Walking With Christ

Genesis 5:21
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.

Enoch is an extremely important figure in the bible. He has the distinction of being one of only two people said to have “walked with God”, the other being Noah. He also has the distinction of being one of only two people who never died. In verse 24 we see that God took him.

Corruption had really taken hold of the earth during the life of Enoch, yet he remained faithful to God. He could look around him and see the decay. Enoch knew that the world had to be set right. He also had to know that only God had the power to make that happen.

Methuselah, Enoch’s son, is probably best known for being the oldest recorded person in history at 969 years. His name comes from two root Hebrew words: mat (meaning “man”) and salah (meaning “to send” or “to bring”). The name Methuselah is usually translated as “his death shall bring”.

In Genesis 5 we read that Methuselah was 187 when he had Lamech, Lamech was 182 when he had Noah, and Noah was 600 when the flood began.

187 + 182 + 600 = 969.

Methuselah died just before the great flood wiped out all but the tiny remnant of humanity that God saved from destruction.

His long life gives us a great insight into the nature of our creator because the name Methuselah was given prophetically, and his extraordinarily long life was God staying His hand until the last possible moment. He wants to give everyone as much time as possible to return to Him.