Methuselah, and What He Teaches Us About God

You know who Methuselah is, right? He is the man to live the longest in all of recorded history. He lived to be 969 years old!
Wow, that was a short post, to bad there is nothing else interesting about Methuselah who only appears in 5 verses of the Bible...
But there is more; and this info is very interesting! Let me give you some facts about Methuselah and then tie them all up for a lesson about God. The name Methuselah means "his death shall bring judgement". Methuselah was the father of Lamech who was the father of Noah, making Methuselah Noah's grandfather. Now, we do not know about the spiritual walk of Methuselah, we would assume that he walked with God based on his family history (Enoch, his father, walked with God; Noah, his grandson, found grace in the eyes of the Lord). Lastly, according to mathematically minded people and scholars of the Bible (who are all a lot smarter than I am!) Methuselah died in the same year as the Flood! Some extra-biblical accounts even hold that Methuselah passed away only 7 days before the Flood.
There is something great that we can learn about God in this. You see, Enoch, Methuselah's father, walked with God. I sincerely believe that when Enoch named Methuselah, he did so because he was so in touch with God, he knew what to name him. Methuselah's life was a warning, and every time someone heard his name people were struck with the looming prophesy that judgement for their wicked behavior was coming. Pretty depressing. Here is where it gets good, Methuselah was the oldest man to ever live; 969 years! God didn't have to allow Methuselah to live as long as he did. God could have said, "Ok Methuselah, you're 500 years old now; your time is up." But God didn't. Why? I believe that God, in His great mercy, was keeping Methuselah alive as a warning to the people around him. God wanted these people to know "Judgement is coming; repent while you still can!"; and he extended that offer, not for 100, not for 500, but for over 900 years.
I serve a God who is rich in mercy! He hates evil, and must punish evil, but is so merciful and loving that he is willing to extend out his hand to us and say, "Repent of your sins, and we can have fellowship once again." Wow! We serve an amazing God.