Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years … Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Genuine faith is no flash in the pan. It’s both a decisive act and a sustained attitude.
Enoch, we are told, “walked with God”—but this wasn’t always the case. It is clear from Genesis 5 that there was a time in Enoch’s life when faith began. In fact, we’re told that “Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah.” Perhaps, as with many life-altering experiences, the responsibilities and challenges of parenting quickly revealed Enoch’s inadequacies to him. Whatever the case, there appears to have come a moment in Enoch’s life when he stopped believing in himself, stopped depending on himself, and started believing in and depending on God.
But not only was Enoch’s faith a deliberate choice; it was also a sustained relationship. Faith begins with and continues as a decisive act. Enoch “walked with God” until “he was not.” And as a result of his enduring faith, Enoch was taken by God. He didn’t taste death.
Enoch’s almost-unique end-of-life experience anticipates the glorification of the body, which will be the experience of all believers when Jesus Christ returns. Paul explains that “the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:52-53). When we walk with God, remembering that every dimension of our lives is under His control and constraint, then being gathered into our eternal future will change our bodies and our setting but it will not change our company.
Enoch’s sustained relationship with God has culminated in his enjoyment of God’s presence forever. If we are going to spend all of eternity in worship of our God, then in worshiping Him on earth we are simply beginning what will never end. If we are going to spend all of eternity in fellowship and in adoration, then our experience here is preparation for what happens there. So walk with Him today. Be aware of His presence. Be dependent on His grace and power. Be quick to ask for His forgiveness. Be alert to His guiding. Walk with Him today, until today is the day you see Him face-to-face.
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Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotional by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, The Good Book Company.