IN direct contrast with the way of Cain we have the steps of Enoch—"Enoch walked with God." The world-crowd rushes on one way, the solitary man of faith necessarily takes the contrary direction. We find the difficulties of our short lives very great; to walk with God for three years is no light thing. Let us consider this ancient man of faith, and mark well his patience and endurance as we listen to the word, "And Enoch walked with God... three hundred years.”
Sin was lusty and strong in those primitive days, and as year by year the world grew older in iniquity Enoch walked with the never-changing God. Walking with God we are like God, and not like the changing times in which we live. His eye was not on the world's progress, but on heaven.
“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." (Gen. 5:21, 2421And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: (Genesis 5:21)
24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Genesis 5:24).) What a short, sweet history of along life! We are not told what great works he did; these will be known hereafter in heaven; but he had this testimony, "that he pleased God." Enoch believed that "God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Cain had his all in this world, Enoch looked for his reward in heaven.
Nor was Enoch an inactive spectator of the growing sin around him; he lifted up his voice against the evil of his times, he warned men by the Spirit of coming judgment. "Behold," said he, "the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute 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." (Jude 14, 1514And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15To execute 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. (Jude 14‑15).) Men had enough to say against God in those days, we may be sure; there would not be wanting then, as there are not now, ungodly sinners to cast the blame of their own misery on God.
So day by day went by for three hundred years, and then, when the three hundred and sixty-fifth year of his life came, Enoch was not—he was taken to heaven. He did not see death; God translated him from this world of sin to the glory above. We are not told what stir his absence made, whether the event was accepted as a matter of course, or if the Father of Lies deluded the ungodly to believe some falsehood respecting Enoch's absence from the earth. Thousands of years have come and gone since that day, and Enoch has proved, all that time in heaven, that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. He has dwelt in the uninterrupted calm of God's presence, while the earth has seen men come and go, kingdoms rise and vanish, and sin still continue its course.
As we think of him, we think of the imminence of our Lord's coming, of the day so near at hand when He will call home to heaven all His own who are alive, without allowing them to pass through death. Will their absence create a stir upon this world? Some, we know, will then begin to say, "Lord, Lord, open unto us!" And we know, too, that after the people of God have been translated, God will send men a strong delusion, and they will believe a lie. Reader, may you be called home to heaven at the day of our Lord's coming! Are you ready for His coming now? Are you amongst the number who reply to His words, "I come quickly," "Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus"?
We may say that our life of faith should be made up after Enoch's testimony. Our first aim should be to please God, and it is our privilege to wait for His Son from heaven. Pleasing God in walk and ways is the active part of the life of faith; waiting for His Son from heaven, even Jesus, who hath delivered us from the wrath to come, is the patient side of faith's career on earth.
Walking with God, we shall become heavenly-minded, and shall be looking for the coming of Jesus, who shall bring us into His Father's house. Enoch did "not see death"; and it is written, "We shall not all sleep." The time is near for the children of faith, when the saying shall be brought to pass, "Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Cor. 15:51, 5451Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, (1 Corinthians 15:51)
54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (1 Corinthians 15:54)) By faith Enoch did not see death; we, too, have the sure word, "We shall not all sleep." Do we really and truly, like Enoch, believe God? Perhaps our reader can say, "I do trust in the sacrifice of Jesus"; can he also say, "I do believe that Jesus is coming to take His people to heaven without dying"? “We which are alive... shall be caught up... in the clouds"? (1 Thess. 4:1717Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17).) Are we genuinely walking with God in the faith of His Son's coming from heaven to take us there? Beloved Christian reader, there is nothing which so thoroughly makes a man for God, as going on day by day, looking for His Son from heaven.
Trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus, rejoicing in its efficacy, and its worth, walking with God, and waiting for His Son from heaven, are the first principles of the life of faith.
The testimony of Noah completes this early picture of the way of faith. The things around him were apparently as secure as are the things of the world this day. Cain's city was making progress in arts and sciences, in music and handicraft, but God had said judgment was coming, and Noah believed God. The solemn word of God respecting coming judgment stirred Noah's soul. Has His word concerning "the wrath to come" in like manner moved our souls with fear for the saving of our houses? Jesus is coming to take His people to heaven; Jesus is coming to judge the world. Where those two truths are really believed, even as Enoch and as Noah believed what God said, every thought and every action of the Christian's life is affected by the faith of them.
There are two distinct characters in Noah's faith as here presented to us, which we will look at; he built an ark for the saving of his house; and he condemned the world. When the Christian is truly energized by the faith of coming judgment, he cannot fail to seek the salvation of his house. Those who do not believe that Christ is coming to take His own out of the world to heaven, and that having thus come to the air He will next come to the earth to judge its iniquity, may perhaps afford to be indifferent to the salvation of souls. But such as have faith in God's word respecting the coming of His Son, dare not cease seeking for the salvation of their houses.
We emphasize having faith, for we may hold a doctrine and yet not have faith about its truth. Faith is a living, energetic reality in the soul. It is the evidence of things not seen. Noah saw not the things which moved his soul: we see no sign of coming judgment; but if we believe in our hearts that judgment is coming, work for souls, warn souls, plead with souls we must. And where there is sluggishness for souls, there is absence of FAITH in Christ's coming.
The jeering of the multitude, who heard Noah's hammer ringing against the gradually rising sides of his ark, would only call forth from him more earnest preaching of righteousness. How he must have warned the godless world of impending wrath! He had the word, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man.... yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." (Gen. 6:33And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3).) But year by year the number of those years diminished, till at length the last day of the last month of the last of the one hundred and twenty years came. Noah entered into the ark, the door was shut, and the flood came and swept the rest away.
The sneers of skepticism should only rouse the children of faith to fresh zeal. We know not how few our opportunities may be. The last hour of the, day of grace will come—the last sound of gospel entreaty and of warning will be heard. The last moments of the last hour of the day of grace are at our doors. Oh! for zeal for souls. Awake, Christians, let the cry be heard, Christ is coming, and the door will soon be shut. For when He comes, what next? Judgment! Judgment on the ungodly. The flood of wrath poured out upon this guilty world.
Let us add to our faith, which trusts the blood of Jesus, that faith which we have seen gave Enoch his footsteps, and to that the faith which gave Noah his energy. These three things should be found in all their intensity in each believer. Day by day let us think afresh of the precious blood of Jesus, of His offering of Himself, and of the perfections of His sacrifice; day by day let us humbly and softly walk with God; and day by day let our voices be heard pleading with sinners and crying of coming judgment. H. F. W.
LITTLE sunshine—little honey.