Enoch Preaching, Walking With God and Taken Upby CBPepper
5:23Genesis 5:23
And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
The total span of Enoch's earthly life was three hundred sixty-five years, with sixty-five years before his first son was born and three hundred years of walking with God afterward. Those years were a brief exception among the patriarchs from Adam to Noah, who generally lived nearly a thousand years. His walking with God was not withdrawal as a hermit but daily communion in ordinary life as husband, father, friend and citizen, keeping the Lord ever before him, obeying His law, and being transformed into Christ's image. After three hundred years of faithful witness amid great corruption he was taken to heaven without seeing death, representing God's commandment-keeping people who will be alive and translated when Christ comes. His life amid widespread corruption proves that remaining unsullied by prevailing iniquity and prepared for translation is possible now, for righteousness was no easier then than today.
Lifespan and Ancient Setting
All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years, made up of sixty-five years before the birth of his first son and three hundred years of walking with God afterward. During the first sixty-five years he already 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 the grace of the promise and relying on the Redeemer to come. After his son's birth he reached a higher experience and closer relationship with God with a fuller sense of obligation and responsibility as a son of God, and seeing his child's love and trust and feeling his own yearning tenderness for his firstborn, he meditated day and night on God's infinite, unfathomable love through Christ in giving His Son and sought with all fervor to reveal it to others and to show the trust God's children can place in their heavenly Father. His walk with God was not a trance or vision, nor did he withdraw from the world as a hermit, but he served God faithfully in ordinary duties as husband, father, friend, and citizen. His three hundred years of walking ended with his being taken to heaven without seeing death, which represents God's commandment-keeping people who will be alive when Christ comes and will be taken to heaven without dying.
Enoch's three hundred sixty-five years were an exception among the patriarchs from Adam to Noah, who generally lived nearly a thousand years, in contrast to the steadily shorter lifespans after Noah and the increasing mortality linked to continued violations of the laws of life. The verse belongs to the pre-Flood record in which nine generations averaged nine hundred twelve years, showing humanity was made physically perfect and has deteriorated, with longevity falling to three hundred thirty-two years over nine generations after the Flood, to seventy years in Moses' time, and to about thirty-five years at present. The Genesis 5 record literally lists patriarchs from Adam to Noah living between nine hundred and a thousand years with one or two exceptions including Enoch, tapering to between one and two hundred years by the Egyptian bondage, and generally omits women's age at death with but an exception or two. This proves the race was created with ten times more vital force than now, which ran down through violation of the laws of health and life so that by David's time, about halfway from Adam to the present, life averaged only seventy years, and now averages about thirty years in Europe and America and twenty years in great cities.
Enoch was one of the most pious and godly men and ate no flesh, living in the nearly two thousand years after creation when God's children ate no flesh and subsisted on fruits and grains under the original plan, before flesh was permitted to be eaten under certain peculiar circumstances. The verse belongs to the record of long pre-Flood lives lived in remarkably good health, generally approaching a thousand years, which gives each person's years and death rather than describing prolonged illness or suffering, and it does not explain why Enoch's life was shorter than the others. The protracted antediluvian lifetimes came from the life-giving power of the tree of life, from which Adam and Eve could not die while eating, a life-perpetuating power transmitted from them to their descendants. In Noah's day human life was still measured by centuries because only a few generations had passed since Adam lost access to the tree that prolonged life, so the race still kept much early vigor with rare powers to plan and execute meant to serve God and make His name a praise and answer the purpose for which He gave them life, but guilt in giving loose rein to iniquity was in proportion to skill and mental ability, including many giants of stature, strength, wisdom, and skill in devising cunning and wonderful works.
The centuries-long lifespans before the Flood brought great physical and mental strength and unrivaled advantages for religious and scientific knowledge and moral and intellectual attainment; mental powers developed early rather than late, and those fearing God and living in harmony with His will kept increasing in knowledge and wisdom throughout life. Modern scholars studying twenty to fifty years are greatly inferior in mental and physical strength, and modern benefit from predecessors' writings does not equal having Adam, formed in God's image and instructed by the Creator in all wisdom pertaining to the material world and in the history of creation and witnessing creation through nine centuries, living among men for hundreds of years. Without books or written records strong memories grasped and retained what was communicated and transmitted it unimpaired to posterity, while seven generations living at once consulted together and each profited by the knowledge and experience of all. The verse stands in the genealogy whose ages show overlapping lifetimes by which knowledge taught to Adam was communicated directly: Adam imparting it to Methuselah, living till Methuselah was two hundred forty-three, Methuselah to Shem, living till Shem was ninety-eight, Shem to Abraham and Isaac, living one hundred fifty years after Abraham's birth and fifty after Isaac's, Abraham living till Jacob and Esau were fifteen and Isaac till they were one hundred twenty, and these patriarchs to Jacob the father of the tribes.
Apart from its number of years, the verse adds no detail about that number or its significance. The verse belongs to the record of early generations whose lives are contrasted with the sickness, mortality, and violation of the laws of life prevailing in the present generation.
Family and Generational Links
The 365 years divide into 65 years before the birth of his first son and 300 years of walking with God afterward. During those first 65 years he already 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 the grace of the promise and relying on the Redeemer to come. After his son's birth he reached a higher experience and closer relationship with God, with a fuller sense of his obligation and responsibility as a son of God.
Becoming a father taught him about God's love in giving His Son and the trust God's children can place in their heavenly Father. Seeing his child's love for its father and simple trust in his protection, and feeling his own deep yearning tenderness for his firstborn son, he learned the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son and the confidence the children of God may repose 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 to the people among whom he dwelt.
He stands as father of Methuselah in the line that carried warning of the Flood, and as head of a family instructed about the coming Flood. His son was Methuselah, whose grandson was Noah. Methuselah lived on to listen to Noah's faithful warning to the inhabitants of the old world that a flood of waters would come upon the earth, and with his sons and grandsons lived in the time of the building of the ark, received instruction from Noah, and assisted him in the work.
He received instruction passed down from Adam and carried its truth to his children and later generations, as one of the just people who kept the fear of the Lord before a morally corrupt generation, and those who chose to follow the Lord were specially blessed. His years belong with Abel, Seth, and Noah in the faithful line whose history was taught to Daniel and his companions. The truth about them was handed down by human lips from one generation to another and cherished, engraving the image of God upon the heart and holding Daniel firm against defilement in Babylon.
Enoch's Character and Ministry
Enoch's three hundred sixty-five years were a holy life lived with singleness of heart toward God. He realized the corruptions of the human family, separated himself from the descendants of Cain, and reproved them for their great wickedness. Though others on earth acknowledged, feared, and worshiped God, he was so distressed by increasing wickedness that he would not daily associate with the ungodly, fearing he would be affected by their infidelity and his thoughts would fail to regard God with the holy reverence due His exalted character. His soul was vexed as he daily witnessed their trampling upon God's authority.
He chose to be separate and spent much of his time in solitude devoted to reflection and prayer, waiting before God and praying to know His will more perfectly that he might perform it. God communed with him through angels and gave him divine instruction, making known that He would not always bear with man in rebellion and that His purpose was to destroy the sinful race by bringing a flood of waters upon the earth. He also revealed the preservation of Eden by withdrawing it to return it more gloriously adorned. The plan of salvation was opened more fully by carrying Enoch in prophetic vision through the post-Flood generations to the great events of Christ's second coming and the end of the world.
He faithfully told the people all God revealed to him by prophecy, and turned some from wickedness to fear and worship God. He instructed and prayed for seekers who came to his places of retirement for knowledge of God's will. He set apart periods to withdraw where people could not find him to avoid interruption of holy meditation and communion with God, yet he did not shut himself away at all times nor separate wholly from the corrupt. He met with good and bad at stated times to turn the ungodly from evil and to teach those who knew God to serve Him more perfectly, staying with them as long as his godly conversation and holy example could benefit them, then withdrawing from just, scoffing, and idolatrous alike into solitude hungering and thirsting for communion with God and the divine knowledge only God could give.
He was a faithful preacher of righteousness and a prophet speaking by the Holy Spirit, calling men from transgression of God's law to faithful obedience. He was a public teacher of truth who taught the truth and lived the truth in full harmony with the greatness and sacredness of his mission. He was a light amid moral darkness and a pattern man obedient to God's law, the same law Satan refused to obey, Adam transgressed, and Abel obeyed even unto death. His life proves Satan's charge that man cannot keep God's law is false, showing that though man has sinned he can relate to God so as to have the mind and Spirit of God and be a representative symbol of Christ, evidencing that man can keep all the law while denouncing the wickedness of the world. He warned guilty men that God's Spirit would not always strive with them and that their probation of one hundred and twenty years would end in being blotted from creation if they did not cease polluting the world and its riches with sin.
His pure, spotless life of obedience with singleness of heart stood in marked contrast to a rebellious, self-willed generation boasting in open disregard of God's holy law. His testimony was largely rejected because men loved sin more than holiness. Even many worshipers of God were beguiled into sin and lost their holy character, with hearts less and less impressed as his warning work as a minister of righteousness, like the preaching of Noah and his co-laborers, went largely unheeded. His life was one of faith in the promised Redeemer learned from Adam's account of the fall and God's gift of His Son. That faith pleased God, for without such faith it is impossible to please Him, proving that really believing the truth means carrying out in daily life the principles revealed in the life of Christ, with no coarseness or selfishness woven into the character.
He was a man of strong and highly cultivated mind and extensive knowledge honored with special revelations from God, yet he lived in constant communion with heaven with a sense of the divine greatness and perfection ever before him, making him one of the humblest of men. The closer his connection with God the deeper his sense of his own weakness and imperfection. He was perfect with God, fearing to offend Him, studying His will in all his work to show love and highest reverence for God, and living by faith. Christ often manifested Himself unto him, and he perfected such a Christlike character that the world took knowledge of him, giving a correct sample of what a man can be. Amid a corrupt and scoffing generation he trusted God's Word though in himself utterly helpless, remaining pure in heart and holy in life and holding fast his faith in the triumph of righteousness. That saving, living faith joins the receiver to God in covenant relation and makes the soul a conquering power, withstanding the power of the whole world, and his life is an example of walking with God by faith in firm trust that the Lord was with him and in firm principles of truth.
His walk continued for three hundred years day by day in longing for closer union with nearer and nearer communion until he stood at the threshold of the eternal world with only a step between him and the land of the blest. Then the portals opened and the walk with God so long pursued on earth continued as he passed through the gates of the holy city as the first from among men to enter there. His departure left a loss felt on earth where his daily voice of warning and instruction was missed, with some of both the righteous and the wicked witnessing it. Those who loved him made diligent but fruitless search hoping he had been conveyed to a place of retirement, as the sons of the prophets afterward searched for Elijah, reporting that he was not, for God had taken him. His translation to heaven without seeing death was a convincing witness to people of his time that the righteous could be translated, giving assurance that the righteous will be saved and enter heaven.
He worked in harmonious spiritual action with Noah's warnings, and with Noah as righteous and God-fearing stood as representative men among a wicked and degenerate nation, with all God's works aimed to reform the old world. He had faith in the message later given by Noah, seeing his highest and most dignified Friend only with the eye of faith in three hundred years of reconciled companionship. He did not make his home in the midst of any city polluted with violence and wickedness, unlike Lot in Sodom. He did not make his abode with the wicked nor settle among them in order to save them, but placed himself and his family where the atmosphere would be as pure as possible. His life proves that warning against iniquity can be given while living at some distance from corrupt cities, and that a family can be preserved from many evils by not dwelling in a wicked, polluted city.
He came from retirement into the cities only to bear a testimony of warning and reproof and then separated from the wicked again to preserve his soul in righteousness. He had a retired place to commune with God and refused to live in close companionship with the ungodly lest he become like them through hearing their godless words and ambitious projects. At times he went forth to the inhabitants of the world with his God-given warning message of coming judgment, and every visit was painful to him because he saw and understood the leprosy of sin. After proclaiming his message he always brought back with him to his place of retirement some who had received the warning, and some of these became overcomers and died before the Flood, while others who had lived so long under corrupting influence could not endure righteousness but failed to retain purity of faith and returned to their former customs and practices. His labor was to hunt for souls in days before the Flood when wickedness was rife in every populous community and violence was in the land, with diligent, wholehearted effort laying wise plans to do city work to the best possible advantage by working the populous places from outpost centers, living apart yet visiting cities in faithful service.
Meaning of Walking with God
Walking with God belonged to ordinary life and daily duties as husband, father, friend and citizen, not a trance or vision, and not withdrawal as a hermit, for there was a work for God in the world and in family and intercourse with men the walk was steadfast and unwavering service to the Lord, with set times for solitude and prayer to seek knowledge from God. That holy walk lasted through centuries with faith waxing stronger and love more ardent, unlike those earnest and devoted only when time is short or Christ's coming seems near. Readiness for the Lord's coming must not change whether He comes in two, four, ten or twenty years, but requires walking every day in continual waiting and watching with an eye single to God's glory, since otherwise there is no safety.
The heart was in harmony with God's will, for two cannot walk together except they be agreed, with the will in harmony with the divine will, knowing no sufficiency in self while finding sufficiency in Jesus. Walking with God means keeping the Lord ever before him and making Christ a constant companion and counselor, living ever under the influence of Jesus while in the world performing duties to the world. It reflects goodness, mercy, tender compassion, sympathy, forbearance, meekness, humility and love, with day-by-day association transforming into Christ's image in thoughts and feelings away from one's own way into Christ's heavenly divine way, constantly inquiring whether the course is the way of the Lord, which is genuine sanctification and constant growth in fellowship with Father and Son.
It means referring every thought and action to Jesus by asking if it is the way of the Lord, studying the definite features of Christ's character to imitate the holy Pattern, and keeping Jesus as close dear companion instead of being so full of busy plans and constant activity that there is no time or place for Him. It means obeying God's law, the same law Satan refused to obey, Adam transgressed, and Abel obeyed even unto death by murder. As a public teacher of truth who taught truth and lived truth in full harmony with the greatness and sacredness of his mission, a prophet speaking by the Holy Spirit, a light amid moral darkness and a pattern man, the life demonstrates to the universe the falsity of Satan's charge that man cannot keep God's law, proving that though man has sinned he can relate to God to have God's mind and Spirit, be a representative symbol of Christ, and keep all the law while denouncing the wickedness of the world.
It means being filled with the one desire to be just what God desires — pure, noble, sanctified, like God — born from realizing human weakness and failure in self-sufficiency, hungering and thirsting after Christ's righteousness. It means studying God's character to a purpose in order to become like Him, refusing to mark out one's own course or set up one's own finite will as if fully qualified to manage matters, and striving to conform to the divine likeness and assimilate to it. Out of increasing knowledge of God comes a true estimate of self, a realization of human weakness and ignorance, a longing with intense desire to overcome every defect of character so sin does not dwell in the mortal body, and an intense hungering and thirsting after righteousness and true holiness of heart.
It means educating mind and heart to ever feel in God's presence, sending prayers in perplexity to be kept, refusing any course offending God, keeping the Lord continually before him, praying to be taught God's way and pleasure to honor Him, constantly shaping way and course by His commandments, having perfect confidence and trust in the heavenly Father for help, and submerging all thought and will in the Father's will. It means constant connection and communion, talking with God as a present Friend by the side about trials, afflictions of soul and wickedness in the world, doing what is right whatever friends and relatives say and whatever the consequence. It means placing oneself in right relation to God and letting God care for consequences instead of seeking a path without trials or difficulties, seeking connection with God rather than connection with another influence leading away from good, thereby forming a righteous character, becoming wholly on the Lord's side, partaking of the divine nature and escaping corruption in the world through lust.
It means a heart continually stayed upon God in prayer with God as present help in every need, uplifting the heart while working and not only kneeling, keeping communication open, walking humbly in deep living experience, hiding self in Jesus with personal individuality in Christ, and having the Lord as sun and shield. Those who so walk are imbued with the Spirit of Christ, ever seek to elevate the moral standard, have no unholy craving for human sympathy, and find in companionship with God full satisfaction for every desire of mind and heart. It means depending wholly on God for guidance, support, knowledge of His will and strength to obey, relying on Him more than self in humble trust and entire dependence, being devoted and spiritually minded and baptized with the Holy Spirit, while keeping the heart in continual communion through prayer.
Such walking is the standard for workers in God's important institutions, bringing far greater prosperity, largeness of outlook that enlarges the work instead of binding it about, refusal to separate business from religion, and ability to take in the situation, see far and reason from cause to effect, without which nothing is sure. It means reflecting upon God and contemplating His character with a life well-pleasing to God, calling God's children today to hide in the cleft of the Rock and view God's character with the same meditation upon the Word, not only reading it but carefully studying it, for it furnishes the only safe standard and guide in forming moral character and the only sure road to intellectual culture. It means talking with God everywhere as with a constant Companion, recognizing the divine presence and committing the soul's keeping to Christ in trust in the naked promise rather than feeling. It means building on the sure foundation of eternal promises as solid rock and remembering Christ as honored guest encircled by His human arm while He grasps the throne of the Infinite, with Christian character perfected in a world no more favorable than now, proving the same habitual communion is possible now.
It means keeping the Lord ever before him with thanksgiving and praise giving continual freshness to religious life, with prayers as conversation with a friend to whom God spoke mysteries personally, giving a sweet joyful sense of Jesus' presence and a burning heart as Jesus drew nigh to commune, producing simplicity, humility, meekness and lowliness showing learning from Jesus. It means having an abiding Christ as constant companion to whom to talk when assailed by the tempter, having no written text as now but personal knowledge of the heavenly Counselor and Counsellor closely bound to Jesus, manifesting a life hid with Christ with selfishness cut out by the roots and ever representing Him in all life-practices. It means living by faith in God's presence for three hundred years in continual sense of His presence, by faith seeing God as the pure in heart shall see Him and seeing the faith of Jesus, taken into special favor.
It means spending three hundred years in communion that was delight rather than disagreeable duty because God's society was loved so well, teaching to talk more of the Father's love, to love Christ's yoke and lift His burdens, and with eyes fixed on the mark of the prize to look over present difficulties and trials to future immortal life, looking and talking not of things seen but of things eternal. It means being perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect, walking before God and being perfect, blameless and harmless as sons without rebuke amid a crooked and perverse nation shining as lights, standing perfect and complete in all God's will and presented perfect in Christ through Christ in the believer, the hope of glory. It means true love and fear of God with singleness of purpose to do His will, placing body, mind, heart, soul and strength under service to God to serve and please Him in everything and make His will one's own, with mind undefiled by impure defective eyesight, producing a harmonious, well-balanced, consistent, cheerful and true character.
It means giving mind, soul, heart and strength to God in perfect obedience and service wearing Christ's yoke, using every faculty of mind and body to bless fellowmen, toiling in imitation of Christ's perfect pattern mingled with his example as part of the divine plan, and being recognized by God. It means staying close to God's side, working with Him, walking humbly by ever-increasing faith, not satisfied with one's own companionship, and learning from Jesus Christ, who overcame every temptation besetting man, how to overcome through God's provision and way of escape with every temptation, proving man can please God as incentive to persevering intense effort proportionate to salvation. It means giving the whole heart to the Saviour with Christ as daily companion, cultivating thoughts of Him in whom eternal hope centers, constantly aiming to keep God's requirements and live by every word from God's mouth.
The walk advances step by step in Christ's footsteps and is made up of little things, the repetition of simple acts in commonplace daily practical life, and the character there developed decides destiny for eternity and testifies in heaven whether God is supreme. It is daily testing in warfare where flesh wars against spirit requiring decision which will conquer and with whom to walk, Christ or the god of this world, against fascinations leading into disobedience and ruin, since disobedience lies at the foundation of all sin. It means uniting with Christ as His soldiers, obeying orders without fretting like children at what disagrees with ideas, indulging no criticism except toward self, closely investigating the heart, and thereby having holy angels as companions instead of evil angels, with all who do their best to place themselves in right relation to God walking as he did.
It means watching and praying, assuring of Jesus' presence and counseling with Him about work entrusted, showing those in important responsibility need Jesus and must take time to commune rather than gathering business and leaving Christ out for lack of time, not violating conscience nor trusting finite strength but remaining fervent under testing to inherit the eternal crown. It means communion belongs in daily work even in the busiest places with the unseen God as Companion, with greatest need for those with most to do to keep God ever before them. When suggestions press, cherishing a divine word draws into the secret pavilion of the Most High for safeguard and quiet rest amid confusion, calling all to take God into every place and carry the lamp of life where God is least thought of, since leaving God out of sight breaks communion, leaves positive danger, and endangers integrity.
It means being brought near through created works, walking with Him while viewing them, talking with Him as companion and guest, which is refreshing and inspiring, a precious privilege and choicest recreation, and the most exalted honor heaven can bestow. It means taking precious walks with Jesus by which God and Christ are known, reaching beyond the elementary standard by appreciating the sacredness and sanctifying influence of sacred things, appropriating truth, digesting the Word, and revealing Christ's grace in practical life. It means constantly realizing accountability to God.
It means putting entire unwavering trust in the Lord, relying on His care, fearing Him and walking in His ways through tests and trials, so that God's angels walked with him, encamping about him, opening ways and instructing him whatever his circumstances, which is the pattern for being of good courage, untroubled and at rest, leaving experiences with the Lord. It means receiving wisdom by staying close instead of wandering far, keeping harmony instead of discord when crossed, refusing politics and strife as God's peculiar people, and having true faith. It is a heavenly antidote to delusive sentiments that make infidels or skeptics, namely God's truth revealed in His Word, practiced in life and constantly guiding concern for others, barricading the soul with heavenly principles so a man may humbly yet confidently fear no man's face.
It means walking alone in perfect and thorough obedience separated from disobedient men without vital connection to God, which God requires in choosing His servants, so that a man in trust connected with the disobedient must separate whatever his position, realizing work is done not by might nor power but by the Spirit of the Lord. It means being devoted to God, knowing heaven's principles, and learning by experience what the walk means, qualifying such men to superintend accounts and financial affairs of conferences and institutions. It means making God one's counselor as the way to grow in understanding and spiritual attainment. It means conversing with God, showing people in any position need to recognize their need of communion with God.
Translation and Prophetic Picture
After three hundred years of walking with God amid great corruption and shining as a light to a degenerate age, the three hundred sixty-five years were ended by being taken to heaven without seeing death, for God did not leave him in this sinful world but took him from it. That walk was constant connection and communion through three hundred years of conflict and simple faith, talking with God as a present Friend by his side about trials, afflictions of soul and the wickedness in the world, realizing Him as a very present help, praying to be kept and taught, submerging the will in God's will and directing the feet in obedience to His commandments. It was carried on with the mind stayed upon Him in a crooked and perverse generation whose wickedness matches the days of Noah and the present age, in reconciled companionship with fear to offend God, studying His will in all work to show love and highest reverence, seeing the highest Friend only with the eye of faith, meditating constantly on the goodness and perfection and loveliness of the divine character, conversing on heavenly things and becoming changed into the glorious image of the Lord. He worked in harmonious spiritual action with Noah's warnings, having faith in the message later given by Noah, and with Noah stood as righteous and God-fearing representative men among a wicked nation, with all God's works aimed to reform the old world.
His long faithfulness gave the world an example of a pure and spotless life, and his translation by angels to heaven without seeing death represents God's commandment-keeping people who will be alive on earth when Christ comes the second time and will be translated to heaven without dying. They will be glorified before those who hated them for keeping God's commandments, and his life presents the representation of the character to be attained by those who will be translated alive when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven. That character is no more exemplary than the life possible to everyone who maintains a close connection with God, yet it requires the same blending of personal piety with earnest energetic warnings and appeals and vigilant waiting and preparation for the solemn events soon to take place, with eyes fixed on the prize. Those translated at the close of time will be those who have the same communion with God on earth, making manifest that their life is hid with Christ in God, ever representing Him in all life-practices with selfishness cut out by the roots, making God their constant companion and counselor.
God communed with him because of his pure character and showed him in holy vision the second coming of Christ, the wickedness prevailing just before the end, and the great events to the end of the world, carrying him in prophetic vision through the post-Flood generations. That communion came through angels giving divine instruction that He would not always bear with rebellious man but would destroy the sinful race with a flood of waters, while more fully opening the plan of salvation and revealing the preservation of Eden to return more gloriously adorned. As a preacher of righteousness he called men from transgression of the law to faithful obedience in marked contrast to a rebellious self-willed generation that boasted in open disregard of God's holy law and rejected his testimony because they loved sin more than holiness. His reflected light from God was broad and deep, and those who walked in it were blessed in it, died in it, and will come up in the first resurrection. His three hundred years of walking ended with God taking him, proving that really believing the truth means carrying out in daily life the principles revealed in the life of Christ, with no coarseness or selfishness woven into the character.
Call to Walk Today
Enoch's 365 years ended with translation to heaven without seeing death after 300 years of walking with God, and his life amid widespread corruption shows that people can remain unsullied by sin, unpolluted by prevailing iniquity, and prepared for translation. Though surrounded by influences so corrupt that God brought a flood to destroy its inhabitants, he lived a holy life while breathing an atmosphere tainted with sin and corruption the same as now. He was not free from temptation and was not surrounded with society any more friendly to righteousness than the present, yet through constant conflict and simple faith he realized God as a very present help, prayed for keeping and teaching, submerged his will in God's will, directed his feet in obedience to God's commandments, meditated constantly on the goodness and perfection and loveliness of the divine character, conversed on heavenly and divine things, trained his mind to devotion and to love purity until he bore the impress of the divine, and by looking to Jesus was changed into the glorious image of his Lord with his countenance lighted by glory shining from the face of Christ. His long obedience rebukes the idea that only shortness of time or terrors of the day of God should compel right action, and his example shows Christians can live faithfully among others without being corrupted by their influence.
Living a righteous life was no easier in his day than now, and the world was no more favorable to growth in grace and holiness and to perfection of Christian character than it is today or than in 1901 or at the present day. He had temptations as well as now, at a time when every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually and God said man's days should be a hundred and twenty years, yet he devoted time to prayer and communion with God, which enabled him to escape the corruption in the world through lust. Walking with God meant educating mind and heart to ever feel in the presence of God, sending prayers in perplexity to be kept, refusing any course offending God, keeping the Lord continually before him, praying to be taught God's way and pleasure to honor God, constantly shaping way and course by God's commandments, having perfect confidence and trust in the heavenly Father, submerging all thought and will in the Father's will, talking with God everywhere as constant Companion, recognizing the divine presence, committing the soul's keeping to Christ in trust in the naked promise rather than feeling, building on the sure foundation of eternal promises as solid rock, and remembering Christ as honored guest encircled by His human arm while He grasps the throne of the Infinite. His devotion fitted him for translation, proving purity and incorruption are possible now and that the same strength must be received from the same source amid perils of the last days by walking with God in separation from the world after faithful Enoch's example to remain free from pollution, and then the light of God's glory will no more be shut away than from devoted Enoch. He feared to offend God, studied His will in all work to show love and highest reverence, lived by faith, worked in harmonious spiritual action with Noah's message, perfected such Christlike character that the world took knowledge of him as a correct sample of what a man can be, for Christ often manifested Himself to him.
His close connection with God is held up as a safeguard against false and harmful ideas, showing the importance of letting God's truth guide conduct, growing intellectually and spiritually to become elevated and ennobled, and meditating on the Word as the only safe standard. The walk needed now by Seventh-day Adventists if ever a people needed it is his life of walking before God, which means honoring family religion and family holiness as never before and showing sincerity by pure words, clean words, words full of sympathy, tenderness, and love. Every laborer for Christ may live in close fellowship with God as he did, having the will in harmony with the divine will, having Christ by the side as counselor, setting the Lord always before the mind, knowing no sufficiency in self while finding sufficiency in Jesus, fastening upon God in living faith, speaking His praise, and turning the mind together to eternal realities, which keeps believers spiritually minded and in harmony with one another.
His life when the earth was fearfully corrupt and polluted and iniquity abounded so greatly that God declared He would utterly destroy man unless he repented proves walking with God is possible today amid thickening perils of the last days when iniquity abounds and love grows cold. People now need not be contaminated with the world but amid all its corrupting influences and tendencies may walk with God and have the mind of Christ, which lays upon everyone responsibility to be wide-awake to save his own soul and others. His life proves a person can please God in every phase of character building even while living in a degenerate age, making ambition to cultivate every grace for God's glory both duty and possibility, with people like him living in the present day as incentive to persevering, intense effort proportionate to salvation. He was not satisfied with his own companionship but walked with God and pleased God by staying close to His side, working with Him, walking humbly by ever-increasing faith, and learning from Jesus Christ, who overcame every temptation besetting man, how to overcome through God's provision and way of escape with every temptation.
His 365 years were lived when God had a church on earth, beginning when Adam and Eve and Abel accepted Jesus as Redeemer and rejoiced in the promise of God's presence as fully as believers do now. During those years he carried a message from God, and whenever he found one or two willing to hear it Jesus joined their worship, for even among the wicked some believed, proving God never leaves His faithful few without His presence nor the world without a witness. His case, with others, will condemn in the judgment those who have great light and evidence yet remain defective in character instead of being as righteous in their day as he was in his. His 365 years spent walking with God with mind stayed upon Him in a crooked and perverse generation whose wickedness matches the days of Noah and the present age ended with God taking him from this sinful world as representative of those translated alive when Christ comes to gather His people, which means eternal life requires turning from worldly pleasures, constantly seeking God for strength against the enemy's wiles, being ready for Christ's appearing, and washing robes clean in the blood of the Lamb.
The total span of Enoch's earthly life was three hundred sixty-five years, with sixty-five years before his first son was born and three hundred years of walking with God afterward. Those years were a brief exception among the patriarchs from Adam to Noah, who generally lived nearly a thousand years. His walking with God was not withdrawal as a hermit but daily communion in ordinary life as husband, father, friend and citizen, keeping the Lord ever before him, obeying His law, and being transformed into Christ's image. After three hundred years of faithful witness amid great corruption he was taken to heaven without seeing death, representing God's commandment-keeping people who will be alive and translated when Christ comes. His life amid widespread corruption proves that remaining unsullied by prevailing iniquity and prepared for translation is possible now, for righteousness was no easier then than today.
Lifespan and Ancient Setting
All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years, made up of sixty-five years before the birth of his first son and three hundred years of walking with God afterward. During the first sixty-five years he already 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 the grace of the promise and relying on the Redeemer to come. After his son's birth he reached a higher experience and closer relationship with God with a fuller sense of obligation and responsibility as a son of God, and seeing his child's love and trust and feeling his own yearning tenderness for his firstborn, he meditated day and night on God's infinite, unfathomable love through Christ in giving His Son and sought with all fervor to reveal it to others and to show the trust God's children can place in their heavenly Father. His walk with God was not a trance or vision, nor did he withdraw from the world as a hermit, but he served God faithfully in ordinary duties as husband, father, friend, and citizen. His three hundred years of walking ended with his being taken to heaven without seeing death, which represents God's commandment-keeping people who will be alive when Christ comes and will be taken to heaven without dying.
Enoch's three hundred sixty-five years were an exception among the patriarchs from Adam to Noah, who generally lived nearly a thousand years, in contrast to the steadily shorter lifespans after Noah and the increasing mortality linked to continued violations of the laws of life. The verse belongs to the pre-Flood record in which nine generations averaged nine hundred twelve years, showing humanity was made physically perfect and has deteriorated, with longevity falling to three hundred thirty-two years over nine generations after the Flood, to seventy years in Moses' time, and to about thirty-five years at present. The Genesis 5 record literally lists patriarchs from Adam to Noah living between nine hundred and a thousand years with one or two exceptions including Enoch, tapering to between one and two hundred years by the Egyptian bondage, and generally omits women's age at death with but an exception or two. This proves the race was created with ten times more vital force than now, which ran down through violation of the laws of health and life so that by David's time, about halfway from Adam to the present, life averaged only seventy years, and now averages about thirty years in Europe and America and twenty years in great cities.
Enoch was one of the most pious and godly men and ate no flesh, living in the nearly two thousand years after creation when God's children ate no flesh and subsisted on fruits and grains under the original plan, before flesh was permitted to be eaten under certain peculiar circumstances. The verse belongs to the record of long pre-Flood lives lived in remarkably good health, generally approaching a thousand years, which gives each person's years and death rather than describing prolonged illness or suffering, and it does not explain why Enoch's life was shorter than the others. The protracted antediluvian lifetimes came from the life-giving power of the tree of life, from which Adam and Eve could not die while eating, a life-perpetuating power transmitted from them to their descendants. In Noah's day human life was still measured by centuries because only a few generations had passed since Adam lost access to the tree that prolonged life, so the race still kept much early vigor with rare powers to plan and execute meant to serve God and make His name a praise and answer the purpose for which He gave them life, but guilt in giving loose rein to iniquity was in proportion to skill and mental ability, including many giants of stature, strength, wisdom, and skill in devising cunning and wonderful works.
The centuries-long lifespans before the Flood brought great physical and mental strength and unrivaled advantages for religious and scientific knowledge and moral and intellectual attainment; mental powers developed early rather than late, and those fearing God and living in harmony with His will kept increasing in knowledge and wisdom throughout life. Modern scholars studying twenty to fifty years are greatly inferior in mental and physical strength, and modern benefit from predecessors' writings does not equal having Adam, formed in God's image and instructed by the Creator in all wisdom pertaining to the material world and in the history of creation and witnessing creation through nine centuries, living among men for hundreds of years. Without books or written records strong memories grasped and retained what was communicated and transmitted it unimpaired to posterity, while seven generations living at once consulted together and each profited by the knowledge and experience of all. The verse stands in the genealogy whose ages show overlapping lifetimes by which knowledge taught to Adam was communicated directly: Adam imparting it to Methuselah, living till Methuselah was two hundred forty-three, Methuselah to Shem, living till Shem was ninety-eight, Shem to Abraham and Isaac, living one hundred fifty years after Abraham's birth and fifty after Isaac's, Abraham living till Jacob and Esau were fifteen and Isaac till they were one hundred twenty, and these patriarchs to Jacob the father of the tribes.
Apart from its number of years, the verse adds no detail about that number or its significance. The verse belongs to the record of early generations whose lives are contrasted with the sickness, mortality, and violation of the laws of life prevailing in the present generation.
Family and Generational Links
The 365 years divide into 65 years before the birth of his first son and 300 years of walking with God afterward. During those first 65 years he already 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 the grace of the promise and relying on the Redeemer to come. After his son's birth he reached a higher experience and closer relationship with God, with a fuller sense of his obligation and responsibility as a son of God.
Becoming a father taught him about God's love in giving His Son and the trust God's children can place in their heavenly Father. Seeing his child's love for its father and simple trust in his protection, and feeling his own deep yearning tenderness for his firstborn son, he learned the wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son and the confidence the children of God may repose 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 to the people among whom he dwelt.
He stands as father of Methuselah in the line that carried warning of the Flood, and as head of a family instructed about the coming Flood. His son was Methuselah, whose grandson was Noah. Methuselah lived on to listen to Noah's faithful warning to the inhabitants of the old world that a flood of waters would come upon the earth, and with his sons and grandsons lived in the time of the building of the ark, received instruction from Noah, and assisted him in the work.
He received instruction passed down from Adam and carried its truth to his children and later generations, as one of the just people who kept the fear of the Lord before a morally corrupt generation, and those who chose to follow the Lord were specially blessed. His years belong with Abel, Seth, and Noah in the faithful line whose history was taught to Daniel and his companions. The truth about them was handed down by human lips from one generation to another and cherished, engraving the image of God upon the heart and holding Daniel firm against defilement in Babylon.
Enoch's Character and Ministry
Enoch's three hundred sixty-five years were a holy life lived with singleness of heart toward God. He realized the corruptions of the human family, separated himself from the descendants of Cain, and reproved them for their great wickedness. Though others on earth acknowledged, feared, and worshiped God, he was so distressed by increasing wickedness that he would not daily associate with the ungodly, fearing he would be affected by their infidelity and his thoughts would fail to regard God with the holy reverence due His exalted character. His soul was vexed as he daily witnessed their trampling upon God's authority.
He chose to be separate and spent much of his time in solitude devoted to reflection and prayer, waiting before God and praying to know His will more perfectly that he might perform it. God communed with him through angels and gave him divine instruction, making known that He would not always bear with man in rebellion and that His purpose was to destroy the sinful race by bringing a flood of waters upon the earth. He also revealed the preservation of Eden by withdrawing it to return it more gloriously adorned. The plan of salvation was opened more fully by carrying Enoch in prophetic vision through the post-Flood generations to the great events of Christ's second coming and the end of the world.
He faithfully told the people all God revealed to him by prophecy, and turned some from wickedness to fear and worship God. He instructed and prayed for seekers who came to his places of retirement for knowledge of God's will. He set apart periods to withdraw where people could not find him to avoid interruption of holy meditation and communion with God, yet he did not shut himself away at all times nor separate wholly from the corrupt. He met with good and bad at stated times to turn the ungodly from evil and to teach those who knew God to serve Him more perfectly, staying with them as long as his godly conversation and holy example could benefit them, then withdrawing from just, scoffing, and idolatrous alike into solitude hungering and thirsting for communion with God and the divine knowledge only God could give.
He was a faithful preacher of righteousness and a prophet speaking by the Holy Spirit, calling men from transgression of God's law to faithful obedience. He was a public teacher of truth who taught the truth and lived the truth in full harmony with the greatness and sacredness of his mission. He was a light amid moral darkness and a pattern man obedient to God's law, the same law Satan refused to obey, Adam transgressed, and Abel obeyed even unto death. His life proves Satan's charge that man cannot keep God's law is false, showing that though man has sinned he can relate to God so as to have the mind and Spirit of God and be a representative symbol of Christ, evidencing that man can keep all the law while denouncing the wickedness of the world. He warned guilty men that God's Spirit would not always strive with them and that their probation of one hundred and twenty years would end in being blotted from creation if they did not cease polluting the world and its riches with sin.
His pure, spotless life of obedience with singleness of heart stood in marked contrast to a rebellious, self-willed generation boasting in open disregard of God's holy law. His testimony was largely rejected because men loved sin more than holiness. Even many worshipers of God were beguiled into sin and lost their holy character, with hearts less and less impressed as his warning work as a minister of righteousness, like the preaching of Noah and his co-laborers, went largely unheeded. His life was one of faith in the promised Redeemer learned from Adam's account of the fall and God's gift of His Son. That faith pleased God, for without such faith it is impossible to please Him, proving that really believing the truth means carrying out in daily life the principles revealed in the life of Christ, with no coarseness or selfishness woven into the character.
He was a man of strong and highly cultivated mind and extensive knowledge honored with special revelations from God, yet he lived in constant communion with heaven with a sense of the divine greatness and perfection ever before him, making him one of the humblest of men. The closer his connection with God the deeper his sense of his own weakness and imperfection. He was perfect with God, fearing to offend Him, studying His will in all his work to show love and highest reverence for God, and living by faith. Christ often manifested Himself unto him, and he perfected such a Christlike character that the world took knowledge of him, giving a correct sample of what a man can be. Amid a corrupt and scoffing generation he trusted God's Word though in himself utterly helpless, remaining pure in heart and holy in life and holding fast his faith in the triumph of righteousness. That saving, living faith joins the receiver to God in covenant relation and makes the soul a conquering power, withstanding the power of the whole world, and his life is an example of walking with God by faith in firm trust that the Lord was with him and in firm principles of truth.
His walk continued for three hundred years day by day in longing for closer union with nearer and nearer communion until he stood at the threshold of the eternal world with only a step between him and the land of the blest. Then the portals opened and the walk with God so long pursued on earth continued as he passed through the gates of the holy city as the first from among men to enter there. His departure left a loss felt on earth where his daily voice of warning and instruction was missed, with some of both the righteous and the wicked witnessing it. Those who loved him made diligent but fruitless search hoping he had been conveyed to a place of retirement, as the sons of the prophets afterward searched for Elijah, reporting that he was not, for God had taken him. His translation to heaven without seeing death was a convincing witness to people of his time that the righteous could be translated, giving assurance that the righteous will be saved and enter heaven.
He worked in harmonious spiritual action with Noah's warnings, and with Noah as righteous and God-fearing stood as representative men among a wicked and degenerate nation, with all God's works aimed to reform the old world. He had faith in the message later given by Noah, seeing his highest and most dignified Friend only with the eye of faith in three hundred years of reconciled companionship. He did not make his home in the midst of any city polluted with violence and wickedness, unlike Lot in Sodom. He did not make his abode with the wicked nor settle among them in order to save them, but placed himself and his family where the atmosphere would be as pure as possible. His life proves that warning against iniquity can be given while living at some distance from corrupt cities, and that a family can be preserved from many evils by not dwelling in a wicked, polluted city.
He came from retirement into the cities only to bear a testimony of warning and reproof and then separated from the wicked again to preserve his soul in righteousness. He had a retired place to commune with God and refused to live in close companionship with the ungodly lest he become like them through hearing their godless words and ambitious projects. At times he went forth to the inhabitants of the world with his God-given warning message of coming judgment, and every visit was painful to him because he saw and understood the leprosy of sin. After proclaiming his message he always brought back with him to his place of retirement some who had received the warning, and some of these became overcomers and died before the Flood, while others who had lived so long under corrupting influence could not endure righteousness but failed to retain purity of faith and returned to their former customs and practices. His labor was to hunt for souls in days before the Flood when wickedness was rife in every populous community and violence was in the land, with diligent, wholehearted effort laying wise plans to do city work to the best possible advantage by working the populous places from outpost centers, living apart yet visiting cities in faithful service.
Meaning of Walking with God
Walking with God belonged to ordinary life and daily duties as husband, father, friend and citizen, not a trance or vision, and not withdrawal as a hermit, for there was a work for God in the world and in family and intercourse with men the walk was steadfast and unwavering service to the Lord, with set times for solitude and prayer to seek knowledge from God. That holy walk lasted through centuries with faith waxing stronger and love more ardent, unlike those earnest and devoted only when time is short or Christ's coming seems near. Readiness for the Lord's coming must not change whether He comes in two, four, ten or twenty years, but requires walking every day in continual waiting and watching with an eye single to God's glory, since otherwise there is no safety.
The heart was in harmony with God's will, for two cannot walk together except they be agreed, with the will in harmony with the divine will, knowing no sufficiency in self while finding sufficiency in Jesus. Walking with God means keeping the Lord ever before him and making Christ a constant companion and counselor, living ever under the influence of Jesus while in the world performing duties to the world. It reflects goodness, mercy, tender compassion, sympathy, forbearance, meekness, humility and love, with day-by-day association transforming into Christ's image in thoughts and feelings away from one's own way into Christ's heavenly divine way, constantly inquiring whether the course is the way of the Lord, which is genuine sanctification and constant growth in fellowship with Father and Son.
It means referring every thought and action to Jesus by asking if it is the way of the Lord, studying the definite features of Christ's character to imitate the holy Pattern, and keeping Jesus as close dear companion instead of being so full of busy plans and constant activity that there is no time or place for Him. It means obeying God's law, the same law Satan refused to obey, Adam transgressed, and Abel obeyed even unto death by murder. As a public teacher of truth who taught truth and lived truth in full harmony with the greatness and sacredness of his mission, a prophet speaking by the Holy Spirit, a light amid moral darkness and a pattern man, the life demonstrates to the universe the falsity of Satan's charge that man cannot keep God's law, proving that though man has sinned he can relate to God to have God's mind and Spirit, be a representative symbol of Christ, and keep all the law while denouncing the wickedness of the world.
It means being filled with the one desire to be just what God desires — pure, noble, sanctified, like God — born from realizing human weakness and failure in self-sufficiency, hungering and thirsting after Christ's righteousness. It means studying God's character to a purpose in order to become like Him, refusing to mark out one's own course or set up one's own finite will as if fully qualified to manage matters, and striving to conform to the divine likeness and assimilate to it. Out of increasing knowledge of God comes a true estimate of self, a realization of human weakness and ignorance, a longing with intense desire to overcome every defect of character so sin does not dwell in the mortal body, and an intense hungering and thirsting after righteousness and true holiness of heart.
It means educating mind and heart to ever feel in God's presence, sending prayers in perplexity to be kept, refusing any course offending God, keeping the Lord continually before him, praying to be taught God's way and pleasure to honor Him, constantly shaping way and course by His commandments, having perfect confidence and trust in the heavenly Father for help, and submerging all thought and will in the Father's will. It means constant connection and communion, talking with God as a present Friend by the side about trials, afflictions of soul and wickedness in the world, doing what is right whatever friends and relatives say and whatever the consequence. It means placing oneself in right relation to God and letting God care for consequences instead of seeking a path without trials or difficulties, seeking connection with God rather than connection with another influence leading away from good, thereby forming a righteous character, becoming wholly on the Lord's side, partaking of the divine nature and escaping corruption in the world through lust.
It means a heart continually stayed upon God in prayer with God as present help in every need, uplifting the heart while working and not only kneeling, keeping communication open, walking humbly in deep living experience, hiding self in Jesus with personal individuality in Christ, and having the Lord as sun and shield. Those who so walk are imbued with the Spirit of Christ, ever seek to elevate the moral standard, have no unholy craving for human sympathy, and find in companionship with God full satisfaction for every desire of mind and heart. It means depending wholly on God for guidance, support, knowledge of His will and strength to obey, relying on Him more than self in humble trust and entire dependence, being devoted and spiritually minded and baptized with the Holy Spirit, while keeping the heart in continual communion through prayer.
Such walking is the standard for workers in God's important institutions, bringing far greater prosperity, largeness of outlook that enlarges the work instead of binding it about, refusal to separate business from religion, and ability to take in the situation, see far and reason from cause to effect, without which nothing is sure. It means reflecting upon God and contemplating His character with a life well-pleasing to God, calling God's children today to hide in the cleft of the Rock and view God's character with the same meditation upon the Word, not only reading it but carefully studying it, for it furnishes the only safe standard and guide in forming moral character and the only sure road to intellectual culture. It means talking with God everywhere as with a constant Companion, recognizing the divine presence and committing the soul's keeping to Christ in trust in the naked promise rather than feeling. It means building on the sure foundation of eternal promises as solid rock and remembering Christ as honored guest encircled by His human arm while He grasps the throne of the Infinite, with Christian character perfected in a world no more favorable than now, proving the same habitual communion is possible now.
It means keeping the Lord ever before him with thanksgiving and praise giving continual freshness to religious life, with prayers as conversation with a friend to whom God spoke mysteries personally, giving a sweet joyful sense of Jesus' presence and a burning heart as Jesus drew nigh to commune, producing simplicity, humility, meekness and lowliness showing learning from Jesus. It means having an abiding Christ as constant companion to whom to talk when assailed by the tempter, having no written text as now but personal knowledge of the heavenly Counselor and Counsellor closely bound to Jesus, manifesting a life hid with Christ with selfishness cut out by the roots and ever representing Him in all life-practices. It means living by faith in God's presence for three hundred years in continual sense of His presence, by faith seeing God as the pure in heart shall see Him and seeing the faith of Jesus, taken into special favor.
It means spending three hundred years in communion that was delight rather than disagreeable duty because God's society was loved so well, teaching to talk more of the Father's love, to love Christ's yoke and lift His burdens, and with eyes fixed on the mark of the prize to look over present difficulties and trials to future immortal life, looking and talking not of things seen but of things eternal. It means being perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect, walking before God and being perfect, blameless and harmless as sons without rebuke amid a crooked and perverse nation shining as lights, standing perfect and complete in all God's will and presented perfect in Christ through Christ in the believer, the hope of glory. It means true love and fear of God with singleness of purpose to do His will, placing body, mind, heart, soul and strength under service to God to serve and please Him in everything and make His will one's own, with mind undefiled by impure defective eyesight, producing a harmonious, well-balanced, consistent, cheerful and true character.
It means giving mind, soul, heart and strength to God in perfect obedience and service wearing Christ's yoke, using every faculty of mind and body to bless fellowmen, toiling in imitation of Christ's perfect pattern mingled with his example as part of the divine plan, and being recognized by God. It means staying close to God's side, working with Him, walking humbly by ever-increasing faith, not satisfied with one's own companionship, and learning from Jesus Christ, who overcame every temptation besetting man, how to overcome through God's provision and way of escape with every temptation, proving man can please God as incentive to persevering intense effort proportionate to salvation. It means giving the whole heart to the Saviour with Christ as daily companion, cultivating thoughts of Him in whom eternal hope centers, constantly aiming to keep God's requirements and live by every word from God's mouth.
The walk advances step by step in Christ's footsteps and is made up of little things, the repetition of simple acts in commonplace daily practical life, and the character there developed decides destiny for eternity and testifies in heaven whether God is supreme. It is daily testing in warfare where flesh wars against spirit requiring decision which will conquer and with whom to walk, Christ or the god of this world, against fascinations leading into disobedience and ruin, since disobedience lies at the foundation of all sin. It means uniting with Christ as His soldiers, obeying orders without fretting like children at what disagrees with ideas, indulging no criticism except toward self, closely investigating the heart, and thereby having holy angels as companions instead of evil angels, with all who do their best to place themselves in right relation to God walking as he did.
It means watching and praying, assuring of Jesus' presence and counseling with Him about work entrusted, showing those in important responsibility need Jesus and must take time to commune rather than gathering business and leaving Christ out for lack of time, not violating conscience nor trusting finite strength but remaining fervent under testing to inherit the eternal crown. It means communion belongs in daily work even in the busiest places with the unseen God as Companion, with greatest need for those with most to do to keep God ever before them. When suggestions press, cherishing a divine word draws into the secret pavilion of the Most High for safeguard and quiet rest amid confusion, calling all to take God into every place and carry the lamp of life where God is least thought of, since leaving God out of sight breaks communion, leaves positive danger, and endangers integrity.
It means being brought near through created works, walking with Him while viewing them, talking with Him as companion and guest, which is refreshing and inspiring, a precious privilege and choicest recreation, and the most exalted honor heaven can bestow. It means taking precious walks with Jesus by which God and Christ are known, reaching beyond the elementary standard by appreciating the sacredness and sanctifying influence of sacred things, appropriating truth, digesting the Word, and revealing Christ's grace in practical life. It means constantly realizing accountability to God.
It means putting entire unwavering trust in the Lord, relying on His care, fearing Him and walking in His ways through tests and trials, so that God's angels walked with him, encamping about him, opening ways and instructing him whatever his circumstances, which is the pattern for being of good courage, untroubled and at rest, leaving experiences with the Lord. It means receiving wisdom by staying close instead of wandering far, keeping harmony instead of discord when crossed, refusing politics and strife as God's peculiar people, and having true faith. It is a heavenly antidote to delusive sentiments that make infidels or skeptics, namely God's truth revealed in His Word, practiced in life and constantly guiding concern for others, barricading the soul with heavenly principles so a man may humbly yet confidently fear no man's face.
It means walking alone in perfect and thorough obedience separated from disobedient men without vital connection to God, which God requires in choosing His servants, so that a man in trust connected with the disobedient must separate whatever his position, realizing work is done not by might nor power but by the Spirit of the Lord. It means being devoted to God, knowing heaven's principles, and learning by experience what the walk means, qualifying such men to superintend accounts and financial affairs of conferences and institutions. It means making God one's counselor as the way to grow in understanding and spiritual attainment. It means conversing with God, showing people in any position need to recognize their need of communion with God.
Translation and Prophetic Picture
After three hundred years of walking with God amid great corruption and shining as a light to a degenerate age, the three hundred sixty-five years were ended by being taken to heaven without seeing death, for God did not leave him in this sinful world but took him from it. That walk was constant connection and communion through three hundred years of conflict and simple faith, talking with God as a present Friend by his side about trials, afflictions of soul and the wickedness in the world, realizing Him as a very present help, praying to be kept and taught, submerging the will in God's will and directing the feet in obedience to His commandments. It was carried on with the mind stayed upon Him in a crooked and perverse generation whose wickedness matches the days of Noah and the present age, in reconciled companionship with fear to offend God, studying His will in all work to show love and highest reverence, seeing the highest Friend only with the eye of faith, meditating constantly on the goodness and perfection and loveliness of the divine character, conversing on heavenly things and becoming changed into the glorious image of the Lord. He worked in harmonious spiritual action with Noah's warnings, having faith in the message later given by Noah, and with Noah stood as righteous and God-fearing representative men among a wicked nation, with all God's works aimed to reform the old world.
His long faithfulness gave the world an example of a pure and spotless life, and his translation by angels to heaven without seeing death represents God's commandment-keeping people who will be alive on earth when Christ comes the second time and will be translated to heaven without dying. They will be glorified before those who hated them for keeping God's commandments, and his life presents the representation of the character to be attained by those who will be translated alive when Christ comes in the clouds of heaven. That character is no more exemplary than the life possible to everyone who maintains a close connection with God, yet it requires the same blending of personal piety with earnest energetic warnings and appeals and vigilant waiting and preparation for the solemn events soon to take place, with eyes fixed on the prize. Those translated at the close of time will be those who have the same communion with God on earth, making manifest that their life is hid with Christ in God, ever representing Him in all life-practices with selfishness cut out by the roots, making God their constant companion and counselor.
God communed with him because of his pure character and showed him in holy vision the second coming of Christ, the wickedness prevailing just before the end, and the great events to the end of the world, carrying him in prophetic vision through the post-Flood generations. That communion came through angels giving divine instruction that He would not always bear with rebellious man but would destroy the sinful race with a flood of waters, while more fully opening the plan of salvation and revealing the preservation of Eden to return more gloriously adorned. As a preacher of righteousness he called men from transgression of the law to faithful obedience in marked contrast to a rebellious self-willed generation that boasted in open disregard of God's holy law and rejected his testimony because they loved sin more than holiness. His reflected light from God was broad and deep, and those who walked in it were blessed in it, died in it, and will come up in the first resurrection. His three hundred years of walking ended with God taking him, proving that really believing the truth means carrying out in daily life the principles revealed in the life of Christ, with no coarseness or selfishness woven into the character.
Call to Walk Today
Enoch's 365 years ended with translation to heaven without seeing death after 300 years of walking with God, and his life amid widespread corruption shows that people can remain unsullied by sin, unpolluted by prevailing iniquity, and prepared for translation. Though surrounded by influences so corrupt that God brought a flood to destroy its inhabitants, he lived a holy life while breathing an atmosphere tainted with sin and corruption the same as now. He was not free from temptation and was not surrounded with society any more friendly to righteousness than the present, yet through constant conflict and simple faith he realized God as a very present help, prayed for keeping and teaching, submerged his will in God's will, directed his feet in obedience to God's commandments, meditated constantly on the goodness and perfection and loveliness of the divine character, conversed on heavenly and divine things, trained his mind to devotion and to love purity until he bore the impress of the divine, and by looking to Jesus was changed into the glorious image of his Lord with his countenance lighted by glory shining from the face of Christ. His long obedience rebukes the idea that only shortness of time or terrors of the day of God should compel right action, and his example shows Christians can live faithfully among others without being corrupted by their influence.
Living a righteous life was no easier in his day than now, and the world was no more favorable to growth in grace and holiness and to perfection of Christian character than it is today or than in 1901 or at the present day. He had temptations as well as now, at a time when every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually and God said man's days should be a hundred and twenty years, yet he devoted time to prayer and communion with God, which enabled him to escape the corruption in the world through lust. Walking with God meant educating mind and heart to ever feel in the presence of God, sending prayers in perplexity to be kept, refusing any course offending God, keeping the Lord continually before him, praying to be taught God's way and pleasure to honor God, constantly shaping way and course by God's commandments, having perfect confidence and trust in the heavenly Father, submerging all thought and will in the Father's will, talking with God everywhere as constant Companion, recognizing the divine presence, committing the soul's keeping to Christ in trust in the naked promise rather than feeling, building on the sure foundation of eternal promises as solid rock, and remembering Christ as honored guest encircled by His human arm while He grasps the throne of the Infinite. His devotion fitted him for translation, proving purity and incorruption are possible now and that the same strength must be received from the same source amid perils of the last days by walking with God in separation from the world after faithful Enoch's example to remain free from pollution, and then the light of God's glory will no more be shut away than from devoted Enoch. He feared to offend God, studied His will in all work to show love and highest reverence, lived by faith, worked in harmonious spiritual action with Noah's message, perfected such Christlike character that the world took knowledge of him as a correct sample of what a man can be, for Christ often manifested Himself to him.
His close connection with God is held up as a safeguard against false and harmful ideas, showing the importance of letting God's truth guide conduct, growing intellectually and spiritually to become elevated and ennobled, and meditating on the Word as the only safe standard. The walk needed now by Seventh-day Adventists if ever a people needed it is his life of walking before God, which means honoring family religion and family holiness as never before and showing sincerity by pure words, clean words, words full of sympathy, tenderness, and love. Every laborer for Christ may live in close fellowship with God as he did, having the will in harmony with the divine will, having Christ by the side as counselor, setting the Lord always before the mind, knowing no sufficiency in self while finding sufficiency in Jesus, fastening upon God in living faith, speaking His praise, and turning the mind together to eternal realities, which keeps believers spiritually minded and in harmony with one another.
His life when the earth was fearfully corrupt and polluted and iniquity abounded so greatly that God declared He would utterly destroy man unless he repented proves walking with God is possible today amid thickening perils of the last days when iniquity abounds and love grows cold. People now need not be contaminated with the world but amid all its corrupting influences and tendencies may walk with God and have the mind of Christ, which lays upon everyone responsibility to be wide-awake to save his own soul and others. His life proves a person can please God in every phase of character building even while living in a degenerate age, making ambition to cultivate every grace for God's glory both duty and possibility, with people like him living in the present day as incentive to persevering, intense effort proportionate to salvation. He was not satisfied with his own companionship but walked with God and pleased God by staying close to His side, working with Him, walking humbly by ever-increasing faith, and learning from Jesus Christ, who overcame every temptation besetting man, how to overcome through God's provision and way of escape with every temptation.
His 365 years were lived when God had a church on earth, beginning when Adam and Eve and Abel accepted Jesus as Redeemer and rejoiced in the promise of God's presence as fully as believers do now. During those years he carried a message from God, and whenever he found one or two willing to hear it Jesus joined their worship, for even among the wicked some believed, proving God never leaves His faithful few without His presence nor the world without a witness. His case, with others, will condemn in the judgment those who have great light and evidence yet remain defective in character instead of being as righteous in their day as he was in his. His 365 years spent walking with God with mind stayed upon Him in a crooked and perverse generation whose wickedness matches the days of Noah and the present age ended with God taking him from this sinful world as representative of those translated alive when Christ comes to gather His people, which means eternal life requires turning from worldly pleasures, constantly seeking God for strength against the enemy's wiles, being ready for Christ's appearing, and washing robes clean in the blood of the Lamb.