The Bible sets forth Noah as a positive example for the “last days.” The Apostle Peter wrote about “the last days” in his Second Epistle (2Pet 3: 3). He was referring to the time in which he and his readers were living.1Dramatic changes were about to take place in the world that they knew. Roman armies were going to invade Israel, a brutal war was going to take place, the Temple in Jerusalem was going to be destroyed, and those who had rejected the Lord Jesus were going to be punished.
The world was a wicked place then. Sexual immorality was rampant. People’s minds were focused on acquiring goods, achieving status, and living in pleasure (2Pet 2: 14). And the ecclesia was being invaded by worldly thinking (2Pet 2: 2).
Peter did not want his readers to be caught unprepared by the changes that were coming. So, as part of his message, he reminded them about the lives of several Old Testament characters. They were men who had lived in the last days of their societies and had been righteous during challenging times. Peter wanted his readers to consider their example and to follow it.
Peter’s words are incredibly relevant to us. The days in which we are living are quite similar to those in which he wrote. The Bible calls our time “the latter days” in places like Ezekiel 38 and Daniel 2.3
Walking with God
Genesis 5: 22 states, “Enoch walked with God.” Genesis 5: 24 repeats the phrase for emphasis. It is an amazing assessment, which is also applied to Noah in Genesis 6: 9. Amos 3: 3 elaborates on what it means: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” So, if Enoch and God “walked together,” they must have been in agreement. But what was it that they agreed on? Consider the options. Did they both agree that Enoch’s way was right or that God’s way was right? It must be the latter. Enoch agreed with God’s purpose, His principles, and His commandments.
Agreeing that God’s way is right is fundamental to the character of a righteous person. It means acknowledging that the events of our lives are under God’s control and that the difficult things that happen to us are for our spiritual wellbeing and ultimate good. It also means recognizing that God’s commands are wise and that we should strive to keep them, even when doing so is challenging.
Unfortunately, however, many of the people of Enoch’s day stopped walking with God and took a different path. In our next article, we will consider the fall of the sons of God and one of the fundamental reasons behind it.
- See Acts 2: 17, Hebrews 1: 2, and James 5: 3.
- The specific references are Ezekiel 38: 16 and Daniel 2: 28. See also Hosea 3: 5.
That is because dramatic changes are about to take place in the world that we know. An army from a new type of Rome is going to invade Israel, a brutal war is going to take place, and those who reject the Lord Jesus are going to be punished: “And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes” (Ezek 38:16).
Given the similarities between our time and his, it is especially important for us to think about the examples of those men who Peter identified as being worthy of emulation. Their stories offer us guidance and hope as we strive to serve God in this age that is quickly coming to an end because of its ever-increasing wickedness.
One of the people that Peter set forth as a positive example was Lot (2Pet 2: 7-8). The other person was Noah: “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly” (2Pet 2:5). In this series of articles, we are going to consider lessons we can learn from the life of Noah, “a preacher of righteousness.”
“The days of Noah”
Peter must have been thinking about the words of the Lord Jesus as he wrote about Lot and Noah under inspiration. The Lord had spoken about the two of them during his ministry. He had said that the world would be like the times in which they had lived prior to the Roman invasion of Israel and again at his Second Coming: “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17: 26-30).
So, what were the days of Noah like? He was born 1,056 years after the creation of Adam. Adam died during the life of Noah’s father, Lamech, 126 years before the birth of Noah. And Adam died knowing that there was a judgment coming.
When Adam was 687, his descendant, Enoch, had a son. Enoch was a prophet (Jude 14), and he named his son “Methuselah,” which means “when he dies, it shall be sent.” That “it” is a reference to the Flood. Methuselah died at the age of 969, which was 1,656 years after Creation. That was the year that the Flood took place. So, the name that Enoch gave his son is the first recorded prophecy about the coming of the Flood.
Methuselah’s name also provides a wonderful demonstration of the long-suffering of God. The prophecy contained in his name revealed that judgment would come at the end of his life. So, it is remarkable to note that Methuselah had the longest life of any person ever to have lived. His astonishing longevity is certainly an indicator of God’s great willingness to give people the opportunity to turn from their ways and escape judgment. It shows how much God wants people to avail themselves of the forgiveness that He offers. According to Rotherham’s rendering of 1Pet 3:20, “the longsu$ering of God was holding forth a welcome” during that time.
Two Families of People
Yet although God was longsuffering, he was not slack concerning His promise that judgment would come. Adam was probably not surprised by Enoch’s warning. He surely must have been aware that he had given rise to two families of people and that they had very different characters. On the one hand, there was Adam’s son, Seth, and his descendants. Even though their lives were long, they realized the inherent weakness of their flesh, so they looked to God for strength. The Bible records that Seth’s descendants began “to call upon the name of Yahweh” in the days of his son, Enos: “And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord” (Gen 4:26). “Enos” means “mortal man,” a name that Seth gave him as a reminder of man’s need for God and the necessity of serving Him.
Then there was the line of Adam’s son, Cain, and his descendants. They disregarded the commandments of God and focused instead on getting wealth, pleasure, and status in this world. Cain was the first murderer. Not only did his descendants follow in his footsteps, but they also added to his wickedness. The character of Cain’s descendants is epitomized by Lamech, the sixth generation from Cain. (Note that this Lamech is different from Noah’s father, who was a descendant of Shem.) Lamech was a polygamist. He is the first person recorded in the Bible as having two wives: “And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah” (Gen 4:19). He was also a murderer. But unlike Cain, he expressed no sense of acknowledgement that what he had done was wrong. Instead, he bragged about it: “Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me” (Gen 4:23,ESV). Lamech said that what he had done was justified by revenge: a young person had hurt him, so he killed him.
In his boast, Enoch made reference to the promise that anyone who slew Cain for killing Abel would suffer a 7-fold vengeance at the hand of God (Gene 4:15). But Lamech proclaimed that anyone who tried to punish him would receive a 77-fold vengeance at his own hand: “If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold” (Gen 4:24).
There is an interesting echo of Lamech’s words in the New Testament. In Matthew 18, Peter asked the Lord how many times he should forgive someone for sinning against him: “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times (Matt 18:21-22, NIV). In his response, the Lord was teaching that we should be generous in our forgiveness of others. But “seventy-seven” is not just a large number. It might a way of stating that our attitude towards others should be the exact opposite of Lamech’s. If someone wrongs us, we should not seek to avenge ourselves as he did. Instead, our response should be to forgive. Lamech threatened 77-fold vengeance; the Lord calls on us to give 77-fold forgiveness.
But in the years before the Flood, the way of Lamech was picked up by others. And the way of God was forsaken. The world became a violent place. In characterizing the time before the Flood, Genesis 6:11 records: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence”. This idea is repeated two verses later for emphasis: (Verse 13) “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth”. Man is made in the image of God; therefore, He abhors the violent acts that people commit against each other. We live in an age of incredibly realistic media, and we should bear in mind God’s displeasure with bloodshed in the movies that we watch and the video games that we play.
Methuselah’s father, Enoch, was contemporary with Lamech. Jude describes Enoch as the seventh from Adam (through Seth). Lamech was the seventh from Adam (through Cain). It is likely that Enoch’s prophecy that Jude quotes was first directed against Lamech and those like him: “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him’ ” (Jude 14-15, NKJV).
It is easy to imagine that Lamech would not have liked Enoch’s message, and he might have tried to kill him. Perhaps that is why God translated him. “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb 11:5).2It is unlikely that Enoch never died. Hebrews 11: 13 goes on to state that all of the people listed in the chapter died in faith: Hebrews 11: 5 might mean that God protected him so that he would not see death at the hands of Lamech.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One