"And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died." (Genesis 5:21- 27)

Everyone has heard of Mr. Methuselah and his extreme longevity. In fact, he is probably known more for his long life than for any other reason. However, Mr. Methuselah had some very interesting relatives, even though most of them have been relegated to a dim and unimpressive obscurity. One of his most illustrious ancestors was his father, Enoch.

Again, Enoch is a very familiar person to any who have read the inspired Scriptures. He occupies a very unique position among the pre-flood descendants of Adam, in that he is spared the ordeal of physical death. (v. 24). Sermons and messages pertaining to this supernatural event have no doubt numbered in the millions down through the ages, and with understandable justification.

If any event ever deserved continuous and comprehensive coverage it would be this one! As outstanding as this event was; and as deserving as its subsequent coverage would be, the fact remains that he was the father of Mr. Methuselah and that in itself would have reserved him a noteworthy historical place; even if he had died like all his ancestors, contemporaries, and most descendants.

It becomes very apparent in any reading of Genesis 5 that not only did most men named therein live a long time Ä but just as importantly Ä they had a very long procreational span. For instance, we are told in verse 4 that Adam lived 800 years after his son Seth was born "and he begat sons and daughters"; likewise in verse 7 we read, "And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters".

When we think of the relatively short life-spans that exist currently Ä and their brief fertility potential Ä we are literally astounded by the overwhelming number of children that these patriarchs could have fathered.

Most twentieth century authors imply that the pre-flood population of the earth was actually rather skimpy. After all, there aren't that many post-Adamic family heads mentioned in the Genesis family tree, right? The only ones mentioned are those which God needed us to be aware of.

Was there any need to list the names of those whose descendants would not be factored into His ultimate purpose? Apparently not, since we do not have a record of millions and millions of names of those who perished during the Flood. Yes, there were millions and millions!

Of the ten patriarchs listed in Genesis 5 who lived out "normal" life spans for that era, all except Lamech had an average time of approximately 800 years during which they are having "sons and daughters", and he ONLY had 595 years to get his family going!

Now if the simple mathematical computations are done, it will become obvious that the earth in the pre-flood days was a potentially very busy place.

It is a distinct possibility that Mr. & Mrs. Adam could have had over 700 children during those "800 years" (verse 4) following the birth of their son, Seth. Does that sound like some ridiculous assumption? Well, if these various couples were not having children during these specific periods of time why did the Word of God say they were? (Now would be a good time for some of you "scholars" to jump in and prove yourselves, eh?)

Okay, so you concede that it's possible; what's the point? There could be several "points", but one of the most important is the unbelievable resistance that the pre-flood inhabitants demonstrated toward the Word of God. We get downright depressed when we see the attitude of people today toward God's wonderful plan of salvation, don't we?

We just can't understand why people will tread the precious blood of Jesus Christ under their feet, and seemingly are determined to go on to Hell in spite of our best efforts to convince them otherwise! Isn't that the prevailing picture of humanity today? Sure it is.

Is this premeditated, all-pervasive conduct something new? Of course it isn't. We look in the New Testament and find instance after instance where Jesus is either reminding His disciples, or preaching to the lost multitudes about comparable mind-sets from two vastly different time periods.

Listen to this discourse: "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24:37-39)

Is it possible that attitudes toward God and his WORD have been even worse in times past than they are today? It's not only possible, it actually happened; and it wasn't just a "few" people who practiced this mockery toward Him, it was the population of the entire world!

It was a congregation of humanity which had been offered every opportunity to do right in God's sight, yet had determined to not only reject His teachings, but ultimately to put every thought of Him out of their collective mind. "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Genesis 6:5)

Well, eventually the time would arrive when Methuselah would pass off the scene. It was that inevitable "appointment" known to all men, and dreaded by most, that seems to come when least expected Ä of at the proverbial "inopportune time". Of course, in the case of Methuselah it had been a long time coming, but still multitudes were not ready for it to actually occur.

Why would "multitudes" be concerned about his death? Perhaps because of the meaning of his name, "When he dies, destruction comes"! In reality, probably not very many gave the proverbial "hoot" when they learned that he was finally dead. They should have, because soon they too would all be dead Ä all except eight that is Ä and none of them would have funerals (or "memorial services", if you prefer)!

If 40 years is considered a "generation" for purposes of computing the descendants of Adam and his fellow patriarchs, then most of them had about 20 generational cycles. A few had more and some had less. If we further consider that only single births are counted Ä no twins or triplets, etc. Ä and that each child who was born, married and in turn had two children who also married, etc. (you see the pattern); then Mr. & Mrs. Adam could have had a total of over 378,000,000 direct offspring during the 800 years during which we are told, ". . . and he begat sons and daughters:" (Genesis 5:4b) (Do the math before you get all excited.)

This being the case, the total offspring of all the patriarchs mentioned in Genesis 5 would be in excess of 2,400,000,000! This number obviously does not include the progeny of Cain (Genesis 4); and even though we are not given the life spans of these various individuals, we might not be too presumptuous to conclude that Cain's offspring would be as numerous as those of his brother, Seth et al.

It would be reasonable to believe that the earth's population, at the time of the Flood, was about the same as it is now. (Wouldn't this be in keeping with Jesus' statement in Matthew 24?)

LET US NOW NOTICE SOME THINGS ABOUT METHUSELAH'S FUNERAL:

1. WHO PREACHED IT?

Who indeed would be qualified to preach the funeral for the world's longest living man?

No doubt there were some "religious" pretenders who should have liked to have had whatever prestige could have been squeezed from such an event as this. Even though we are not told in Scripture who officiated, it's not too difficult to see who was the most likely one to get the nod, no other but Noah, ". . . a preacher of righteousness." (2 Peter 2:5) In fact, there are no other real preachers mentioned, right?

2. WHO ATTENDED IT?

We have seen that there was no shortage of eligible people who could have attended, but I wonder if very many had any real interest? They were probably so busy doing all those activities Jesus taught about in Matthew 24, you know, all that "eating and drinking"; all that "marrying and giving in marriage", and all that willful ignorance that still seems to plague humanity today; that they just couldn't find time to make it to the service. I wonder if those fellows that Noah had working on the ark ever bothered to attend?

They probably would prefer to labor on the project, away from Noah's watchful eye, than have to listen to him preach Ä even though they were in all probability being paid whether they worked on the ark, or came to the service.

3. WHAT WAS THE THEME OF IT?

I have to believe that at least three topics were covered from top to bottom:

1. The long suffering of God (1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 3:6-9)

2. The grace of God (Genesis 6:8)

3. The judgment of God (Genesis 6:13)

Since we are told that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, we would surely expect that he would not "beat around the bush" on such a momentous occasion. He had 120 years to get ready for this solemn event, and I'm positive that he was ready to deliver the proverbial mail!

4. WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF IT?

Apparently, there wasn't much positive to report. A percentage of eight saved out of a potential five billion isn't big enough to even register on most statistical scales. If we just stopped there with the facts, and didn't go on with the real truth of the matter, we could become very discouraged.

However, GOD's purpose still carried on Ä Noah and his family would live on and would replenish the earth. His descendants would include Jesus Christ our Saviour, and all humanity that has lived since the Flood Ä including us!

So even though there was probably a miserable few in attendance at the funeral of Methuselah Ä perhaps just enough to be pall-bearers; and though there were probably no "visible" results as a result of Noah's impassioned preaching, there was still a reason for the event.

GOD often does not tell us openly just how any given event is going to play out, but doesn't a careful reading of His WORD adequately prepare us for what lies ahead Ä including the "fires" and the "floods"?

5. WHAT WERE THE CONDITIONS DURING IT?

Even though "circumstances" were abhorrent, GOD was still on duty. Even though we read, "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually". (Genesis 6:5); isn't it comforting to realize that nothing is beyond GOD's ability to rectify?

Again, we see that according to Genesis 6:11, "The earth also was corrupt before GOD, and the earth was filled with violence." That description sounds as if it could be from the headlines of today's newspaper, but it's from the press room of Heaven! Isn't it amazing that in the midst of all this corruption, wickedness and violence Noah just kept right on preaching and hammering, hammering and preaching? Well, didn't he? Well, shouldn't we? †