Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: Are you one of those people who thinks the genealogies in the Bible are boring? Well, you may change your mind after you hear today's edition of Messianic Perspectives.

This is Messianic Perspectives, where we look into the scriptures from a distinctively Messianic point of view. Today, Dr. Gary Hedrick is leading our Bible study with the ten Gentile patriarchs who lived before the flood. If you have your Bible handy, we invite you to turn to Genesis chapter five and join in. I'll be back at the close of the program with news about a special offer. And now, with today's message, here's Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: Thank you and welcome, listening friend, to another edition of our program. We're talking about the significance of Bible names, and we said that God often used a person's name in the Bible to reveal aspects of his background, character, or destiny. In the case of the genealogy of Genesis chapter five, it appears that God used the names of these ten Gentile patriarchs to reveal in a most amazing way his wonderful plan of salvation.

What we're going to find as we continue working our way through this remarkable chapter is that the names of those first ten patriarchs form a sentence. That sentence describes God's plan of redemption through Jesus Christ, thousands of years before Christ was born. When we finished up last time, we were looking at the seventh of these Gentile patriarchs in Genesis chapter five, a man named Enoch, son of Jared.

Enoch is important to us because he represents the church, the ekklesia, the called-out assembly of Messianic believers, both Jews and Gentiles, who will be removed from this world scene immediately prior to the time of Jacob's trouble. Sometimes we hear people, even believers, scoff at the idea of a rapture. They like to point out that the word rapture isn't found in the Bible as though that somehow proves their point that there is no rapture.

The question is not whether or not the term rapture appears in the Bible, but whether or not the event itself is found in the Bible. The answer to that question is yes. Let's turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter four, beginning in verse 16. Paul says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God." That's the shofar, the ram's horn, the trump of God.

"And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be" what? "Caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord." Wherefore, he says, "comfort one another with these words." There it is, as plain as the nose on your face. He says believers who are alive at the close of this age will be caught up.

The Greek word is harpazo. It's where we get the word harpoon, like harpooning a fish and then reeling him in. The word harpazo means to pluck, catch, or pull, to seize or take by force. It implies a sudden and decisive intervention, like a parent sprinting for the railroad track to pull a child out of the way of an oncoming train. That's what harpazo means.

When the locomotive of God's judgment begins bearing down on this old world, God will reach down and snatch his church out of the way. The critics who think this is such a ridiculous notion have a real problem with this, and the problem has a name: Enoch. They've got to figure out what to do with Enoch because Enoch was raptured or caught up by God prior to the judgment of the great flood.

If God can rapture one human being, he can just as easily rapture a million or more. To God, there's no difference between one and a million. Just one little snap of his fingers and it's done. Now what about the meaning of Enoch's name? Remember what we're doing is going through this genealogy in Genesis chapter five and looking at the definitions of these Hebrew names. When you put these names together in sequence, they form a sentence.

Enoch's Hebrew name is Hanoch, and it means initiated or trained. Etymologically, it derives from the root hanak, meaning to initiate, narrow, dedicate, or consecrate. It's the same word that's translated "train up" in Proverbs 22:6: "train up a child in the way he should go." Enoch's name means to train or to teach.

This mysterious sentence is beginning to take shape. What do we have so far? Adam's name means man. Seth means appointed. Enosh means mortal. Kenan means habitation. Mahalalel means the blessed God. Jared means he shall come down. And Enoch means teaching. Put it all together and here's what you've got: "Man is appointed a mortal habitation, but the blessed God shall come down teaching."

The blessed God shall come down teaching. What does he teach? Let's go on to the next name and find out. Genesis chapter five, verse 21. It says, "And Enoch lived sixty and five years and begat Methuselah." Here is the real key to the whole message: Methuselah. In Hebrew, it's Methushelach. It means his death shall bring.

I want you to follow me closely because I doubt that anyone has ever taken the time to explain this to you. I only have time to go over it once, so listen carefully. We know that God had revealed to certain people in the days of Noah that he was going to bring judgment upon the world. In Genesis 6, verse seven, the Lord God said to Noah, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth."

Evidently, he told Enoch too because in the book of Jude, we find that Enoch became a preacher of the coming judgment in the days before the flood. God must have also told Enoch that he would be translated, that is, Enoch would be translated before the flood because Hebrews 11, verse five tells us that Enoch was translated by faith that he should not see death. That means Enoch believed he would be translated. God must have told him beforehand.

If you were Enoch and God gave you a revelation like that, what would be the first thing you'd want to know? Well, of course, you'd want to know when. Just like when Jesus was telling his disciples on the Mount of Olives about the destruction of the temple, the first thing they wanted to know was, "When will these things be?" They wanted to know when, you see.

Just as Jesus gave his disciples a list of signs that would indicate the approach of his coming and of the end of the age, the Lord evidently gave Enoch a special sign that would signal the approach of God's judgment, the flood. That sign was the birth of his son, Methuselah. We believe that God revealed to Enoch that the coming of the great flood would correspond to the death of his son.

As long as Methuselah was alive, the judgment would not come. When Methuselah was taken from the world, then it would happen. The life of Methuselah became the measure of God's longsuffering and patience before the flood came. Right now you might be thinking, "I think Gary has finally lost his mind." So just so you'll know that this isn't some off-the-wall interpretation that I cooked up on my own, let me read you something.

This is from Arthur Pink's commentary on Genesis. The title is Gleanings in Genesis. He says the meaning of Methuselah's name is "when he, that is Methuselah, is gone, then it will happen." Here's what Mr. Pink says: "The name Methuselah strongly implies that Enoch had received a revelation from God. The name Methuselah signifies when he is dead, it shall be sent, that is, the deluge."

"In all probability then, a divine revelation is memorialized in this name. It was as though God said to Enoch, 'Do you see that baby? The world will last as long as he lives and no longer. When that child is taken out, I shall deal with the world in judgment. The windows of heaven will be opened, the fountains of the great deep will be broken up, and humanity will perish.'"

This revelation had quite an effect on Enoch. Because the Bible says it was when Methuselah was born that Enoch began to walk with God (Genesis 5:22). He was never the same after that. Enoch watched that little boy like a hawk. Every time he got sick, every time little Methuselah came down with a fever, every time he was late coming home for supper, Enoch must have wondered, "Is this it? Is the judgment coming? Is this the end?"

I realize there are people who would call this interpretation far-fetched. Let me give you perhaps the greatest proof of all, and that is the simple fact that it works out perfectly with the chronology of the book of Genesis. If you'll take your pencil and figure it out, you'll find that the flood came not only in the very same year, but on the very same day of Methuselah's death.

Figure it out for yourself. The flood came exactly 969 years after Methuselah's birth. In Genesis 5:25, we read that Methuselah lived 187 years before his son Lamech was born. In verse 28, we are told that Lamech was 182 years old when Noah was born. Adding the two figures together, we find that Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born. That's 187 plus 182.

We have one more figure to add. It says in Genesis 7, verse 11, "In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, the 17th day of the month, the same day were all the foundations of the great deep broken up." The flood came. Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. Methuselah was 969 years old at the same time. It even pinpoints the very day.

It was the verification of God's promise that when Methuselah is gone, then the flood shall come. By the way, this also speaks to the question of why Methuselah had such a long life. He lived longer than any other man in recorded history: 969 years, almost a thousand years. The reason is that in Genesis 6, verse three, God provided a 120-year grace period to give people an opportunity to repent.

1 Peter 3:20 talks about the longsuffering of God that waited in the days of Noah. Normally, Methuselah would have died at the age of 849 years, but the longsuffering of God waited and added the additional 120 years to Methuselah's life. That's why Methuselah lived so long because God prolonged his life.

Let's add Methuselah's name to the sentence and see what we have. Remember we said Methuselah means "his death shall bring." So here's the sentence: "Man is appointed a mortal habitation, but the blessed God shall come down teaching that his death shall bring" something. What will it bring? We'll find out when we look at the names of the last two patriarchs. We're out of time for today. This is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thanks, Gary. Thank you, listening friend, for tuning into Messianic Perspectives. It was good to have you with us today. If you're one of our newer listeners, we hope you'll make our program a part of your daily routine. If you found today's program especially helpful and insightful, you'll be glad to know that we have placed the entire series of programs on one compact disc. The title is simply, What's in a Name? and it's available for your gift this week of just six dollars.

If you prefer to have it in printed form, you can order the pamphlet. The pamphlet includes a helpful chart with the Hebrew names of the ten Gentile patriarchs. It shows how those names together form a remarkable acrostic that may be the first mention of the plan of salvation in your entire Bible. The pamphlet is available for your contribution of any amount to help us keep this program on your radio station.

Just visit our online store at messianicspecialties.com. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, P.O. Box 345, San Antonio, Texas, 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. As always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. This is Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you? As Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series on What's in a Name? right here on Messianic Perspectives.

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