| (Copyright 1993) by Ernest L. Martin (Portland, Oregon) |
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| Why did God allow Methuselah to live so long? He lived longer than any other human. Was there a major prophecy given by his father Enoch at the time of his birth? First, let us remember that Methuselah lived to be 969 years of age (Genesis 5:27), just 31 years shy of 1000. The reason I mention the 1000 years as important is because God told Adam and Eve that if they took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that “in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17 emphasis mine). But Adam lived on until his 930th year before dying. It seems that Adam and Eve did not die “in that day.” But the biblical fact is, they did die “in that day” because God’s use of “day” in this instance meant a thousand years. We must always get God’s interpretation of any prophecy of his, and not apply our own human reason to the matter. Peter said: “one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (II Peter 3:8). Adam died some 70 years before that “day” of a thousand years was terminated that God had in mind. The Book of Jubilees written about 150 B.C. also gave this interpretation as proper (Jubilees 4:30) and it is certainly the one followed by the apostles of Christ. But this point also involves Methuselah. He was also not permitted to live beyond 1000 years – though he almost made it. The Hebrew meaning of the word “Methuselah” according to the Jewish scholar Philo (who lived at the time of Christ) was “a dispatch of death” or, when broken up into its elements, it is: “die/send.” Now Methuselah’s father was Enoch (who was a prophet – see Jude 14, 15). Since we are told by Isaiah that the meaning of Isaiah’s own name as well as those of his children had prophetic significance (Isaiah 8:18), then we can know why Enoch gave his son the name he did. By putting the Hebrew meaning of “Methuselah” into sentence form, it reads “When he dies, it will be sent.” Click here to order the print version of: 101 Bible Secrets That Christians Do Not Know —————————————————————————————————– Reprinted with permission from: Associates for Scriptural Knowledge https://www.askelm.com/ —————————————————————————————————– |
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