Enoch

2022-02-12

Enoch was a man who never died. After Adam and Eve sinned, their genealogy is listed, with the common refrain, “and he died.” However, the promise of Enoch is a reminder that death would one day end.

And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Genesis 5:22-24)

This was a man who pursued God. He did not conform to the world, which was getting worse as the Flood was getting closer. Instead, he preached against sin:

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. (Jude 1:14-15)

His prophecy here had a preliminary fulfillment with the Flood but will be ultimately fulfilled when the Lord returns to establish His kingdom.

What does it mean to walk with God? The New Testament tells us,

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. (Hebrews 11:5)

Enoch pleased God, because of his faith in Him. However, he also had a public testimony that showed the world that He pleased God. People knew where he stood with the Lord. He preached against sin.

That does not mean that everyone who walks with God or pleases God will dodge death in the flesh, because “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9) and “all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died” (Genesis 9:29). Nonetheless, it is a promise from God that those who seek Him by faith will ultimately be with Him for eternity.

However, there is a generation of believers that will not see physical death like Enoch, for “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout... we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). However, for we who trust in Christ, “whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him” (1 Thessalonians 5:10).