Walking with God by Robert Hare

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 36.

Walking with God.

By Robert Hare

WE read in Gen. 5: 24: “Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him.” This was a great honor for God to bestow upon a man, and we think there must have been something special in the character of the man upon whom it was conferred. Walking with God implies more than a mere profession of godliness. It implies a degree of holiness that will justify God in accepting our companionship; for we read distinctly of those who are sanctified, that, “He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Heb. 2: 11. This justifies the conclusion that he would be ashamed of those who are not sanctified.

We read in Amos 3: 3: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Acquaintance with human nature will make it easy for us to determine that they cannot. Agreement must ever form the basis of companionship, and it is the lack of this that makes enemies. Then it will be necessary, in the first place, that the man who walks with God, be in agreement with God. To be in agreement with earthly powers, it is imperative that we observe their laws. There is no monarch who would think of honoring with distinction a man who had set at naught his decrees; and our ideas of justice would lead us to suppose that God would, at least, require the same degree of submission as that demanded by an earthly potentate. It

would be altogether contrary to reason to suppose that God would honor a man who lived in violation of his law.

In Lev. 26: 3, 12, we read: “If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;” “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” It is quite evident from this that we cannot walk with God, except he consents to walk with us; and this cannot be unless we follow the injunction given to Israel: “If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them.” This is the only course of action that can ever secure for us the exalted dignity of walking with God.

God in speaking of Levi declares: “He walked with me in peace and equity.” Mal. 2: 6. And in the preceding part of the verse we find the reason why he thus walked with God in peace: “The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips.” Thus we find that there was something special in connection with those characters with whom God consented to walk, and this consisted in having the law of truth in their mouth, and iniquity far from their lips.

We sometimes pray and sing of a closer walk with God. This can only be secured now as it was then—by walking in his statutes, and keeping his commandments to do them. When the Son of man is revealed in the clouds of heaven, and the angels are sent forth to gather his elect from the four winds, all those will be left behind whose characters are not in harmony with the law of God. As Enoch walked with God, and was not; for God took him, so His remnant church, walking in the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will not be; for God shall take them.

How is it with us? Are we aspiring to the highest dignity that lies within the range of human thought—that of walking with God? Are our names numbered with those who are being accounted worthy to walk with him in white?

ROBERT HARE.