Enoch was the first person to prophesy in the Bible. Genesis 5:21 says, “Enoch lived sixty-five years and begot Methuselah.” Methuselah means “when he is dead, it will be sent.” This name is an important prophecy concerning the coming of God’s judging flood on that ungodly generation at the time of Methuselah’s death. By naming his son Methuselah, Enoch prophesied of the coming of the flood to destroy the living things on the earth.
Methuselah begot Lamech when he was one hundred eighty-seven years old (v. 25), and Lamech begot Noah when he was one hundred eighty-two years old (vv. 28-29). The flood came when Noah was six hundred years old (7:11). Thus, the flood came when Methuselah was nine hundred sixty-nine years old, that is, the year that he died. Therefore, by naming his son Methuselah, Enoch prophesied concerning the flood that came in the year that Methuselah died.
After knowing God’s will, Enoch prophesied concerning the flood when he was sixty-five years old. This must have caused him to anticipate the fulfillment of the prophecy and thus walk with God daily. Even though that generation and everything in it was ungodly, Enoch separated himself to walk with God. Finally, he was delivered from God’s judgment and was taken by God to be an overcomer in that age.
Like many other prophecies in the Old Testament, Enoch’s prophecy has a double fulfillment. The coming of the flood was the first fulfillment. Jude 14-15 is the second fulfillment of Enoch’s prophecy. Verse 14 says, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied also of these, saying, Behold, the Lord came with myriads of His saints.” The Lord’s coming in this verse must refer to the manifestation of the Lord’s parousia (coming) as spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Matthew 24:27, 30; and Zechariah 14:4-5. The saints referred to in Jude 14 probably include, as in Zechariah 14:5, the saints (1 Thes. 3:13) and the angels (Matt. 16:27; 25:31; Mark 8:38). Enoch prophesied that when the Lord Jesus returns, He will come with myriads of His saints. The “saints” in Jude 14 are in contrast to the “ungodly” in verse 15, who will be convicted. Enoch’s prophecy must have influenced his living and caused him to live a godly and holy life by faith in midst of an ungodly generation. Enoch walked with God for three hundred years (Gen. 5:22).
According to the record of Genesis, after the flood Noah became the leader on the new land and the father of all mankind on the earth. When Noah and his family came out of the ark to start a new living, the first thing they did was to build an altar and offer sacrifices to God (8:20-22). Noah’s offering satisfied God, so “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the terror of you shall be upon every animal of the earth and upon every bird of heaven, on everything that creeps on the ground and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered...Be fruitful and multiply; / Abound on the earth and multiply in it” (9:1-2, 7). Noah and his family were brought back to God’s original purpose, which is to express God and represent God. Noah became the father and the leader of all mankind, and all living things were given into his hands. God also made Noah His deputy authority on the earth.
As the father and leader of all mankind, undoubtedly Noah was under God’s blessing. Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard (v. 20). He was successful in this because the vineyards produced grapes from which wine was made. At this time, he should have exercised self-control, but on the contrary, he was loose and became drunk. He was not only loose, but he was careless, becoming naked in his tent without realizing it (v. 21). This was his failure. Because Noah was not covered properly before God, his nakedness was seen by his son Ham. After seeing the nakedness of his father, Ham, the father of Canaan, told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it upon their shoulders, and they walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward so that they did not see their father’s nakedness (vv. 22-23).