The numbers of God’s grace

In the book of Genesis, Moses states that the oldest person in history died in 969. His name was Methuselah.

Methuselah had a lineage of spirit giants. His father was Enoch, one of only two people in scripture who never died. Moses simply says that Enoch walked with God and “then he wasn’t” because God took him away. Enoch was so righteous that he did not die, something that only applies to one other person, Elijah.

Methuselah’s grandson was one of the best known people in all of history. We are told that when his grandson Noah was born, Methuselah was 369 years old.

These numbers are not that mysterious, nor are they recorded for informational purposes only. It is important to remember that Enoch was a prophet and, as a prophet, had revelation of things to come. In that revelation, he purposely named his son “Methuselah” for reasons that will become apparent.

Genesis 7: 6 tells us that Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. If Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born, that means Methuselah was 969 years old when the flood came.

To reiterate, Methuselah was 969 years old when the waters fell on earth, and Methuselah was 969 years old when he died. Methuselah died when the flood came. Herein lies the image of God’s grace.

The word Methuselah means “when I die, the flood will come.” People often think of Noah preaching about the coming flood, but in reality, long before his message, there was the person of Methuselah, a living, breathing metaphor for people to see, a spiritual image of the call to trust the grace of God and turning from sin. .

God proclaimed that there was a consequence of sin, the flood, but He also said that if people turned away from sin they would be saved. How much time did you give people to recognize this message? He gave them 969 years to see, watching Methuselah century after century.

Peter sums it up like this: “God is not slow in fulfilling his promise (the end of time). He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but for everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3: 9). .

Why hasn’t Jesus returned yet after 2000 years? So that people can turn to God for forgiveness. Why did the flood take almost a thousand years to arrive? So that people could turn to God for forgiveness.

God said, “when he dies, he will come.” Methuselah did not die at 20, nor at 75, nor at 500, he died at 969. It is a picture of mercy. From the beginning of the scriptures to the end of the scriptures, we find the answer to the chaos of the world in one word, grace.