Read with Me
Genesis 5:25-32 (HCSB)
Methuselah was 187 years old when he fathered Lamech. Methuselah lived 782 years after the birth of Lamech, and he fathered other sons and daughters. So Methuselah’s life lasted 969 years; then he died.
Lamech was 182 years old when he fathered a son. And he named him Noah, saying, “This one will bring us relief from the agonizing labor of our hands, caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.” Lamech lived 595 years after Noah’s birth, and he fathered other sons and daughters. So Lamech’s life lasted 777 years; then he died.
Noah was 500 years old, and he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Listen with Me
Methuselah, whose father, Enoch, named him “when he dies it will come”, lived 969 years, the longest lifespan recorded for anyone in the Bible. He died the year of the flood, confirming Enoch’s prophetic vision.
Lamech, Enoch’s son through whom Noah’s lineage is traced, lived a mere 777 years and, according to the genealogical record, died five years before the flood.
And finally, we arrive at Noah, ten generations from Adam. In the 1656 years between Adam’s creation and the flood, considering the longevity of each generation, God’s command to reproduce and fill the earth (Genesis 128), and people’s ability to reproduce not for a few decades, but for centuries, it is likely that the population of the world at the time of the flood numbered in the millions.
Noah was named after a Hebrew word that means “comfort”, because his father, Lamech, hoped that he would somehow be a deliverer from the hard labor everyone had to undergo in order to coax food from the ground that had been cursed in the wake of Adam’s sin (Genesis 3:17-19). Noah would not in fact be a deliverer from hard toil. But he would be a savior of sorts, carrying the seed of all life through the flood to give the world a fresh start.
Noah likely had other children besides the three we normally associate with him, Ham, Shem, and Japheth. But those three were born to Noah after he was 500 years old, within 100 years of the onset of the flood, and they were the ones who were willing to believe, to help, and ultimately to get on board the ark at God’s signal. All the rest of Noah’s family and extended family perished in the flood, and thus are not named, because they were not significant to the history that followed the flood.
Pray with Me
Father, it is so easy for us to allow ourselves to be pulled aside by conjecture and questions about the pre-flood world. But You are eminently practical, giving us all the information that is essential, even if it doesn’t answer every question that we might have. In the end, the pre-flood world and the people who lived in it are moot, because everything was completely destroyed by your judgment until not a trace was left except for the things we find in the fossil record. What is important is the fact that through the judgment, You preserved a remnant who would give the world a fresh start, and that restarted world is the world of which we are a part. Thank you, Lord, for the history You have preserved for us, and thank You especially for fresh starts. Amen.