Walking with God.

One of my favourite Old Testament characters is Enoch, the father of the better-known Methuselah, of whom it is written: "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." (Gen.5:24).  I believe that those words are telling us that, every morning, when Enoch awoke, his first words were “Well, Lord, where are we going today; what will we be doing?”  And the Lord told him.  Then, one day he awoke and, having asked the same question, was told by God, “Today, Enoch, dear friend, you are coming to my bit.  Let’s go!”  And Enoch simply walked through the veil that separates time from eternity – a veil that is so fine that it makes gossamer look thick and heavy by comparison; but a veil that is so strong, that not even the combined force of all of the world’s nuclear weapons could even dent it.

There are, I would suggest, three questions that we may legitimately ask about Enoch - the answers to which can apply to you and to me today.

The first question is "When did Enoch walk with God?"  We discover that it was during a most evil time in the history of mankind.   A great-grandson of Enoch was a man named Noah and, by his time, "YHWH saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Gen. 6:5).  As I read, watch, and listen to, our contemporary news reports, I see a similar world today.  I see cruelty; I see greed; I see fraud and deceit; I see wickedness in high places; I see men with men, and women with women, in unnatural relationships; I see rebelliousness against God in what could be unprecedented measure.  In a word or two, I see sin rampant in society in every part of the world.  I see a world that is ripe for a similar judgement as that exercised against the generation of Noah.  For Enoch, it was a difficult time to maintain fellowship with God - yet it was also a time when the importance of "walking with God" cannot be over-emphasised.  The same, I would contend, applies to us.

 Our second question could be "Where did Enoch walk with God?"  It was on this same planet Earth that we inhabit - an Earth filled with violence; an Earth that is well described by those words already quoted.  Yet it was in the midst of such a world; in the midst of a decaying, immoral, godless, generation that Enoch enjoyed this fellowship with Father God.  Did he realise that such fellowship; such sweet communion; was his only defence against the moral, social, and spiritual pollution that surrounded him?   I would contend that this is our only defence in the world of today!

Thirdly, we may ask "Why did Enoch walk with God?"  Could it be that he was aware that judgement was near?  Could it be that he was looking for God to act?  Could it be that he knew that only divine intervention could deal with the world that was around him?  We are informed that "... Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 14-15).  In other words, he warned his contemporaries about the judgement that would befall them if they continued in their sinful ways.  Are we warning those in whose midst we live, in the same way?

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God." (Heb 11:5).  By faith in what, or whom?  You see, the amount of our faith is of little importance (see Matt.17:20).  The object of our faith is what matters.  Enoch's faith was in the One with Whom he had walked for as long as he could remember.  Where is your faith?  Where is mine?  Are we "walking with the Lord"?  Are we expecting His imminent return?

Those who walk most closely with Him, and who work hardest for Him, watch most for Jesus' return!