And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and begot Enoch.
Genesis 5:18 is one link in a chain of almost identical sentences: a man lives, he fathers a son, he lives on, he dies. What lifts this link out of the list is the son: Jared fathers Enoch, the one man here never said to have died.
Genesis 5 records the line of Seth.
There is a striking contrast with the record of the Cainites in the previous chapter. The Cainites were progressive, built cities and made inventions. Nothing is said of the God-fearing generations in this chapter accomplishing great earthly things. They were pilgrims and strangers, waiting for better things. In the fourth chapter the word "die" is not mentioned. Nothing is said of the duration of the life of Cain and his seed. Eight times in the fifth chapter we read "and he died." One did not die. We learn from this that the Lord keeps a record of the lives, the work and the years of His people. His saints are in His hands.
Every name in this chapter carries a meaning. Read in order, the ten names form a single sentence.
If we turn back to 1 Chronicles 1, the opening three verses give us one of the wonderful sentences of Inspiration. It is a sentence containing ten proper names and not a single verb. The names are these: Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. Dr Kitto has pointed out what these ten names mean when translated in order. They form this remarkable sentence in English: Man, Appointed [or Replaced], Miserable, Lamenting, The God of Glory, Shall descend, To instruct, His death sends, To the afflicted, Consolation. So the very names of the patriarchs before the flood would be a standing testimony to the world. Methuselah's name in particular was a warning message to the sinners of his day. Enoch the prophet, whose own name marked him out as one able "to instruct," named his son in words that foretold a coming judgment. That judgment would "descend" after his death. The very year Methuselah died, the flood came.
Jared is the "shall descend" in that sentence. A shorter list of the same meanings has been set out this way:
Adam — Man; Seth — Set; Enos — Frailty; Cainan — Deplorable; Mahalaleel — The Blessed God; Jared — Descends; Enoch — Teaching; Methuselah — Death sent away; Lamech — Powerful; Noah — Rest, Comfort.
The New Testament counts the generations from Adam down to the son born here.
He was the seventh from Adam, as Jude tells us, and we can check this in Genesis 5. He was number seven counting through the line of Seth, the line that kept faith alive in the days before the flood. When Eve bore Seth she said, "God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him." These words were doubtless prophetic. Cain the man of flesh had killed Abel the man of faith, and God had now appointed another godly seed by which faith should not perish from the earth. The seventh man on that line of faith was the outstanding man of the line. In him faith shone out with special brightness.
The long lives in this chapter served a purpose while God's revelation was still only spoken.
How could a revelation that was still only spoken reach Adam's family, except through the long lives of that early day? Methuselah lived to tell Shem what Adam passed on from God Himself. Shem lived to repeat it all to Abraham and Isaac. These were facts and prospects said in few words, plain in meaning, and deeply important.
Jared's entry ends the way the others do. One cause lies behind that ending.
Those who judge only from what we see today are far from the truth. By nature, man was made at the start to live. Death was sin's wages, not a physical necessity back then. God had provided the means to prolong his life if he obeyed. But He took it away from him outright when he fell. For what greater misery, or moral contradiction, than an endless life of sin? So death is in no sense a debt owed to nature, but to sin. Here we read its death-knell for each of these men. That includes those who stood apart from the evil way of Cain, the ancestors not only of Israel but in due time of the Messiah. Of Adam, and so of Seth, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, it was alike said "he died."
Enoch breaks the pattern — but not by escaping death under his own power.
The one exception to the common lot of man forms no exception to the rule that no one can deliver himself from death. Of Enoch we read, "he was not, for God took him." It was God's act, not Enoch's effort, which kept his body from the grave.
- Recorded. God records the years of His people. Seth's line gets its quiet years counted; Cain's line gets cities and inventions but no years at all.
- Named. Jared supplies the "shall descend," and the ten names of the chapter read as one sentence of testimony to the world.
- Fathered. At 162 Jared fathers Enoch, seventh from Adam, in the line that kept faith alive before the flood.
- Died. The refrain over Jared and all the rest traces death to sin, not to nature.
- Excepted. Only Enoch escapes the refrain. God took him; his own effort could not have done it.
And Jared lived after he had begotten Enoch eight hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
Genesis 5 repeats one short formula through ten generations, and verse 19 is Jared's turn: eight hundred more years after Enoch's birth, then children no one names. Why so little detail, why such long lives, and why does every entry close the same way?
The verse says almost nothing about eight hundred years, and that silence is deliberate. God's record follows one line toward the Messiah, and folds everyone else into a single phrase.
The inspired writer gives the same simple outline of these lives so prolonged... Divine purpose is the key. It explains both the mention that looks so meagre and the special record in the cases of Enoch and Noah. It also explains why the general genealogy gives no details beyond the direct line of the chosen people, and so above all of the Messiah. He is God's salvation, a light for revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel. The rest of their children, however many or distinguished in a human way, are merged into nothing more than the "sons and daughters" they fathered.
Jared's name is not decoration. One writer lines up the ten names of this line in order and reads them as a single sentence, with Jared sixth in the chain.
The opening verses of 1 Chronicles 1 give a sentence containing ten proper names and not a single verb. The names are these: Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah... translated in order, these ten names form a remarkable sentence in English. It runs: Man, Appointed [or Replaced], Miserable, Lamenting, The God of Glory, Shall descend, To instruct, His death sends, To the afflicted, Consolation. So the very names of the patriarchs before the flood would be a standing testimony to the world.
Eight hundred extra years is not a curiosity of ancient record-keeping. Before anyone wrote truth down, long life was how it travelled.
It mattered greatly to them to have sure witness to the origin of the race, and of the earth and heavens, and of all creatures in them. Higher still was it to hear of the fall and its solemn results. Highest of all was to know that He, both the Creator and in moral relationship with man, had stepped in... revealing a suffering Deliverer, the woman's Seed, to destroy the enemy... And how could a revelation still passed on by word of mouth reach the whole family of Adam, except by the long lives of that early day? Methuselah lived to tell Shem what Adam passed on from God Himself. Shem lived to repeat it all to Abraham and Isaac.
The previous chapter lists Cain's descendants: city-builders and inventors. This chapter lists fathers of unnamed children, and one repeated verdict.
The Cainites pushed ahead, built cities and made inventions. This chapter says nothing about the God-fearing generations achieving great things on earth. They were pilgrims and strangers, waiting for better things. The fourth chapter never mentions the word "die." It says nothing about how long Cain and his descendants lived. Eight times in the fifth chapter we read "and he died." One did not die. We learn from this that the Lord keeps a record of the lives, the work and the years of His people. His saints are in His hands.
Jared's long life closes the way every other life in this chapter closes. One writer refuses to treat that ending as natural.
Death was the wages of sin. Back then it was not a necessity built into the body. God had provided the means for prolonging his life if he obeyed, but took that means away from him outright when he fell. For what greater misery, or moral contradiction, than an everlasting life of sin? So death is in no way a debt owed to nature but to sin. Here we read its bell tolling even for those who stood apart from the evil way of Cain... Of Adam, so of Seth, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, it was alike said "he died."
The genealogy is not the last word, because the line it protects arrives at Someone death could not hold.
How sad, if this were all! But it is not; it is only the first man. "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead." The devil had the power of death. Christ in grace submitted to death, but death could not hold Him, and His death brings the devil to nothing.
- Line — God keeps the record narrow on purpose. This chain leads to the Messiah.
- Length — long lives carried the spoken story of creation, the fall and the promised Deliverer down the generations.
- Legacy — his other children are just "sons and daughters." This family built no cities and left no inventions. They were pilgrims, waiting for better things.
- Loss — the repeated "and he died" marks death as sin's wages, not nature's design. It falls on the godly line too.
- Life — one man in this chapter did not die, and Christ is risen. That is where the whole list has been heading.
And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.
Jared's entry in the line from Adam to Noah ends like every entry before it: a count of years, then three short words. He lived 962 years, longer than Adam, and still the record closes where all the others close.
The record tells us nothing of Jared's character, his work, or his words. Other ancient writers tried to fill that gap. One commentator explains why the Bible does not.
Josephus and certain Arabian writers, quoted by Hottinger, claim to give details about the men listed here. Their claims are not worth repeating, because they have no real authority. The inspired writer gives only the same simple outline of these long lives, and that is all the more striking... Divine purpose is the key. It explains why the general family line leaves out every detail beyond the direct line of the chosen people, and so above all of the Messiah — God's salvation, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel. The rest of their children, however many or however distinguished in a human way, are simply merged into the "sons and daughters" they had.
Why does every life in this chapter end the same way? One writer traces those closing words back to their cause.
At the outset God made man to live. Death was the wages of sin; at that time it was no physical necessity. God had provided the means to prolong man's life if he obeyed, but took that means away when he fell. What greater misery, or moral contradiction, than an everlasting life of sin? So death is in no way a debt of nature but of sin. Here we hear its bell toll for each man, even for those who kept clear of the evil way of Cain... Of Adam, so of Seth, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, it was alike said "he died."
The same sentence still stands over every generation since.
He might live for hundreds of years and have "other sons and daughters." But in the end the record must say, "he died." "Death reigned from Adam to Moses." "It is appointed for man to die once." Man cannot get past this. Steam, electricity, and everything else his genius can reach will never disarm death of its terrible sting.
If long life could mend human nature, these men had every chance.
Adam at the end of his nine hundred and thirty years' life on earth was no better than he was just after the fall. Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years. His nature was just as corrupt at the close of his life as it was on the day he was born. So time counts for nothing here. Nothing can change a nature. What man really needs is a new one.
Why did God let men live so long? One writer points to a time when His word had not yet been written down.
At that time God made man's life long, and that took the place of a written word. We can see His wisdom in it. At the flood, life was cut in half. It was cut in half again when the earth was divided up among the peoples.
Two long lives carried that word all the way from Adam to Abraham.
God's revelation was still spoken, not written. How could it reach the family of Adam, except by the long lives of that early day? Methuselah lived to tell Shem what Adam had passed on from God Himself. Shem lived to repeat it all to Abraham and Isaac. These were facts and things to come, said in few words, plain in meaning, and of the deepest importance.
Jared's death notice is the last one before the chapter breaks its own pattern. The next man in the line, his son Enoch, never gets that ending.
Genesis 5 is one of the most solemn chapters in Holy Scripture. It is a chapter of death. Eight times over we read of one and another that "he died." Sin has wrecked everything here, and the chapter puts that before us in vivid terms. Yet right in the middle of this dismal list of dying men, we read of one who did not die. "He was not, for God took him."
The list is sad, but it is not the last word.
How sad, if this were all! It is not so, however; this is only the first man. "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead."
- Cause. Death is not built into human nature; it is the wages of sin, and Jared's ending says so as plainly as Adam's.
- Reign. The refrain repeats because death ruled — long life delayed it, no human skill has ever disarmed it.
- Unchanged. 962 years did not improve anyone; time cannot alter a nature, so what man needs is a new one.
- Purpose. Long lives carried God's spoken word forward before anyone wrote it down — Adam to Methuselah, Shem to Abraham.
- Exception. Right after Jared comes Enoch, who did not die. That one break in the pattern points on to resurrection in Christ.
And Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methushelah.
Genesis 5 reads like a register of funerals. Then the list slows down for one man. Enoch reaches sixty-five and fathers a son, and from there his story turns. Why does the record of his walk with God start only after this birth, and what did that son's name tell the world?
This chapter's refrain, "and he died," falls on every man in it but one.
Genesis 5 is "the book of the generation of Adam," a chapter over which the shadow of death is apparent in the often repeated expression "and he died" — a shadow universal in its effects, and one which the power of God, the living God, alone can remove. It is a blessed thing to read in such a chapter that "Enoch walked with God … and God took him." By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death (Hebrews 11:5).
Two men in Genesis share this name.
His name was the same as that of Cain's son, the man the world's first city was named after. "Enoch" means "dedicated." So we may say of the one that he was dedicated to the world, and of the other that he was dedicated to God. Eternity will show which had the better part.
Scripture tells us nothing of Enoch's first sixty-five years. Only after this son is born does the record of his walk with God begin.
There seems to be a suggestion in the next verse that the dawn of the new life in Enoch happened at the same time as the birth of his son Methuselah. One can easily understand how this might be. Births and deaths are alike solemn family events, and the Spirit of God can use them to turn the heart to things eternal.
For parents, this can start in the small hours of the night.
Happy are the parents who can walk with God as they walk the floor with a crying, restless infant. Those dreaded night watches become heavenly talks with their best and dearest Friend. You will find the silent house, when everybody else is asleep, is just the place where your Lord and you can walk together undisturbed.
The words "walk with" point first to company.
To "walk with" implies companionship. If you saw me going down the street in conversation with someone, the suggestion would be that I enjoy his company. God values this in His people more than anything else. … While others were busy making a name and a place for themselves here, building their city and perfecting their crafts, "Enoch walked with God." The presence of God and communion with Him meant more to his heart than anything a sin-cursed earth could give.
But it is no soft thing. It holds together qualities that seem to pull against each other.
How much is involved in these three words, "walked with God"! What separation and self-denial! What holiness and moral purity! What grace and gentleness! What humility and tenderness! And yet what zeal and energy! What patience and long-suffering, and yet what faithfulness and uncompromising decision! … It is not merely living by rules and regulations, nor laying down plans of action, nor making resolutions to go here or there and do this or that.
Enoch kept this up for three hundred years, and not in seclusion.
He was no recluse or dreamy mystic, for the record is that "Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters." He entered into ordinary human life. He knew all the usual trials and troubles, as well as the joys of bringing up a family. … Despite that, he walked with God — not by fits and starts, but with steady persistence for three centuries! A wonderful walk — the longest walk on record.
The name Enoch gave his son carried a message.
Look at the prophecy of God's long-suffering wrapped up in the meaning of Methuselah's name. It meant "when he is dead it shall be sent" — that is, the flood. Nobody has ever lived longer than he did. He was older than Adam with his 930 years, and older than Jared with his 962 years. He even outlived his own son Lamech, who reached 777. That great age stood as a witness to God's patient compassion, to His unwillingness to judge. … In the end God's patience came to a close. Methuselah died. That year the flood came.
- Setting — Genesis 5 repeats "and he died" over every name. Enoch's walk is the one line death does not close.
- Start — the record of that walk begins at a cradle. A son's birth may well have been what God used to turn Enoch's heart, and the same door stands open to every parent.
- Substance — walking with God means enjoying His company above anything the world is building. It draws in holiness, gentleness, zeal and patience at once. It is not a set of rules.
- Stamina — three hundred years with no breaks, lived among sons and daughters and ordinary troubles. The longest walk on record had the most ordinary setting.
- Sign — the son's name announced mercy: "when he is dead it shall be sent." God stretched that life longer than any other. When Methuselah died, the flood came.
And Enoch walked with God after he had begotten Methushelah three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
Genesis 5 is a list of names that all end in death, until one man breaks the pattern. Enoch walked with God for three hundred years while raising a family — so what is that walk, and how did it begin?
The verse dates Enoch's walk from a specific event: the arrival of his son.
Genesis 5:22 seems to hint that new life dawned in Enoch at the very time his son Methuselah was born. It is easy to see how this could be. Births and deaths are both solemn family events. The Spirit of God can use either one to turn the heart to eternal things.
The word "walked" is not decoration. It describes who chose the direction of Enoch's life and who kept the speed.
As Enoch walked with God, his activities came under Divine control. He had the happy privilege and responsibility of keeping in touch with God. That way he could know His thoughts and understand His ways. Then God ordered his life and path, for it was His to show the direction and set the pace. God led the way, and Enoch was at His side, led by Him with understanding. His walk was not like a dog's, faithfully following his master's steps, because Enoch was given a wonderful grasp of God's mind and purpose, as Jude's letter makes plain.
Genesis says nothing about how Enoch came to this. The New Testament supplies the missing link, and it is not effort but faith.
This is where faith begins, whether for Enoch or for ourselves. It leads us to the knowledge that GOD IS, and that is something very different from believing that there is a God. Even today, many people cannot explain how everything came to exist without assuming a God of some kind, somewhere. But that is reason, not faith. Only faith puts us into the presence of the LIVING GOD. He knows, He sees, He acts, He makes Himself known, and He even rewards those who seek Him with all their heart. In days when all thought of the living God was fading from people's minds, Enoch by faith had the living God before him. He sought Him with all his heart, and so he found Him. There began that remarkable walk with Him, which lasted three hundred years.
The same verse that records the walk also records sons and daughters. Enoch did not step out of family life, and he did not walk with God in short bursts.
Enoch did not live in an easy day. Jude tells us that ungodliness was everywhere in Enoch's time... But he walked with God — he walked with God! He sensed in his heart that God wanted his company. And God so worked in his heart that Enoch answered God's own desires as he walked with Him. He didn't walk with God casually; he didn't walk with God now and then; he didn't walk with God for a few moments; he walked with God for hundreds of years. He didn't go into a monastery to do it, for we read in Genesis 5:22 that "Enoch walked with God … and had other sons and daughters."
A long walk is made of single steps. Enoch took his steps quietly, one at a time.
Enoch, in a day when there was no Scripture, walked with God. For 300 years he walked according to the mind of God. Such a walk makes very little noise in the world... It was a very quiet, very unshowy walk. At every step it simply asked, "Where is God in this step?" Did the people of that day ask, before they put a foot down, "Is God in it?" No — it appears that Enoch walked alone with God. He had a set of thoughts and ways peculiar to himself, but the same as God's.
The setting gives Enoch's walk its force.
Genesis 5 is one of the most solemn chapters in Holy Scripture. It is a chapter of death. Eight times over we read of one and another that "he died." This sets before our eyes the wreck of everything here, which is the fruit of sin. What a remarkable thing: right in the middle of this dismal list of dying men, we read of one who did not die.
- Cause. The walk began at a cradle. Methuselah's birth seems to be the moment eternal things gripped Enoch's heart.
- Root. Faith held the walk up — faith that God is, and that He rewards those who seek Him.
- Shape. God chose the direction and set the pace. Enoch kept close enough to know His mind.
- Setting. All this happened in ordinary life, among sons and daughters, in a day full of ungodliness. Enoch never hid away.
- Result. In a chapter that repeats "he died" eight times, the one man who walked with God is the one man who did not.
And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
Genesis 5 lists long lifespans, and closes each one with the words "and he died." Enoch's total is the smallest in the chapter — 365 years, beside neighbours who passed nine hundred. That raises two questions. Why did the best man get the shortest life, and why does his entry end without a grave?
Set beside the men around him, Enoch's total looks like an early exit. One writer puts the surprise bluntly.
If we had to choose which of the patriarchs before the flood should live a long life of witness, we should have said, "Enoch of course, Enoch is the man. He is the man who walks with God; he is the man who bears unswerving witness." We should have been wrong. Enoch was taken in early life. Look at Methuselah — 969. Enoch has 365 years and he is gone. The very man we want is gone!
The figure sounds ancient to us, so it is easy to picture Enoch worn out and ready for the grave. Scaled against the lifespans recorded in this very chapter, the picture changes.
If Genesis 5 had not given us such full details about the ages of the patriarchs when they died, we might have pictured Enoch at 365 as a worn-out old man looking for his grave. But we can hardly do that. Human life then was about ten times as long as it is now. So Methuselah's life matches that of an old man today who misses being a hundred by a few years. And Enoch's comes to about 36 and a half years — the age when a man is in the prime of his strength. Death clearly threatened him while he was young, and God snatched him away so that death should not take him as its prey.
Another writer describes the same man as no hermit — married, a father, living among people, and speaking to them about God, right up to the point where the record stops.
Standing aloof from the corruptions of his day, he warned men of a judgment which should surely come. By the force of truth he was a stranger in the world. His way was contrary to that of other men. But he pleased God whom it was alone his care to please. Thus he lived and worked, holding patiently to a better hope than that of far-extending earthly days, until he ceased at the noontide of his natural life (Gen. 5:23). He was not found. Men sought him.
The same pattern repeats in every generation, and it unsettles us. One writer names the feeling instead of smoothing it over.
Enoch was without doubt the one outstanding man of faith before the flood, yet he lived by far the shortest life. If the arranging had been left to us, would we not have ordered it otherwise? We often see believers of godliness and gift taken away fairly early in life... Meanwhile another, who has never stood out for godliness or service, and who is more of a drag on his fellow believers, is left to a very old age! We all tend to treat this as strange, and we feel like questioning the wisdom of God's ways.
The same writer answers that complaint by pointing to the greatness of the One who arranges it.
Ever since sin entered it has looked as though our Lord is fighting a losing battle. His greatest servants go when most needed, yet He will bring victory out of what looks like defeat. We have an immensely great Lord, One who is big enough to bring about glory all along the line. Consequently He can do with very small servants.
Scripture spends one line on the total and one line on the man. That proportion is itself the lesson.
There is a very striking difference between God's inspired records of His people and all human biographies. The first can truly be called "much in little." Many of the second can just as truly be called "little in much." The story of one of the Old Testament saints covers 365 years. It is summed up in two short clauses: "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." How brief! And yet how full, how complete! How many volumes would a man have filled with the record of such a life? And yet, what more could he have said? To walk with God covers everything that could be said of anyone.
The short total is not a loss but a distinction. It is the one life in the chapter that never ended in a grave.
Once, and but once, in the days before the flood, a man had walked with God 365 years of life, and then, without seeing death, been removed to heaven to walk with Him there. That life of Enoch, on which the shadow of death had never fallen, might suffice to show the possibility.
One writer ties that removal to a hope held out to others.
Enoch was the first sample of being taken up to heaven, and he remains the lasting type of it — a real removal to heaven, quietly done, with no sign beforehand and nothing to prepare for it in events or prophecy. This was a special honour to Enoch, and the pledge of what all God's people called to heaven will enjoy: those still alive when the Lord comes.
- Shortest. Of every man listed in this chapter, Enoch's total is the smallest — the outstanding believer given the briefest run.
- Youngest. Measured against lifespans ten times ours, 365 years is a man in his prime, not a man waiting for a grave.
- Fullest. The shortest span gets the fullest description: one phrase about walking with God covers all 365 years.
- Safest. The shortest life is the one life the shadow of death never fell on. God took him to keep walking with Him in heaven.
- First. What ended Enoch's count early became the first sample of a hope held out to others — taken, not buried.
And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Genesis 5 reads like a register of graves — name, years, "and he died" — until one man breaks the rhythm. Enoch's story raises two questions: what is it to walk with God, and why did he not die?
The setting gives the verse its force.
Genesis 5 is one of the most solemn chapters in Holy Scripture. It is a chapter of death. Eight times over we read of one and another that "he died." So the ruin of everything here, the fruit of sin, is set before us. Yet right in the middle of this grim list of dying men, we read of one who did not die.
But Enoch did not save himself from death.
The one exception to the common lot of man is no exception to the rule that no one can deliver himself from death. Of Enoch we read, "He was not, for God took him." It was God's act, not Enoch's effort, which kept his body from the grave.
In the garden, God walked with man. Here a man walks with God, and the state of the world is the reason.
These few words hold a world of meaning! "Walking" means not rest but activity, of mind or of body. Enoch's activity of mind — his talk and his communion — and his activity of service too were "with God." Before Adam fell, the Lord God had walked with him in the garden, as Genesis 3:8 implies. Enoch, however, lived in a scene of growing corruption and violence. God could no longer walk with him as He once did in an unfallen creation, so Enoch walked with God. He knew God Himself. In God's things he lived and moved and had his being.
The walk began at the birth of Enoch's son and ran for three centuries.
He was no recluse or dreamy mystic. The record is that "Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters." He entered into ordinary human life. He knew all the usual trials and troubles, as well as the joys of bringing up a family. Despite that, he walked with God — not by fits and starts, but steadily, for three centuries! A wonderful walk, the longest walk on record was that!
The record of those years holds no drama.
Genesis 5 records no ups and downs. No failures, and no brilliant successes. Just this short but full sentence: "Enoch walked with God." It shows a quiet, steady purpose — a holy life lived apart from a world under judgment. Hebrews 11:5-6 shows us it was a life of faith, of seeking God diligently.
The phrase sounds strange in English, but Scripture uses it elsewhere with a settled sense. In older translations Jacob's "is no more" reads "is not" — the same words used of Enoch.
It is what we may call a technical term. It has to do with personal presence on earth. So we read of Enoch's removal to heaven, "he was not, for God took him" (Gen. 5:24). He was no longer on earth, but in the other world. Again, when Jacob was asked to let Benjamin go down to Egypt, he cried out, "You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin" (Gen. 42:36).
One writer reads the removal as a rescue: violence was about to reach Enoch, and God took him first.
They were after him. But just before the blow could fall, "he was not, for God took him." God did not step in for Abel: that man was commended as righteous, and then died a martyr's death. He did step in for Enoch. This man greatly displeased the men of his age, but he pleased God so much that God took him into His presence, beyond the reach of his enemies. We may sum up his story by saying that he walked with God, he witnessed for God, and he went to God.
One man's removal showed where God means His own to be.
What a plain sign God gave in that great but simple fact! It went far beyond the ordinary experience of undoubted saints. It showed that heaven was to be the home of those He loves on earth — the heaven of His presence, where time and change are unknown, to say nothing of sin and sorrow. … Enoch was the first sample of being taken to heaven, and he remains its lasting picture: heavenly in reality, and done in silence, with no sign beforehand and no preparation in providence or prophecy.
- Walked — the walk was activity, not retreat: mind, service and family life all carried on with God while the world around him grew corrupt.
- Witnessed — three hundred years with no recorded failures and no brilliant successes: a quiet, steady purpose, apart from a world under judgment.
- Went — "he was not" means absence from earth, not extinction; Scripture speaks the same way of Joseph and Simeon.
- Taken, not escaped — God's act, not Enoch's effort, kept him from the grave; he pleased God, and God took him beyond the reach of his enemies.
- Pledge — one man lifted out of a chapter of graves became the first sample and lasting picture of heaven as the home of those God loves.
And Methushelah lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lemech.
This verse looks like one more line in a list of births and deaths. Yet it names two of the most important men before the flood: Methuselah, whose name carried a warning, and Lamech, who would father Noah. Behind the numbers lie a warning, God's patience, and a promise of rest.
Enoch chose his son's name, and it announced what was coming on the world.
Take the naming of his son, Methuselah. The name means "He has sent his death." It shows that Enoch understood judgment must come, and end things as they were around him. Methuselah's name was, indeed, a prophecy, and implied that when he died the flood would come, which it did in the very year of his death.
If judgment waited on his death, every extra year he lived was another year of mercy for those around him.
The name Methuselah means, "When he is dead it shall be." Enoch gave his son this strange name so that he would be a sign to everyone that judgment was coming. As long as Methuselah lived, judgment would not come. When Methuselah died, the whole world would know that judgment was near. Methuselah lived to be the oldest man this world has ever known. Why? Because God was not willing that any should perish, and He waited, and waited, and waited, for men to repent. He waited for men and women and children to come into the ark to be saved.
One writer reads the ten names of this family line, in order, as a single sentence.
Dr Kitto has pointed out that these ten names, translated word for word in order, form this remarkable sentence in English: Man, Appointed [or Replaced], Miserable, Lamenting, The God of Glory, Shall descend, To instruct, His death sends, To the afflicted, Consolation. So the very names of the fathers who lived before the flood would be a standing testimony to the world. Methuselah's name in particular was a warning message to the sinners of old... One cannot help noticing that after the name of the oldest man this world ever saw, God wrote "and he died."
Long lives meant overlapping generations. This writer also reads Methuselah's name in a different way.
The chapter gives not only their ages, but the very great ages most of them reached. That let certain "holy prophets," named here, tell many later generations about the wonderful works of God. Before the flood, the testimony came by word of mouth. Adam and Methuselah lived at the same time for over 240 years. One reading of the name that Enoch gave his son Methuselah is, "At his death the breaking forth of waters."
Lamech, born when Methuselah was 187, would name his own son Noah, and say more than he understood.
Lamech, the son of Methuselah, named his son Noah, which means "rest." Whatever Lamech had in mind when he spoke about Noah, his words were prophetic, because God inspired them (v.29)... We may be sure that Lamech did not know how this would happen. The rest that was coming depended on Noah's long years of work building the ark. So the great work of the Lord Jesus in His sacrifice of Calvary is the basis of rest for the believer.
Writers differ over Lamech. One sees decline in him, starting with his name.
Even in Noah's father, Lamech, though he speaks devoutly about God, we can see decline. Is he not, even in his name, sadly linked with Cain's line? He is another Lamech, a "strong man" — not an Enosh, who humbled himself before God.
The chapter says little about each man beyond the same few facts. Methuselah's life came close to a thousand years without reaching it.
Little is said of Adam's line through Seth. They lived many days on the earth. They had sons and daughters, besides the one who carried on the line. And they died... In Methuselah's case it might have seemed that man was, as a rare exception, going to reach a thousand years. But no. God has kept that for the reign of the Last Adam. He will make it good all through His world-kingdom as the rule, not the exception, for those who welcome Him when He appears to reign in righteousness.
- Warning. Methuselah's name announced judgment at his death — and the flood came in the year he died.
- Waiting. Judgment waited for his death, so the longest life on record measured out God's patience. He was not willing that any should perish.
- Witness. The long lives overlapped, so God's testimony passed on by word of mouth. Adam and Methuselah lived at the same time for over 240 years.
- Comfort. Lamech, the son born here, named his own son Noah, which means "rest" — a word bigger than he knew, pointing to the rest Christ secured.
- End. Delay is not cancellation. The longest life still closes with "and he died." Only in the reign of the Last Adam will long life become the rule.
And Methushelah lived after he had begotten Lemech seven hundred and eighty-two years, and begot sons and daughters.
After Lamech was born, Methuselah lived on for 782 more years and had more children. No one in Scripture lived longer. Two questions press in. Why did God stretch one man's life out so far? And why does his record end the same way as every other one in this chapter?
Enoch gave his son a name that made the boy's whole life a message. The years counted up in verse 26 are part of it.
Look again at the prophecy of God's patience wrapped up in the meaning of Methuselah's name. It meant "when he is dead it shall be sent" — that is, the flood. No one has lived longer than he did. He outlived Adam with his 930 years, and Jared with his 962 years, and even his own son Lamech with his 777 years. Methuselah's great age was a standing witness of God's patient compassion, of His unwillingness to judge. What light this throws on His blessed nature! Elsewhere we read that He "endured with much patience vessels of wrath" (Romans 9:22).
Writers give the name in more than one form.
One reading of the name Enoch gave his son is, "At his death the breaking forth of waters."
The name fixed the date. So every added year was delay on purpose.
Noah's grandfather was named Methuselah. Methuselah's father was Enoch, who preached this solemn sermon: "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment" (Jude 14-15). The name Methuselah means "when he is dead it shall be." Enoch gave his son this strange name as a sign to everyone that judgment was coming. As long as Methuselah lived, judgment would not come. When Methuselah died, the whole world would know that judgment was near. Methuselah lived to be the oldest man this world has ever known. Why? Because God was not willing that any should perish, and He waited, and waited, and waited, for men to repent. He waited for men and women and children to come into the ark to be saved.
These long lives reached far past a man's own children.
Genesis 5, in giving us a list of these, presents some very striking facts. It gives us their ages. And the very great ages most of them reached let certain "holy prophets," named here, testify to many later generations about the wonderful works of God. Before the flood the testimony came by word of mouth. Adam and Methuselah lived at the same time for over 240 years.
One writer puts the year of his death and the year of the flood side by side.
At length God's patience came to an end. Methuselah died. That year the flood came. The awful blow fell. God's long-promised but certain judgment on the world was carried out.
Verse 26 hands us the two things men count as success — years and offspring — and the next verse takes both away.
Run your eye over chapter 5. You find a revealing record of man's weakness, and of how death rules over him. He might live for hundreds of years and have "other sons and daughters." But in the end the record must say, "he died." "Death reigned from Adam to Moses." "It is appointed for man to die once." Man cannot get over this. No power he invents — steam, electricity, anything else within his genius — can take away death's terrible sting.
Methuselah stopped just short of a thousand years. One writer treats that near miss as a pointer forward.
In his case it might have seemed that man was exceptionally going to reach a millennium. But not so. That is reserved for the reign of the Last Adam. He will make it good throughout His world-kingdom. There it will be the rule, not the exception, for those who welcome Him when He appears to reign in righteousness.
Methuselah's father is the reason this grim chapter is not only grim.
Genesis 5 is one of the most solemn chapters in Holy Scripture. It is a chapter of death. Eight times over we read of one man after another that "he died." Sin has wrecked everything here, and the chapter puts that wreck in front of us. Remarkably, right in the middle of this dismal list of dying men, we read of one who did not die. "He was not, for God took him."
- Named — his name meant "when he is dead it shall be sent." His life was a countdown to the flood, and a sign to everyone who heard it.
- Patient — each of the 782 extra years was God waiting. He was not willing that any should perish, so He left room for people to repent and enter the ark.
- Heard — long, overlapping lives let the first witnesses speak to many generations. Adam and Methuselah overlapped by more than 240 years.
- Finished — patience had a limit; the year he died, the judgment he was named for arrived.
- Answered — years and children could not beat death. The thousand years he nearly reached wait for the reign of Christ. And Enoch shows the one way out: God took him without dying.
And all the days of Methushelah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.
Genesis 5 counts out ten generations, and after each name the same three words fall like a hammer: and he died. Methuselah has the longest life in the Bible, and he gets the same ending. So what was that record-breaking lifespan for?
The list is not really about long life. It is about how every long life ends:
Genesis 5 is one of the most solemn chapters in Holy Scripture. It is a chapter of death. Eight times over we read of one and another that "he died." Sin has wrecked everything here, and the chapter makes us see it. Remarkably, right in the middle of this grim list of dying men, we read of one who did not die: "he was not, for God took him."
A later genealogy, in Genesis 11, leaves that refrain out:
The sorrowful chime sounds all through the earlier list: "and he died." It never sounds once in the later one, though in fact everyone named in chapter 11 did die. Chapter 5 has the one striking exception of Enoch. Human life lasted so long in those days that it was all the more moving to say of each of the others, "and he died."
The name Enoch gave his son announced what would happen when that son died:
Look at the prophecy of God's long-suffering wrapped up in the meaning of Methuselah's name. It meant "when he is dead it shall be sent" — that is, the flood. None have lived longer than he. He was older than Adam, who lived 930 years, and older than Jared, who lived 962. He even outlived his own son Lamech, who lived 777 years. Methuselah's great age was a standing witness of God's long-suffering compassion, of His unwillingness to judge.
If that is what the name meant, then every year Methuselah went on breathing was another year God spared the world. Another writer puts the name in slightly different words, and shows what it cost the father who gave it:
The witness was himself affected by his testimony. His soul felt the weight of it. So he named his son Methuselah, which means "After he is dead it shall be sent." Are our souls influenced by the testimony we carry today?
The waiting ended, and the timing was exact:
At length there came an end to God's long-suffering. Methuselah died. That year the flood came. The awful blow fell. God carried out His long-promised and certain judgment on the world.
Methuselah himself knew what his long life was holding back:
Methuselah lived on down here, and he knew that as long as he lived the judgment could not fall. He watched his grandson Noah through 600 years of life. He heard the solemn announcement of the judgment. He saw the ark being made ready to save the lives of Noah's whole household. Then at last he, the oldest man who ever lived, passed from this scene and prepared the way for the judgment to come. The 969 years of Methuselah's life are a mighty voice crying aloud to those who have ears to hear.
Methuselah stopped 31 years short of a thousand. That near-miss points forward:
In his case it might have seemed that man was going to reach a thousand years, as an exception. But no. Life that long belongs to the reign of the Last Adam. He will make it good throughout His world-kingdom as the rule, and not the exception, for those who welcome Him when He appears to reign in righteousness.
Against every "he died" in this list stands a different word about another Man:
The words "and he died" come again and again in this chapter. They stand in striking contrast to the words "And He shall live," written about David's Son and Lord in Psalm 72:15.
(The writer quotes an older translation; the ESV reads "Long may he live" in that verse.)
Long life is no escape, and Methuselah is the extreme case:
Today, if a person lives to be 100, we think him very old. But he must die. How about Methuselah? Of him also it is written: "He died." Would you like to live to be 969 years old? Many people would. Would they like to die then? No. Death is man's enemy. Nobody likes to die, but in this world all except two men have died: Enoch and Elijah.
- Cause. Sin wrecked everything here, so "and he died" follows name after name. Only Enoch escaped it.
- Warning. Methuselah's name, given by his father, announced judgment: "when he is dead it shall be sent."
- Patience. Every one of those 969 years held the flood back. The longest life ever lived stood as a witness that God is unwilling to judge.
- Limit. Patience ends on time. Methuselah died, and that year the flood came. He had already watched the ark go up.
- Contrast. He fell short of a thousand years; the full millennium belongs to the reign of the Last Adam, and the chapter's "he died" stands against the word spoken of David's Son and Lord: "He shall live."
And Lemech lived a hundred and eighty-two years, and begot a son.
Genesis 5 keeps one rhythm: births, long years, then the words "and he died." At Lamech's son the record slows. Here a father names his child and speaks about the cursed ground. What did he mean by that name? Did his hope come true? And how much did he understand of his own words?
The chapter says almost nothing about most of its men. The exceptions stand out.
The record says little about Adam's line through Seth. They lived many days on the earth; they had sons and daughters, besides the one who continued the line; and they died. That silence gives great weight to everything else the record says.
Lamech gives this son a name with a meaning, and his words about the boy reach far past him.
Lamech, the son of Methuselah, called his son's name Noah, meaning "rest." Whatever Lamech was thinking when he spoke about Noah, his words were prophetic. God inspired them (v. 29)... We may be sure that Lamech did not know how this was to be done. For the rest that was to come depended on Noah's long years of labour in building the ark. In the same way the great work of the Lord Jesus in His sacrifice at Calvary is the basis of rest for the believer. The curse of sin has spoiled the earth for us. But the work of Christ has brought in eternal blessing above the level of earth, and it gives rest to weary hearts. Of course Noah's work is only a very faint picture of this.
The same Hebrew root shows up again later in Noah's story, tying the name to what God gave.
Noah means, as we have seen, "rest" or "comfort." His father Lamech gave the name in faith that God's comfort would come through him. The hope was well founded. In Genesis 8:4 the ark rested — literally "Noahed" — on the mountains of Ararat. In verse 21 of the same chapter, "the LORD smelled a sweet savour," literally "a savour of rest," or Noah. In each case the root is the same. It shows how truly God answered the faith seen in the name. He gave rest in a scene of ruin, and declared that the sacrifice was the basis of it.
The name is not only hope. It also admits what the world had become.
When we reach Noah, the tenth from Adam, the history expands again... His father Lamech acknowledged that the earth was under the curse of God, and he expected that his son would bring rest or comfort. This he did by building the ark at God's command, carrying a few — eight souls — into a new world.
Lamech's own words come in the next verse: this son "shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands" (ESV). The promise has a limit.
You do get relief in a way afterwards. So Lamech named his son Noah. He said, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah has cursed." It does not say the curse was taken away; but there was comfort concerning it... The curse is not gone; but its effect was lessened.
Commentators differ on how far to press Lamech's confidence. Several read his "us" as the flaw in an otherwise sound hope.
Even in Noah's father, Lamech, we can detect a decline, though he speaks about God with reverence. Is he not, even in his name, sadly linked with Cain's line? He is another Lamech, a "strong man," not a man humbling himself before God. It is striking, too, that like his namesake in Cain's line, he also has his memorable saying...
Lamech's prophecy was true, then, about the "comfort" God had in store for man. It was false only in one thing: he applied it to a generation still alive, and the judgment cut them off before the blessing came.
Set beside Enoch's prophecy, Lamech's word still waits its turn.
Enoch's prophecy (Jude 14) spoke of judgment. It will have its answer, its full answer, when the present course of things is closing and the day of the Lord comes to convince the ungodly. Lamech's prophecy (Genesis 5:29) spoke of rest. It will be made good later. First the day of the Lord carries out the judgment; then the presence of the Lord brings its restoration and refreshing.
- Curse. Lamech names his son and admits the ground lies under God's curse. The hope starts with an honest look at the world.
- Comfort. The name means rest. The same root returns when the ark "rested" and when God smelled "a savour of rest." God answered the faith behind the name.
- Cost. The rest came only through Noah's long years of building the ark. That is a faint picture of the rest founded on Christ's sacrifice.
- Limit. The word promised comfort about the curse, not its removal. The effect eased; the curse stayed.
- Later. Lamech was right about the comfort and wrong about the generation. Judgment came first. The full rest waits for the presence of the Lord.
And he called his name Noah, saying, This [one] shall comfort us concerning our work and concerning the toil of our hands, because of the ground which Jehovah has cursed.
Chapter 5 runs through names and death dates until one father stops to speak: Lamech names his son and ties a hope to him. What did that name mean, and did the hope come true?
The name Noah carries the sense of rest. Lamech's words show a man weighed down by the ground he worked. The writers quoted here use older translations, where the verse reads "comfort us" instead of the ESV's "bring us relief."
The word first appears on the lips of Lamech as he named his son — Noah. What he said in Genesis 5:29 shows that he was feeling the sorrows of a cursed earth. He looked forward to something in which he could find rest or repose. That is what the name Noah means. Sadly, the world in Noah's day had not changed morally; it could give no comfort to the hearts of men.
A man can speak a true word without seeing how it will be kept.
Whatever Lamech's thoughts were in what he said about Noah, his words were prophetic, for God inspired them. Noah would "comfort us" or "give us rest from our works and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the Lord has cursed." We may be sure Lamech did not know how this would happen. The coming rest depended on Noah's long years of work in building the ark.
Set beside Enoch's prophecy of judgment, Lamech's saying supplies the other half of the picture.
Enoch speaks openly of the Lord's coming with tens of thousands of His saints. A heavenly portion only sharpens the sense of coming judgment on all. Lamech was given, though more dimly, to see in Noah the pledge of comfort for the earth, after the judgment of the living has done its work.
There is a difference between lifting a burden and easing it.
It does not say the curse was taken away, but there was comfort concerning it... In the garden Adam did not toil to get food. He ate the seed, and the animals ate the grass. Once he was driven out, he had to work hard for his food — "by the sweat of your face." After the flood, seed-time and harvest are certain, and farming has a kind of blessing on it: not the curse gone, but man comforted.
One writer ties the fulfilment to the offering Noah made, and then names its limit.
What suited then was a burnt-offering, of a sweet savour, or savour of rest... Now came, it would seem, the fulfilment of Lamech's word in calling his son Noah: "This same shall comfort us concerning our works and concerning the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed." Only Christ coming in power will remove the curse. In the meantime Noah brought relief and comfort for man in his toil.
The promise reaches further than Noah himself could carry it. One writer sees in him an advance portrait of Christ.
The prophecy spoken over Noah was this — "This shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed." This introduced Him as the remover of the curse from a corrupted earth. So He is the rest of those under sentence to eat of it and till it with pain and sweat... Here we see Christ, the true Noah, Heir of the new earth. In that day, as we read, "no longer will there be anything accursed," and all things in it are given into His hand.
Genesis has another Lamech, in Cain's line, with a saying of his own. One writer sets the two men side by side.
Like his namesake in Cain's line, this Lamech also has his memorable saying. The Lamech of Cain's line says he will go unpunished for his wrongdoing, arguing falsely from God's patience. This Lamech, on the very eve of judgment, speaks of comfort to a generation soon to be swept away by the flood... His prophecy was true, then, about the "comfort" God had in store for man. It was false only in applying it to a generation whose survivors the judgment cut off before the blessing came.
- Curse — Lamech names his son out of the sorrow of a ground under sentence, longing for rest from endless toil.
- Comfort — the name means rest, and the promise is real: not the curse cancelled, but man comforted in it.
- Cost — the rest Lamech named came only through Noah's long years of work on the ark.
- Correction — the word was true of God's purpose, but wrong about its timing. Judgment came first and swept that generation away.
- Christ — the full comfort waits for the true Noah, Heir of a new earth where there will be no more curse.