Genesis 5:25 - Meaning and Application

About Methuselah, notice first the meaning of his name. Some think it was a prophetic name, since his father Enoch was a prophet. Methuselah means, “he dies,” or “there is a dart,” or “a sending forth,” meaning the sending of the flood, which came in the very year Methuselah died. If that name was given and understood that way, it was a clear warning to a careless world long before judgment came.

Still, one thing stands out: the longest-lived man who ever lived carried death in his own name, so he would remember that death was sure, even if it came slowly. He lived 969 years, the longest life we read of for any man on earth, and yet he died. The longest life still ends in death. Neither youth nor old age can escape that battle, because that is the end for all people. No one can claim life just because they have had it a long time, or use that as a defense against death’s arrest.

It is usually thought that Methuselah died shortly before the flood. Jewish writers say it was seven days before, referring to Genesis 7:10, and they say he was taken away from the evil to come. This depends on the common assumption that all the patriarchs named in this chapter were holy and good men. I do not want to suggest otherwise, and yet I do not see that this can be proved from their being listed here among Christ’s ancestors any more than it can be proved that all the kings of Judah named in Christ’s family line were good men, since many of them were not. If this point is left open, it may be reasonable to think that Methuselah himself died in the flood with the rest of the world, for it is certain that he died that year.