Gen.
5:22-24
I’m
sorry I lost track of this for so long – I got burned out doing so much and so
went on to other ministries, including starting in Global Media Outreach around
when I stopped this. I will try to to update this some, though it won’t be as
often.
Anyway,
to continue…
Walked
with God
The
phrase “walking with God” is not limited to Enoch. David points out how to do
it in Psalm 16:8, having the Lord ever before one. It means keeping ones eyes
on Jesus, as Peter did when he stepped out of the boat for a moment. Hezekiah
asks the Lord to remember how he did it – and he was a great king. The Lord,
through the prophet Malachi, speaks of Levi walking this way. Micah 6:8
commands it. And, in the next chapter, Noah is said to have walked with God, as
well.
While
these men lived, however – and may have done quite well at serving God – the
Lord singles out Enoch, with those few others, for his much closer walk, the
kind we should all seek, and sadly, the ways of the world distract us so often,
this writer included.
Still, it’s a tall order, one that not many
Christians do with Christ. It’s an order tall enough, God singles out only a
few men who have done so, Enoch being one.
The
phrase “walked with God” is used, to show a difference between that and merely living.
Many sit in and out of churches around the world who are saved, yet aren’t
really living for the Lord. At least in the early days, before sin became so
common, others – even those not in this specifically line – probably lived for
the Lord, just as those in the line from Adam to Enoch had.
However,
there is a further large gap between those who live for Him, and those who
truly walk with Him. Consider the following:
To
live for something means you dedicate yourself to something. But, you can do this
via serving in some way – like Martha, who Jesus tells in Luke 11 was “cumbered
about with much serving” – and yet be ignoring that which is most important –
which Jesus says her sister Mary was doing, sitting at His feet and learning.
This
doesn’t mean that Martha wasn’t doing a good work. She lived for Christ, lived
to serve Him. But, we can so easily get burned out. This can happen when
something is too overwhelming, like when I thought to try to comment on the
whole of Genesis, if not the whole Bible, and then found it so inexhaustible
that it could take me ten thousands years and I might not be finished. It can also happen when something is so
totally on one’s own effort that he or she doesn’t have help.
Thus,
it can be said that Enoch walked with God, constantly communing with Him just
as Mary did at Jesus’ feet. But, there is a further meaning, too.
And
he was not, for God took Enoch
There
was something different about this walk, something which led to what many feel
is a picture of the Rapture of the church as mentioned in Ephesians 4:13-18 and
1 Corinthians 15:51-53. It is not said that he died, but that God took him.
Some
say he may be one of the 2 witnesses in revelation 11, though personally I
think it will be Moses and Elijah. Their identities are not important right
now,t hough. What is important is that God had a special plan for him, a
purpose far beyond merely serving him.
Was
he a prophet of antediluvian times? He certainly uttered at least one prophecy,
as noted. Before is recorded in Jude and another with the naming of Methuselah.
But,
whatever God’s purpose was for him, Enoch may recognized it first with
methuselah’s birth, since the Bible says he walked with God “after he beget
Methuselah.” Something may have been told to him by God which caused him to
name Methuselah the way he did. Perhaps he was constantly serving the Lord
before, perhaps he was only shown then how great a responsibility he had,
something parenthood does to some people, though if they attempt ont heir own
strength to handle that responsibility they fall woefully short.
Whatever
it was, though, it casued Enoch to
realize a need to be so close to God that he poured everything he had into
serving the Lord, but also into being with Him. One preacher once said that it
was as if Enoch and God were walking and God sayd one day, “We’re a lot closer
to My house than yours, why don’t you just come homw tih me.”
The
fact he could walk with God in a very fallen world, one getting worse and
worse, shows we shouldn’t make the excuse that the world is too much of a mess.
True, there were still hundreds of years before man’s mind was on evil
continually, but it was much closer to that than it was to the pristine Eden
which Adam and Eve had to be evicted from.
And,
god protected Enoch from that evil world. We don’t know if he faced any kind of
persecution, though I’d personally be shocked if he didn’t. We do know that he
didn’t die, since that term is not used for Enoch the way it was for the
others. Indeed, Paul says of those in the end times, “We shall not all
sleep(die) but we shall all be changed.” The pains of this world are still with
us till then, as they no doubt were to Enoch, but we deal with them – when we
walk with God – with a confidence that he will guide us through. Jesus didn’t
promise to keep us from everything, but He did say, “Be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world.”(John 16:33)
Enoch
had this testimony; that he pleased God.(Heb. 11:5) He didn’t work his way to
God, as salvation is by grace through faith, and not by works.(Eph.2:8-9) God
doesn’t want us to boast of ourselves. He wants us to be hmble, for He
resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble.(James4:6)
Since
God can’t touch sin due to His holiness, than, how could Enoch have pleased god
or walked with him, unless Enoch was humble, realizing God was in charge. When
we realize God is sovereign in our affairs, that is when we please Him. That is
when we can walk with Him.
-----------------
Again,
I won’t update this all the time, but I’ll try to get through Genesis 11,
perhaps, or maybe a few verses beyond that, dealing with the promise to
Abraham.
And,
thanks to those who read. I don’t have the time for a lot of comments so I
really got little positive feedback, but looking at the number of page views
recently made me realize there are people who really enjoy this. So, thanks.
