Lifespan: Quality over Quantity
Methuselah was the oldest man who ever lived. Nine hundred and sixty-nine years!
He might have lived longer if he had not been swallowed up in the global deluge God’s judgment brought upon the earth in the days of Noah.
When you study the record carefully, it appears that Methuselah died with the rest of his wicked contemporaries in the flood. Genesis 5:25 tells us he fathered Lamech when he was just 187 years old (a mere adolescent by Methuselah’s standards!), and Lamech fathered Noah when he was 182 (Gen. 5:28). When Noah was 600 years old when the flood came upon the earth (Gen. 7:6). So 187 plus 182 plus 600… That makes Methuselah 969 years old when God destroyed the world with water. Either the old man happened to die the same year as the flood, or he drowned with the others.
That’s right. Methuselah—the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah—was punished by God with the most wicked generation the world has ever known.
Methuselah lived a long time and died in the flood. That’s about all we know about him. In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter that he lived 969 years? What did he do with those years? Nothing of great importance according to the divine record.
On the other hand, consider Jesus. According to Luke, he began his public ministry when he was about thirty years of age (Luke 3:23), and John tells us Jesus attended three Passover feasts in Jerusalem during his ministry (2:13; 6:4; 11:55-57). Therefore, he was probably 33 when he died on the cross. Thirty-three years is a very short life by any standard. Most people would feel cheated if they had only 33 years to spend on earth.
But look at what Jesus did with those 33 years! Just look at what he did with the last three! He taught thousands, healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, restored the brokenhearted, encouraged the weak, rebuked the self-righteous, died for our sins, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and gave hope to the whole world!
How many years you spend on earth doesn’t matter as much as what you do with those years. When it comes to your lifespan, quality is more important than quantity. Compared to eternity, what’s the difference between 969 years and 33? Neither lifespan compares to immortality!
What are you doing with your years? What will people say about the way you lived your life after you’re gone? No one knows how much time they have. Stop waiting until later to do what needs to be done now. Give God the rest of your days, no matter how many or how few you have left.
Live like Jesus, not Methuselah.
Drew Kizer