If there is one person mentioned in the Bible who has always intrigued Christians, it is Enoch. Especially because of what is expressed in Genesis 5:24. This verse says that Enoch walked with God and he disappeared, because God took him away.
This has shocked Bible readers and has led them to wonder what kind of man was enoch And what did God do for him? However, this unusual experience of Enoch’s is not really the most important feature of his life, nor the one on which we should focus most of our attention.
Rather, how enoch lived on earth should impress us even more than how his earthly life ended. The key truth that God wants us to remember about him is summed up in the simple description: “Enoch walked with God.”
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Who was Enoch?
Enoch first appears in the biblical record in a rather lurid chapter. Because if one reads Genesis 5, which contains the first biblical genealogy and lists the descendants from Adam to Noah, several things are striking.
One is the long life these ancients lived; most of them lived for more than 900 years. The other is that their lives, though long, ended in death (except one). It is clear that the Holy Spirit is telling us that the world was a different place after the fall of Adam.
It was a world where human life was long and difficult and ultimately led to the grave, far from the perfect happiness of man’s original state in the Garden of Eden. It was in this fallen world where also enoch was born and where he had to spend his days.
Genesis 5 says few facts about him. He mentions the name of his father Jared and the name of his son Methuselah. And he says how long he lived on earth: 365 years. However, Enoch is mentioned in two other places in Scripture, both in the New Testament.
the letter of Jude, v. 14 and 15informs us that he was the seventh generation from Adam, and more significantly than he he was a prophet, the one who spoke of God’s judgment on the wicked and their depravity. This indicates that, already in the time of Enoch, the world had become a wicked place.
He was ripening for the terrible judgment of God that would come in the worldwide flood of Noah’s time. But God was already warning sinful man through Enoch’s proclamation. The another reference to Enoch in the New Testament It’s in Hebrews 11the chapter of the “heroes of the faith”.
There, the inspired author cites the two main truths about Enoch that appear in Genesis 5, namely that Enoch walked with God and that God took him away. But Hebrews expands on what we read in Genesis 5, specifically citing the faith of enoch and the way in which God took him so that he would not go through death.
Enoch’s walk with God
Let’s focus on the most important feature of Enoch’s life noted in Genesis as well as in Hebrews 11. “Enoch walked with God.” The phrase appears twice in Genesis 5, first in verse 22, which says:
Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah, 300 years, and had other sons and daughters.
Enoch was 65 years old when his eldest son, Methuselah, was born. Does Scripture mean that Enoch’s walk with God began at that point in his life? Did he undergo any type of conversion experience after the birth of Methuselah?
We can’t say for sure. But for the last 300 years of his earthly life, Enoch walked with God. And so this marked the essential nature of his life. That is why verse 24 sums it up simply as:
“Enoch walked with God, and disappeared, because God took him away.”
whatWhat does it mean that Enoch “walked with God”? Does it mean that Enoch literally went for a walk with God, as God did with Adam and Eve in Paradise? I don’t think so, although God can and did appear at times in human form to talk and walk with men.
But the phrase “walking with God” must be understood in a spiritual sense. It is a typical biblical expression of the relationship that God’s children have or should have with him. The Bible speaks, for example, of our obligation to walk in the truth, walk in the light, or walk in the ways of the Lord.
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What actions are involved in walking with God?
There are three main actions involved in walking with God:
1. Trust in God
This is, in fact, the basic requirement to walk with God. The prophet Amos once asked the question, “Would two walk together if they were not agreed?” That means we must be reconciled to God.
Without a doubt, it is our covenant God who has initiated this agreement to walk with us. Because it is not in the sinner’s nature to want to walk with God. It is God who sent his Son to walk with us and among us on earth, so that through his life and death He could lead us to what is right.
At the same time, walking with God requires faith from U.S. As Paul wrote in two Corinthians 5:7; “we walk by faith, not by sight“. And the writer of Hebrews, in chapter 11:5, also makes a point by mentioning Enoch’s faith: “By faith Enoch was led up not to see death.”
And that verse ends like this:hour, before being taken, he was recommended to have pleased God”, which leads the writer to continue in verse 6: “And without faith it is impossible to please (God)”. That clearly tells us that one of the reasons for Enoch’s walk with God was his faith in the Lord. He had a firm trust in the true God who had revealed himself.
And in the same way, anyone today who wishes to walk as Enoch walked with God must have true faith in Him. God does not walk with unbelievers. He walks with his people saved from him. In fact, your faith in Him and in His Son should not be a one-time act, but a daily and ever-present attitude. We must walk with God by faith every day and at all times.
2. Communion with God
So Enoch’s walk involved faith. And second, it involved fellowship or communion with God. When two friends walk together, they do so to enjoy each other’s company. They love to share their thoughts and experiences. They talk, laugh and commiserate together. They trust each other, often on a deep level.
This is also how it should be when we walk with God. And no doubt this was true in the case of Enoch. He trusted God, talked to God, expressed his love for the Lord, his need for him, and his dependence on God. The only person who walked the closest to God on earth it was, without a doubt, his own Son, Jesus Christ.
He enjoyed perfect communion with God. It was the most intimate communion that the Savior had with his Father. Jesus wanted and needed that fellowship and therefore regularly withdrew from the crowds and from his own disciples to spend time with his Father.
Walking with a friend involves talking and listening to each other. The same is true for walking with God. It involves our talking to God, which we do, and what Enoch did, and even Jesus, through prayer.
But communion with God also requires listening to him, what we do, and what Enoch did, and even Jesus, by meditating on the Word and the revealed will of God. A Christian cannot walk with God unless he is faithful in prayer and diligent in reading the Word of the Lord.
3. Obedience to God
But a third element equally necessary to walk with God is obedience. The apostle John emphasized that in 1 John 1:6:
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
You cannot walk with God and live in debauchery. Of course, God’s people still sin, even on a daily basis. Yes, the best saints have only a small beginning of true obedience, and such sin hinders our relationship with God. even so, still we can walk with him, when we confess our sinswe receive His forgiveness and seek to fulfill His will.
We can be sure that Enoch, being a sinner, undoubtedly needed to confess his sins daily as he walked with God. But as a forgiven sinner, he had the desire and the will to obey God. The general pattern of his life was to please God. Enoch’s Life Lesson for all believers in Christ is that they must walk in obedience to God’s commandments. as we read in 2 John verse 6:
“And this is love: that we walk according to his commandments.”
How can we walk as Enoch walked with God? And how can our walk be closer to Him? Think about this biblical character. He walks by faith, he walks in fellowship, and he walks in obedience to the Lord.
Enoch’s Reward
Where did Enoch’s walk with God lead? How did he end up on earth? The Bible tells us that it happened in a very unusual way. After a lifetime of 365 years, which seems incredibly long to us today, but was short by his time, Enoch’s earthly journey ended. Genesis 5:24 only tells us: “and disappeared, because God took him“.
We say of people who die: “They no longer exist.” And the phrase “God took him” is also used today to speak of a person taken by God at death. However, the context of Genesis 5 makes what it says about Enoch clearly different from what happened to the other ancients mentioned in the chapter. Of each of them it is said: “and he died.”
Obviously, there was something very different at the end of Enoch’s earthly life. And that difference is made very clear in Hebrews 11:5: “By faith Enoch was led away from seeing deathIn other words, God took Enoch to heaven without him going through the gates of death.
Of course, it was a miracle. So what’s amazing about this is not just that Enoch walked with God, but also the fact that he was transported to heaven without dying. This was God’s reward for Enoch’s walk with Him.
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final thoughts
Today’s children of God may not receive such an unusual reward. But our ultimate prize is the same. Those who believe in Christ and walk with God can also receive the blessing of being transported into His presence and have the gift of perfect life with Him. So, dear reader, just as Enoch walked with God, you too can and should, in the spiritual sense, to one day dwell with Him.