ENOCH WALKED WITH GODGenesis 5:21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased...
ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD
Genesis 5:21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
These two accounts, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament present a very brief account of Enoch’s life but they embody the major themes of the story of Enoch’s existence on the earth. We read of some ordinary facts like the timeline of his life on earth and some scarce family details. And we also read of the most extraordinary circumstance of his being translated directly into Heaven to be with God without having to die a natural death.
We also read about his exceptional walk of faith with God, a walk so close and so pleasing to God that God appears to have said ‘Let’s continue this wonderful walk together up here because you don’t need any more time down there trying to transcend the material disorder of things – you’re living so much above it all that you might as well be totally here instead.’ His testimony of faith was so remarkable that the Bible marks his experience as a model of what the process of real faith is all about when it goes on to say ‘But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him’.
It might seem that this is the sum total of what we need to know about Enoch - he finished the course back in Genesis and enjoyed the rest of his existence involved in his heavenly existence and not involved with things on earth. But then another astounding Scripture is found in the New Testament in the book of Jude that mentions Enoch as a prophet who has something powerful and significant to say about the End Times judgement and the return of The Lord Jesus.
Jude is writing to the church about the judgement to come upon ungodly men who have infiltrated the church and defiled it with their lewdness (aselgeia – corrupt and filthy behaviour).
Jude 1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them.
So now to bring the Enoch narrative more up to date we need to look at what else is embedded in the words spoken about Enoch and the words spoken by Enoch.
There is some remarkable symbolism found in two of the numerals in the Genesis account and in the Jude account. The numerals are seven and three hundred.
In Jude it says that Enoch was the seventh from Adam – seven means completion or perfection which casts Enoch’s life as a shadow of Jesus, who walked perfectly with God.
In Genesis 5:21 it says that Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and three hundred speaks of overcoming and being protected from the enemy of darkness and death.
Noah’s ark was three hundred cubits in length and the ark overcame the flood and the judgement of death upon the earth at that time in history (Enoch was Noah’s great grandfather)
Gideon overcame impossible odds with three hundred fighting men to win victory over the hordes of thousands of the Midianites who were attacking God’s people. There were three hundred golden shields in Solomon’s Armory, (1Kings 10:17) and these golden shields were a symbol of divine protection.
1 Chronicles 22:9 I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days.
The meaning of the Hebrew word for shield (s?inâ) is strength, protection, defence against an enemy. It is the same as that used in God’s promise to Abram. “Do not be afraid, Abram: I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Genesis 15:1).
Enoch was taken out of the world and did not see death.
ENOCH THE PROPHET OF REVELATION
Is it any wonder then that Enoch who prophesied of the Second Coming of Jesus according to the book of Jude verse 14 prophesies that word again after 17 more verses in the Bible, in the Book of Revelation which is the following book of the Bible? ‘Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7)’
The words of the messenger (aggelos – angel) establish this thought when we read the account of John falling at the feet of the messenger to worship him and the messenger puts John in the picture of what is happening and who he is.
Revelation 22:8 Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel (aggelos - messenger) who showed me these things. Then he (the messenger) said to me, "See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and one of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep (adhere to and honour) the words of this book. Worship God." And he said to me, "Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand (in
\other words say what now has to be said). He who is unjust, let him be unjust still and the filthy be filthy still, and the righteous do right still, and the holy be holy still “See, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay everyone according to the deeds he has done.
This becomes the third time that Enoch’s prophecy gets spoken concerning the return of the Lord and of judgement and reward.
AN ENOCH GENERATION
The Bible says that it is appointed for man once to die and then comes the judgement.
Hebrews 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
So why didn’t Enoch have that appointment?
Simply because the Word of God can give permission for that – and that is the only way that ‘not seeing death’ can occur - By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"(Hebrews 11:5)
The Word of God also gives that permission to an entire generation of people who will be alive until the Lord returns.
Psalm 102:18 This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD. For He looked down from the height of His sanctuary; From heaven the LORD viewed the earth, To hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release those appointed to death.
That truth concerning permission for cancelling that appointment is also found twice in the New Testament.
1Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord.
1Corinthians 15:51 We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Many generations have supposed that theirs could be the one that saw the return of Jesus. Most markedly was the generation that was still alive after Jesus ascended into Heaven. There were two angels standing by when he ascended who said "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11). There was no reason for them not to believe that his return would be imminent, and many Christians were conjecturing this, perhaps even Paul himself as we just read what he said in Corinthians and Thessalonians.
Paul then brought a correction in 2Thessalonians 2 when he said ‘And now, what about the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to meet him? Please don’t be upset and excited, dear brothers, by the rumor that this day of the Lord has already begun. If you hear of people having visions and special messages from God about this, or letters that are supposed to have come from me, don’t believe them. Don’t be carried away and deceived regardless of what they say. For that day will not come until two things happen: first, there will be a time of great rebellion against God, and then the man of rebellion will come—the son of hell.’
Those scriptures have been there for 2000 years but for over 1500 years the ordinary churchgoer had no access to the Bible so there was no broad speculation about the Second Coming. There has however been much in the last three or four hundred years and that remains to this day.
The point is that every generation that knows these things should live as if Jesus was perhaps returning in their generation. Enoch represents a generation that shall be loosed from their appointment with death, and the way to live that kind of life is the way Enoch modelled his life to us.
He was a man who modelled the ‘three hundred’ class of spirit. He walked with God for three hundred years and was lifted above the corruption that his grandson Noah contended with and who built an ark of three hundred cubits providing safety for his family from judgment and destruction. His life speaks to us of the closeness of our walk with God that lifts us above the corruption of the world.
It also models to us the three hundred golden shields of Solomon that are shields of God’s protection over our souls that give us strength and peace, and it points us to the overcoming spirit of Gideon that gives us courage and victory over the power of the enemy.
Enoch was the seventh from Adam - The number seven speaks of completion - and God will have completed a work of grace in that generation. That generation will also have a ‘seventh from Adam’ class of spirit,
As the Psalm said about that generation - a people yet to be created will praise the LORD.
The work of grace that will be completed in that generation will bring praise to God from a people who know how to give thanks to God in all things. In any situation our freedom comes from getting our eyes off ourselves and onto God. That is always the starting point – we go from painful self-consciousness to joyful God consciousness. Not waiting for the bad thing to happen but waiting and expecting the good thing of God’s work to manifest. This requires thinking from the believing mind that is seated in our spirit not from the thoughts that are attached to the emotions of our soul.
