THE connection of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, with the flood is very remarkable. First, he was one hundred and eighty-seven years old at the birth of Lamech his son: next, Lamech was one hundred and eighty-two when Noah was born: and lastly, between Noah's birth and the flood there were six hundred years: which three numbers, one hundred and eighty-seven, one hundred and eighty-two, six hundred, added together, amount to nine hundred and sixty-nine. Now if we turn to Gen. 5:2727And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. (Genesis 5:27), we find that this was the exact term of Methuselah's life-nine hundred and sixty-nine years: a fact which clearly proves that he lived to THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD; AND THEN DIED. Here however a question arises. Did he perish with the rest of mankind? Was he lost in the flood? To this we are ready to reply in the negative. The son of Enoch, the father of Lamech, and grandfather of Noah, the oldest man upon record in scripture, we naturally say, he surely was righteous; and though, unlike Enoch, he died, he did not die in the flood-he was not cut off in judgment. This however, though highly probable, is but an inference. We still therefore ask for positive proof of the fact. And this proof we have involved, as we find, in his name. The truth is, Enoch his father, in giving him a name, spoke prophetically; for the word METHUSELAH may be rendered, either "he dies, and it is sent," or "at his death he sends it," or again, "at his death shall be the breaking out;" showing that the flood could not come in his lifetime; that naught could touch him: and not only so, but that he in his own single person was a check on the forthcoming judgment. Thus we see that, not only in the days of Noah, who for one hundred and twenty years preached of the flood, was God bearing with man; but that from the sixty-fifth year of Enoch, when he began to walk with God, through the whole period of Methuselah's life, nine hundred and sixty-nine years, was He showing long suffering.
Here observe, that there is evidently a connection between Enoch's prophecy as to the flood, and that recorded in Jude, wherein he speaks of the Lord's coming in judgment. The flood, we know from Matt. 24, was a type of the judgment: therefore Enoch, in prophesying of the one, which he did when he gave a name to his firstborn son, must have had the other at the same time in view.