Taking a Walk with God

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24 ESV). The history of the world is not told in detail in Genesis. We have only a glimpse here and there of the life of the first days. But a few names are preserved from antediluvian generations. The people seem to have lived long. All we learn of most of them is that they lived so many hundreds of years, and then died. When Cain killed his brother, it seems as if the turn of events to a race of evil people is sealed. However, Seth was born in his place, and once again men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Some generations passed and in the scant record, we come upon one name that shines brightly in the story. We see Enoch in the reading today as a man who “walked with God.” God and Enoch were good friends. Their relations were intimate and familiar. The meaning is not that God appeared to Enoch in any visible form and walked with him about the country, as a man would walk with his friend. Though I remember a wonderful story that helps us understand the events described when “God took him.” A little child, had been to Sunday School, and when she came home her mother asked her what she had learned that day. She answered, "Don't you know, mother? We have been learning about a man who used to go for walks with God. His name was Enoch. He used to go for walks with God. And, mother, one day they went for an extra long walk, and they walked on, and on, and on, until God said to Enoch, 'You are a long way from home; you would better just come in and stay.' And he went in!" The child's idea of the story is a striking illustration. From a spiritual perspective, it is also true. The figure of a walk is used in the Bible many times for the course of life. When men are said to have walked in the ways of the Lord, the meaning is that they lived righteously. When we read that the people walked in the way of Jeroboam, the thought is that they followed him in his idolatry. When it is said that Enoch walked with God, we are to understand that he was faithful in his service to God. He was a righteous man in as much as God had given him to know. He lived in communion with God. As we live our lives today, we would do well to understand that the example of Enoch is not that we are now called to “walk with God” in order to get into heaven. Since Jesus has come and lived a righteous life, giving himself as the sacrifice for our sin, we are now able to walk such a life. The reward of heaven has already been won on our behalf. Now we can rest in the power of that gift and enjoy the walk! We’re getting closer to heaven each day!