Enoch
“And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:23, 24).
Though Enoch lived for the remarkable length of 365 years, by the standards of his day his lifespan was relatively brief. His father Jared would live for 962 years, and Enoch’s son Methuselah would live for 969 years. Enoch was taken in a special way, as a testimony to his faith and devotion to God.
The text above says that “Enoch walked with God,” as an explanation for his being taken. This expression is used twice of Enoch, in verses 22 and 24, and otherwise appears one time only: Noah was “a just man and … Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9).
It is a common view that Enoch represents the saints who also “walk with God” in a life endeavoring to express godliness. Enoch’s lifespan of 365 years connects him to the symbol of the sun, for a solar year is 365 days, apparently then as it is now. Several times in the Scriptures the symbol of the Sun is linked to the Church.
- Revelation 12:1 — the woman was clothed with the sun
- Matthew 13:43 — the Church will shine as the sun in the Kingdom
- Daniel 12:1-3 — the Church will shine as the brightness of the firmament
- Revelation 19:17 — an angel standing in the sun represents the Church complete.
The distinction between Enoch and Elijah (one taken quietly, secretly, unannounced, and the other taken with great anticipation amid commotion and spectacle) perhaps is the difference between the saints raised quietly at the return of Christ (Enoch), and those raised at the end of the harvest, taken amid the great commotion of the final judgments impending on the old world before the Kingdom is established.
METHUSELAH
The next patriarch was Methuselah, who lived 969 years. A little computation shows that Methuselah’s last year was the same as the year in which the flood came. Methuselah was 187 when Lamech was born, Lamech was 182 when Noah was born, and the flood came in year number 600 of Noah’s life. The sum of these — 187, 182, 600 — is 969 years, which means year number 969 was the year during which the Flood began. But the same number also measures the years of Methuselah. Thus Methuselah’s final year was also the year of the Flood.
The name Methuselah probably expresses this point. It is made of two parts, Math, from Mathay, which Strong’s Concordance says means “to extend … time,” and shelach, from shalach, which Strong’s says is “a primitive root; to send … in a great variety of applications.” In other words, God would “send” something after an extension of time. Probably what Enoch had in mind with this name, is that God’s judgment would be sent after the time of Enoch’s young boy, Methuselah.
In any case, that is what occurred. God’s judgment of the Flood came in the year of Methuselah’s passing. We presume that Methuselah died early in that year, before the Flood came about midway in the second month. Otherwise Noah might have been expected to beckon his grandfather Methuselah to come into the ark with them.
Apparently Enoch knew that a judgment against his world was impending, because this is reflected by the Apostle Jude, in Jude 14, 15. “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied … Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
This prophecy is not recorded in the Old Testament. However, it is recorded in a Jewish writing extant in Jude’s day, called The Book of Enoch. Evidently the prophecy that Jude refers to was something circulating in Jewish culture, perhaps passed down from long ago, even though the writing itself is “estimated to date from about 300 BC” in its earliest parts (Wikipedia).
Commentaries also note that Jude 9 refers to something that another Jewish book of his time contains. The book was called The Assumption of Moses, and refers to an incident after the death of Moses when “Michael the archangel [was] contending with the devil … about the body of Moses.” It is interesting to observe that as Moses represents Jesus, and Enoch represents the Church, in both cases there was a special taking away of the body, something God arranged specially due to the faith of each.
Recall also that the body of Jesus was absent from the tomb, missing, never located, just as with the body of Moses. The taking of Enoch so that his body was not found parallels what happened with Elijah, another picture of the saints, whose body also was not found. Perhaps the lesson in each case is that God has arranged for a heavenly reward in each case, as indicated by the absence of any fleshly remains, because their future hopes (represented by bones) are heavenly, rather than earthly.
Methuselah, like Elijah, we think represents the saints taken at the end of the harvest. Today in the Christian world there is an expectation that we are in the period of history when the Church class will be taken. Among brethren, who are better informed concerning prophecy and events, there is also such an expectation. Most all brethren recognize that being in the latter stage of the Harvest, or closing period of the Gospel Age, we may have a generation or so remaining before the taking to glory of the last remaining saints.
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, represents the saints.
LAMECH
If Enoch represents the saints taken quietly after the return of Christ, and Methuselah represents those living to the end of the harvest, then what of those who live into the parousia, but not to its end? That includes a large number of brethren, inasmuch as the harvest has extended now for 144 years so far, with more years expected.
Perhaps these are represented by Lamech, the son of Methuselah. Lamech lived for 777 years. This number, like the 365 of Enoch, is a striking one. It reminds us of the famous 666 number in Revelation 13:18, which represents the false church. By comparison, 777, a purer and better number in symbolism, represents the true Church. Lamech was born when Methuselah was 187 years old. This means that Lamech passed away 5 years before the Flood (969 minus 187 minus 777 = 5 years).
The number five represents the New Creation, as for example in the five wise virgins of Matthew 25:1, the five posts at the entrance of the holy, and the 5000 at the first feeding of the multitudes. So it is a fitting number to associate with Lamech, if Lamech pictures the Church.
If we take both of these numbers into consideration, using the product of 777 x 5, we get a large but meaningful number. It is 3885. That probably does not trigger a recollection from the scriptures at first. However, it is the sum of three well known prophetic periods that appear in Daniel chapter 12, as leading toward the return of Christ, and the raising of the saints. Namely, the 1260, 1290, and 1335 days of Daniel. The sum of these three numbers is — 3885. We think this is a numerical connector to the “Lamech” class, those of the Church who live into the time marked by these three time prophecies. Lamech represents those who live into, or within, the Harvest, but not to its close.
Thus the three patriarchs before the Flood represent all of the saints — those who died before the return of Christ, those who complete their course during the harvest, and those who are “taken” at the close of the harvest.
EVERLASTING JUDGMENT
The Flood was intended to check the downward progress of mankind. It also was a means of alerting mankind, then and always, to the fact that ultimately there will be a final judgment for every individual, a lasting judgment, that will be final, either for eternal life, or everlasting death. It is vital for mankind to recognize the importance of final judgment. The devastating loss at the time of the Flood serves to underscore the issue of divine judgment in an intense way, helping to seal in the mind of every attentive soul, the vital necessity for personal reformation and godliness.
Peter refers to “the longsuffering of God [who] waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing” (1 Peter 3:20). That was indeed long suffering. As shown above, the judgment of the Flood was impending for at least the lifespan of Methuselah, 969 years, which was only 31 years shy of a full 1000 years.
THE NEPHILIM
During those years before the Flood, Genesis 6:2 says that “the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they choose … There were giants [nephilim] in those days; and also after that [later in this period, but still before the Flood], when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old.”
These “sons of God” evidently were fallen angels (compare Job 1:6). That is the construction that seems to be put upon this experience both by Peter and Jude (1 Peter 3:19, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6). The Hebrew term nephilim (Strong’s 5303) means “a feller, i.e. a bully or tyrant,” indicating the character of these progeny of the hybrid children that were an unauthorized mixture from materialized angels, and women from Adam’s race whom the fallen angels cohabited with. Though Genesis 6:2 speaks of things as from a human point of view, it is unlikely that the motivation for the fallen angels was physical attraction, as much as perhaps stimulating vigor into a population that they could exercise control over, and thus have something of a dominion. Being unauthorized of God, their progeny, who would have died in the flood, evidently will not be raised. The fallen angels themselves could simply dematerialize, but were prevented from any further such conduct by the metaphorical “chains of darkness” put upon them thereafter.
The word nephilim appears twice after the Flood referring to large and formidable foes of the Israelites (Numbers 13:33). Apparently these also were men of strength and ill will. But these were sons of Anak, a local resident, and would not have been the sons of fallen angels.
Evidently the judgment against the earlier nephilim, who were from fallen angels,1 was in view when God told Enoch of the coming judgment. This indicates that these nephilim were extant in early in Enoch’s days. For Enoch was 65 years of age when his son Methuselah was born, and his name reflects the judgment impending. The Book of Enoch says that some of these “descended [in the days] of Jared,” the father of Enoch (chapter six, verse six). We do not credit various things in this apocryphal writing,2 but this testimony would be at least consistent with what we deduce from Genesis.
THE SEVENTH FROM ADAM
Jude refers to Enoch as the “seventh from Adam,” and counting the generations listed in Genesis chapter five also shows that Enoch was the seventh, beginning with Adam as the first. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:45-47 tells us that Adam, our first life-giver, was a picture of Jesus as our second life-giver. “The second man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:47).
If Enoch represents those risen after the return of Christ, at the beginning of the seventh stage of the Gospel Age, which began with Jesus, then Enoch being the “seventh” from Adam connects with the saints who were taken when the “seventh” stage from our heavenly Adam, arrived.
THE JUDGMENT OF THE FLOOD
Other than those who boarded the ark, the entire world, all humans and also all nephilim, were carried away by the Flood. When Peter and Jude referred to impending judgment, they wrote at a time not long from the end of the Jewish system. For 40 years, more or less, God had withheld judgment, but it would fall. Jesus said of that judgment, that “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34).
These passages have a deeper fulfillment in our day, of a final judgment of this world, introducing the Kingdom of Christ. It has proved to be longer than a single literal generation. Perhaps the “generation” in this case in- tended to take us to the beginning of the time of trouble in 1914. Or perhaps “this generation” refers to the entire Church class, the “children which God hath given” Jesus (Hebrews 2:13).3 Or perhaps that part of Jesus’ words applied to the immediate judgment waiting in his days, but does not carry forward to our day.
In any case, every evidence is that the judgments of God are in progress, and it seems clear from the advance of events that once more we can say, the present generation will not pass before the final judgments introduce the Kingdom of Christ. God has been “longsuffering” in each case. But God is “not slack concerning his promise,” as we might count it concerning men. The reason for any seeming delay [for there is no actual delay in God’s plans] is that God “is longsuffering to upward” (2 Peter 3:9). Every one of God’s people living today, and walking the Narrow Way of sacrifice, can give thanks for the extended time. It gives us further opportunity for living a God-fearing life, and following the path of Jesus as our example of virtue, before the closing of our heavenly calling.
However — the time approaches. Armageddon is at hand. Our best judgment is that five of Revelation’s “seven last plagues” have come and gone, and the sixth is impending, perhaps within a decade or so. This will take some time to unfold. Judging by Exodus 12:29, the firstborn class will be “passed over” from death to life, just before, or about the time, that the last plague is released.
In the Elijah picture, we have seen since 1914 and the outbreak of the “time of trouble,” the winds of war through 1945, the “earthquake” breaking up the former colonial powers through 1989 with the release of several Soviet satellite nations, and the “fire” of Islamic insurgency that evidently will continue to stir the scene until the final conflict.
Brethren have long believed the Kingdom would be established “soon.” The time has been extended. But the extension of time also gives us more milestones to observe in the further unfolding of prophecy. The time is indeed nearing.
— Br. David Rice
(1) An editor’s suggestion: “or maybe the nephilim are fallen ones of Adamic stock, while the sons of angels are the “men of renown.”
(2) An editor’s comment: “especially after chapter 11.”
(3) An editor’s comment: “A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation” (Psalms 22:30) suggests that the 144,000 are all sons of the same Father and are therefore one generation.