Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #4 of Genesis, chapter 5 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 5:3:

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

We had begun in the last couple of studies to take a look at that particular age of “130.” We have seen it three times so far. We saw that Adam was 130 when Seth was born, the appointed seed in place of Abel. Then Terah was age 130 when Abram was born. The third place was in Genesis, chapter 47, when Jacob appeared before Pharaoh. I will read it again, in Genesis 47:8-9:

And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

It is a fairly typical question that people do ask, especially since Jacob was a fairly old man when he came before Pharaoh. Pharaoh was very favorable toward Joseph and this was the father of Joseph, so he asked him, “How old are you?” Historically, it was very unremarkable because that question is something people ask all the time and we normally attach no significance to it. Pharaoh probably forgot all about it and Jacob may also have forgotten all about it, but God recorded it and He caused Moses to write it down. That very question and answer were recorded because God wanted to relate something about the Biblical timeline of history and the very first age that God gave us in the calendar of history is Adam’s age of 130. It is the first milestone in the Bible. God declares the end from the beginning and in this account in Genesis 47, the question is being asked in the midst of a “great affliction” in the world at that time and God identifies that “great affliction” as “great tribulation,” in Acts 7, verse 11. If it is a coincidence, why in Genesis 4 and 5 is Adam’s age of 130 given after God identified the “separation” that He brought about between Cain and Abel? As it said in Genesis 4, verse 3 God identified this period as “the end of days,” and then the first age we are given is Adam’s age of 130.

These two instances of emphasizing the age “130” are two completely different periods of history. One is only 130 years from creation and the other is when Jacob stood before Pharaoh it is 1877BC and that is a long way from the days of Adam and, yet, they are both teaching the same truth: when the world arrives at its 13,000-year mark, then will come a famine; then will come Great Tribulation. Then Cain rose up against Abel his brother at “the end of days,” and then God appointed another seed instead of Abel. There will be more children after “thou has lost the first.” More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife. It was God’s plan to save more people in the Great Tribulation than in any period throughout history.

So, very significantly, Jacob responded to Pharaoh, “I am 130 years old.” I mentioned this at the end of our last study, but I want to repeat it. When Jacob was 130, Joseph was age 39. The number “130” is “10 x 13” and points to completeness at the end and the number “39” is “3 x 13,” or the purpose of God for the time of the end. That also reveals the age of Jacob when Joseph was born because you take the age of 130 and you subtract Joseph’s age of 39 and it equals 91. So Jacob was 91 when his 11th son Joseph was born. (Benjamin was his 12th son.) The number “91” is “7 x 13,” so God placed emphasis on the 11th son Joseph who will live to be 110 or “10 x 11.” At the same time He has emphasized the number “13” because of Joseph’s age of 91. The number “7” is perfection which comes at the time of the end of the world, the number “13.”

This reminds us of Joseph’s dreams where in the first dream 11 brethren bow down and in the second dream the 11 brethren and the mother and father bow down to him. It signifies the first coming of Christ after 11,000 years and the second coming of Christ after 13,000 years. Jesus did not fulfill all things upon His birth in 7BC, but the coming of Christ was involved as it went to 33AD and the cross and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the second coming of the Lord was involved, even though the world did not end in 1988 or in 2011, but it was all part of the end time program. Just like the first coming of Christ, it elapsed over a period from 13BC (the 11,000th year) to 33AD, which was 45 actual years and 46 calendar years until all that had to do with the first coming of Christ was completed. Then in 1988 came the 13,000th year of earth’s history and if we are correct about the year 2,033 it would be the second coming and the end of the world, which would be 45 actual years and 46 inclusive years, the identical time frame. It could be just as involved as was said when Christ was taken up in Acts, chapter 1:11: “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” We tend to think that verse has to do with the circumstances of Jesus being lifted up from their sight at that moment, but what if it has to do with the entire coming of the Lord? As you have seen him go into heaven, so shall He come – it is the whole process.

We want to look at one more instance in the Bible where we find the age 130. To begin with, let us go to 2Chronicles 24 where we will read of another boy who became king. It says in 2Chronicles 24:1:

Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Zibiah of Beersheba.

Joash was the boy who was spared or rescued by Jehoiada the priest because a wicked woman named Athaliah rose up and slew all the seed royal and she would have slain Joash, but he was kept hidden until a time when Athaliah could be overcome. Athaliah reigned for six years and then Jehoiada and some of the faithful men of Judah rose up and put her to death and then they made Joash king. It says in 2Chronicles 24:2:

And Joash did that which was right in the sight of JEHOVAH all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

Joash did that which was right all during the days of Jehoiada the priest. It turned out that Joash reigned 40 years. The Bible implies (although I do not think it is stated) that Jehoiada lived 39 of those years. Again, the number “39” was the death age of good king Josiah and Joseph was 39 when Jacob entered into Egypt and Jacob was 130. Very likely, Jehoiada lived 39 years of the reign of Joash, but then he died. As it said, Joash did right all the days of Jehoiada the priest for 39 years. Again, the number “39” is the purpose of God for the end of the world. Upon Jehoiada’s death Joash was no longer a good king and he actually ended up being slain and buried in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the sepulchre of the kings because of his wickedness in his final year of reign. What did Joash do after Jehoiada died? Let us go to 2Chronicles 24:15:

But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died.

Jehoiada lived to the age of 130 and while he lived Joash looked up to Jehoiada the priest who had delivered him and spared him from death. It was because of Jehoiada that he become king and was in the position to rule over the kingdom of Judah, so young Joash would have been grateful and appreciative and would have looked to wise Jehoiada, a faithful man of God. For decades Joash looked to Jehoiada and Jehoiada helped him and gave him insight and advice and guidance. Jehoiada acted much like the Holy Spirit, in a sense, as the Holy Spirit conducted Himself in the churches. The Spirit of Christ was in the midst of the congregations throughout the church age and while the Holy Spirit was in their midst the churches did that which was right, we could say. At least God did not hold their sins against them or judge them throughout the many centuries of the church age. And, of course, there were sins and there were high places that the churches were involved in and, yet, when God looked at the corporate church He saw His Spirit, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, He counted the city to be a faithful city, as we read in Isaiah, chapter 1. Yet, the faithful city became a harlot the moment the Holy Spirit departed out of the midst of the churches because now when God looked upon the corporate body He no longer sees the faithful and righteous One because Christ has departed. When God viewed the churches and congregations of the world through the prism of the presence of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, He refrained from judgment and wrath toward them. The very moment the Spirit of God departed out of the churches, then God saw their wickedness; He saw their high places and all their evil. It says in that cryptic verse in Jeremiah 5:1:

Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.

God is saying, “If you can find a ‘man’ in the midst of Jerusalem, I will not bring judgment,” as God had done historically to Judah by raising up the Babylonians. But God departed and became the enemy of Jerusalem and raised up Nebuchadnezzar. Likewise, if you can find a “man,” who is Christ, in the midst of the New Testament congregations, God would not have begun judgment against the house of God. He would not have loosed Satan to enter in and overcome the camp of the saints. Satan would not have been able to take his seat in the temple as the man of sin, showing himself that he was God. But the “man” had left, just like when Jehoiada the priest died and Joash was left to himself. He no longer had the help and guidance of the Spirit of God, just like God departed from King Saul. When Jehoiada died, it was as though God departed from King Joash, so the death age of 130 of Jehoiada matches the end of the church age, as the church age ended in 1988 in the 13,000th year of earth’s history. The churches did right all the days the Holy Spirit was in the midst, but when the Holy Spirit departed out on May 21, 1988, they did evil in the sight of the Lord.

Let me continue to read in 2Chronicles 24:15:

But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house. Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them. And they left the house of JEHOVAH God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.

You can see in this language that judgment begins at the house of God. Why? After Jehoiada was gone, evil men rose up and became the king’s counselors and he did not have the protection he had before. It is like the corporate church body that was full of natural (unsaved) men, but as long as the Holy Spirit was in the midst, God viewed them as being faithful. Once the Holy Spirit left, the congregations lost their ability to know spiritual truth and they went quickly astray.

It got so bad with Joash, it says in 2Chronicles 24:20-22:

And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of JEHOVAH, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken JEHOVAH, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of JEHOVAH. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, JEHOVAH look upon it, and require it.

It was so terrible that this king who had been delivered by Jehoiada would do this. Joash would not have been alive to enjoy the 39 years of reign that were all good. In his 40th year, things went bad and he was being led the wrong way and, yet, he forgot the goodness that Jehoiada had done for him and he killed his descendant. We can see how this very accurately pictures a corporate church that has gone astray and are blinded to truth. They have no love or regard for what God has done for them. Just as Cain killed his own brother Abel, Joash killed the descendant of a man that had done so much for him by arranging the murder of Zechariah.

It is interesting that in Matthew, chapter 23 God mentions two men in relationship to those that have been killed by Israel of old or the corporate churches and the two men are Abel and Zechariah. It says in Matthew 23:35:

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

Here, it says Zacharias, son of Barachias, but the description matches what we just read about concerning Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, so very likely Zechariah was a grandson or even a great grandson. Barachias would have been a generation in between.

What is interesting about this is that God is giving us a summation from the beginning of time to the end of time when he says, “Abel unto the blood Zacharias.” We understand when it refers to Abel because he was the first child of God slain early on in earth’s history. We wonder about Zacharias, but we understand once we see that he was killed after the death of Jehoiada at the age of 130 and the “130” refers to the time of the end of the world.

Both of these individuals are tied to that age of 130 because Cain rose us and slew his brother Abel. Then God appointed another seed, Seth, whom God gave instead of Abel when Adam was 130. It is just like Jehoiada the priest died at age 130 and then Zechariah is killed, so the age of 130 is in view at the very beginning when Abel is killed.

Again, God declares the end from the beginning, but as it said in regard to the death of Zacharias, “JEHOVAH look upon it, and require it.” The entire body of God’s elect are beseeching the Lord for vengeance for their murder and God takes vengeance at the end of the world, which occurred when we got to the point of the 13,000th year of the history of the world, from everything the Bible indicates. No, it is not completed in that year, but it will not come too far afterwards and it will be the very end of the world.