Enoch Preaching, Walking With God and Taken Upby CBPepper
5:22Genesis 5:22
And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
After his first son was born when he was sixty-five, he lived another three hundred years raising other sons and daughters in ever-closer fellowship with God. Fatherhood opened that closer walk, for the tenderness he felt for his firstborn and the trust he saw in the child taught him God's love in giving His Son and the confidence His children may place in Him. Walking with God was living faith that made Christ a constant companion and counselor, talking with Him everywhere, referring every thought and course to His will, and obeying all His law with no will of one's own. He kept that holy, spotless life for three centuries amid abounding corruption, living apart to preserve purity yet going out to warn and teach as a prophet of the Flood and of Christ's second coming. At last communion grew so close that he was borne to heaven without seeing death, the first so taken, representing the commandment-keeping people who will be translated alive when Christ returns.
Ancient Record and Lifespan
Genesis 5:22 stands in the pre-Flood genealogy in which nine generations averaged 912 years of life, in contrast to 332 years for nine generations after the Flood, to seventy years in the time of Moses, and to about thirty-five years at present. That steady decrease proves man was made physically perfect and has woefully deteriorated since. The verse belongs to the record of the patriarchs from Adam to Noah who, with few exceptions including Enoch himself, lived nearly a thousand years. It illustrates the great longevity of the first two thousand years in contrast to present sickness and mortality, showing the long life given at first before the tapering of length of life since the days of Noah.
That long life was lived under the original fruit and grain plan, for Enoch ate no flesh as one of the most pious and godly men, and God's children ate no flesh for nearly 2000 years after creation and for more than sixteen hundred years before the Flood. The record gives lifespans and their ending without describing the illnesses and prolonged suffering familiar in later times, describing instead remarkably good health. The protracted life came from man's perfect creation and the life-giving power of the tree of life transmitted from Adam and Eve to their descendants, for the tree possessed power to perpetuate life so that as long as they ate of it they could not die. Only a few generations had passed since Adam had access to the tree that prolongs life, so the race still retained much of its early vigor with ten times present vital force, great size and physical strength, and rare powers to plan and execute.
The shortening to between one and two hundred years by the Egyptian vassalage, to threescore years and ten in David's time about halfway from Adam to the present, to about thirty years now in Europe and the United States and twenty in great cities, with pain and disease from the cradle, was done by awful violations of God's laws of health and life. Eating flesh as food after the Flood, together with the original curse and its accumulated weight of transgression and violation of natural law, bowed the race down and dwindled man to his present brief life marked with disease, decrepitude, imbecility, and mortality increased to a fearful extent. The effects of corrupt appetites, passions, and violations of physical law became evident only after more than a thousand years, and disease has been steadily on the increase through successive generations since that period. That long-lived people were given their skill, mental ability, stature, strength, and wisdom to devote to God's service to make His name a praise and answer the purpose for which life was given, but they gave loose rein to iniquity, and their guilt was in proportion to those endowments.
Because men lived for centuries, for hundreds of years seven generations were alive on the earth at the same time. Adam, formed in God's image and pronounced good, had been instructed by God in all wisdom about the material world, had learned the history of creation from God, and had witnessed the events of nine centuries. Without books or written records, men of great physical and mental vigor had strong memories able to grasp and retain what was communicated and to transmit it unimpaired to posterity, and generations living contemporaneously could consult together, each profiting by the knowledge and experience of all. Adam was still alive when Methuselah, Enoch's son, was 243 years old, so all God had taught Adam could be communicated directly from Adam to Methuselah, then from Methuselah to Shem, from Shem to Abraham and Isaac, and from Abraham and Isaac to Jacob, forming a direct line of living witnesses from Adam to Jacob.
Fatherhood Began Closer Walk
For sixty-five years before his first son was born he loved and feared God and kept His commandments as one of the holy line preserving the true faith and carrying forward the promised seed, having learned from Adam the story of the fall and God's grace in the promise and trusting in the Redeemer to come. After Methuselah was born he entered a higher experience and a closer relationship with God that lasted three hundred years, realizing more fully his obligations and responsibility as a son of God. Though he had already loved and feared God and kept His commandments, the love and simple trust he saw in his child toward its father and his protection, together with the deep yearning tenderness of his own heart for his firstborn son, taught him the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son and the confidence the children of God may place in their heavenly Father.
The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditations day and night, and with all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love and make it known to the people among whom he dwelt. After Methuselah was born he continued in fellowship with God for three hundred years while begetting other sons and daughters and raising his family, showing that a person can please God even in a degenerate age and that his example can be followed in any age. He instructed his family about the coming flood.
His son Methuselah lived on until Noah's day and listened to the faithful warning preaching of his grandson Noah that a flood of waters would come upon the earth. With his sons and grandsons Methuselah lived in the time of the building of the ark, receiving instruction from Noah and assisting him in the work of building it.
Meaning of Walking with God
To walk with God three hundred years was real faith that pleased God, for without faith it is impossible to please Him. Only the soul that really believes lives this way, carrying out daily in life the principles revealed in the life of Christ and weaving a character with no thread of coarseness or selfishness, continuing until God took him. It was saving, living faith that joined him in covenant relation with God, giving increase of vigor and confiding trust through the grace of Christ so that the soul becomes a conquering power. Though utterly helpless in himself he trusted God's word, held fast his faith in the triumph of righteousness, and by that faith withstood a corrupt and scoffing generation and the power of the whole world, pure in heart and holy in life.
Walking means making Christ a constant, abiding companion and counselor, closely bound up with Jesus, acting as if He is present and near. It means keeping the Lord ever before the mind, talking with Him and sending petitions to Him anywhere, even in the streets, in business, confusion and rush, and while viewing the grand works of creation in nature, which is refreshing and inspiring, a precious privilege and the most exalted honor heaven can bestow. When tempted he spoke with Him even without a written It is written to use, through personal knowledge of the heavenly Companion, letting the Word rule in the heart and wearing the armor of God to stand. Those who have the most to do have the greatest need of this unbroken faith and communion as safeguard and quiet resting place, for if God is left out of sight the soul is left to itself in temptation in positive danger and integrity will not be maintained, while where God is least thought of those who walk with Him must carry the lamp of life.
It means referring every thought, work and course to Christ by constantly inquiring whether it is the way of the Lord. It means fearing to offend Him, studying His will in all work to show love and highest reverence, constantly realizing accountability to Him, and shaping way and course by His commandments with perfect confidence and trust in the heavenly Father, with no thought or will of one's own submerged in the will of the Father. It means educating mind and heart to always feel in the presence of God by the eye of faith, keeping Him continually before him, sending prayers in perplexity for keeping, praying to be taught God's way and pleasure in order to honor Him, giving Him time and place instead of being full of busy plans, and studying the definite features of Christ's character in order to imitate the holy Pattern.
It is close, friendly communion in prayer with thanksgiving and praise until prayer becomes conversation with God as with a friend. God drew near to commune, speaking His mysteries personally and giving a sweet, joyful sense of the presence of Jesus that made the heart burn within. This keeps religious life continually fresh, and when it is the true experience it produces simplicity, humility, meekness and lowliness of heart that show to all that a person has been with Jesus and learned of Him. By faith he saw God as the pure in heart shall see Him and saw the faith of Jesus, living by faith in God's presence three hundred years in special favor, with God a present help whenever help was needed even during daily work.
It means relying wholly on God for guidance, support, knowledge of His will and strength to do it, with the heart turning to Him in prayer during work, travel and the night, which is the Christian's safety and strength. It means talking with God wherever we are, recognizing His divine presence as honored companion and guest, committing the keeping of the soul to Him and trusting His naked promise rather than changeable feeling, building on the sure foundation of the eternal Rock until remembrance of the Companion becomes habitual. It means uplifting the heart to God while working since workers cannot always be on their knees, having Christ abiding in the heart and imbued with the Spirit of Christ, never lowering the standard of morality but ever seeking to elevate it, finding no pleasure in flattery, praise and petting. Those who walk thus have in God a companionship satisfying every desire of mind and heart, so they have no unholy repining for sympathy and do not open family secrets to others.
The walk blends private communion and public labor without shutting off wholly from society. He set aside times to withdraw from society for solitude, reflection and prayer to seek the divine knowledge God alone can give, refusing company when it interrupted fellowship, withdrawing from the just as well as the scoffing and idolatrous, hungering and thirsting for communion. Then he met with the good and the bad at stated times and stayed as long as godly conversation and holy example could benefit them, faithfully telling all God revealed, working to turn the ungodly from evil, teaching those who knew God to serve more perfectly, receiving seekers, instructing them and praying for them to know His will. His active labor in ordinary life as husband, father, friend and citizen did not interrupt communion, and the more pressing his work became the more constant and earnest his prayers were.
Walking means daily, continuous, unbroken fellowship for the whole three hundred years, waiting and watching with eye single to God's glory in order to be safe and ready to meet Christ, not living one way if His coming is ten years away and another way if it is twenty years away. It was maintained not as disagreeable duty but because he loved God's society and found fellowship agreeable, talking more of the Father's love, loving the yoke of Christ and lifting His burdens, keeping eyes fixed on the mark of the prize, and when difficulties arise looking over them to the future immortal life, looking and talking not about things seen but things eternal. It means obedience to all God's law, loving and fearing God with singleness of purpose to do His will, placing body, mind, heart, soul and strength under service, with mind undefiled by impure defective eyesight, serving and pleasing God in everything, which makes character harmonious, well-balanced, consistent, cheerful and true. This obedience keeps vital truths distinct and important, receives the divine likeness, and prepares character for the future life during probationary test, learning lessons from the Word and sitting in heavenly places in Jesus.
It springs from one desire to be like God, hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of Christ to be pure, noble and sanctified just where God wants him to be. Walking means studying the character of God to a purpose in order to conform to and copy the divine likeness, instead of marking out one's own course or setting up one's own will as if fully qualified to manage matters. As knowledge of God increases there comes a more perfect estimate of self as weak and ignorant, realizing the failure of self-sufficiency, giving up self-will, with intense longing to overcome every defect so sin does not dwell in the mortal body, and intense hungering after true holiness of heart. As he looked to Jesus and contemplated God's character he was changed into his Lord's image, reflecting goodness, mercy, tender compassion, sympathy, forbearance, meekness, humility and love, transformed day by day by intimate association, growing away from his own way in thoughts and feelings into Christ's heavenly divine way in constant growth and fellowship with the Father and the Son.
Though a man of strong and highly cultivated mind and extensive knowledge, honored with special revelations, his walk made him one of the humblest of men, because the closer the connection with God the deeper the sense of personal weakness and imperfection. This is genuine sanctification, in contrast to shallow experience that stays near the lowlands, sees only commonplace things, and cannot reflect Christ's image or send forth the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness into dark places, for to be a Christian is to be Christlike. This walk is perfection of Christian character pleasing God, dwelling in the secret place of the Most High under the shadow of the Almighty, hiding in the cleft of the Rock to view God's character, being perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect and blameless and harmless as sons of God without rebuke. It requires meditating upon and carefully studying the Word, not only reading it, for it furnishes the only safe standard and guide in forming moral character and the only sure road to intellectual culture, advancing beyond the ABC of experience by eating and digesting truth, appreciating the sacredness of sacred things, revealing the power of Christ's grace in practical life, and truly knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He sent.
To walk with God is the highest duty, greatest honor, blessedness and excellence of man. It fulfills the purpose for which man was created and bears fruit, for God is not pleased when those He created remain sinners and fail to fulfill that purpose, and it requires staying close to His side, walking humbly with Him, working with Him, and learning from Jesus Christ who overcame every temptation in humanity without sin so man may overcome through the provision made. It requires ever-increasing faith and gives a way of escape with every temptation. His perfected Christlike character was taken knowledge of as a correct sample of what man can be because Christ often manifested Himself to him, even when every imagination of the heart was only evil continually, proving perfection possible in a time no more favorable than the present, and his example will condemn in judgment those with great light and lent talents who remain far from perfect men in Christ Jesus.
Holy Life Amid Corruption
Enoch's three-hundred-year walk was lived in a corrupt age when moral pollution teemed around him, when iniquity so abounded that God declared He would destroy man off the earth unless he repented, and when the world was no more favorable to perfection of character and Christlikeness than the present day. He breathed an atmosphere tainted with sin and corruption, lived among society no more friendly to righteousness than now, and had temptations as well as men have now. Yet he lived a holy, pure, spotless life unsullied and uncontaminated by the prevailing sins, remaining unpolluted by the iniquity of his time. His life proves that purity and incorruption are possible now, without needing the shortness of time or the terrors of the day of God to compel right action.
He trained his mind to devotion and to love purity, educating it to run in a heavenly channel with conversation upon heavenly and divine things. He meditated on God's goodness and character, prayed for help and guidance, submitted his will to God's will and obeyed His commandments, living by simple faith through constant conflict. Until he bore the impress of the divine, his countenance was lighted up with the light that shines in the face of Jesus. As he looked to Jesus he was changed into his Lord's image.
His walk meant separation from the world's pollution and refusal to settle among the wicked in order to save them. He lived apart from the violence-polluted city, placing himself and his family where the atmosphere would be as pure as possible, and chose retirement to preserve his soul in righteousness. He would not daily associate with the ungodly lest their infidelity lessen holy reverence for God's exalted character, showing that a faithful life did not require living amid such corruption. To walk as he did is separation from men who show they have no vital connection with God, having God Himself as host and serving not by might nor by power but by His Spirit.
Separation did not mean becoming a hermit shut off wholly from society. After communion he went out at times to the inhabitants of the world with his God-given message of coming judgment, meeting with good and bad as long as godly conversation and holy example could benefit them, then withdrew again to solitude for reflection, prayer and divine knowledge. Every visit was painful to him because he saw and understood the leprosy of sin, and his soul was vexed daily by witnessing trampling upon God's authority. He always brought back with him to his place of retirement some who had received the warning, though some later could not endure righteousness under long corrupting influence and returned to their former customs and practices. From that retirement he came to the cities bearing warning and reproof, then separated again to preserve his soul, and this pattern of private communion, public testimony and renewed separation is how to reach the people.
He did not see God visibly by his side but only by faith knew the Lord was there, adhering steadfastly to the principles of truth in the Redeemer's strength. His light shone out to that degenerate age, broad and deep, so that those who walked in it were blessed, with faces lighted up by the brightness of His presence and speech praising His power and goodness. His perfected Christlike character was taken knowledge of as a correct sample of what a man can be, because Christ often manifested Himself unto him. That example will condemn in the judgment those who have great light and evidence and lent talents yet remain far from being perfect men in Christ Jesus instead of being as righteous as he was in his day. At the same time his example in the degenerate age just prior to the Flood gives courage and stimulus that believers need not be contaminated with the world but amid all its corrupting influences may walk with God and have the mind of Christ.
He was pure in heart and just, keeping the fear of the Lord before his generation and specially blessed for choosing to follow the Lord. He wore Christ's yoke of obedience, giving mind, soul, heart and strength to God in doing God's service by blessing fellow men. His devotion drew strength from God as the source, enabling him to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. It was no easier for him to live a righteous life then than now, for the world in his time was no more favorable to growth in grace and holiness. His elevated and ennobled life demonstrates that men need not remain at a low level under Satan's power but can continue to grow intellectually and spiritually throughout life, pleasing God in every part of character building by cultivating every grace for the Master's glory even in a degenerate age.
Prophet Warning the World
Walking with God meant serving with singleness of heart as a prophet speaking as moved by the Holy Spirit, teaching the truth and living the truth in ordinary daily duties, family life and dealings with others, not in a trance or vision or by withdrawing from the world. His obedience to all of God's law made his character in every way harmonious with the greatness and sacredness of his mission, a light amid moral darkness and a pattern man. His life showed that though man has sinned he can be so joined to God as to have the mind and Spirit of God, to be a representative symbol of Christ, and to keep His law.
He believed the promise of the Son as the world's Redeemer which he had learned from Adam together with the story of the fall and God's grace, and he was holy in service to God. Seeing human corruption he separated himself from the descendants of Cain, reproved them for their great wickedness, and sought as a preacher of righteousness to turn men from transgression of the law to faithful obedience. His testimony was disregarded and rejected because men loved sin better than holiness, boasting in open disregard of God's holy law in a rebellious and self-willed generation.
God communed with him through angels and gave him divine instruction, waiting before Him in solitude given to reflection and prayer to know His will more perfectly in order to perform it. The instruction made known that God would not always bear with man in rebellion but would destroy the sinful race by bringing a flood of waters upon the earth. Because of his purity God communicated His will to him and opened more fully the plan of salvation, carrying him by the spirit of prophecy down through the generations after the Flood to the great events of Christ's second coming and the end of the world, including the wickedness prevailing just before the end.
He faithfully told the people all that God revealed, working to turn the ungodly from evil, teaching those who knew God to serve Him more perfectly, receiving seekers, instructing them, and praying for them to know His will. He met with the good and the bad at stated times and stayed with them as long as godly conversation and holy example could benefit them, without shutting himself off wholly from society, while also choosing set periods of solitary retirement for holy meditation and communion and hungering for the divine knowledge only God can give. He carried a message from God that some among the wicked people believed, and where even one or two worshiped Jesus was present with them. This proves God already had a church from the time of Adam and Eve and Abel accepted Jesus as Redeemer, that believers then knew the promise of His presence as fully as now, and that God never leaves His faithful few without His presence nor the world without a witness.
With Methuselah, Noah and many others he labored as a faithful witness and minister of righteousness to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to stay the tide of moral evil. Together with Seth and others they presented the truth and kept the knowledge of God continually before the world amid evil imaginations, secret societies working violence in darkness, drinking up iniquity as water, and human philosophy disowning the words that proceeded from God. He gave the world God's warning message that His Spirit would not always strive with guilty men but probation would be one hundred and twenty years before He would blot sinners from His creation, a light and preaching that was not heeded while words of warning were still sounding in their ears.
His words, actions and holy example of piety were a continual witness for truth to the inhabitants of the old world before God washed the earth of its impurity by the Flood and turned the world upside down to empty it of corruption. He was selected by God to denounce the wickedness of the world and to demonstrate to the universe the falsity of Satan's charge that man cannot keep God's law, proving it is possible for man to keep all the law of God. This stood in contrast to Satan who refused to obey that law, Adam who transgressed it, and Abel who obeyed it unto death by murder.
His walking was diligent, wholehearted labor to save souls in the days before the Flood, hunting for souls with wise plans laid to do the work to the best advantage. He worked the populous communities from outpost centers outside them rather than living within them, when wickedness was rife in every populous community and violence was in the land. He lived outside the wicked cities and visited them to do faithful service, entering congested centers to warn, acquaint them with the teachings of God's Word, while dwelling where he and his children were shielded from contaminating and demoralizing influences.
He feared to offend God and studied His will in all work to show love and highest reverence, walking in reconciled companionship by the eye of faith without seeing his highest Friend visibly by his side. He had faith in the message later given by Noah and worked in harmonious spiritual action with Noah's warnings, with Noah in harmony with him as righteous and fearing God in all his works, standing together as representative men among a wicked and degenerate nation. His going to heaven without seeing death was understood by good men alive during the one hundred and twenty years as assurance that the righteous would be saved and enter heaven, with all God's works aimed to reform the inhabitants of the old world.
The truth he taught belonged to the truth handed down by human lips from one generation to another, taught to youth and cherished by them. Received by instruction from Adam and repeated to children and children's children in an age when memories were not treacherous, it engraved the image of God on the heart unto righteousness and confession unto salvation to strengthen faithfulness and refusal of wine and idolatry. This placed him in the faithful line with Abel whom Cain killed, Seth, Methuselah, Noah and many other just men.
Translation and End-Time Type
Day by day he longed for closer union, and the communion grew nearer and nearer until, standing at the threshold of the eternal world with only a step between him and the land of the blest, the portals opened and the walk so long pursued on earth continued as he passed through the gates of the holy city, the first from among men to enter there. God took him to Himself without his seeing death, borne by angels to heaven. His loss was felt on earth, and the voice heard day after day in warning and instruction was missed, and some of the righteous and the wicked who witnessed his departure made diligent search hoping he had been conveyed to one of his places of retirement, but without avail, reporting that he was not, for God had taken him.
For his faithful obedience he was translated. His life and translation to heaven testified that the righteous could be translated. His message pointed to Christ's second coming and judgment.
His translation represents the commandment-keeping people of God who will be alive on earth when Christ comes the second time and will be translated to heaven without seeing death. He is a representative of those who will be alive on the earth when Christ comes and will be translated to heaven without seeing death, which requires being in harmony with God by doing God's will and keeping the way of the Lord and God's law as the only standard of judgment. His long faithful obedience ending in translation makes him a representation of the saints living amid the perils and corruptions of the last days, proving that present believers can remain pure and uncorrupted, and the faithful who are alive and remain will also be translated from a sinful and corrupt world to the pure joys of heaven.
He is the example of what those will be who when Christ comes are caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air. Those translated at the close of time will likewise be people who commune with God on earth and whose lives are hidden with Christ in God. Such walking is honored with translation to heaven without seeing death, and those translated at the close of time will be those who likewise commune with God on earth, whose life is hid with Christ in God, ever representing Him in all life-practices with selfishness cut out by the roots.
Those who walk this way in constant companionship with Jesus in a corrupt world and the moral darkness of this age will be fitted to be among those translated without seeing death when the Lord comes the second time, as Enoch was translated to heaven without seeing death. This means forming a righteous character by being wholly on the Lord's side, partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption in the world through lust, placed in right relation to God. God finally took him from this sinful world, making him a representative of those who will be translated to heaven when Christ comes to gather His people, and eternal life requires turning away from the pleasures of the world, constantly seeking God for strength to stand against the wiles of the enemy, and having robes washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb in readiness for the appearing of Christ.
Pattern for Present Life
The three-hundred-year walk was lived out in ordinary daily duties, not in trance or vision or by withdrawing from the world as a hermit, for there was a work to do for God in the world. In the family and among men, as husband and father, friend and citizen, he was the steadfast, unwavering servant of the Lord, in harmony with God's will and obedient to His law. His faith grew stronger and his love more ardent with the lapse of centuries, not earnest only because life was short or the coming of Christ was near. His active labor did not interrupt his communion with God, and the more pressing his work became the more constant and earnest his prayers were. He set aside times to withdraw from society for solitude to seek the divine knowledge God alone could give, after first benefiting others through instruction and example. He also taught the truth as a prophet moved by the Holy Spirit, and his life showed that sinful people can be closely joined to God and keep His law.
The walk means honoring family religion and family holiness, shown by sincerity in pure words, clean words, words full of sympathy, tenderness and love. This is the walk Seventh-day Adventists need to follow now more than ever.
It is the model for the physician, for living in close connection with God safeguards against deceptive and harmful beliefs. Practicing God's truth and letting it guide decisions that affect others strengthens the soul with heavenly principles and barricades it against sentiments that make infidels and skeptics. Walking means dependence on God at every step, making Him counselor, getting hold and keeping hold of the arm of infinite power, preserving strict veracity and God-given dignity without departing from rectitude for policy or success. It means appreciating every word from God higher than worldly policy and the assertions of erring men, being guided into every good and holy way with daily experience in truth, giving humble confidence to not fear the face of man with assurance that God is mindful of struggles to uphold the truth. For the physician and medical student it means pledging to represent Christ in practice and character. This communion is especially needed by those in important positions of responsibility, taking time to watch and pray, making sure of the presence of Jesus and counseling with Him about the work given into their hands, instead of gathering business to the soul, leaving Christ out on the plea of having no time, violating conscience and trusting finite strength.
Every laborer for Christ may have the same close, continuing dependence on God. It means having Christ by the side as counselor, having the will in harmony with the divine will, fastening upon God in living faith, speaking His praise and turning the mind to eternal realities, which makes a person spiritually minded. It means setting the Lord always before and at the right hand so as not to be moved, finding sufficiency in Jesus while having no sufficiency in self. Walking together with God in this way brings harmony with one another.
His light shone out broad and deep to that degenerate age so that those who walked in it were blessed, and his example proves men and women can walk with God today in this age as he did then. Walking now is possible when the perils of the last days thicken around us and the love of many waxes cold because iniquity abounds, even as he walked in a fearfully corrupt and polluted age when iniquity so abounded that God declared He would utterly destroy man unless man repented. It means seeking and keeping a living connection with God, forming a righteous character, communing and talking with Him as with a close Friend by one's side about trials, afflictions of soul and the wickedness in the world, letting none of these hinder prayer. It means being wide-awake, coming to the front and taking responsibility to save not only one's own soul but the souls of others, telling others of Jesus in the moral darkness where God is least thought of. It means doing what is right whatever the consequence without fearing what friends and relatives will say and without expecting a path free from trials and difficulties, placing oneself in right relation to God and letting Him take care of the consequences, while those without connection with God have connection with another who leads them away from good.
Those who walk thus unite with Christ and do their very best to place themselves in right relation to God, living as His soldiers who obey orders without fretting like children over what does not harmonize with their ideas. They refuse the spirit of criticism toward others and instead closely investigate their own hearts, and they have holy angels as companions with them in place of evil angels. They are devoted and spiritually minded, baptized with the Holy Spirit, relying upon God more than upon self in humble trust and entire dependence, the kind of men needed in God's important institutions whose prosperity depends on having such workers. They are not narrow in outlook, do not bind about the work instead of enlarging it, and do not separate business from religion, but take in the situation, are far-seeing and reason from cause to effect. Walking means receiving wisdom from God, staying close to Him instead of wandering far, keeping harmony instead of lifting discordant voices when crossed, refusing to engage in politics and political strife as God's peculiar people, and having true faith.
The walk demonstrates that people need not remain at a low level under Satan's power but can continue to grow intellectually and spiritually throughout life. It requires resolving to reach a high and holy standard, aiming high and acting with steady, persevering earnest purpose, and making God counselor. This produces certain daily improvement that nothing the enemy does can hinder, with constant advance in mental vigor and moral power despite inconveniences, changes and perplexities. It involves constantly acquiring knowledge as food for the mind, so that the mind becomes strong, thinking deeper, fuller and clearer.
Walking means hiding self in Jesus, having a deep and living experience in the things of God, walking humbly with God, having personal individuality in Jesus Christ, and keeping communication open between God and the soul, with the Lord as sun and shield to those who walk so. It means continual, earnest prayer by uplifting the heart to God while working, since workers cannot always be on their knees, with Christ abiding in the heart and imbued with the Spirit of Christ. Those who walk thus never lower the standard of morality but ever seek to elevate it, and find no pleasure in flattery, praise and petting. They have in God a companionship that satisfies every desire of mind and heart, so they have no unholy repining for sympathy and do not open family secrets to others.
It means giving the whole heart to the Saviour, having Christ as daily companion, cultivating thoughts of Him in whom hopes of eternal life are centered, constantly aiming to keep His requirements and living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. It is a daily warfare in which flesh wars against spirit and spirit against flesh, with disobedience to God lying at the foundation of all sin amid satanic influences that fascinate and ensnare souls, while the Spirit of God works in all those who love and fear Him. Walking advances one step at a time in Christ's footsteps, for life is made up of little things and the repetition of simple acts. The character developed in commonplace daily practical life testifies whether God is supreme or whether affections center on minor objects and the god of this world, deciding destiny for eternity.
Walking means living in devotion to Him, and this applies to workers who are devoted to God and know heaven's principles.
After his first son was born when he was sixty-five, he lived another three hundred years raising other sons and daughters in ever-closer fellowship with God. Fatherhood opened that closer walk, for the tenderness he felt for his firstborn and the trust he saw in the child taught him God's love in giving His Son and the confidence His children may place in Him. Walking with God was living faith that made Christ a constant companion and counselor, talking with Him everywhere, referring every thought and course to His will, and obeying all His law with no will of one's own. He kept that holy, spotless life for three centuries amid abounding corruption, living apart to preserve purity yet going out to warn and teach as a prophet of the Flood and of Christ's second coming. At last communion grew so close that he was borne to heaven without seeing death, the first so taken, representing the commandment-keeping people who will be translated alive when Christ returns.
Ancient Record and Lifespan
Genesis 5:22 stands in the pre-Flood genealogy in which nine generations averaged 912 years of life, in contrast to 332 years for nine generations after the Flood, to seventy years in the time of Moses, and to about thirty-five years at present. That steady decrease proves man was made physically perfect and has woefully deteriorated since. The verse belongs to the record of the patriarchs from Adam to Noah who, with few exceptions including Enoch himself, lived nearly a thousand years. It illustrates the great longevity of the first two thousand years in contrast to present sickness and mortality, showing the long life given at first before the tapering of length of life since the days of Noah.
That long life was lived under the original fruit and grain plan, for Enoch ate no flesh as one of the most pious and godly men, and God's children ate no flesh for nearly 2000 years after creation and for more than sixteen hundred years before the Flood. The record gives lifespans and their ending without describing the illnesses and prolonged suffering familiar in later times, describing instead remarkably good health. The protracted life came from man's perfect creation and the life-giving power of the tree of life transmitted from Adam and Eve to their descendants, for the tree possessed power to perpetuate life so that as long as they ate of it they could not die. Only a few generations had passed since Adam had access to the tree that prolongs life, so the race still retained much of its early vigor with ten times present vital force, great size and physical strength, and rare powers to plan and execute.
The shortening to between one and two hundred years by the Egyptian vassalage, to threescore years and ten in David's time about halfway from Adam to the present, to about thirty years now in Europe and the United States and twenty in great cities, with pain and disease from the cradle, was done by awful violations of God's laws of health and life. Eating flesh as food after the Flood, together with the original curse and its accumulated weight of transgression and violation of natural law, bowed the race down and dwindled man to his present brief life marked with disease, decrepitude, imbecility, and mortality increased to a fearful extent. The effects of corrupt appetites, passions, and violations of physical law became evident only after more than a thousand years, and disease has been steadily on the increase through successive generations since that period. That long-lived people were given their skill, mental ability, stature, strength, and wisdom to devote to God's service to make His name a praise and answer the purpose for which life was given, but they gave loose rein to iniquity, and their guilt was in proportion to those endowments.
Because men lived for centuries, for hundreds of years seven generations were alive on the earth at the same time. Adam, formed in God's image and pronounced good, had been instructed by God in all wisdom about the material world, had learned the history of creation from God, and had witnessed the events of nine centuries. Without books or written records, men of great physical and mental vigor had strong memories able to grasp and retain what was communicated and to transmit it unimpaired to posterity, and generations living contemporaneously could consult together, each profiting by the knowledge and experience of all. Adam was still alive when Methuselah, Enoch's son, was 243 years old, so all God had taught Adam could be communicated directly from Adam to Methuselah, then from Methuselah to Shem, from Shem to Abraham and Isaac, and from Abraham and Isaac to Jacob, forming a direct line of living witnesses from Adam to Jacob.
Fatherhood Began Closer Walk
For sixty-five years before his first son was born he loved and feared God and kept His commandments as one of the holy line preserving the true faith and carrying forward the promised seed, having learned from Adam the story of the fall and God's grace in the promise and trusting in the Redeemer to come. After Methuselah was born he entered a higher experience and a closer relationship with God that lasted three hundred years, realizing more fully his obligations and responsibility as a son of God. Though he had already loved and feared God and kept His commandments, the love and simple trust he saw in his child toward its father and his protection, together with the deep yearning tenderness of his own heart for his firstborn son, taught him the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son and the confidence the children of God may place in their heavenly Father.
The infinite, unfathomable love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditations day and night, and with all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love and make it known to the people among whom he dwelt. After Methuselah was born he continued in fellowship with God for three hundred years while begetting other sons and daughters and raising his family, showing that a person can please God even in a degenerate age and that his example can be followed in any age. He instructed his family about the coming flood.
His son Methuselah lived on until Noah's day and listened to the faithful warning preaching of his grandson Noah that a flood of waters would come upon the earth. With his sons and grandsons Methuselah lived in the time of the building of the ark, receiving instruction from Noah and assisting him in the work of building it.
Meaning of Walking with God
To walk with God three hundred years was real faith that pleased God, for without faith it is impossible to please Him. Only the soul that really believes lives this way, carrying out daily in life the principles revealed in the life of Christ and weaving a character with no thread of coarseness or selfishness, continuing until God took him. It was saving, living faith that joined him in covenant relation with God, giving increase of vigor and confiding trust through the grace of Christ so that the soul becomes a conquering power. Though utterly helpless in himself he trusted God's word, held fast his faith in the triumph of righteousness, and by that faith withstood a corrupt and scoffing generation and the power of the whole world, pure in heart and holy in life.
Walking means making Christ a constant, abiding companion and counselor, closely bound up with Jesus, acting as if He is present and near. It means keeping the Lord ever before the mind, talking with Him and sending petitions to Him anywhere, even in the streets, in business, confusion and rush, and while viewing the grand works of creation in nature, which is refreshing and inspiring, a precious privilege and the most exalted honor heaven can bestow. When tempted he spoke with Him even without a written It is written to use, through personal knowledge of the heavenly Companion, letting the Word rule in the heart and wearing the armor of God to stand. Those who have the most to do have the greatest need of this unbroken faith and communion as safeguard and quiet resting place, for if God is left out of sight the soul is left to itself in temptation in positive danger and integrity will not be maintained, while where God is least thought of those who walk with Him must carry the lamp of life.
It means referring every thought, work and course to Christ by constantly inquiring whether it is the way of the Lord. It means fearing to offend Him, studying His will in all work to show love and highest reverence, constantly realizing accountability to Him, and shaping way and course by His commandments with perfect confidence and trust in the heavenly Father, with no thought or will of one's own submerged in the will of the Father. It means educating mind and heart to always feel in the presence of God by the eye of faith, keeping Him continually before him, sending prayers in perplexity for keeping, praying to be taught God's way and pleasure in order to honor Him, giving Him time and place instead of being full of busy plans, and studying the definite features of Christ's character in order to imitate the holy Pattern.
It is close, friendly communion in prayer with thanksgiving and praise until prayer becomes conversation with God as with a friend. God drew near to commune, speaking His mysteries personally and giving a sweet, joyful sense of the presence of Jesus that made the heart burn within. This keeps religious life continually fresh, and when it is the true experience it produces simplicity, humility, meekness and lowliness of heart that show to all that a person has been with Jesus and learned of Him. By faith he saw God as the pure in heart shall see Him and saw the faith of Jesus, living by faith in God's presence three hundred years in special favor, with God a present help whenever help was needed even during daily work.
It means relying wholly on God for guidance, support, knowledge of His will and strength to do it, with the heart turning to Him in prayer during work, travel and the night, which is the Christian's safety and strength. It means talking with God wherever we are, recognizing His divine presence as honored companion and guest, committing the keeping of the soul to Him and trusting His naked promise rather than changeable feeling, building on the sure foundation of the eternal Rock until remembrance of the Companion becomes habitual. It means uplifting the heart to God while working since workers cannot always be on their knees, having Christ abiding in the heart and imbued with the Spirit of Christ, never lowering the standard of morality but ever seeking to elevate it, finding no pleasure in flattery, praise and petting. Those who walk thus have in God a companionship satisfying every desire of mind and heart, so they have no unholy repining for sympathy and do not open family secrets to others.
The walk blends private communion and public labor without shutting off wholly from society. He set aside times to withdraw from society for solitude, reflection and prayer to seek the divine knowledge God alone can give, refusing company when it interrupted fellowship, withdrawing from the just as well as the scoffing and idolatrous, hungering and thirsting for communion. Then he met with the good and the bad at stated times and stayed as long as godly conversation and holy example could benefit them, faithfully telling all God revealed, working to turn the ungodly from evil, teaching those who knew God to serve more perfectly, receiving seekers, instructing them and praying for them to know His will. His active labor in ordinary life as husband, father, friend and citizen did not interrupt communion, and the more pressing his work became the more constant and earnest his prayers were.
Walking means daily, continuous, unbroken fellowship for the whole three hundred years, waiting and watching with eye single to God's glory in order to be safe and ready to meet Christ, not living one way if His coming is ten years away and another way if it is twenty years away. It was maintained not as disagreeable duty but because he loved God's society and found fellowship agreeable, talking more of the Father's love, loving the yoke of Christ and lifting His burdens, keeping eyes fixed on the mark of the prize, and when difficulties arise looking over them to the future immortal life, looking and talking not about things seen but things eternal. It means obedience to all God's law, loving and fearing God with singleness of purpose to do His will, placing body, mind, heart, soul and strength under service, with mind undefiled by impure defective eyesight, serving and pleasing God in everything, which makes character harmonious, well-balanced, consistent, cheerful and true. This obedience keeps vital truths distinct and important, receives the divine likeness, and prepares character for the future life during probationary test, learning lessons from the Word and sitting in heavenly places in Jesus.
It springs from one desire to be like God, hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of Christ to be pure, noble and sanctified just where God wants him to be. Walking means studying the character of God to a purpose in order to conform to and copy the divine likeness, instead of marking out one's own course or setting up one's own will as if fully qualified to manage matters. As knowledge of God increases there comes a more perfect estimate of self as weak and ignorant, realizing the failure of self-sufficiency, giving up self-will, with intense longing to overcome every defect so sin does not dwell in the mortal body, and intense hungering after true holiness of heart. As he looked to Jesus and contemplated God's character he was changed into his Lord's image, reflecting goodness, mercy, tender compassion, sympathy, forbearance, meekness, humility and love, transformed day by day by intimate association, growing away from his own way in thoughts and feelings into Christ's heavenly divine way in constant growth and fellowship with the Father and the Son.
Though a man of strong and highly cultivated mind and extensive knowledge, honored with special revelations, his walk made him one of the humblest of men, because the closer the connection with God the deeper the sense of personal weakness and imperfection. This is genuine sanctification, in contrast to shallow experience that stays near the lowlands, sees only commonplace things, and cannot reflect Christ's image or send forth the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness into dark places, for to be a Christian is to be Christlike. This walk is perfection of Christian character pleasing God, dwelling in the secret place of the Most High under the shadow of the Almighty, hiding in the cleft of the Rock to view God's character, being perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect and blameless and harmless as sons of God without rebuke. It requires meditating upon and carefully studying the Word, not only reading it, for it furnishes the only safe standard and guide in forming moral character and the only sure road to intellectual culture, advancing beyond the ABC of experience by eating and digesting truth, appreciating the sacredness of sacred things, revealing the power of Christ's grace in practical life, and truly knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He sent.
To walk with God is the highest duty, greatest honor, blessedness and excellence of man. It fulfills the purpose for which man was created and bears fruit, for God is not pleased when those He created remain sinners and fail to fulfill that purpose, and it requires staying close to His side, walking humbly with Him, working with Him, and learning from Jesus Christ who overcame every temptation in humanity without sin so man may overcome through the provision made. It requires ever-increasing faith and gives a way of escape with every temptation. His perfected Christlike character was taken knowledge of as a correct sample of what man can be because Christ often manifested Himself to him, even when every imagination of the heart was only evil continually, proving perfection possible in a time no more favorable than the present, and his example will condemn in judgment those with great light and lent talents who remain far from perfect men in Christ Jesus.
Holy Life Amid Corruption
Enoch's three-hundred-year walk was lived in a corrupt age when moral pollution teemed around him, when iniquity so abounded that God declared He would destroy man off the earth unless he repented, and when the world was no more favorable to perfection of character and Christlikeness than the present day. He breathed an atmosphere tainted with sin and corruption, lived among society no more friendly to righteousness than now, and had temptations as well as men have now. Yet he lived a holy, pure, spotless life unsullied and uncontaminated by the prevailing sins, remaining unpolluted by the iniquity of his time. His life proves that purity and incorruption are possible now, without needing the shortness of time or the terrors of the day of God to compel right action.
He trained his mind to devotion and to love purity, educating it to run in a heavenly channel with conversation upon heavenly and divine things. He meditated on God's goodness and character, prayed for help and guidance, submitted his will to God's will and obeyed His commandments, living by simple faith through constant conflict. Until he bore the impress of the divine, his countenance was lighted up with the light that shines in the face of Jesus. As he looked to Jesus he was changed into his Lord's image.
His walk meant separation from the world's pollution and refusal to settle among the wicked in order to save them. He lived apart from the violence-polluted city, placing himself and his family where the atmosphere would be as pure as possible, and chose retirement to preserve his soul in righteousness. He would not daily associate with the ungodly lest their infidelity lessen holy reverence for God's exalted character, showing that a faithful life did not require living amid such corruption. To walk as he did is separation from men who show they have no vital connection with God, having God Himself as host and serving not by might nor by power but by His Spirit.
Separation did not mean becoming a hermit shut off wholly from society. After communion he went out at times to the inhabitants of the world with his God-given message of coming judgment, meeting with good and bad as long as godly conversation and holy example could benefit them, then withdrew again to solitude for reflection, prayer and divine knowledge. Every visit was painful to him because he saw and understood the leprosy of sin, and his soul was vexed daily by witnessing trampling upon God's authority. He always brought back with him to his place of retirement some who had received the warning, though some later could not endure righteousness under long corrupting influence and returned to their former customs and practices. From that retirement he came to the cities bearing warning and reproof, then separated again to preserve his soul, and this pattern of private communion, public testimony and renewed separation is how to reach the people.
He did not see God visibly by his side but only by faith knew the Lord was there, adhering steadfastly to the principles of truth in the Redeemer's strength. His light shone out to that degenerate age, broad and deep, so that those who walked in it were blessed, with faces lighted up by the brightness of His presence and speech praising His power and goodness. His perfected Christlike character was taken knowledge of as a correct sample of what a man can be, because Christ often manifested Himself unto him. That example will condemn in the judgment those who have great light and evidence and lent talents yet remain far from being perfect men in Christ Jesus instead of being as righteous as he was in his day. At the same time his example in the degenerate age just prior to the Flood gives courage and stimulus that believers need not be contaminated with the world but amid all its corrupting influences may walk with God and have the mind of Christ.
He was pure in heart and just, keeping the fear of the Lord before his generation and specially blessed for choosing to follow the Lord. He wore Christ's yoke of obedience, giving mind, soul, heart and strength to God in doing God's service by blessing fellow men. His devotion drew strength from God as the source, enabling him to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. It was no easier for him to live a righteous life then than now, for the world in his time was no more favorable to growth in grace and holiness. His elevated and ennobled life demonstrates that men need not remain at a low level under Satan's power but can continue to grow intellectually and spiritually throughout life, pleasing God in every part of character building by cultivating every grace for the Master's glory even in a degenerate age.
Prophet Warning the World
Walking with God meant serving with singleness of heart as a prophet speaking as moved by the Holy Spirit, teaching the truth and living the truth in ordinary daily duties, family life and dealings with others, not in a trance or vision or by withdrawing from the world. His obedience to all of God's law made his character in every way harmonious with the greatness and sacredness of his mission, a light amid moral darkness and a pattern man. His life showed that though man has sinned he can be so joined to God as to have the mind and Spirit of God, to be a representative symbol of Christ, and to keep His law.
He believed the promise of the Son as the world's Redeemer which he had learned from Adam together with the story of the fall and God's grace, and he was holy in service to God. Seeing human corruption he separated himself from the descendants of Cain, reproved them for their great wickedness, and sought as a preacher of righteousness to turn men from transgression of the law to faithful obedience. His testimony was disregarded and rejected because men loved sin better than holiness, boasting in open disregard of God's holy law in a rebellious and self-willed generation.
God communed with him through angels and gave him divine instruction, waiting before Him in solitude given to reflection and prayer to know His will more perfectly in order to perform it. The instruction made known that God would not always bear with man in rebellion but would destroy the sinful race by bringing a flood of waters upon the earth. Because of his purity God communicated His will to him and opened more fully the plan of salvation, carrying him by the spirit of prophecy down through the generations after the Flood to the great events of Christ's second coming and the end of the world, including the wickedness prevailing just before the end.
He faithfully told the people all that God revealed, working to turn the ungodly from evil, teaching those who knew God to serve Him more perfectly, receiving seekers, instructing them, and praying for them to know His will. He met with the good and the bad at stated times and stayed with them as long as godly conversation and holy example could benefit them, without shutting himself off wholly from society, while also choosing set periods of solitary retirement for holy meditation and communion and hungering for the divine knowledge only God can give. He carried a message from God that some among the wicked people believed, and where even one or two worshiped Jesus was present with them. This proves God already had a church from the time of Adam and Eve and Abel accepted Jesus as Redeemer, that believers then knew the promise of His presence as fully as now, and that God never leaves His faithful few without His presence nor the world without a witness.
With Methuselah, Noah and many others he labored as a faithful witness and minister of righteousness to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to stay the tide of moral evil. Together with Seth and others they presented the truth and kept the knowledge of God continually before the world amid evil imaginations, secret societies working violence in darkness, drinking up iniquity as water, and human philosophy disowning the words that proceeded from God. He gave the world God's warning message that His Spirit would not always strive with guilty men but probation would be one hundred and twenty years before He would blot sinners from His creation, a light and preaching that was not heeded while words of warning were still sounding in their ears.
His words, actions and holy example of piety were a continual witness for truth to the inhabitants of the old world before God washed the earth of its impurity by the Flood and turned the world upside down to empty it of corruption. He was selected by God to denounce the wickedness of the world and to demonstrate to the universe the falsity of Satan's charge that man cannot keep God's law, proving it is possible for man to keep all the law of God. This stood in contrast to Satan who refused to obey that law, Adam who transgressed it, and Abel who obeyed it unto death by murder.
His walking was diligent, wholehearted labor to save souls in the days before the Flood, hunting for souls with wise plans laid to do the work to the best advantage. He worked the populous communities from outpost centers outside them rather than living within them, when wickedness was rife in every populous community and violence was in the land. He lived outside the wicked cities and visited them to do faithful service, entering congested centers to warn, acquaint them with the teachings of God's Word, while dwelling where he and his children were shielded from contaminating and demoralizing influences.
He feared to offend God and studied His will in all work to show love and highest reverence, walking in reconciled companionship by the eye of faith without seeing his highest Friend visibly by his side. He had faith in the message later given by Noah and worked in harmonious spiritual action with Noah's warnings, with Noah in harmony with him as righteous and fearing God in all his works, standing together as representative men among a wicked and degenerate nation. His going to heaven without seeing death was understood by good men alive during the one hundred and twenty years as assurance that the righteous would be saved and enter heaven, with all God's works aimed to reform the inhabitants of the old world.
The truth he taught belonged to the truth handed down by human lips from one generation to another, taught to youth and cherished by them. Received by instruction from Adam and repeated to children and children's children in an age when memories were not treacherous, it engraved the image of God on the heart unto righteousness and confession unto salvation to strengthen faithfulness and refusal of wine and idolatry. This placed him in the faithful line with Abel whom Cain killed, Seth, Methuselah, Noah and many other just men.
Translation and End-Time Type
Day by day he longed for closer union, and the communion grew nearer and nearer until, standing at the threshold of the eternal world with only a step between him and the land of the blest, the portals opened and the walk so long pursued on earth continued as he passed through the gates of the holy city, the first from among men to enter there. God took him to Himself without his seeing death, borne by angels to heaven. His loss was felt on earth, and the voice heard day after day in warning and instruction was missed, and some of the righteous and the wicked who witnessed his departure made diligent search hoping he had been conveyed to one of his places of retirement, but without avail, reporting that he was not, for God had taken him.
For his faithful obedience he was translated. His life and translation to heaven testified that the righteous could be translated. His message pointed to Christ's second coming and judgment.
His translation represents the commandment-keeping people of God who will be alive on earth when Christ comes the second time and will be translated to heaven without seeing death. He is a representative of those who will be alive on the earth when Christ comes and will be translated to heaven without seeing death, which requires being in harmony with God by doing God's will and keeping the way of the Lord and God's law as the only standard of judgment. His long faithful obedience ending in translation makes him a representation of the saints living amid the perils and corruptions of the last days, proving that present believers can remain pure and uncorrupted, and the faithful who are alive and remain will also be translated from a sinful and corrupt world to the pure joys of heaven.
He is the example of what those will be who when Christ comes are caught up in the clouds to meet Him in the air. Those translated at the close of time will likewise be people who commune with God on earth and whose lives are hidden with Christ in God. Such walking is honored with translation to heaven without seeing death, and those translated at the close of time will be those who likewise commune with God on earth, whose life is hid with Christ in God, ever representing Him in all life-practices with selfishness cut out by the roots.
Those who walk this way in constant companionship with Jesus in a corrupt world and the moral darkness of this age will be fitted to be among those translated without seeing death when the Lord comes the second time, as Enoch was translated to heaven without seeing death. This means forming a righteous character by being wholly on the Lord's side, partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption in the world through lust, placed in right relation to God. God finally took him from this sinful world, making him a representative of those who will be translated to heaven when Christ comes to gather His people, and eternal life requires turning away from the pleasures of the world, constantly seeking God for strength to stand against the wiles of the enemy, and having robes washed and made clean in the blood of the Lamb in readiness for the appearing of Christ.
Pattern for Present Life
The three-hundred-year walk was lived out in ordinary daily duties, not in trance or vision or by withdrawing from the world as a hermit, for there was a work to do for God in the world. In the family and among men, as husband and father, friend and citizen, he was the steadfast, unwavering servant of the Lord, in harmony with God's will and obedient to His law. His faith grew stronger and his love more ardent with the lapse of centuries, not earnest only because life was short or the coming of Christ was near. His active labor did not interrupt his communion with God, and the more pressing his work became the more constant and earnest his prayers were. He set aside times to withdraw from society for solitude to seek the divine knowledge God alone could give, after first benefiting others through instruction and example. He also taught the truth as a prophet moved by the Holy Spirit, and his life showed that sinful people can be closely joined to God and keep His law.
The walk means honoring family religion and family holiness, shown by sincerity in pure words, clean words, words full of sympathy, tenderness and love. This is the walk Seventh-day Adventists need to follow now more than ever.
It is the model for the physician, for living in close connection with God safeguards against deceptive and harmful beliefs. Practicing God's truth and letting it guide decisions that affect others strengthens the soul with heavenly principles and barricades it against sentiments that make infidels and skeptics. Walking means dependence on God at every step, making Him counselor, getting hold and keeping hold of the arm of infinite power, preserving strict veracity and God-given dignity without departing from rectitude for policy or success. It means appreciating every word from God higher than worldly policy and the assertions of erring men, being guided into every good and holy way with daily experience in truth, giving humble confidence to not fear the face of man with assurance that God is mindful of struggles to uphold the truth. For the physician and medical student it means pledging to represent Christ in practice and character. This communion is especially needed by those in important positions of responsibility, taking time to watch and pray, making sure of the presence of Jesus and counseling with Him about the work given into their hands, instead of gathering business to the soul, leaving Christ out on the plea of having no time, violating conscience and trusting finite strength.
Every laborer for Christ may have the same close, continuing dependence on God. It means having Christ by the side as counselor, having the will in harmony with the divine will, fastening upon God in living faith, speaking His praise and turning the mind to eternal realities, which makes a person spiritually minded. It means setting the Lord always before and at the right hand so as not to be moved, finding sufficiency in Jesus while having no sufficiency in self. Walking together with God in this way brings harmony with one another.
His light shone out broad and deep to that degenerate age so that those who walked in it were blessed, and his example proves men and women can walk with God today in this age as he did then. Walking now is possible when the perils of the last days thicken around us and the love of many waxes cold because iniquity abounds, even as he walked in a fearfully corrupt and polluted age when iniquity so abounded that God declared He would utterly destroy man unless man repented. It means seeking and keeping a living connection with God, forming a righteous character, communing and talking with Him as with a close Friend by one's side about trials, afflictions of soul and the wickedness in the world, letting none of these hinder prayer. It means being wide-awake, coming to the front and taking responsibility to save not only one's own soul but the souls of others, telling others of Jesus in the moral darkness where God is least thought of. It means doing what is right whatever the consequence without fearing what friends and relatives will say and without expecting a path free from trials and difficulties, placing oneself in right relation to God and letting Him take care of the consequences, while those without connection with God have connection with another who leads them away from good.
Those who walk thus unite with Christ and do their very best to place themselves in right relation to God, living as His soldiers who obey orders without fretting like children over what does not harmonize with their ideas. They refuse the spirit of criticism toward others and instead closely investigate their own hearts, and they have holy angels as companions with them in place of evil angels. They are devoted and spiritually minded, baptized with the Holy Spirit, relying upon God more than upon self in humble trust and entire dependence, the kind of men needed in God's important institutions whose prosperity depends on having such workers. They are not narrow in outlook, do not bind about the work instead of enlarging it, and do not separate business from religion, but take in the situation, are far-seeing and reason from cause to effect. Walking means receiving wisdom from God, staying close to Him instead of wandering far, keeping harmony instead of lifting discordant voices when crossed, refusing to engage in politics and political strife as God's peculiar people, and having true faith.
The walk demonstrates that people need not remain at a low level under Satan's power but can continue to grow intellectually and spiritually throughout life. It requires resolving to reach a high and holy standard, aiming high and acting with steady, persevering earnest purpose, and making God counselor. This produces certain daily improvement that nothing the enemy does can hinder, with constant advance in mental vigor and moral power despite inconveniences, changes and perplexities. It involves constantly acquiring knowledge as food for the mind, so that the mind becomes strong, thinking deeper, fuller and clearer.
Walking means hiding self in Jesus, having a deep and living experience in the things of God, walking humbly with God, having personal individuality in Jesus Christ, and keeping communication open between God and the soul, with the Lord as sun and shield to those who walk so. It means continual, earnest prayer by uplifting the heart to God while working, since workers cannot always be on their knees, with Christ abiding in the heart and imbued with the Spirit of Christ. Those who walk thus never lower the standard of morality but ever seek to elevate it, and find no pleasure in flattery, praise and petting. They have in God a companionship that satisfies every desire of mind and heart, so they have no unholy repining for sympathy and do not open family secrets to others.
It means giving the whole heart to the Saviour, having Christ as daily companion, cultivating thoughts of Him in whom hopes of eternal life are centered, constantly aiming to keep His requirements and living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. It is a daily warfare in which flesh wars against spirit and spirit against flesh, with disobedience to God lying at the foundation of all sin amid satanic influences that fascinate and ensnare souls, while the Spirit of God works in all those who love and fear Him. Walking advances one step at a time in Christ's footsteps, for life is made up of little things and the repetition of simple acts. The character developed in commonplace daily practical life testifies whether God is supreme or whether affections center on minor objects and the god of this world, deciding destiny for eternity.
Walking means living in devotion to Him, and this applies to workers who are devoted to God and know heaven's principles.