A Really Out Of This World Dad

Usually it is frightful when a dad does not come home. That happened to a man sometime before The Flood, but his disappearance was good, ordained of God. And not only was it strange that he did not “come home”, it is very strange that he did not die. In Genesis 5 we see that the earliest descendants of Adam lived for hundreds of years, but each one died, except for a man called Enoch. This is a most interesting case, but we benefit more by learning about his life while on earth than the fact that he did not

Aside from a few genealogies, only a small amount of passages give us information on this intriguing man. Those passages are Genesis 5:21-24, Hebrews 11:5, and Jude 14-15. God planted in my heart and mind to do a message on Enoch for Fathers Day and within minutes the thought came to my mind that certainly Enoch is an out of this world dad who walked with God, warned the world, and then went with God. Let us take a closer look at each of these aspects.

I. Walked With God  Genesis 5:21-24

“Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. 22 Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. 23    So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24    Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.”

Enoch means dedicated {1} and as we continue looking at the Holy Scriptures about him we see he certainly lived up to that name. In regard to his walking with God Matthew Henry writes {2}, “To walk with God, is to set God always before us, to act as always under his eye. It is constantly to care, in all things to please God, and to offend him in nothing. It is to be followers of him as dear children. The Holy Spirit, instead of saying, ‘Enoch lived,’ says, ‘Enoch walked with God.’ This was his constant care and work; while others lived for themselves and the world, he lived for God. It was the joy of his life."

Because of Christ’s victorious life, His completely satisfying punishment culminating with His death on our behalf, and resurrection we also have a choice to just live or really live, reborn to new life in Him. His grace enables us to walk with Him, and all disciples are so exhorted in various passages like 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12: “. . .we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”

If one truly surrenders to God through Christ they then can walk with God, as the Son walked with the Father. That is because Christ actually dwells within a true disciple of His. As we permit His Spirit to do so, He works in us to be come like Him. It is written in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

In all of this, Enoch was showing he was not part of the world. He typified the truth about true disciples in Christ found in Philippians 3:20, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” As you see, that verse also mentions the physical return of Christ. That is a blessing for the truly saved, but a dire warning for those who are not ready.

II. Warned The World

Before we get to a main text on this, it could be said that since he was truly dedicated to God he was in tune with God and sensed impending judgment in his time and in our time. Whether Enoch made that distinction in his mind between two time periods is not known, but we can tell that he was warning his generation, including his descendants, of impending judgment when he named his son Methuselah.

While some deduce the meaning of that name as “man of the dart” or “. . . spear”, Matthew Henry {2} states “‘Methuselah means, ‘he dies, there is a dart,’ ‘a sending out,’ namely, of the deluge, which came the year that Methuselah died.” A few others agree with similar renderings which are probably deduced by going further back into the more ancient meanings of the words that comprise the Hebrew name “Methuselah.” 

One can take a warning either as a threat or an expression of love. Most parents warn their children about numerous things, like talking to strangers. This is done in love. To not warn is not love, nor is it love when a parent has the authority to take action but permits problems to fester. In stark contrast to Enoch, millenia later there was a High Priest named Eli who hardly did much to stop his sons Hophni and Phinehas when they misused the sacrifices to God and also had sex with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Eli should have removed them from the priesthood, or take other appropriate action. All three died in one day when the Ark of God was captured by the Philistines. By God’s grace, in raising our three sons I remembered Eli and endeavored to not only correct, but protect our whole family from the rebuke of God by taking many preventative actions. My first name is Peter, not Eli.

This early dad Enoch permitted the Holy Spirit to move upon him. Would to God all parents would do the same. Aside from the speaking blood of Abel (Genesis 4:10, Hebrews 12:24), he is the first known vocal prophet. Though some writings allude to fake authors, those writings might contain things now and then that are true. Such is the case with the Book Of Enoch, a pseudopigraphical work. By the Holy Spirit Jude (verses 14 and 15) quotes Enoch from it, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their

The saints returning with Christ are those who have trusted God and dedicated themselves to Him and have remained faithful. A passage about this will be presented in the final section of this article. The horrible iniquity we now have will increase, but only to a certain point. In order to turn their minds and hearts to the Savior Who is Messiah Jesus, Israel will go through its most difficult time on earth. However, when the Age Of The Gentiles concludes, Jesus Messiah returns as described in Revelation 19, and the end prophecies in the ending chapters of Zechariah will be fulfilled.

III. Went With God    Hebrews 11:5

“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.”

Note very well that he was pleasing to God. No doubt he pleased God with loving obedience, and he lovingly chose to please God instead of others. The entire Word of God teaches us we are to do the same. And, it is very beautiful that the Word of God carried throughout it the term “walk”, attaching it to all that God is, in describing the true believer’s relationship with Him. For one blessed example, let us not only consider but follow through with 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2, which says, “we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.”

The taking of Enoch typifies the coming rapture of the Church. The term “rapture” was derived from the Latin Vulgate as the Latin is read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. And it was under the direction of the Holy Spirit that Paul wrote of pleasing God in some of the verses before it, like 1 Thessalonians 2:4, 15, and 4:1. For a better understanding of the rapture, I will present verses 13 to 17 of 1 Thessalonians 4:

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

Of course it begins with knowing God by experiencing Him through Christ. We then begin to walk in Him. In walking with God in Christ we learn to please only Him and not ourselves or others. As a result we spiritually grow in Him as we learn better over the course of time how to obey God as the Son obeyed the Father. So, if one does not intimately know Him, they will not go with Him. And, if one does not grow, they simply will not go.

Notes:

{1} From an electronic version of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance by James Strong incorporated in the Online Bible program, and so throughout the article whenever the ancient language is referred to and no other authority is cited.

{2} From an electronic version of the series of commentaries by Matthew Henry incorporated in the Online Bible program upon additional download.

{3} For more information on this verse please read Not Of This Earth at http://holybibletreasures.expertscolumn.com/article/not-earth .

Also consulted was The First Book of Moses, Called Genesis
Commentary by ROBERT JAMIESON at https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/jfb/Gen/Gen_005.cfm?a=5021

This article was written in the form of a sermon (message) outline with comments. God willing by July 30, 2017 (hopefully much sooner), you should be able to hear the actual message (sermon) by selecting a link at http://www.sapphirestreams.com/life/audioM.html#M457 .

Unless otherwise noted all Holy Scripture is from the New American Standard Bible changing LORD to YHVH as it rightly should be when the text so indicates and adding “(The Existing One)” to readily express the meaning of His Name without making repeated explanations in articles. * = For other versions the spelling of some words is updated for our time in addition to changing LORD to YHVH as it rightly should be when the text so indicates.

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