AMAZING FACT: What you didn't know about Methuselah!!

Many people know Methuselah as the oldest man that ever lived - he lived for nine hundred and sixty-nine years! However, that's not the only interesting fact about the life of this fellow.

Methuselah was the son of Enoch - another interesting fellow who walked faithfully with God and whose life had an unusual end. "...and he (Enoch) was not; for God took him" (Genesis 5:23). 

Enoch and his son lived in an increasingly wicked world - and this state of the world was a source of grief for God. 

Being close to God, Enoch was privy to the plans of God to bring an end to the wickedness of the world, one of which was the birth of his son, Methuselah.

God has a typical fashion of sending out warnings to a people headed for judgment - and among these warnings are signs. Methuselah was one of the signs from God. 

The name 'Methuselah' means 'his death shall bring'. 

His death shall bring? 

Now that sounds like an incomplete sentence, until we do a bit of calculation with the ages of other people provided in the book of Genesis to find out what happened after the death of Methuselah. 

We get the numbers together, do the math, and voila, indeed, a very significant event took place in the year of Methuselah's death. 

It is - yes, you guessed it - the Great Flood that wiped off all life of the face of the earth, except Noah and his family.

The significance of the life of Methuselah is not in his long life but in the message of that length. His life is the greatest testimony of the long-suffering and generously merciful nature of God. 

Before God sends judgment, He sends warning signals - really LONG warning signals. The question left for us is, have we hearkened to the warning signals God has placed in front of us? The most significant warning in our times is the call to run into the shelter that the blood of His Son Jesus Christ has purchased for us and to call on the name of Jesus for the salvation of our souls. 

And the reason God is ringing this warning signal is that again - just as before - judgment is coming.

May we heed His warnings. Amen