The Man Who Walked With God.

Hebrews 11:5a tells us, “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.”  Enoch was a lover of God, a friend of God, one who walked with Him by faith.  Like Elijah, who was whisked away by Chariots of Fire while his servant looked on with eyes wide and mouth agape, he is a type, a figure, a living image of those Lovers of God still alive when Jesus returns.  They, too, will not taste death.  Paul makes this crystal clear in 1 Thes. 4:16-18 and 1 Cor. 15:49-52.

Enoch’s name in Hebrew means- ‘dedicated.’  In opposition to Enoch the son of Cain, we can see this one is ‘dedicated to Elohiym,’ and to Life in harmony with Him.  The OT account of Enoch is written in Genesis 5:21-24, and twice in four vv. Moses uses a phrase which is used of only one other person in all of Scripture to describe a life of constant communion with God, a life of unceasing intimacy with the Almighty— “Enoch walked with God.”  The only other person this Hebrew phrase is used for is Enoch’s great-grandson, Noah {Gen. 6:9b}.

There’s a vast Hebrew mythology surrounding the figure of Enoch.  Jews who’d been thoroughly Hellenized believed he was Atlas, the primordial Titan who holds the stars and skies upon his back and keeps them separate from the Earth.  The Essenes glorified Enoch as the most righteous Saint to ever live and one who never had to die.  This caused a reaction among many Rabbis, who began to interpret the phrase “God took him away” as ‘God killed him in a righteous state before he could sin again.‘  They thought he vacillated back and forth between righteousness and unrighteousness.  Listen to me closely.  The very idea of ‘dying in a righteous or unrighteous state’ based on one’s action in the moment completely ignores the fulness of divine forgiveness at the Cross and the great power of God to keep our souls secure in His hands... come what may {Rom. 8:31-39}.  The writer of Hebrews simply skips over all the fanciful elaborations on Enoch’s life and sticks to the Scriptural account: He walked with God by faith; this pleased the heart of His Father; His Creator called Him Home.

The second half of Hebrews 11:5 says, “For before he was taken [‘before’ he could experience the pains of death in a fallen world], he was commended.”  For what?  His gardening skills like his forefather Adam, his knowledge of boat-building which he passed on to Noah, his skill in battle with the descendants of Cain?  No.  His faith in the Lord His God.  “God, once and for all Eternity, bore witness to the faith of Enoch, He testified to it in Time, He spoke well of Him with approval” {RR Exp}.

“Enoch was commended for all Time and Eternity as one who pleased God,” one in whom God ‘took delight,’ one with whom God was ‘well-satisfied.’  The author will use this word in the very next v. when he speaks of the impossibility of pleasing God without the willingness to trust Him, to lay everything we have and everything we are in faith at His feet.  And to renounce our reliance on anything else.  He’ll use it one more time before he’s done, in 13:16, where he says, “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased,” constantly, consistently.  “God is ever delighted by sacrifices like this, God is always satisfied by the fruit of a generous heart” {RR Exp}.  I love this.  Doesn’t get much clearer, does it?

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously