It was a very long time ago, maybe 5000 years, when Jared and his wife welcomed their first little boy into the world. They called him Enoch.
It was a busy world for a little boy to grow up in. There were not only farmers and cattle ranchers, there were also metal workers who crafted in brass and iron and taught their skills to others. And it was a world full of music, with harps and flutes. The people had enough cleverness to build a city where they could share their skills and pleasures.
I am not sure what part the boy Enoch had in all this. There were very old men living in his day. One of them was Adam, the only man in the world who never was a little boy. Another one was Adam’s son Seth, who had certainly heard from his parents the story of the Garden of Eden and the forbidden fruit. These stories had surely been passed on to Enoch, and since the first man was still alive, they would not be told as twisted tales. Adam was Enoch’s great, great, great, great grandfather who lived to be 950 years old.
Enoch grew to be a man of 65, and then he and his wife had a little son whom they named Methuselah.
Enoch was a father now, and he had found something far more important to live for than all the busyness and pleasure of the world around him. Enoch walked with God, and He led Enoch to do his daily duties and to train his son to call upon God too. Walking with God was not a now-and-then matter in Enoch’s life; it was daily life to him.
Enoch had many more sons and daughters after that, and he lived for 300 more years. And in all that time he walked with God so closely that God was able to tell him one of His wonderful secrets. These secrets are all recorded in the Bible now, so that God has nothing new to tell. I wonder if you have taken time to read and remember what God has written in His wonderful book.
Enoch foretold God’s wonderful news nearly 5000 years ago. It has not happened yet, but it most certainly will come true. Remember, God’s knowledge is so perfect that He can speak of the future as if it were happening right now! This was His secret He told to Enoch: “Behold, the Lord [comes] with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all” (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)).
There must have been a lot of wickedness around Enoch in his day, but the Lord told Enoch that He is coming in a future day, not alone, but with those who belong to Him. When He comes, He will deliver deserved judgment upon ungodly sinners. And in all these thousands of years since, God has not changed His plan!
Nothing in the wicked world around Enoch changed his attitude; he simply walked with God, and God brought a wonderful change to his life. God took him out of the world to be with Himself ! Enoch did not die, and there was no funeral and no burial. God tells it like this in the Bible: “He [Enoch] was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:2424And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Genesis 5:24)).
Have you heard that this is going to happen to those of us who are believers too? The day is coming very soon when we who belong to the Lord Jesus will be called to His home, and, just like Enoch, there will be no funerals and no burials for us. There is no place on earth where the body of Jesus lies buried, because He is alive and in heaven. And there will be no place on earth for the bodies of living believers either. Even those believers who have already died will leave empty graves behind.
This God was Enoch’s God, and He is our God too. He is not a God of our imagination, but the same One who gave His only Son to die for us. This same God who is holy and true wants your company today and forever in heaven. Will you walk with God and learn His secrets too?
Do you remember Methuselah, the son of Enoch? He lived 969 years and died the very same year that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed all the unbelievers. Let no one tell you that God does not care. His loving welcome is as true as His terrible anger against sin. We have a God who cares!