As we read the genealogies from Adam to Noah in Genesis 5, it is very important to realize that God has recorded these lifespans for specific purposes.  We read them and forget that these names help us refute Evolution (prove a young earth) and establish that this is historical fact, not fiction. God’s mercy gave significant time for mankind to repent before He judged Earth with a Flood. God’s mercy hasn’t changed from Noah’s day.   

 To put the genealogies in perspective, we read that Adam lived 930 years. He knew his 9th son Lamech for 56 years and Methuselah for 243 years.  Methuselah knew Noah for 600 years and Shem for 98 until his death just before the Flood. It is amazing to see God’s way of preserving history from Creation to the Flood, spanning 1,656 years with just Adam’s and Methuselah’s lifespans.  It may seem like a bunch of names and numbers, but God’s purpose in recording these names and numbers is very clear.  Since these lives are historical fact, the Flood was real and so are the warnings and judgments of God on those who do not “call upon the name of the Lord.” (Genesis 4:26) 

God told Noah to build the ark because man decided to follow his own imagination instead of God, to the point that all who did not board the ark would perish in the flood of God’s wrath. (Gen. 6) As Noah warned the people of God’s judgment by building the ark (Heb. 11:7), we, too, are commanded to warn people today of God’s judgment to come.  John the Baptist warned the Pharisees and Sadducees of God’s judgment if they did not repent of their sins and call upon Jesus. (Matt. 3:6-12)  John told them that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire and after He had gathered the wheat (believers), the chaff (unbelievers) would be burned with unquenchable fire. (Matt. 3:12) 

 God is so merciful to give us warning after warning of His future judgments and many opportunities to turn to Him: the Ark of our salvation.  But there will come a day when His mercy ends, and He will judge the Earth with flood-proportion judgments. (Matt. 24:21)  Are you prepared for that day?  Are you giving the Gospel to prepare those around you? Let these passages be our motivation to get up and warn people for Christ!