When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he begat a son giving him the name Methuselah (5:22). The name Methuselah has a prophetic significance. It means "when he is dead it shall be sent." That was a prophecy of the deluge. By naming his son Methuselah, Enoch prophesied of the coming judgment of the deluge. Undoubtedly he did this by the Spirit of God. He received God's revelation and did not set His will aside. He was inspired with the divine will and learned of the coming judgment upon the entire ungodly generation. I believe that the prophecy recorded by Jude has a double fulfillment. Enoch might have believed that the judgment of the deluge was the Lord's coming with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon the ungodly. However, this prophecy of his, like others in the Old Testament, has a double fulfillment. The first fulfillment by the coming of the deluge was a prefigure of the second fulfillment by the Lord's second coming as referred to in Jude. If Enoch had not prophesied of the Lord's second coming, Jude would not have mentioned it. By Enoch's prophecy we can realize that he learned that God was going to execute His judgment upon the ungodly generation. Thus, he named his son Methuselah, indicating thereby that when his son died, God's judgment would be sent.
Enoch begat Methuselah at the age of sixty-five. Therefore, Enoch's prophecy regarding the flood was uttered when he was sixty-five years of age. Thereafter, day and night, Enoch was expecting the fulfillment of that prophecy, and that expectation caused him to walk with God. Although the whole generation and everything in it was ungodly, he himself did not dare to be ungodly. He was holy and walked with God, hoping to be saved from God's judgment. Enoch held on to this expectation for three hundred years. Nevertheless, the judgment did not come during that period of time. It was not to come until nine hundred sixty-nine years after Methuselah was born.
The flood came in the year that Methuselah died. Methuselah begat Lamech at the age of one hundred eighty-seven (5:25), and Lamech begat Noah when he was one hundred eighty-two (5:28). When Noah was six hundred years old, the deluge was sent (7:11). If we add these three figures together, we arrive at a total of nine hundred sixty-nine years, the age at which Methuselah died. The deluge came nine hundred sixty-nine years after Enoch prophesied regarding it. It occurred, as was prophesied, in the year Methuselah died. If Enoch had remained on the earth until the actual time of the deluge, he would have waited nine hundred sixty-nine years. But, he only had to wait three hundred years, for God seemed to say, "Enoch, it is good enough. I will not leave you on earth to exhaust your patience. Come with Me and stay with Me." And Enoch was taken up. Hebrews 11:5 indicates that after he was taken, people looked for him, but could not find him.
In a sense, I love Methuselah. In another sense, I do not love him, because he lived too long. He had the longest life of anyone recorded in the Bible. To live such a long time would surely exhaust our patience. So we pray, "Lord, come quickly." Although the Lord told us that He is coming quickly (Rev. 22:7, 12, 20), over nineteen hundred years have passed, and He still has not come. There is a principle here and it is this: our natural patience must be exhausted. If you are awaiting the Lord's coming in your natural patience, you will be disappointed and exhausted. Forget about the matter of time and simply walk with God. With Him, a thousand years are as one day. If you say, "Lord Jesus, it is too long," He will say, "It has not been two days yet. To Me, a thousand years are as one day. Why are you so impatient? You are impatient because you don't walk with Me. If you walk with Me, if you have Me with you, you won't care for the time. The earth will be the same as heaven because when you have Me, you are in heaven."
The most crucial matter that is revealed in Genesis 5 concerning our living is that we need to walk with God. In order to walk with God we must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder. We also must believe in His Word. Then we need to seek Him out, live according to His Word, follow Him, and walk with Him by faith. Eventually, we shall be taken up. We shall be raptured to escape death—the ultimate issue of man's fall. Hallelujah!
The genealogy of the saved ones recorded in Genesis 5 ends in a very promising way. It concludes with the name of Noah, which means "comfort" or "rest" (5:28-32). With the birth of Noah, the family of salvation finds comfort and rest. The family of the saved people is not a family without hope; it is a family full of comfort. This means that the family of Noah is full of expectation, comfort, and rest.