“Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Genesis 5:24
Every day you and I, by our actions and conversations, walk somewhere—in some direction—with someone. Have you ever considered who you are walking with and where you are going?
“Enoch walked with God.” There is something so simple yet unbelievably profound in these words now etched in my heart from the first time I read them. These four words were written about a man who lived in the dark days before Noah’s Flood. Enoch stands out from the crowd and something about him makes me want to be like him. What is it?
There is a rhythmic pattern to the verses preceding Genesis 5:24. Like a quiet background hum, the rhythm almost lulls the reader to sleep. When so-and-so was x years, he fathered jr. so-and-so. So-and-so lived another y years after he fathered jr. so-and-so. Thus all the days of so-and-so were xy years, and he died. These sentences are repeated six and a half times from verses 4–21.
Suddenly the pattern breaks, startling the reader into alertness—“Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah…Enoch walked with God, and he was not, because God took him.” (Gen. 5:22, 24) The jolt makes you realize Enoch is different. He broke pattern with the rest of humanity around him. My thoughts tempt me to brush past this revelation as I assume it must have been much easier to walk with God just a few generations after Adam; it’s just too hard to do that now. Is it?
God’s verdict on humanity, just a few hundred years after Enoch, proclaimed that he was sorry he made man on the earth (Gen. 6:6). God’s judgment was looming over sin-cursed humanity, and Enoch rang the warning bell (Jude 14–15). There, in the midst of the darkness all around, Enoch walked with God, like a glistening light offering hope. Maybe that’s why this passage has affected me so; it stands out like a beacon and calls me to follow him.
The days weren’t always so evil. The earth wasn’t always so full of sin that humanity grieved his Creator. God’s verdict after creation declared it was very good (Gen. 1:31). And in those days after creation God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. Perfect Adam and Eve walked in beautiful harmony with the perfect and holy God—exactly what they were created to do.
His-story continued. There was the serpent, the forbidden fruit, and a choice: to obey or disobey. Perfection unraveled as deceit stirred desire. In an instant, desire led to unbelief, then to disobedience. Here death entered humanity’s heart—only a stone remained where pure flesh beating for heaven once existed—and separation from our holy Creator ensued. Adam and Eve were escorted from the garden into a vast wilderness in need of taming by the sweat of their brow, with seemingly no hope to return to the harmony they once had as they walked with God in the garden. Nothing has been the same since.
Amidst some of God’s gracious parting words there came a promise, a light of hope for harmony’s return: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:15) Hope was held out in a promise, for anyone who would believe. Someone would come to break sin’s curse.
Just seven generations later, Enoch believed this promise. He believed that such unfathomable grace was possible. When no one else trusted in that promise, Enoch did.
Who was this one promised, able to revive dead hearts and unite them once again to their Creator? We find the answer in these words: “that through death he [Jesus Christ] might destroy the one who has the power over death, that is, the devil,” (Heb. 2:14)
Jesus, the great redeemer and restorer, is the fulfillment of the promise made to Adam after his disobedience and rebellion against his Creator and friend. Enoch believed he would come to defeat sin and death. His faith pleased God and allowed him to walk in communion with him. As he walked with God, Enoch was unlike the dark, lost world around him. His life still shines as a beacon for us who come after him. Can you see it?
It’s news too good to be true, as an old hymn cried, “Was it for crimes that I had done, He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!” It is immeasurably true; the cross of Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, opens the way for a sinful worm like me—and you—to walk with God; and to one day, finally, be welcomed to our heavenly home. Oh, what a glorious day that will be for those who walk with God now!
Today, we also have a choice to make: walk like Enoch or the world around us. The choice we make effects our direction and destination. Who are you walking with and where are you going?
Take up and Read the Scriptures:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
Genesis 5-6
Romans 3:21-26
Hebrews 11
The Light for My Path 