Enoch, Methuselah and Lamech were the last patriarchs before Noah, in the genealogy of Genesis chapter five. Enoch is mentioned by the Apostle Jude as “Enoch … the seventh from Adam,” who prophesied of the judgment coming (Jude 1:14). That judgment was the flood, but Jude’s mention of it shows that the judgment then also applies to something future from Jude’s day. Also, Jesus in Matthew 24 uses the flood judgment to represent the judgments yet coming – first upon Judaism, a generation from the prophecy of our Lord, and second upon Christendom, during the Gospel Age harvest much later. It is that application which takes us to our day, and the judgments which close this age and introduce the Kingdom.

Enoch is famous for the ending of his life, for he did not die in a normal way. “Enoch walked with God: and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). When Paul refers to Enoch in the book of Hebrews, he says “by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death [in the normal way]; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5).

Enoch’s life even appears to have gained special notice also in the ancient records of Sumer, one of the early civilizations after the flood (the “Shinar” of Genesis 14:9). In one version of what is referred to as the Sumerian King list, there are 10 pre-flood patriarchs. In that list, the seventh one appears as “divine Dumuzi, a shepherd.” Notice the description “divine” – the only instance of this in the list, as though to mark his godliness in a special way. (Jacobsen, T., Sumerian King List, University of Chicago (1939), page 73).

ENOCH AS A PICTURE

The special taking of Enoch reminds us of Elijah, who was also taken in a special way. Elijah is often seen to picture the Church which continues to the end of the harvest, and is taken midst the fiery and tumultuous closing experiences of the age. The comparison of these two suggests Enoch may also be a picture of the Church class. That he is noted as the “seventh from Adam” suggests to us that Enoch has special meaning at the time of the seventh stage of the Church, the “seventh” from our heavenly Adam – that is, the seventh period of the Gospel Age – counting from Jesus who introduced the age with his life and ministry and death (compare 1 Corinthians 15:45).

Noah, son of Lamech

But there was a difference between Enoch and Elijah. Enoch was taken quietly, secretly, unobserved – whereas the taking of Elijah was widely anticipated, and occurred in dramatic fashion as Elisha witnessed a remarkable spectacle. We suggest that the difference in the pictures is that Enoch represents those of the Church who died in past ages, and were taken quietly, secretly, unobserved, in the first resurrection, at the return of Christ. Whereas Elijah represents those who are taken at the close of the harvest – by which time there is a general anticipation that the Church will be taken, with great events surrounding it, as the harvest comes to a climactic closure.

Even Enoch’s life span – long by our standards, but so much shorter than others of his time – blends into the picture of Enoch representing the Church. Enoch lived for 365 years, which all readily recognize as a number which d fines the sun – the solar year being 365 days in duration. The sun was used by our Lord Jesus in Matthew 13:43 to represent the saints in glory. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

METHUSELAH

Methuselah, the son of Enoch, contrasts sharply with his father – Enoch the shortest living of the patriarchs on record, Methuselah the longest living. Methuselah lived 969 years, still short of 1000, which seemed to be an upper limit suggested in Genesis 2:17 (comparing Psalms 90:4).

The name Methuselah incorporates two main parts – “Meth,” and “Selah.” The first refers to death, and the second means to pause. Why would a father introduce the thought of “death” in the name of a son? Recall that Enoch prophesied of the judgment to come, which at last fell at the time of the flood. “The Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all … their ungodly deeds … their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 1:15). When Enoch at age 65 had a young child, Methuselah, his thought naturally may have been, “Oh, that it might come after he is gone.” This may be the point of the name Methuselah – may the judgment pause, or wait, until he has died.

Three hundred years passed, and Enoch was taken.

Meanwhile, when Methuselah was 187 years old he had a son Lamech (Genesis 5:25). He would live another 782 years. Meanwhile Lamech had a son, Noah, at the age of 182 (Genesis 5:28) – so Methuselah had 600 years to live after that. But the 600th year of Noah’s life was when the flood arrived – which means that the last year of Methuselah, was the same as the year in which the flood began. Presumably Methuselah was a man of faith like his father Enoch, and his son Lamech, and grandson Noah – so he would not have died in the flood. Yet he was not on the ark. Therefore we conclude that he died naturally, shortly before the flood. In this way he fulfilled the prophetic name given him by Enoch, for the judgment of the flood was deferred until after the passing of Methuselah.

Spiritually, we suggest that Methuselah represents the saints who, like Elijah, continue to the end of the harvest. This class is also represented during the 10th plague upon Egypt – for the firstborn were passed over, or delivered, as the death angel was passing over Egypt and claiming the next generation of leaders to be. So just as Enoch and Elijah are distinguished as the saints taken at the outset of the harvest, from those who live to the close of the harvest, the same contrast appears in Enoch and Methuselah.

LAMECH

If the ages of Enoch and Methuselah were meaningful, notice the striking age of the next patriarch in the sequence – Lamech. He lived 777 years. If there is a picture here as in his predecessors, he also would represent a godly class –  presumably the Church class yet again. In the years of his life, 777, there is a clear contrast with the false church depicted in Revelation by the number 666.

Lamech lived well past Enoch, of course, but died a few years before the flood. By contrast with Enoch and Methuselah, Lamech may represent those saints who live into the harvest, but not to its close. Thus we have depicted all three classes of the saints – Enoch those who die before the Lord’s return and are raised quietly, unseen, in the opening of the harvest – Lamech those who live into this period but not to its close – Methuselah those who, like Elijah, are taken in the tumults closing the harvest.

There may be a further evidence also that Lamech represents those who finish their course during the harvest. Noah was born when Lamech was 182 years old, as mentioned above. That means he had 595 years left to live, of his total 777 years. But the flood was in the 600th year of Noah’s life – which means Lamech died five years shy of that time.

If we take into account these two numbers – 777 years of life, and 5 years before the flood – there may be a meaning which accords with Lamech representing those who live into the harvest. The product of those two numbers is 3885. If we now consider the time prophecies in Daniel which lead to the harvest – the 1260, 1290, and 1335 years which take us to 1874 – we find the sum of these years is the same number, namely 3885.

– Bro. David Rice

 

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