A Long Hike

 

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).

 

Our reading today is just a footnote of the life of Enoch. We are told he was the father of Methuselah at the age of 65, and then that he lived another 300 years with other children during those years. At the age of 365 He was still “walking” with God when God “took him.” I’m a bit less than two months from my 75^th birthday, and I cannot imagine living three hundred more years! Continuing with the theme of “walking with God” I was reminded of how hiking through the Smokies came be long and arduous, or short and peaceful. All the hikes I’ve taken along the many trails were “quiet walkways.” Regardless, you are often rewarded with views that are simply breath-taking. The picture I’ve included is just one of those views off a very short walk near the visitor’s center on the Tennessee side of the National Park.

 

Even with my limited experience I know that walking a long-distance trail can give you a feeling of timelessness. Although the landscape changes, the day-to-day rhythm remains the same: walk, eat, sleep; repeat. The life of Enoch, an early descendant of Adam and Eve, also has a sense of timelessness about it. After all, he lived for 365 years and did not die! Yet Enoch’s lifespan was short for his family. Enoch’s father, Jared, lived to the age of 962. At age 65, Enoch had a son named Methuselah, who lived to be 969 years old!

 

The four short verses about Enoch’s life don’t tell us much, but we do learn one crucial fact about him: “Enoch walked faithfully with God.” In his long life of stepping through each day, Enoch walked in a way that pleased God. In fact, God was so pleased with Enoch’s faithful walk that he spared Enoch from the curse of death. Certainly there is mystery in this story. Yet there is no mystery about how to please God. God calls us to walk faithfully with him, trusting him, honoring him, and serving him. God will probably not take us away as he did with Enoch, but we have the comfort of knowing that Jesus, who conquered sin and death for us, has promised never to leave or forsake us when our own lives end. That makes the walk well worth the effort!