Enoch walked with God

“Enoch walked with God.”
(Genesis 5:22, 24)

God’s core intent was that humans would “walk with” Him intimately. This is established early in Scripture with Adam. However, we can see that,

When Adam ceased walking with God, Death entered;

When Enoch began to walk with God, Death ceased.

Adam failed to walk with God and experienced Death;

Enoch on the other hand did walk with God and escaped Death.

Who was Enoch? How did he learn to walk with God? What was it like for him to walk with God? What do we know about Him? Enoch lived to be 365 years old. For 308 of those 365 years, Adam was alive. The casual reader reads the genealogies and carelessly assumes that Adams been dead a thousand years or something by the time Enoch comes along. However, Adam was 622 years old when Enoch was born. So for 308 years of Enoch's 365 they’re existing on the earth together. Here's what I think could have very well happened. You've got all the men on the face of the earth, having heard the stories of Adam walking with God. And their just going on trying to make the best of what they’ve got. All the while, could it be, that Enoch was a man, absolutely caught up with the idea and could not get past the concept that Adam had once walked with God. Could it be that every chance Enoch got, he was with Adam, his great, great, great, great, grandfather saying, "Tell me again, what was it like???--You walked with Him. How did you walk with Him?"?

Could it be that Enoch was so caught up with the concept that someone had walked with God, that he dedicated his life-to walking with God? After all, that’s what his very name means, “dedicated, initiated, and to train up.” What was the “fruit” of this man who “walked (halak) with God?” First of all, Enoch was a profoundly prophetic man. Jude points out the fact that Enoch was a prophet. “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying,

‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15-to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (Jude :14-15)

Jude is quoting from the Apocrypha book known as 1 Enoch (also referred to as the Ethiopian Enoch). It’s a direct quote from 1 Enoch 1:9. The Book of Enoch was a popular text commonly read and respected by early Judaism and First Century Christians. It appears that Jude is references this prophecy to the Second Coming of Christ (it actually resonates much of what the New Testament has to say about it. See Matthew 16:27; 25:31 and Deuteronomy 33:2). Yet, it seems that the prophecy recorded by Enoch was also a prophecy regarding the ungodliness of his own day. And, the “executing of judgment” could have very well applied to the impeding judgment of the flood that would be coming.

It seems very clear that Enoch knew the flood was coming. He named his son, Methuselah which means, “death and sent” or “at his death it comes” or “at death it will be sent”. Interesting name for a son! If you study the genealogies, the year that Methuselah died, the flood came. As Enoch prophesied, at Methuselah’s death, the judgment was sent. Also that shows you something about the mercy of God. The guy whose name meant, at his death, (judgment comes or ) it comes lived longer than anybody else on the face of the earth. This story is a type, a picture, and a message of God's mercy.

Moreover, Methuselah’s name could have also been translated “Man-Stretched-out.” Methuselah was the oldest person to ever live, and his life “stretched” from the time Adam lived to Noah’s preaching of the impeding judgment, all the way up to the year (perhaps day) of the Flood. He was 243 years old when Adam died and 300 years old when Enoch was taken away. And all of this is tucked away in this notorious “sleeper passage” of Scripture. Yet, the treasures of Scripture are only given to those who “diligently seek Him.” As George Washington Carver said,

“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.”

A GodWalker is one who will walk with, pursue, seek out and love on God and His Word until the secrets are released. Enoch dedicated himself to that. He gave his attention to the Lord. He walked with God.