, and then prophesied that the Lord would come to end it all with ten thousands of saints. Enoch really had a vision of two things: he had a vision of a destruction where the earth was destroyed by water and he had another vision where the earth would be destroyed thousands of years later by fire; this is called the “baptism of fire” (Matthew 3:11-12).
Enoch saw two events where the Lord was going to send judgment upon the earth and unbelievers would be killed.  In the first case, through the flood all unbelievers were killed and the only believers (Noah and his family) were preserved on the earth. He saw another event that paralleled the flood and it would occur thousands of years later; He saw the Lord coming back with ten thousands of saints.
Isn’t it interesting what Jesus said in Matthew 24, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.” Jesus paralleled the two events that Enoch had a vision about. Enoch had seen the first deluge in the vision and named his son after that deluge. And God told him, “the year your son dies, this deluge shall come.” Again, the name Methusaleh means, “when he dies, it shall fall.”

Just as his name prophesied for so many years, the year Methuselah died, the flood came.

Bob Yandian
Host of Real Answers Television Broadcast
Pastor of Grace Church