Genesis 5-7 Something Neat To Ponder

It’s so tempting to simply gloss over the family tree information in chapter 5, but not long ago I took the time to make a bar graph showing the lives of everyone listed here, using the actual years given in that chapter.  Here’s what I found:

Methuselah, the oldest man who ever lived, seems to have died in the year the flood began.  He was Noah’s grandfather.  Every person listed as an ancestor of Methuselah was alive during Methuselah’s life, including Adam (who lived another 243 years after Methuselah was born).  So Noah had at least 500 years to listen to his grandfather’s stories before Methuselah died!

Not only that – Adam’s son Seth appears to have died the same year Noah was born.  Adam’s grandson Enosh was alive for the first 98 years of Noah’s life!  Talk about being able to hear stories!

God regretted the terrible sinfulness of mankind and decided to destroy them:  “But Noah pleased God.”  One man had decided that God’s laws were worth keeping, and God took notice.  God called him “the most innocent man of his time” and God walked with him.  God determined to make an agreement with him, to save Noah and his family.  In other words, Noah obeyed and God blessed.

Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives (there were no grandkids yet), trusting God to protect them, made it through the flood in the ark.  Their journey inside the ark, through the death and destruction of the rest of humanity is often likened to our own experience of being hidden in Christ, Who takes us through death, safely bringing us out the other side, too.

Humanity rebooted at God’s command.  God didn’t give up on us, and He still left us with free will, despite what we’d done with it the previous time.  His love was that great.

Father, I’m nowhere near the innocence Noah must have had.  I wouldn’t have made it onto the Ark, yet as You personally closed the door, You were thinking about me and all the rest of us who are alive today as a result of Your watchcare.  Please help me to live worthy of that solemn boat ride, knowing that my family is depending on me to be a man after Your own heart as well.

Your Brother In Christ