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Old Timers vs Wise Timers-Methuselah: Destroyed for Lack of Understanding

Methuselah is renowned for being the oldest person mentioned in the Bible, living an impressive 969 years. But, despite being the son of the righteous Enoch, who was transmuted to Heaven, and the grandfather of Noah, who built the Ark to save mankind from the Flood, Methuselah was not spared.

Methuselah’s father, Enoch, is famous for being the only other person, besides Elijah, who never tasted death. “Enoch waked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away” (Genesis 5: 24). “By Faith, Enoch was taken up that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had transfigured him: for before his transfiguration, he had this testimony, that he pleased God,” (Hebrews 11:5). Enoch also prophesied “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His Saints, to Execute Judgement 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” (Jude 1:14-15).

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. Enoch walked faithfully with God for another 300 years before he was transmuted at 365 years. Though Methuselah had 300 years to learn from his spiritually upright father, it is heavily implied that he perished in the flood.

Methuselah had lived 187 years when he had Noah’s father Lamech (ref. Genesis 5:25), who was 182 years old when he had Noah (ref. Genesis 5:28). Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth (Genesis 7:6), added with 187 years (Methuselah’s age at Lamech’s birth) and 182 years (Lamech’s age at Noah’s birth) totaling 696 years which was Methuselah’s age when he died, coinciding with the same year as the Flood.

“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God”. God saw that the Earth and humanity was filled with violence and corruption and “so God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people for the Earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the Earth.” Noah was most likely around 500 years old when God gave him instructions on how to build the ark and “Noah did everything just as God commanded him” (ref. Genesis 6:9-22).

It is implied that it took Noah around 100 years to build the ark, so the destruction of the Earth would not have been an unexpected event. Noah’s grandfather, Methuselah, would have been aware of Noah’s construction project and would have remembered his father Enoch’s prophecy about God executing judgement upon all the ungodly for their deeds and words against Him, matching God’s explanation for why He was going to deluge the Earth with water.

Methuselah would have even had the benefit of having known the very first man, Adam, who was 687 years old when Methuselah was born, living another 243 years before passing away at 930 years old. Methuselah would have heard firsthand accounts of what the world was like before the Fall of Man and the Glory of experiencing God in such an intimate and connected manner before Sin entered the World.

Methuselah’s virtuous father, Enoch, set a perfect example of how to walk with God and in His Ways. His great ancestor Adam may have told Methuselah what the World was like during God’s Paradise and how sin caused the destruction of Man. Methuselah’s grandson, Noah, was trying to save a wicked and ungodly people filled with evil actions and words from God’s Judgement according to Enoch’s prophecy. In the face of all these advantages, Methuselah was not described as a righteous man as his grandson Noah is labeled, nor that he walked faithfully with God as his father Enoch did.

Even though Methuselah was the oldest recorded person in the Bible, he failed to gather the wisdom and knowledge about living righteously freely available to him from his surrounding family and most likely perished in the Flood. His advanced age made him old, not wise.

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

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