Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
After the tragic account of the fall of man into sin in the third chapter of Genesis, chapter four describes the behavior of sinful men (murder, strife, independence from God, arrogance, etc.), and chapter 5 presents the reader with the development of a line of humans who “call upon the name of the Lord.” (4:26) Despite the extensive life-spans noted in the chapter, we find that each life ends with the same somber epitaph—“and then he died.” Even the best of men were still sinners, and died as an effect and consequence of their sinfulness. However, one man stands out in a bizarre, startling description of the end of his earthly life. We are told that Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. This account reminded the people of Enoch’s day, the ensuing generations, and us today, that God is sovereign over all of life, particularly the end of life—death itself. We learn here that God can intervene in what we would call the natural course of life at any time He likes, and can even suspend the physical death sentence that hangs over all of humanity. But even more importantly, we learn here of the possibility of intimacy with God, of walking with God—another way of describing a life of obedience, love, and intimacy between a person and his Creator.
The Bible teaches us that Christ came to this earth and conquered death for us, on our behalf. In doing so, He changed its status from that of a tyrant leering at us from the finish-line of our earthly lives to a servant, obediently awaiting orders to carry us home to our Father. Its sting and power over us has been broken by the resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf. For some Christians, death will be avoided altogether when they are suddenly removed from earthly life by God, in the event known as the rapture. For most of us, we will die, but the presence of death itself will be forever removed when we are resurrected from our graves. We have no control over the timing of either of those events. But there is one thing we do have control over: our relationship with God today. Enoch, for his part, walked with God. God, for His part took him. God takes care of the timing and manner of both raptures and resurrections. We must see to it that we are walking in a real relationship with Him in our precious time upon this earth. We all walk, but do we walk with God?
Father, draw us close to you today. Build us into a people who truly walk with You in loyal obedience and heartfelt intimacy. Thank you for robbing death of its power over us to terrorize and threaten, and rendering it into the servant that will bring us closer to You one day. Amen.
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