“Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24).
Enoch is a type of our future departure from the earth at Jesus’ appearing. Hebrews 11:5 tells us this about his sudden disappearance:
Hebrews 11:5 KJV – “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
Enoch’s faith pleased God (see 11:6), but what exactly did he believe? The text does not directly answer that question; it only reveals that he pleased the Lord. Genesis 5:24 simply says that he “walked with God” before he vanished; others saw Enoch’s faith and knew the reason why no one could find him; he wasn’t killed by a wild animal, kidnapped, or lost somewhere. “God took him.”
Jude 14 adds that Enoch also “prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones.’” Isn’t it amazing that about six centuries before the Noahic flood, the Lord was already talking to Enoch about His Second Coming?
Enoch’s faith included an understanding of, as well as a belief in, future prophecy.
What does all this have to do with us?
Just as Enoch gained a reputation in the ancient world for his faith despite the rampant wickedness and lawlessness, so our belief in what Scripture says about our future sets us apart from the world.
Enoch lived 365 years before God took him away from the earth. From all that we know about the wickedness and lawlessness of the antediluvian world, that’s a long time to walk faithfully with the Lord.
Like Enoch, we must persevere amid today’s ridicule of our hope, such as the article from CNN mocking the Rapture, as we eagerly await our “blessed hope.”
What can help us do that?
The words "Dare to be an Enoch" in the title suggest that if believers conjure up enough faith equaling Enoch's then we will be raptured from out of this world. By faith God took Enoch. This ACT of God is revealing to us today that without Him we cannot do one thing, John 15:5. HE is (and will) doing it all...including the rapture of His own to Himself.
ReplyDeleteI didn't take it that way at all...He was describing enoch's character. Ive read enough of JB to know he isn't works based
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