Enoch, born about 622 years after Adam was cast from the garden. Enoch was the eldest son of Jared; the father of Methuselah; and the seventh from Adam. Enoch being a contemporary with Adam for more than 300 years had every opportunity of learning from Adam the story of the creation, the circumstance of the fall, the terms of the promise, how he was deceived as well as many other important truths.
Genesis 5:21, “Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah,” being the seventh from Adam. The number seven here is probably noticed as conveying the idea of divine completion and rest, while he was himself pictured as a type of perfected man of faith, as are true Christians now, we being the anti-type of Enoch and Elisha.
There is a peculiar mysterious interest attached to Enoch on account of the supernatural manner in which his earthly life and ministry terminated.
After the birth of his son Methuselah,
Genesis 5:22-24 we are told “Enoch walked with God and was not: for God took him.” He was the father of other sons and daughters.
Two questions pop up,
1. What does “Walked with God” mean?
2. And what does (“he was not ) mean?
Enoch walked with God is a phrase used only of Noah,
Genesis 6:9, “Noah was a just man and perfect (blameless) in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”
While men were living in open rebellion and provoking the Divine vengeance daily by their ungodly deed, Enoch as did Noah obtained an exalted testimony so “That they pleased God.”
This can be explained by the tenor of his life; by the attention he must have paid to the outward duties to God; by the soundness of his faith; and by the purity of his heart and life.
Jude 14-15 reveals to us that Enoch prophesied of the Messiah, “Behold, the Lord (meaning the Messiah) cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince (convict) all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard (harsh) speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him (meaning the Lord.)”
This prophesy is a clear and awful description of the Day of Judgment; a day when the Messiah shall sit upon his throne of justice, to determine the final condition of mankind according to their works. Also it indicates that the different offices of Messiah are to both save and judge. How Jude received this prophesy no-one knows; it may have been given to him directly by the Holy Spirit.
What does, “he was not” mean? In the book of Hebrews the spring and issue of Enoch life are clearly marked.
Hebrews 11:5, “By FAITH Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and (he) was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
To be translated in the Greek means to transpose, to put in another place, therefore to transport, to transfer, to translate.
Upon Enoch’s departure from this world of sin and sorrow, God had altered the ordinary course of things and gave him a dismissal from death as glorious to himself, as it was instructive to us. This work of being caught up into heaven may have been to convince those before the flood and to us how acceptable holiness is to God, and to show that he had prepared for those that love him a heavenly inheritance. Fifty years after Adam had been laid to rest; he saved Enoch from the flood by taking him from the earth and received into glory. We teach that 8 were saved from the flood, but in all truth the number was nine.
Enoch was taken into glory as will the church in the Rapture. Enoch was saved from the flood, saved from God’s vengeance on the world as we Christians will be taken from this earth before the 7 years of tribulation begins.
So, does “saved by faith” sound familiar? We Christians are to live by faith and not by works. Enoch was saved because He had faith in God, because he believed and trusted God, just as every Christian is expected to do.
Many early Christian’s commonly coupled Enoch and Elijah as the two historic witnesses of the resurrection of the living, and are of the same figures as those of us who will be alive, than caught up in the air by the Lord in the upcoming rapture of the church, 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
Enoch and Elisha are regarded as the two witnesses of
Revelation 11:3, “And I (Jesus) will give power unto my two witnesses;” the two will fall before the beast after 3 ½ years of confirming the gospel to the world and especially to the Jews outside the gates of Jerusalem.
Enoch and Elijah are two of three living mortals who were in their life not required to discharge the debt of the curse, that being physical death. The two witnesses of Revelation whoever they may be will die a physical death in the middle of the 7 years of tribulation, so if the two witnesses are Enoch and Elijah the debt of physical death will have been paid.
Phil LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com