A Very Long Life

There are chapters in the Bible with lots of numbers. Genesis 5 is one of them; it’s the first of them. It records the years and generations of Adam’s life, a very long life.

Adam fathered his third son when he was 130 years old. He had already fathered two other sons, though the first, Cain, put the second, Abel, to death. Seth would be the son who would live on and “call upon the name of the Lord.” Adam went on to live another 800 years after Seth’s birth. He lived 930 years, a very long life. 

Seth was 105 years when he fathered Enosh. Adam would have been 235 years when he became grandfather to Seth’s son. Enosh in turn fathered Kenan when he was 90. Adam became a great-grandfather at the age of 325. Kenan fathered a son at 70. Adam became a great-great grandfather to Mahalalel at the age of 395. Mahalalel fathered Jared as a “young man” at age 65. Adam would have laid eyes on his great-great-great grandson, Jared, at the age of 460. Jared waited 162 years to have his son Enoch. Adam would have been 622 at his birth, 4-greats.

Enoch lived 65 years and fathered Methuselah, the man who lived longest in the Biblical record. Adam would have been 687 at his birth. 300 years later, God would take Enoch to heaven without a physical death. Adam would have preceded him by just 57 years.

Adam became a great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather at age 874 to Methuselah’s son, Lamech. Lamech waited 182 years to have his very famous son, Noah. Adam did not live long enough to meet Noah. But he lived long enough to see the world into which Noah was born, where "the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5), the consequence of his own disobedience against God in the garden. He did not experience the flood, nor see Noah’s families deliverance through the flood in the ark. But he believed the promise of God, and lived a very long life.

Tomorrow I help conduct a funeral for a lady who lived 101 years, born in 1918, a very long life. She met several generations, and saw the world change. And she likewise believed the promise of God, that same God who formed Adam from the dust of the ground, and the God Adam worshipped on this earth for 930 years.