Genesis 5:24
We first meet Enoch in Genesis 5:18. When we read this chapter, we can almost hear the funeral bell tolling. Again and again the paragraphs about the individual patriarchs end with the words “and then he died” (Genesis 5:3–17).
3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died. 6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. 7 After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died. 9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Altogether, Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died. 12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 After he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Altogether, Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died. 15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. 16 After he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Altogether, Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years, and then he died. (Genesis 5:3–17)
George Bernard Shaw once said, “The statistics on death are quite impressive — one out of one dies.” And yet the list of Adam’s descendants seems to be written precisely so that the exception of Enoch would stand out. What is unique about him is that, while all the other patriarchs died, of Enoch it is said that “he was no more, because God took him away.” God transferred him from this earth without his ever tasting death. This shows us that, even though the way to the tree of life had been closed, there is still a way to escape death — if not physical death, then certainly spiritual death — and that way is “walking with God.”
THE SEVENTH FROM ADAM
We read of Enoch’s birth in Genesis 5:18:
18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. (Genesis 5:18)
There was nothing remarkable about his birth except that he was “the seventh from Adam.” This set him apart from the other Enoch, who was the son of Cain (Genesis 4:17) and after whom Cain named the city he built. The Enoch we are speaking of in Genesis 5, however, is a descendant not of Cain but of Seth. Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, and Enoch. Enoch was born 622 years after Adam. Adam lived 930 years. The calculations show that Enoch and Adam were contemporaries for more than 300 years. They talked together, and Adam surely told him about God, about the Garden of Eden, and about the fall. And yet, until the age of 65, Enoch was not a man of God.
AFTER HE BECAME THE FATHER OF METHUSELAH…
Enoch’s conversion is very interesting. It happened after a son was born to him, whom Enoch named Methuselah.
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. (Genesis 5:21–22)
There was evidently something special about the birth of Methuselah, because it is expressly recorded that Enoch began to “walk faithfully with God” from the time Methuselah was born. Perhaps while Enoch was holding the baby Methuselah in his arms and wondering what to name him, God in some way spoke to his heart. People’s names in the Bible always carry a particular meaning, and sometimes they contain a message as well. Methuselah means “when he dies, it will come.” What was coming was the flood. Noah was born when Methuselah was 369 years old, and the flood began in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life (Genesis 7:11). Methuselah lived 969 years and died in the year of the flood, but not from it.
WHY DID METHUSELAH LIVE SO LONG?
Methuselah is known as the man who lived the longest on this earth. I am almost certain that the reason for this was that every additional day in Methuselah’s life was one more chance for someone to put his relationship with God right. God was delaying the outpouring of His wrath in order to give people more opportunities to repent and turn to Him. It is the same today. In 2 Peter 3:9 it says:
9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
Just as God was patient then, so He is patient now. And my prayer is that no one would miss his chance! In Romans 2:4–10 it says:
4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Romans 2:4–10)
HOW CAN WE PLEASE GOD?
At the birth of Methuselah, God evidently spoke to Enoch in some way and told him that the world would last only as long as his child was alive. Can you imagine what happened whenever Methuselah fell ill and ran a high fever… How anxious his father must have been. Enoch resolved to do everything necessary to avoid the outpouring of God’s wrath. God’s Word gave rise to faith in him, and he decided to change his life so as to be pleasing to God. In Hebrews 11:5–6 it says:
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5)
To please someone means to satisfy them completely. Enoch’s conduct truly delighted God. But what exactly in his conduct so captivated God?
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
This is the way to please God — by having faith in Him and in His promises. It is not enough merely to know about God; you must believe that He is living and active and that He keeps His promises — both for good and for punishment.
WHERE DOES FAITH COME FROM?
The faith in Enoch is proof that he had somehow heard and received God’s Word, for in Romans 10:17 it says:
17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17)
God uses many different means to communicate with us, but all of them have as their aim to turn us back to Himself. The question is whether we will pay attention to His messages and take His words seriously. Only then can they give rise to faith in us. In Job 33:14–18 it says:
14 For God does speak — now one way, now another — though no one perceives it. (Job 33:14)
There is no way that God has not spoken at least once or twice in the life of every person. If not through the Bible or through a person, then even directly — in a dream or a vision.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, 16 he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, 17 to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, (Job 33:15–17)
God’s purpose is to “keep” pride from us. It is our independence that keeps us from walking with God. Pride precedes the fall. And God’s desire is salvation.
18 to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword. (Job 33:18)
IN HARMONY WITH GOD
Enoch’s faith was not vain, it was not empty. It expressed itself in deeds. Moses, who is considered to be the author of the book of Genesis, expresses this with the words: “And Enoch walked with God 300 years…” Evidently it was precisely Enoch’s walk with God that was the reason he was transferred into God’s glory without seeing death. The way Enoch behaved and the way he acted pleased God. Nowhere do we read of him that he split a sea in two, that he healed the sick, or that he was a great military commander. But he maintained a warm relationship with God.
Walking with God presupposes agreement, unanimity, and one mind. In Amos 3:3 it says:
3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so? (Amos 3:3)
This means being in harmony with God. Someone might say that it was easier back then than it is now, when sin has developed to its very limit. But I want to assure you that it was not so. In Matthew 24:37 Jesus said:
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:37–39)
Perhaps you will say, what is so wrong about all that? People were eating, drinking, even marrying and being given in marriage — unlike now, when marriage is out of fashion. The problem is that they did not sense when the punishment for their sin arrived. They took it for granted that the world would last forever and that everything would always remain so peaceful. In addition to this, in Genesis 6:5–6 we read:
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. (Genesis 6:5–6)
So walking with God in Enoch’s time was certainly no easier than it is now. And yet, Enoch did it. To walk with God means not to walk with those who are not with Him.
NOT A SPRINT, BUT A MARATHON!
In spite of the universal atmosphere of decay, Enoch had chosen to move against the current. And he did it not for a year or two, but for “three hundred years.” That is 109,500 days! And during each one of those days Enoch lived a life pleasing to God. Today it is a common occurrence for people to become Christians for a few years and then fall away. Or for our faith to come in ebbs and flows. But not Enoch. It is no wonder that, after such a spiritual ascent upward, in the end he did not “land” at all, but passed into heaven.
Walking with God is not a sprint, but a marathon! And it can happen only when we find our satisfaction in it. In the Psalms we read of the longing that those who walked with God had:
Psalm 84:10
10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. (Psalm 84:10)
Psalm 42:1
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1–2)
When I consider Enoch’s example, I ask myself: “How much do I long for God? How much do I seek Him? How much do I want to be in His presence?” May God help us to carry out better Paul’s call in Galatians 5:25:
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
HATRED OF SIN
Enoch did not believe “in secret.” He had his ministry. He had an astounding understanding of God’s punishment and God’s wrath. And he did not keep it to himself. Enoch prophesied about the Lord’s coming and about the Last Judgment. The apostle Jude says of him in Jude 14–15:
14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 14–15)
After he began to “walk with God,” Enoch also began to see sin through God’s eyes. He began to notice the ungodliness in the deeds and words of people toward one another and toward God. And so he began to preach nothing other than God’s wrath and punishment against ungodliness in all its forms. He called things by their true names without fear that he would be rejected because of it.
God’s wrath is not a joke, and the lake of fire is not a tale from the Arabian Nights. Pain is not an abstraction, but something terrible and unbearable. Millions of people will writhe in the fire of eternity, where the worm does not die, the fire is not quenched, and where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. On that day no one will want to stand before God, because it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the angry God.
Enoch was an aggressive preacher against sin. But this makes us ask ourselves: “How much do we hate ungodliness? How uncompromising are we toward sin?” Let us remember that Enoch entered into life because he hated impurity and because he understood God’s wrath.
GOD REWARDS THOSE WHO SEEK HIM
Perhaps many considered Enoch strange because of these sermons of his and this peculiar behavior. But one day, before the eyes of many people, God snatched him away. In Genesis 5:24 it says:
24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. (Genesis 5:24)
The same is said in Hebrews 11:5:
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” (Hebrews 11:5)
Perhaps it happened just as the chariots of fire came for the prophet Elijah while he was walking alongside Elisha (2 Kings 2:11):
11 As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11)
This is an encouraging picture of the catching away of the church, which is promised to us at the coming of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18):
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)
This is our hope: that if we live like Enoch, we will end like him. A day will come when we will no longer be found on this earth, because God will take us to Himself. If we walk with God, we will be with Him throughout eternity as well!
If Enoch were here now among us, I believe he would say to us: “Do not be afraid to walk with God. Do not think about the limitations that a godly life might cost you. Remember that God rewards those who seek Him. Be faithful to Him, commune with Him daily, keep your hearts pure, serve Him faithfully, speak the truth without fear, and in the end you will have the crown of life!”