Because “the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5), God determined to send His Divine judgement upon His creation. He would destroy the world with a devastating flood.
Long before the flood, God He revealed His plan to one man. As Enoch, in the seventh generation, walked with God, God whispered His intentions to His faithful servant. “Enoch.” God must have said, “because man has rejected Me and rebelled against My plan and purpose, I’m going to send flooding waters to cover the earth and destroy My creation.”
God even told Enoch when the floods would eventually occur. “Enoch, you will soon have a child. Name him Methuselah.” Some scholars believe the name Methuselah means, “in the year that he dies, it will be sent.” The flood would come in the year that his son died.
The Bible says, “after he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three-hundred years” (Genesis 5:22). Of course he walked with God. Every day he wondered about the health and wellbeing of his son. On the days that Methuselah was sick, he wondered if God’s destructive judgement might soon fall upon the world. Every morning and evening, for three hundred years, Enoch knew what was coming.
But God’s patience is pictured by the long life of Methuselah’s nine-hundred-sixty-nine years. “The Lord is … longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV)
Now, do a little mathematical exercise… add up the numbers in the fifth chapter of Genesis. Methuselah died in the year that God sent the flood. “In the year that he dies, it will be sent.” God kept His promise!
We know that Jesus is coming to rapture the church and send a great tribulation upon His rebellious creation. He promised. It’s been more than two-thousand years since Jesus declared His unalterable plan, but I presume that His patience is wearing thin. Obviously, God sees “that human wickedness (is) widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind (is) nothing but evil all the time.”
Jesus is coming. Are we living in anticipation of His return? Are we walking with God?
“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).
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