Hebrews 11:5, commentary and pictures

By faith Enoch was taken to heaven without dying so he was not found because God took him, having first the witness that he pleased God. After walking with God three hundred years his longing for closer union grew until the portals opened and the communion of earth continued as he entered as the first from among men. To please God is to trust Him as real and as the rewarder of diligent seekers, obeying in simple faith and daily conduct until changed into His likeness. As he was translated before the world was destroyed by water, so the living righteous who keep God's commandments will be changed in a moment and caught up without seeing death before its destruction by fire. His godly character shows the holiness, purity of heart and reflection of Christ that must be attained before Christ comes, proving such a life is possible in every age amid corruption.

Translation Event Described

By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death and was not found, because God took him, having beforehand the testimony that he pleased God. Faith in this verse trusts God and acts before the hoped-for outcome is seen, believing that God exists and rewards those who diligently seek Him. It turns from seen, temporal, discouraging things to unseen, eternal things, as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. This is not only looking forward to what will be realized when the mortal puts on immortality, but realizing now the unseen powers that move and govern life in cooperation with Jesus Christ, partaking of the divine nature, overcoming corruption through lust, responding to the spiritual kingdom Christ sets up in the soul, being bound up with the life of Christ, and having a conscious title to the inheritance with the resurrected saints in light and with the living saints after their translation. His experience is set forth as an example for believers to study and follow, showing a life of faith that pleases God.

For three hundred years he sought purity of heart that he might be in harmony with heaven and walked with God, longing day by day for closer union until the communion grew nearer and nearer until God took him to Himself. Having stood 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 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. To please God is to have this purity of heart and close, growing union with Him.

He pleased God by steadfastly following Him, hating iniquity and wickedness, serving wholeheartedly, and earnestly seeking fuller heavenly knowledge in order to do His will perfectly. Because he so pleased God, God would not permit him to die like other men but sent angels to take him to heaven without seeing death. He was removed in the presence of the righteous and the wicked, so those who loved him sought diligently in his places of retirement and, failing to find him, reported that he was gone because God had taken him. His translation represents the faithful commandment-keeping people who will be alive when Christ comes and will be glorified and taken to heaven without dying.

He now lives at home in the heavenly City and visits other worlds, traveling among unfallen worlds as if perfectly at home. He was seen on a world that had seven moons, bearing on his right arm a glorious palm with Victory written on each leaf, wearing a dazzling white wreath with Purity written in the middle of each leaf set with shining stones of various colors, with Holiness written on the bow that confined the wreath behind his head, and above the wreath a lovely crown shining brighter than the sun. The victory, purity, and holiness so inscribed mark his character and show what faithfulness brings. The faithful, with the 144,000, shall share the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing the handiwork of God.

Moses would likewise have been translated without dying and have entered the promised land had he remained steadfast and given God the glory for bringing water from the rock. His anger at Israel's unbelief led him to take honor due to God, and because of that failure he came under death's dominion, died, and was buried and forbidden to enter. Having humbly repented with a record in heaven untarnished, he was resurrected by Christ, called Michael, before his body saw corruption, and was carried with a glorified body to the city of God. Translation did not make Enoch greater or more honored than John the Baptist, who died alone in prison. Suffering and even death for Christ do not mean less favor, for fellowship with Christ in suffering is itself a weighty trust and a high honor.

Enoch's Historical Setting

Enoch walked with God three hundred years unsullied in a degenerate, corrupt, scoffing pre-Flood world doomed to destruction for iniquity, training his mind toward devotion, purity and heavenly things amid temptation and a society unfriendly to righteousness. His life was not made exemplary by special power beyond human reach, but by constant conflict and simple faith, praying in perplexity to be kept and taught God's will, submerging his will in God's will, obeying God's commandments, meditating on the goodness, perfection and loveliness of the divine character, conversing of heavenly things, and looking to Jesus until changed into His glorious image. The world in his day was no more favorable to godly character than today, yet he kept God continually before him, prayed for guidance, and shaped his choices by God's commandments rather than his own will.

He was a faithful witness and minister of righteousness working with Methuselah, Noah and many others to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to stay the tide of moral evil. He joined the warning that the Spirit would not always strive with guilty men, that probation would be one hundred and twenty years, and that if they did not cease polluting the world God would blot the sin-polluted world from creation by flood. The light was largely unheeded and impressed hearts less and less, and even many worshipers of God were beguiled by constant bewitching allurements and lost their peculiar, holy character for lack of moral power to stand against corrupting influences. He had faith in Noah's coming message and worked in harmonious spiritual action with him, and good men in those years saw his case as assurance that the righteous would be saved and enter heaven.

His devotion balanced solitude and service, for he guarded set periods of retirement in solitude for reflection, prayer, and hungering for God and divine knowledge, not letting people break his meditation. Yet he met good and bad at stated times to turn the ungodly from evil, teach the fear of God, instruct believers to serve more perfectly, pray for seekers, and speak all revealed prophecy, remaining among them only while his words and example could benefit them. Realizing human corruption, he separated from the descendants of Cain and wicked company lest infidelity dim holy reverence, refused to conform to the spirit and customs of unbelievers, and condemned unrighteousness by holy conversation, godly example and faithful reproof while distressed and vexed daily by trampling of God's authority.

He grew more heavenly by communion with his face radiant with holy light striking awe, while God communed through angels with divine instruction and prophetic insight. What was revealed included the coming Flood and the Lord coming with His holy ones to judge the ungodly and expose their deeds, which he preached with some turning from sin to fear and worship God and many mocking. To him was committed the message of the second coming of Christ to execute judgment upon the ungodly, and the God who walked with him was Jesus Christ, light of the world then as now, making him with Noah a Christian teacher of the paths of life. Though he walked with God, the world did not know or recognize him; he stands as an example of God's messengers who may be reviled and persecuted while faithfully serving.

He stands among the heroes of faith of firm principle whose fidelity is presented as a pattern for the church, bringing light to those in darkness. Their experience gives instruction to God's workers to go forward doing their best while watching, working and praying in confidence that God hears and answers, building an experience valuable for later service. His translation that he should not see death brought him conspicuously before the world in order that his light might shine forth to those in darkness and lead others to glorify God.

Faith That Pleases God

Hebrews 11:5 stands in the chapter on faith that turns the mind away from discouraging seen things toward unseen eternal things, for faith looks beyond this world to a better country and to the heavenly city whose builder and maker is God. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, looking not at temporal seen things but at unseen eternal things. That seeing of the unseen is not only looking forward to what will be realized when the mortal puts on immortality, but realizing now the unseen powers that move and govern life in cooperation with Jesus Christ. It means partaking of the divine nature and overcoming corruption through lust, responding to the spiritual kingdom Christ sets up in the soul, being bound up with the life of Christ, and having a conscious title to the inheritance with the resurrected saints in light and with the living saints after their translation. Enoch's faith took hold of that unseen and drew strength and grace from God, enabling him to live close to God and remain pure among corrupting influences and the ungodly.

Pleasing God requires faith that trusts God and acts before the hoped-for outcome is seen, believing that God exists and rewards those who diligently seek Him. Enoch was taken without experiencing death because of that faith, and before this he had the testimony that he pleased God. He pleased God through a life of simple obedience and trust and faithful obedience, a testimony believers also may have as they learn to trust God. His daily conduct for three hundred years of walking with God reflected God's principles without coarseness or selfishness, and God honored that righteousness by taking him and commending obedience and delivering the faithful. He was righteous in his generation.

He pleased God by steadfastly following Him, rejecting iniquity and hating wickedness, and earnestly seeking fuller heavenly knowledge in order to do His will perfectly. He served God wholeheartedly with singleness of heart, separated himself from the wicked, and devoted himself to prayer and learning God's will. He grew more heavenly through continual communion while yearning for still closer union with the God he feared, reverenced and adored, with his face shining with holy light when teaching wisdom. His faith rested on God's promise of a Redeemer, and God gave him divine instruction and prophetic insight.

Walking with God meant close, living connection through meditation, prayer and watchfulness, giving courage to work the works of God. Coming forth from pleading with God to plead with fellow men, he did not mask truth to find favor with unbelievers nor neglect their souls. Walking with God is man dwelling with God and God taking up His abode with man, with Jesus enshrined in the heart and carried in the life. Christ was his constant companion and present help in every time of need, his Counselor to whom he told trials, afflictions of soul and the wickedness in the world when tempted and assailed. He talked with God as friend with friend, made room for Him in joyful nearness, lived with his life hidden with Christ in God, represented Him in all life practices with selfishness cut out by the roots, and did what was right whatever the consequence without fearing what friends and relatives would say.

His prayer was as essential as breath and he lived in the atmosphere of heaven, with faith growing stronger and love more ardent through the centuries as he communed with God. For three hundred years amid corrupt influences, temptation and a society unfriendly to righteousness he remained unsullied by prevailing iniquity through constant conflict and simple faith, praying in perplexity to be kept and taught God's will, submerging his will in God's will and obeying God's commandments. He meditated on the goodness, perfection and loveliness of the divine character, conversed of heavenly things, trained his mind to run in that channel, reflected on God and contemplated His character, and looked to Jesus until changed into His glorious image with a countenance lighted by Christ's glory. His heart was filled with desire to be just what God desired him to be — pure, noble, sanctified, hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of Christ, with being like God as the one desire of his soul — studying the character of God to a purpose and striving to conform to the divine likeness, refusing to mark out his own course, set up his own will, or trust human self-sufficiency to manage matters. His life was not made exemplary by special power beyond human reach, but is possible for everyone who maintains a close connection with God.

Pleasing God even while living in a degenerate age proves it possible in every age, in spirit and word and action and in every phase of character-building. The same power that was at Enoch's command is also at command now for earnestly cultivating the highest powers of the being to the highest spiritual efficiency and living the purest, highest life. That same experience is repeated now, for there are Enochs in this day. His holy life, close connection with God and translation without seeing death represent the life and character required of those who will be translated when Christ comes, and such a life is attainable by anyone who closely connects with God.

Type of Final Translation

As Enoch was taken to heaven before the world was destroyed by water, so the living righteous will be taken from the earth before its destruction by fire, changed in a moment at the last trump and caught up to meet the Lord. His separation from the world in prayer and communion, seeking purity of thought and holy conformity to the divine will until the divine image was reflected in him, represents the loyalty, purity and obedience of God's people in the last days. While warning and instructing the world they will not conform to the spirit and customs of unbelievers but will condemn unrighteousness by holy conversation and godly example, and they will be glorified in the presence of those who hated them for loyal obedience to God's righteous commandments. Amid dreadful prevailing unrighteousness, corrupt imaginations, deceptive philosophy and rebellion against Heaven they will separate from unrighteous practices and be fitted for heaven, warning of the Lord's second coming and of judgments upon transgression.

His translation represents the commandment-keeping people who will be alive when Christ returns, who like Enoch and Elijah will be glorified before those who hated their obedience and taken to heaven without seeing death. He pleased God by faithful obedient life, wholehearted service and purity in contrast with a rebellious generation, preaching righteousness and calling men to turn from breaking God's law to faithful obedience though they rejected his testimony because they loved sin. God revealed His will to him in visions, including events connected with Christ's second coming and the wickedness before the end, and took him by angels without his seeing death.

His godly character represents the holiness, purity of heart, conformity to God's will and reflection of Christ's likeness that must be attained by those redeemed from the earth at the second advent, when as before the Flood iniquity will prevail and men rebel against Heaven. That holy life and close connection is attainable by anyone who closely connects with God, not by special power beyond human reach but through constant conflict and simple faith. He walked with God three hundred years amid corrupt influences, temptation and a society unfriendly to righteousness, remaining unsullied by prevailing iniquity, praying in perplexity to be kept and taught God's will, submerging his will in God's will, obeying the commandments, meditating on the goodness, perfection and loveliness of the divine character, conversing of heavenly things, training his mind to run in that channel and looking to Jesus until changed into His glorious image with countenance lighted by His glory. Depending through faith on God's strength and receiving the Holy Spirit, a person can walk with God and remain faithful amid deeply corrupt surroundings, and the change of character must take place before Christ comes, for changing the body at His coming will not make a vile character holy.

He represents faithful people living amid the corruption, dangers and perils of the last days, showing that like him they may walk with God and remain pure. Prayer and communion enabled him to live righteously for three hundred years in a corrupt age, training his mind toward devotion, purity and heavenly things despite temptation and sinful influence, and believers in the last days must likewise seek strength from God and separate from the world's pollution to remain faithful. He maintained steadfast integrity against great odds in a time no more favorable to forming a righteous character than the present, reaching greater and still greater heights of faith and honoring God by faith justified by works, and his integrity remains an encouragement to those who follow the Lord till the end while awaiting the promise. Having the witness that one's ways please God is a privilege for every believer, with preparation and character to be formed now by God's strength, and as he was translated so the faithful alive when Christ comes will be taken from the sinful world to the pure joys of heaven without dying.

The verse shows that God can honor long-waiting faithful saints by taking them to heaven without their seeing death. His translation was given to let all know that there are beings on earth who can be translated and see heaven without dying, standing beside the warning that the first world was swept away because it did not obey God's law to show what obedience brings. It points to those living on earth when Christ comes who will likewise escape death, and their faithfulness to God's law before the surrounding nations brings honor to God and urgency to preparing for life with Him and sharing truth while there is still time.

His translation by faith was given to teach discouraged believers living among a corrupt and sinful people in open and daring rebellion against their Creator that if they obey God and have faith in the promised Redeemer they can work righteousness like Enoch, be accepted by God, exemplify faith and obedience, and finally be exalted to His heavenly throne. It gave hope that death brought through Adam would be overcome by life and immortality through Jesus.

Doctrinal Witness and Hope

His translation declares the final separation of the two classes who remain distinct until the second coming of Christ, the righteous and loyal and the wicked and rebellious. All who by faith rely on the promised Sacrifice and faithfully obey God's commandments will be remembered by God who fears Him, and for the sake of His dear Son will be respected and honored and given everlasting life. The rebellious who trample God's authority and reject it will be cut off and destroyed from the earth, so as to be as though they had not been. He so pleased God by steadfastly following Him, hating iniquity, and earnestly seeking fuller knowledge of His will to perform it that God would not permit him to die like other men. Angels were sent to take him to heaven without seeing death, removing him in the presence of the righteous and the wicked, so that those who loved him sought diligently and could not find him.

It was designed to teach hope against discouragement over the sin and death that came through Adam, declaring that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. As death came through Adam, so life and immortality come through Jesus, the promised Redeemer, with reward for the righteous and punishment for the wicked. It proves that even among a corrupt and rebellious people it is possible by the grace of God to obey the law and keep the commandments, to resist temptation, to do what is right, and to become pure and holy while living in the midst of sin. The faithful can thus be accepted by God, exemplify faith and obedience, and finally be exalted to heaven. His translation stands as evidence of the truth of his prophecy concerning the hereafter, with joy and glory and immortal life to the obedient and condemnation, woe, and death to the transgressor.

Together with Elijah he shows what the human race may become through faith in Jesus Christ, with Christ helping human effort. They resisted Satan's temptations, remained untainted by the moral corruption around them, and perfected righteous characters. Their victory over temptation meant Satan could not bring them under the dominion of death, and they were accounted worthy of translation to heaven.

To him was committed the message of the second coming of Christ to execute judgment upon the ungodly, and his preaching of that message with his translation was a convincing sign and argument to all who lived in his time that the righteous could be translated. Good men living in the one hundred and twenty years before the Flood understood his case as assurance that the righteous would be saved and enter heaven, an argument Methuselah and Noah could use with power. He walked with God three hundred years in reconciled companionship, seeing his highest and most dignified Friend only with the eye of faith, fearing to offend God and studying His will in all his work to show love and highest reverence. He had faith in the message and warnings that would later be given by Noah and worked in harmonious spiritual action with him, and together they stood as righteous men who feared God among a wicked and degenerate nation as part of God's work to reform the old world. The God who walked with him was Jesus Christ, the light of the world then just as now, making him a representative of Christ as surely as the beloved disciple John, and with Noah he stood as a Christian teacher instructing those living then in the paths of life.

The record of sacred history shows that the faith by which God's servants in the past lived can work in believers today. God works through hearts of faith as channels of His power. Those faithful witnesses show that people can face evil and difficulties and resist opposing forces in the Lord's name, sustained and strengthened and held by God.

Preparation for Translation Today

Fitness for translation is fitness for life with God, a character prepared for heaven through holiness and harmony with heaven's order and a high elevation of moral perfection. Attaining that order and arrangement brings a person nearer to an acceptable state before God and fits for the heavenly kingdom and for being its subject. Those who hope to be translated must separate from the world without becoming coarse or rude, cultivating holiness, refined manners and truthful speech, imitating the unfallen angels and growing step by step into a character fit for translation. Unholy practices lower moral standing before God and leave a person unfit for translation. Merely professing godliness and talking of translation does not prove freedom from iniquity, and mere skill, learning, musical ability or pleasing manners do not prepare anyone to stand before God in heaven's purity and glory, which only minds trained to delight in spiritual life can bear.

Readiness is being wholly on the Lord's side as Enoch was, doing right regardless of consequences or opinions and letting God care for results rather than seeking a path free from trials. It is partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption in the world through lust, placing oneself in right relation to God. It is constant companionship with Jesus as a present Friend, talking with Him as Enoch talked with God, telling Him trials, afflictions of soul and the wickedness in the world, making Him Counselor and turning to Him when tempted, rather than seeking connection with those who lead away from good. Those to be translated at the close of time will likewise commune with God on earth now, with Christ abiding within by faith and bearing fruit, the life hidden with Christ in God, representing Christ in all life practices with selfishness rooted out. Enoch had no written Scripture to answer the tempter with It is written, but by knowing his heavenly Companion and being closely bound up with Jesus through abiding communion he pleased God and was honored with translation after forming a righteous character by a three-hundred-year walk amid corruption.

Walking with God now means working with Him with the constant sense that He is at the right hand and knows the thoughts of the heart, with loyalty and truth in business, conduct, motives and manner of life. As the end approaches the same walk is required for translation, testing whether one is clean and ready for the white linen which is the imputed righteousness of Christ and prepared to join the holy angels in the kingdom of glory. Preparation means obtaining fitness for future immortal life by guarding thoughts and imaginations upon God and heaven and heavenly things and growing up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. It means representing Christ in character, reflecting a light that is a savor of life unto life or of death unto death, preserving piety and reverence, being strong in God and in the power of His might and qualified to do His work, with obedience here proving loyalty there and bringing the eternal reward and eternal weight of glory to the faithful and obedient to God's commandments.

The witness that one's ways please God is not confined to Enoch, Elijah, patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs but is the privilege and duty of every believer today and every day. It is had by aiming to glorify God with true faith, daily victory, steady growth, vital godliness and heart holiness, which makes a person strong and valiant in the truth and carries holy influence. Then believers become fruit-bearing trees bringing strength, valiance and holy influence, with sincere faithful conduct expressed in pure, clean, sympathetic, tender and loving words. It is shown in a calm, hopeful countenance under trial and affliction, marked by peace rather than carnal or lustful thought.

Practical preparation touches the body, work and home, for those professing to be fitting for translation like Enoch must not become butchers, since that business is unfriendly to advance in the divine life, hinders growth in grace and knowledge of the truth, lowers and debases, makes more animal in propensities with higher powers overpowered by the lower and the brutish part governing the spiritual. It calls for a simple diet of grains and fruits prepared with little alteration and no grease, with meat withheld from children because it strengthens lower passions and weakens moral powers, as part of health reform for those expecting translation. Those who expect to be translated without seeing death should excel in good works and in cleansing from moral and spiritual defilement, pursuing holiness, overcoming selfishness, counseling together, uniting efforts and imitating Christ in cooperative service to others. Those connected with the work of preparing a people for translation should treat it as sacred and act with gravity and care so conduct does not lead others to doubt it is God's work, combining practical and doctrinal teaching, letting care for the church and poor test character under the last message of mercy, and making the home a happy symbol of heaven where parents and children are prepared together for the higher grade.

Like Enoch, God's people will warn the world of the Lord's second coming and of judgments upon transgression, condemning sin by holy life without adopting its customs. Their godly example will expose unrighteousness, pointing sinners to the coming judgment and urging repentance, with urgency to share truth while there is still time because some living believers may likewise be translated without tasting death. Enoch's active, self-denying life of faith kept separate from evil while working to warn sinners and pointing forward to the Lord's coming and judgment of the ungodly. He became so elevated and ennobled as to walk with God, proving Satan's strong power to keep the race on a low level need not keep man there, for man can become what God wills and need not cease to grow intellectually and spiritually in this life.

God's people may be prepared either to die faithful to the Lord or to be translated to heaven, with His rebukes and corrections separating sin from them to refine and sanctify them for that end. Before translation Enoch bore faithful testimony to the people for three hundred years, and his removal ended an important influence among worshipers of God. His life was a light blessing those who walked in it who will rise in the first resurrection, and his brief account presents what every son and daughter of Adam may do. Even amid moral corruption people can follow his example by continual communion lifting the heart in earnest prayer and by relying on God's mercy through which God clothes them with salvation. Profession of inability to sin with a claim of readiness for translation is extreme false sanctification and arrogant pretension, not the genuine witness.