60 Years with Adam

And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years(Genesis 5.31)

I touched on this passage awhile back but it came to mind again Sunday as my coworker Shawn preached on this text as related to Noah’s walk with God. Some debate whether the men listed in this chapter of Moses’ first book really lived hundreds of years. In our fast paced world with all of its perils who would want to live 777 years? Not me!

I believe the Biblical record. I cannot imagine how a life nearly a millennia in length might have been but I believe that these people lived long.They were all pre-flood dwellers who were of a different constitution than you and me who begin to feel decrepit at 50.

As I thought on these things two interesting facts came into view. Adam lived to affect many generations. Two of the men he affected possibly died in the flood, Methuselah and Lamech. They were Noah’s grandfather and father respectively.

Genesis six tells us that Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. He was chosen to be the savior of mankind. Noah was given divine instructions to build a monstrosity in his front yard, fill it with thousands of species and then to climb aboard for the ride of his life. He was about 500 when he began the construction project with nary a Home-Depot in sight. As he built he preached righteousness to his generation. That generation would have included Methuselah and Lamech. Why didn’t they get into the boat? What kept them out?

They had walked with a man who had walked with God, Adam. They had produced a man that God chose to preserve the race. That man had preached to them for over a hundred years, yet they both died. Why?

Maybe you know because you have tried to share your faith with family. Family is often the hardest to talk to about spiritual matters. They don’t want to hear about your religion. You are the weirdo, the religious nut or fanatic.

Sunday, one of our teen came to me. He has been saved for just over five months now. He said, “I almost threw it all (my faith) in the trash recently! I wanted to go back into the world. But the minute that I said that… I felt so very SAD! Why did I feel that way pastor?”

Of course you know that Lucas was experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit convicting him of his sin. I wonder if Noah ever had the urge to quit building that stupidly ridiculous ship in his yard? I mean, come on a ship, in the front yard, hundreds of miles from any body of water! Talk about futile insanity.

Noah’s weirdness lasted not for five months, a year or ten. It lasted for ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS! You have GOT to be kidding me here!

Why was he SO dedicated? Because he was on a mission that his great great great great great great great grand father Adam had failed to accomplish. It was a mission of salvation from the consequence’s of Adam’s sin. All who accepted Noah’s message of righteousness would be saved from coming disaster. Those who didn’t would perish.

Unlike Adam all of Noah’s sons followed him into the protection of the ark. Eight souls saved in one hundred and twenty years doesn’t seem like many but it was enough to preserve the line of the coming Savior. Noah’s grand parents walked with Adam and died. Noah and his sons walked with God and lived. Who are you walking with?