Our Scripture Of The Week Is:

Psalm 1:2 KJVS
[2] But his delight is in the law of the Lord ; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
This verse continues to describe the blessed man.

Whereas verse 1 takes a negative tone (Psalm 1:1), this strikes a positive tone. Verse 1 describes what the blessed man does not do, verse 2 describes what he does. As in verse 1, the context here applies to all people, not only males or men. The blessed person delights in the law of the Lord.

The Hebrew word translated "delight" is related to a word that can mean "to bend." The blessed person "bends" towards God. His or her inclination is to meditate on God's Word. Instead of letting the words of the ungodly influence one's thinking, a blessed person wants God's words to influence his or her life.

Reading and obeying the Scripture is extremely important to the blessed person. Such a person doesn't merely give God's Word a cursory reading or an occasional reading—he or she digs into it, whether it is daytime or nighttime. Worthwhile meditation does not require a person to empty his or her mind.

Scripture does not support the idea of self-emptying in meditation—godly meditation means filling the mind with Scripture. To meditate on Scripture involves pondering what the Bible teaches about God's character. It involves thinking deeply about what His Word teaches about ourselves and others.

As we meditate, we cherish the promises and precepts we find in the Bible, we heed its commands, we confront our sins and confess them, and we conform our thoughts to God's thoughts.
The blessed person is not influenced by the words of the ungodly, but is deeply influenced by God's words.

Our topic today is:

THE GENEALOGY OF ENOCH TO NOAH Discussion

Methuselah's status as the oldest person recorded in the Bible is the reason his name is often a punchline. Modern people sometimes jokingly refer to a very old person as "Methuselah."
At 969 years, Methuselah not only lived more than 200 years in parallel with Adam, he saw the world as it was just prior to the great flood.

The long lifespans of this chapter can be attributed to many possible effects. The earth of this era would have been free from most diseases and pollution. Nearly perfectly-clean air, food, and water would have been the norm. And, humanity had not yet suffered the effects of long-term genetic decay.

So, given that both human biology and human environments were "brand new," it's not shocking to imagine people surviving to extraordinary old age. Even today, modern biology suggests that length of life is far more influenced by biology and environment than anything else: living things die because of corruption. In some respects, Methuselah's story is just like the others recorded in this genealogy.

His story ends with the common phrase, "and he died." He is said to have fathered many sons and daughters. However, there are some aspects of his life which are remarkable. Among these, of course, are his long life, and the unusual fate of his father, Enoch (Genesis 5:24). Methuselah also outlives his son, Lamech, who will die five years before him.

Methuselah's name has a dual interpretation. It can be taken to mean "man of the dart," or "his death brings judgment." As it turns out, according to the ages given in this chapter, Methuselah will die in the same year as the flood.
This, combined with the fact that Methuselah was born prior to the death of Adam, is especially important.
Right up the point of destruction, mankind still had access to (at worst) second-hand accounts of the origins of our entire race.
Genesis chapter 6 describes humanity at the end of Methuselah's life as deeply depraved (Genesis 6:5).
And yet, the history of mankind was not lost or obscure.
There were men and women walking the earth who had seen, personally, what had happened in the past, and who God was.
This makes the depth of sin during Noah's era all the more tragic.
What's also intriguing about Methuselah are questions about his life, and his character.
Clearly, most of his children were not followers of God—only his grandson Noah would be rescued by God.
Strictly speaking, we don't know anything about Methuselah or his relationship with God.
He might have been devout like his father, or he might not.
The fact that he dies in the same year as the flood could even mean he was killed by it.
We simply do not know.

Lamech is the ninth generation from Adam, despite being born many hundreds and hundreds of years after Adam.
Using the ages given in this chapter, Adam was still alive when Lamech was nearly sixty years old!
That's an important part of the context of this passage.
The next chapter will describe mankind as deeply depraved, causing God to send the flood (Genesis 6:5).
Clearly, humanity could not blame their sins on forgetfulness, or having lost their heritage.
At the time of the flood, there would have been men and women alive who personally knew Adam, or his sons and daughters.
The evil of mankind was not because we had forgotten about God, but because we had chosen to reject Him.
This verse also breaks the normal pattern of the chapter, adding Lamech's prophetic comments about his son, Noah, in the next verse.
Lamech is the first of the patriarchs to actually "die" before his father.
While his grandfather, Enoch, was only on earth for 365 years, he was taken by God prior to death.
Lamech will die at the age of 777, five years before his father, Methuselah.

Verse 29 introduces the second major patriarch in the book of Genesis: Noah.
Lamech's comments in this verse show a strong contrast between the lineage of Seth, and that of Cain.

One of Cain's descendants was also named "Lamech," but he is recorded as bragging about his sin (Genesis 4:23–24).
The Lamech described here, a descendant of Seth, is mourning the struggles humanity has faced since the fall.
This results in him giving his son the name Noah, which sounds very much like the Hebrew word for "rest or comfort."
In addition, Lamech speaks a prophecy about his son: Out of the cursed ground, Noah would bring relief from the painful work and toil of his people's hands.
Perhaps Lamech just meant that Noah would bring relief from God's curse on men by sharing in the painful work of getting crops from the ground.
We don't know what Lamech had in mind.
What God had in mind for Noah's lifetime, though, would bring a very specific kind of relief to the world in the form of a devastating flood that would wipe out the effects of so much human sin.

As with most of the other men listed in this chapter, verses 30 and 31 describe Lamech as having additional children, and then passing away.
According to the numbers given in this passage, Lamech lived 595 more years after Noah was born.
Since we're told in Genesis 7:6 that Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came on the earth, this means Lamech died just 5 years before the flood.
As with Methuselah, there is a sad aspect to reading about Lamech's many children.
One way or another, only Noah, his wife, and their family would be rescued from the flood.
The rest of Lamech's offspring will not survive.
One also has to wonder how Lamech felt about the state of mankind.
According to Genesis 6:5, the human race was rapidly decaying into horrific evil.
And yet, men like Lamech had lived on earth at the same time as men like Adam and Seth.
The contrast between these eras would have been especially clear to someone like him.

At 777 years old, Lamech's lifespan is more than one hundred years shorter than any of his fathers, dating back to Adam.
The only exception is his grandfather, Enoch, who did not die.
Was this a gift of mercy to Noah?
We don't know, since the details of this passage are few and far between.
However, looking at the ages given in this passage, Lamech lived 595 years after fathering Noah.
The floodwaters came on the earth when Noah was 600 years old (Genesis 7:11).
And so, Noah would have had the comfort of knowing that his father would not be killed in the flood that would take so many other lives.
The passing of Lamech and his father, Methuselah, also marks a sad occasion for the human race.
With their deaths come the end, in a general sense, of those who walked the earth at the same time as Adam and Seth.
At least among the names of this chapter, Lamech is the last to be born prior to death of Seth.
Noah, on the other hand, was born just after these men departed.
In a very literal sense, humanity after the flood would have to live, for the first time, without any direct memories of our earliest ancestors.

This chapter of genealogy ends with the birth of three more sons.
The quick, detail-free nature of this chapter is on full display here, as we are only given the rough age when Noah fathered these particular sons.
We are not told specifically how old Noah was when each of his sons were born, only that they were all born after he was 500 years old.
This is not meant to imply that they were triplets, or that Noah's wife had all three within a twelve-month span.
For the purposes of the story, all that matters is knowing that, around that age, Noah had the three offspring who would accompany him on the ark.

Interestingly, Noah is the first patriarch who is not explicitly described as having other sons and daughters.