His Testimony.
NOT only did Enoch receive a testimony, he rendered one. Doubtless his life as a heavenly stranger in this scene spoke for itself, but before his translation he was permitted to witness publicly for the Lord, in whom he believed. Like Abraham the friend of God, he became the depositary of God’s hidden counsels, and in proclaiming them before the world, he was the first of the prophets.
“Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints” (Jude 14-16). The Lord is the principal subject of his prophecy, as indeed with all the prophets. He shows that the Lord is on the point of claiming His rights, and that He will come in glory with His own to execute judgment. Such was the hope of this man of faith. He received a revelation, which though not actually the mystery of the rapture of the Church, yet forms part of it: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all.” Also in 1 Thessalonians 4., before speaking of the rapture of the saints, the apostle says, “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”
Some have objected that these myriads of saints are simply angels, as in the passage, “When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance” (2 Thess. 1:7), or, as in Deuteronomy 33:2, “He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of His saints.” But without excluding angels, other passages in the Old and New Testament show us who they are who will come with the Lord at His appearing. “The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee” (Zech. 14:5). “At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (1 Thess. 3:13). “And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean.” “The fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Rev. 19:14, 8). It will therefore be the saints who will accompany Him, “when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, in that day” (2 Thess. 1:10), the day when He will be revealed with His mighty angels.
Such was the testimony which Enoch rendered to the Lord, and in so doing he publicly affirmed his hope, and at the same time proclaimed the judgment reserved for the world. His prophecy was not confined to the men of his day, for Scripture is careful to tell us that “no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation,” and all prophecies carry us on to a future period. Besides it says, “Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying” (Jude 14). Who are “these”? The ungodly of the last days, belonging to Christendom. “These,” says Jude, “are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear” (vs. 12). “These are murmurers” (vs. 16). “But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves” (vers. 17-19).
Enoch in his short prophecy went beyond the limits of the revelation made to all the prophets of Israel. He did not look at judgment as confined to Israel and the nations in the future, but as applying to men in our day, who have been depositaries of the truth of God, and who have corrupted themselves, and will form part of apostate Christendom. “To execute,” he says, “judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him” (vs. 15).