COME, LET’S DO THE MATH!

COME, LET’S DO THE MATH!

40 Years Is A Biblical Generation * Moses spent 40 years in Pharaoh’s palace, 40 years taking care of the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, and 40 years taking care of God’s people in the wilderness. Saul ruled 40 years, David ruled 40 years, and Solomon ruled 40 years. But God is not dead! God is alive! God is a God of law, order, principle, and mathematics! America’s World War 2 generation governed America for 40 years. The top general of World War 2 was Dwight David Eisenhower. He was elected president in 1952. The youngest bomber pilot in World War 2 was George Herbert Walker Bush, who was elected president in 1988; but he was defeated by the brash, young, saxophone-playing Bill Clinton in 1992. Why? 1952-1992 = 40 years and 40 years is a Biblical generation! God is alive! God is not dead! And He is speaking to us through the numbers! Not 37 years, not 41 years! 40 years!

America’s great African-American Civil Rights Leader – Martin Luther King, Jr. – was killed, murdered, assassinated in 1968. 40 years later, America’s first African-American president was elected! Barack Obama, whose father came from Kenya. 40 years! A Biblical generation! Not 39 years! Not 42 years! But 40 years! God is speaking! Are we listening?

There are 10 generations before the Flood Judgment from Adam to Noah. Count ‘em! Carefully read the 5^th Chapter of Genesis in your Bible. Adam is #1. Seth is #2. Enosh is #3. Cainan is #4. Mahalalel is #5. Jared is #6. Enoch is #7. Methuselah is #8. Lamech is #9. And Noah is #10. Think about it! There’s something important about the #10 in the Bible! And God is speaking to us through the numbers! Now if that doesn’t seem important to you, consider this: There are 10 generations after the Flood from Shem to Abram, who became Abraham! Noah had three sons -- Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So check this out in your Bibles in Genesis 11:10-28. Shem is #1, Arphaxad is #2, Salah is #3, Eber is #4, Peleg is #5, Reu is #6, Serug is #7, Nahor is #8, Terah is #9, and Abram is #10. Ladies and Gentlemen! God is not dead! And He’s speaking to us through the numbers! 10 generations before the Flood and 10 generations after the Flood. [JHK Note: Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot, but died before his father Terah. Lot is thus Abraham’s nephew and is very important later in the story. “Nahor” is the name first of Abraham’s grandfather and also of his brother, so Genesis 11:24-32 has to be read very carefully to avoid confusion.]

Why is this important? God spoke a command to Adam & Eve, but they didn’t listen and followed the word of the Tempter, Lucifer, the Archangel, who became the Devil and Satan. God spoke a word of warning clearly to Cain, but Cain doesn’t listen and kills Abel in the very next verse! In fact, God is always speaking, and we always have a choice! But from Adam to Noah, no one was listening except #7 Enoch, who walked with God. Because no one was listening, everyone was sinning and “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually ... and He was grieved in His heart.” (6:5-6) Not some of the thoughts some of the time, but all of the thoughts all of the time! So God decided to destroy everyone and start over with one righteous man and his family – one man who would listen – Noah.

Did you know that there are 1056 Biblical years from Adam until the birth of Noah? Let’s go back to Genesis 5 and check this out. Adam begot Seth when he was 130 years old. Seth begot Enosh when he was 105 years old. Enosh begot Cainan when he was 90 years old. Cainan begot Mahalalel when he was 70 years old. Mahalalel begot Jared when he was 65 years old. Jared begot Enoch when he was 162 years old. Enoch begot Methuselah when he was 65 years old. Methuselah begot Lamech when he was 187 years old. Lamech begot Noah when he was 182 years old. [JHK Note: It’s important to consider one very special thing here – it’s always the men, the human fathers, who do all the begetting. So the question arises much later: If Jesus is “the only begotten Son of God,” who does God choose to do the begetting? It’s not the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is Spirit and does not have a penis.] Now if you count up all those years on your cell phone calculator, you’ll find that there are 1056 years from Adam to Noah. Noah is 500 years old when God speaks to him and tells him to build an Ark, so that’s 1556 years until God’s command to Noah. And when Noah was 600 years old (1656 years from Adam)(7:6 & 11), God tells him to get into the Ark, so it appears that Noah spent a hundred years building the Ark. “And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.” (7:12) Once again, note the prevalence of #40 here! God speaks to us through numbers! “And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days,” i.e., five lunar months (7:24). Then when Noah is 601 years old (1657 years from Adam), God tells him to get out of the Ark. (8:16) There are many lessons we can learn from Noah! First, he was faithfully obedient to God’s commands: #1, Build an Ark; #2, Get in; #3 Get out. So Noah saved his family of 8 persons through obedience. Second, because he had faith, he did the work. God gave him directions on how to build the Ark, but God did not build it for him! Third, Noah had perseverance – if he got tired or quit after 50 years or 99 years, he and his family would have drowned in the Flood. Fourth, no one helped him! Suppose a neighbor came and said, “Hey, Noah! Most people think you’re crazy building a big ship on top of a mountain! Most people who build a boat build it be a river or lake or ocean, but I know God has spoken to you so let me help you. If we work together, we can finish in 50 years instead of 100 years.” Then what would have happened? Don’t you think God would have directed Noah to let that man and his family enter the Ark? But nobody else did the work, so nobody else was saved! But now let’s get back to the numbers.