Men in the Bible: Methuselah – A Man of Opposites
Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. After he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died. – Genesis 5:25-27
The man in the Bible we shall be spotlighting today is Methuselah, the son of Enoch.
Methuselah was the typical antithetical man because he was sired by Enoch, who did not live long, considering the average length of years in his days. Enoch lived only 365 years in an era when the average life expectancy was 907.5 years. However, his son, Methuselah, on the other hand, went on to live for 969 years!
Methuselah’s longevity was the first antithesis about him, as he almost tripled his father’s total age. Therefore, if paternal factors were any consideration in the length of years of children, Methuselah defied those odds by going on to live significantly longer than his own father. There was his first antithesis.
Another intriguing thing about Methuselah was that, despite his long life, he seemed to have achieved so little. The major feat the Bible records about him was that “he had sons and daughters.” Surely, there is more to life than having sons and daughters.
Even though the average length of life in his days was more than 900 years, Methuselah had an advantage over all his forbears and his contemporaries in that he had more days, more weeks, more months and more years than everyone else to do whatever he chose to do or become whatever he wanted to become. Therefore, just stopping at having sons and daughters sounds like a poor utilization of his numerical advantage and a pathetic summation of his lifetime.
Someone said, “the beauty of a life is not in its length, but its contribution.” As far as Methuselah goes, that was not the kind of epitaph that would be written on his tomb, as his main contribution to the world was the addition of sons and daughters. While that is not bad in itself, it was a gross underutilization of his longevity and a poor management of the resources of time and whatever else he had at his disposal.
Another, paradoxical note about Methuselah is that, while he had a father who must have been an example of right living and piety to everyone in Enoch, there was no indication that Methuselah himself followed the footsteps of his father. Nothing was said about his lifestyle, actions, choices, decisions and other distinguishing aspects of a man’s life.
The only thing of note written about him was that he lived long and had children. He did not delight the heart of God like his father. There was also no indication that he continued the legacy of intimacy that his father had with God. The chain of intimacy with the divine appeared to end with him and was neither upheld by him nor passed on to his children. That is not a recommended way to be a parent. If we learn anything from Methuselah, it will be how not to live.
Selah!
Also read:
- Men in the Bible: The Man with the Longest Walk with God
- The Ordinance of Firstborn (5): A Different Kind of Firstborn
- Handling Life’s Storms
- Once Addicted to the World, now Addicted to the Word!
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