Question:
I would like to know how long Noah lived and how long he preached. Thank you for any information you can provide.
Answer:
Noah’s age is given in Genesis 9:29, “And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.” So Noah lived to be 950 years old.
As to how long he preached, it does not specifically say, but we presume that he at least preached for 120 years. Genesis 6:1-8 says, “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, MY SPIRIT SHALL NOT ALWAYS STRIVE WITH MAN, FOR THAT HIS DAYS SHALL BE AN HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” The Holy Spirit would not always strive with man over his sin, because man would only live another 120 years, and he would die in the flood.
But this does not mean that Noah only began preaching when God gave instructions to start building the ark. Noah had some preachers in his family tree, so he was used to hearing good hard preaching against sin. The Bible says of Enoch (Noah’s Great-Grandfather), in Jude 14,15, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” So fighting sin and speaking out against it was a way of life for Noah’s family line.
I have a question for you. Are you saved and faithfully standing against sin, despite the few that may seem to listen? We may be laying the foundation for one of our grandsons or great-grandsons to be greatly used of God. Remember, the only ones who listened to Noah’s preaching were his own relatives. His wife, his three sons, and their three wives. Only eight people got on that ark, “In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark” (Genesis 7:13).
But we are so glad that Noah walked by faith, and not by sight. Let us do the same. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (II Corinthians 4:18,5:1).