Methuselah & The Longsuffering Grace of God

     From the beginning of this year, I've been using Ussher's Chronology as a help while working through the Old Testament. I know there are some controversies in the Kings sections, but for the most part it's been really helpful in making the text come alive and giving it all a place in history. Looking at the timeline, it's so cool to see how many people were all alive at the same time... you don't always catch that when just reading through standard "Enosh ben Seth ben Adam" type chronologies .

One of those exciting finds is in the first ten generations of humanity. In Genesis 5, we learn that Adam is Methuselah's 5th great grandfather. Based on their ages, Adam and Methuselah were both alive at the same time! I can hardly imagine my 5th great grandfather, Nathan Hunter, who was born in 1784 being alive at the same time as me. That would have made him 229 years old this year.

That's not to mention that the men in my family live an average of 70 years each. Adam died at 930 years old... his son Seth died at 912 years old... his grandson Enosh died at 905 years old. All the way to Methuselah (with the exception of Enoch) the men of his line lived to an average of about 926 years old. By the time of Methuselah's death, 1600 years of world history had already been completed. That is a lot if you're a young earth creationist: roughly, 1/4 of all of earth history.

I can't imagine what it would be like to sit on my 5th great grandfather Nathan's knee to learn from him. To imagine that Methusaleh could have done the same thing and learned about the world before the fall from his 5th great grandfather, Adam, is astounding.

Last year I learned that the name Methuselah means, "his death shall bring judgement" or "after this comes judgement". That's a rather strange name... out of context! When we learn that Noah was Methuselah's grandson, it isn't so strange anymore. 

Genesis 6 reads, "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.  And God said to Noah, 'I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.'"

Now I'm more in line with R. C. Sproul's thinking regarding the beginning of Genesis 6 than most contemporary theologians, but regardless on your stance of the Nephilim, it's apparent that the earth was entirely corrupt with sin and that God intended to bring His wrath upon them. This is the context for Methuselah's name.

It's widely accepted that the catastrophic worldwide flood occurred a week after Methuselah's death. Did you catch that? God's catastrophic judgement of mankind came a week after the death of the man whose name actually means, "his death shall bring judgement". Methuselah was the oldest man that ever lived. It's no coincidence that God allowed the man whose name meant, "his death shall bring judgement" to live longer than any other in all of history.

I think this is a great illustration that the God of the Old and New Testament are the same God. Asides from another testament to God's amazing sovereignty, this is a beautiful picture of how God's long-suffering grace is so perfectly balanced with his just holiness.