n a day of shallow characters and forgotten integrity, Enoch was a welcome sight. Living seven generations from Adam, Enoch descended from Adam through the line of Seth. He is the first man after Cain about whom the Bible makes a comment. That comment is so significant that it reverberates throughout Scripture.
Enoch rose quickly from a company of obscure early humans to become a patriarch and prophet of renown. This man left such an impact that he is named by three different writers in the New Testament (Luke 3:37; Heb. 11:5; Jude 14).
Some of the words of his eternal prophecy are quoted in Jude 14-15; and there is strong prophetical speculation that he will be one of the two witnesses during the Great Tribulation period mentioned in Revelation 11:1-12.
Genesis 5:24 is a concise yet powerful biography. It seems impossible for a single sentence to describe 365 years adequately, but this verse does exactly that.
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Enoch Experienced God
“Enoch walked with God” (Gen. 5:24). This refers to a conversant walk with a companion.
The Bible first mentions Enoch’s walk with God after the birth of his son Methuselah (v. 22). Some scholars say the name Methuselah is prophetic, meaning “when he is dead it shall come.” It is likely that the birth of Methuselah and the giving of his name was the result of a profound experience with God that Enoch received. Methuselah was the grandfather of Noah and died the year the Flood came.
Enoch must have been given a glimpse of the impending deluge of judgment that would come in Noah’s day. Perhaps he saw around him the godless atmosphere that was developing so rapidly. The sin of Eden was deep in the fertile ground of the human heart, and Enoch knew no cure could be found outside of a relationship with Jehovah.
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Enoch Walked With the Living God
The Hebrew word for God in Genesis 5:24 is Elohim, meaning “the Supreme God.” Perhaps idolatry had become rampant, and it was necessary to point out that Enoch walked with the one and only God.
His walk was a solitary walk, but not a lonely one. Others might casually stroll with false deities, but not Enoch. He walked with the God of heaven. Oh, for such men and women in this hour!
Although they are extremely popular, the idol gods of luxury and affluence offer
no solace for the child of God. True believers do not waste their steps and spend their days conversing with the gods and goddesses of the flesh, for they know their God “is a jealous God” (Ex. 34:14).
This was the conviction of Enoch. The trends of the time cannot move a man or woman who walks with God. Enoch had a prophetic encounter with God at age 65 (Gen. 5:21), and he was never the same again.
Enoch was not the only person to have such a life-changing encounter, however. One day, an 80-year-old-shepherd saw a bush that burned yet was not consumed. . . and he was never the same after that. Shoeless, Moses stood in the presence of the same God that Enoch walked with. He offered both his staff and his life to this matchless God (see Ex. 3:1-6).
A statesman-prophet and dignified orator of renown, Isaiah stood in the Temple at Jerusalem in a time of profound national grief and saw the Lord “high and lifted up” (Isa. 6:1). The Lord was surrounded by sacred seraphim, and the smoke of God’s glory filled the house. While the posts of the doors trembled at the sound of God’s voice, Isaiah poured out a cry of submission that echoes down the centuries: “Here am I; send me” (v. 8).
Enoch, Moses, and Isaiah all encountered the presence of God and walked willingly thereafter in His continuous presence. Walking with God was their very lives. They lived to walk, and their talk never conflicted with their walk.
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Enoch Pleased God
The writer of Hebrews described Enoch’s life beautifully: “He had this testimony, that he pleased God” (11:5).
Others may live to please people or the rules of the surrounding culture, but not the child of God.
When men and women live to climb into the higher echelons of their culture, regardless of what that culture is, then they do what the culture requires. Hence, the world is filled with dishonest politicians.
Our society is a sea of refuse and debauchery, and those who live to please the world are adrift in it. Hear the apostle John’s warning:
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever (1 John 2:15-17).
Enoch knew he could not please God and please the world at the same time, so he walked before God to please Him alone.
The writer of Hebrews gives us more insight into the depth of Enoch’s character when he tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (11:6). Enoch had faith. He could never have pleased God otherwise.
Enoch had a prophetic faith. Jude wrote:
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 (vv. 14-15).
Here a prophet of God who lived millennia before Christ’s first coming prophesied of His second return! He also spoke of divine justice that will take place at this return as God deals with sin and rebellion.
This prophecy was from a man who walked before God and pleased God by faith. He received this word of prophecy by faith and proclaimed it by faith.
We need such men and women in this stage of the Church’s sojourn on earth. Heroes of the faith are now at a premium. We need prophets who will prophesy under the anointed unction of the Holy Spirit, and who fear not the consequences of rejection by a carnal society or church.
Has the church culture of the last days become so “Laodicean” in its attitude that it is declaring, “We have need of nothing” (see Rev. 3:14-18)?
Do we despise “prophesying” and laugh with disdain at “words from the Lord”?
Are we so concerned with denominational structure and positions of power within the church that we no longer yearn for burning bushes and the cry of the seraphim?
Positions of human manufacture can never replace the offices of evangelist, pastor, prophet, apostle, and teacher that God ordained for His church. These are offices of and by faith. The holders of these positions do what they do to please God and God alone. They are not of this world nor do they fit here comfortably.
Enoch prophesied as he was commanded, for His purpose was to please the Lord in everything he did.
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Enoch Was Translated
“[Enoch] was not; for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). Enoch escaped the pain of death. God chose to translate him—God raptured Enoch into His presence.
For thousands of years now, Enoch has been in the presence of God. His life provides a picture of the kind of people who will be ready for the rapture of the Church:
• They are people of faith (Heb. 11:6). • They live to please God (v. 5).
• They proclaim the truth (Jude
14-15).
• They seek an encounter with God
(Gen. 5:24).
• They believe in the reality of God
(Heb. 11:6).
• They diligently seek Him (v. 6).
Enoch completed his walk with God.
Yet, as he departed this world for the splendors of eternity, he left something behind—his testimony.
Some leave great fortunes of wealth and others leave volumes of heady writing. Still others leave legendary stories of their feats of skill and heroic strength. Enoch, however, left more than any of these—he left an unblemished and powerful testimony. “He had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb. 11:5).
May that be our testimony. May God forbid us to settle for less.
And He walks with me,
and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known.
—C. Austin Miles