Genesis 5 continued

Enoch

Hi All,

This week we can pass on to another of the "sons of God", (the "Christians" or "Christ-like" people) who lived in those days. Let us look at Enoch. Some of the details below are based on what is the norm for Christians over the millennia.

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Genesis 5:21-24

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Enoch was born when Adam was 622 and Seth 492. Seth did not die until he was 912 which means that he was alive all the time that Enoch remained on earth. In fact, Seth continued teaching the people of the world for another 155 years after Enoch’s move to heaven. If you look carefully, you will find that the first mentioned of every generation before him (apart from Adam) outlived Enoch’s time in this world, so he had plenty of teachers. (His own name means ‘Teacher’.)

Of him it is written that he lived sixty-five years, and had a son. After that he walked with the Son of God for another three hundred years.

During that earlier sixty-five year period Enoch had loved and feared the LORD God and had kept His commandments as taught to him by his parents. He was one of the holy line, the preservers of the true faith, the true family of the promised Seed. Galatians 3:16.

From the lips of Adam he had personally learned the dark story of the leap into sin, and the cheering one of God's grace as seen recorded in the promise of Genesis 3:15; and he relied upon the Redeemer to come. But after the birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realised more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God.

And as he saw the child's love for its father, its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep, yearning tenderness of his own heart for that first-born son, he learned a precious lesson of the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son, and the confidence which the children of God may have in their heavenly Father. The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditations day and night; and with all the fervour of his soul he sought to reveal that love to the people among whom he dwelt. He became an evangelist.

Enoch's walk with God was not in a trance or vision, but in all the duties of his daily life. He did not become a hermit, shutting himself away from the world, for he had a work to do for God in the world. In his family (he and his wife had many children) and in his business with men, as a husband and father, a friend, a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20), he was the steadfast, unwavering servant of the Lord. In the world, he was not of it!

His heart was in harmony with God's will; for "can two walk together, except they be agreed?" Amos 3:3. And this holy walk was continued for three hundred years. There are few Christians who would not be far more earnest and devoted if they knew that they had but a short time to live, or that the coming of Christ was about to take place. But Enoch's faith grew the stronger, his love became more ardent, with the lapse of centuries.

As he grew older, distressed by the increasing wickedness of the ungodly and fearing that their behaviour might lessen his reverence for God, Enoch avoided constant association with them, and spent much time in solitude, giving himself to meditation and prayer. Thus he waited before the Lord, seeking a clearer knowledge of His will, that he might perform it. To him prayer was as the breath of the soul; he lived in the very atmosphere of heaven, "seeing Him who is invisible". See Hebrews 11:27.

Through the Spirit the Son of God revealed to Enoch the fact that the world would be destroyed by a flood, and He also opened more fully to him the plan of redemption. By the spirit of prophecy (visions) He carried him down through the generations that should live after the Flood, and showed him the great events connected with the second coming of Christ, and the end of the world. A portion of one of his prophecies has been recorded for us in the Bible.

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Jude 1:14-16

These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouths speak great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

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The wickedness of most of humanity in his lifetime had reached such a height that destruction was pronounced against them, although the time of this event was not yet made known. As year after year passed on, deeper and deeper grew the tide of human guilt, darker and darker gathered the clouds of divine judgment.

Yet Enoch, the witness of faith, the true Christian, held on his way, warning, pleading, entreating, striving to turn back the tide of guilt and delay the inevitable, that some might repent. Though his warnings were disregarded by most of a sinful, pleasure-loving people, he had the testimony that God approved, and he continued to battle faithfully against the prevailing evil, until God removed him from a world of sin to the pure joys of heaven.

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Hebrews 11:5-6

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

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The majority of the men and women of that generation had mocked what they saw as the folly of him who sought not to gather gold or silver or to build up possessions here. But Enoch's heart was upon eternal treasures. He had looked upon the celestial city. He had seen the King in His glory in the midst of Zion. His mind, his heart, his conversation, were in heaven. The greater the existing iniquity, the more earnest was his longing for the home of God. While still on earth, he dwelt, by faith, in the realms of light.

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Matthew 5:8.

For three hundred years Enoch had been seeking purity of soul that he might be in harmony with Heaven. For three centuries he had walked with the Son of God. Day by day he had longed for a closer union; nearer and nearer had grown the communion, until Jesus took him to Himself. He had stood at the threshold of the eternal world, only a step between him and the land of the blest; and now the gate opened, the walk with the Son of God, so long pursued on earth, continued, and he passed through the gate of the Heavenly City without dying - the first from among men to enter there.

He had received the ultimate reward of the Christian, that gift which the Son of God desires to give every one of His followers, but which has been accepted by so very few.

May you go in grace like him,

Ron