Walking With God
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard You in the garden, and I was afraid . . .”
According to evolutionary theory, animals apparently made a lengthy and ultimately successful transition (measured in millions of years) from sucking water through their gills to breathing air through their lungs as a means of acquiring the oxygen necessary for life. While I’m sure the theory is by no means as simplistic as I’ve just made it sound, it seems to me that in order to follow this line of thinking, there had to be a “first adopter” - some animal had to be the first to make the transition from water to air. It must have been a brutal one, too, learning to to adapt to something contrary to what what you are designed to do. Oh yeah, evolutionary theory advocates don’t believe in intelligent design . . . Anyway, on occasion I have inadvertently attempted to make a backwards transition by inhaling some water while swimming. It didn’t work very well.
I think Adam and Eve underwent a similar brutal “first adopter” stage when they fell to temptation in the Garden of Eden. The above passage is a sad and sobering reminder of the all-encompassing ramifications of saying “no” to God. The first and immediate result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s command was shame, hence the fig leaves to cover up their nakedness. Since just a few verses earlier, the Scripture summarized the creation of Eve as the perfect complement to Adam by saying “the man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (Gen. 2:25), experiencing that foreign emotion for the first time must have been awful. And right on the heels of shame came another hideous emotion - fear, which the Apostle John describes as being incompatible with love: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18). Additionally, the First Couple also forfeited relational intimacy with their Creator, which apparently included (this is implied in the passage above) the privilege of literally walking with Him in the garden. I’d say being a first adopter of sin must have been painful beyond comprehension.
Although the capacity for relational intimacy that we were designed to have with our Creator was not fully restored until Christ’s finished work on the Cross, there are many men and women in the Old Testament who are commended for their faith. Many are obvious - Noah. Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David are just a few of the more well-known heroes of the faith. Others are not as well-known; among this latter group is a guy named Enoch. His story only takes six verses in Genesis to recount, but his legacy is worth examining more closely.
After Cain was cursed by God for killing his brother Abel, Genesis 4 outlines the line of Cain, ending with Lamech, a vengeful murderer who also introduced polygamy into human history. Pretty swell guy. But Genesis 4 ends on a positive note, for Adam and Eve have another son, Seth, to replace Abel. We find in the next chapter that the line of Seth was a very good one; in fact, the lengthy genealogy of Jesus found in Luke 3 runs all the way back to Adam through Seth. So when chapter 4 ends with the very cool statement “at that time men began to call on the name of the Lord,” we can assume that is in reference to Seth and sons.
Not only were Seth’s descendants God-followers, they were also really old dudes! Adam lived 930 years, Seth made it to 912, Enosh to 905, Kenan to 910, Mahalalel only got to 895, but his son Jared broke the 900 barrier again and set a record at 962. Then came Enoch. Most of us know about Enoch’s son, Methuselah, who set a new age record of 969 years that still stands today (Terri’s aunt Mabel turns 100 in December, so she’s over one tenth of the way there!). But Enoch was an exception, relatively speaking, to the longevity of the line of Seth. Here’s what the Bible says about him:
When Enoch had lived 66 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. (5:21-24)
The author of the book of Hebrews, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, clears up any confusion we might have about the meaning of “God took him away” when he writes, By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God has taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. (Heb. 11:5)
Enoch was one of the two people in history (the other being Elijah) who did not die on earth, but were taken directly to heaven. Pretty sweet for them. There are some who speculate that Enoch and Elijah will return in the future as the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11, and their earthy death will take place at that time. Whatever. Not dying is cool, but what is more cool is the three things I have learned as of late about Enoch:
1. He was one of only two people in the Bible who are described as having walked with God. Abraham is called God’s friend (Is. 41:8; James 2:23). Moses was described similarly: “the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.” (Ex. 33:11) David was described as a man after God’s heart (Acts 13:22). As I have mentioned (frequently) before, my man Caleb was commended for having a “different spirit” and following God wholeheartedly (Num. 14:24). There are other biblical characters who are described as having walked in His ways or having walked before Him. But only Enoch, and his great-grandson Noah, are described, or defined, as having walked with God. Wow. More on Enoch’s grandkid in a minute.
2. Enoch was a man of great faith in a culture where there was not much faith. Many of are quite familiar with one of the seminal passages of faith found in the book of Hebrews: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6) Not all of us are as aware that the context of this verse is the life of Enoch; here’s the last part of verse 5 that I referenced earlier: “For before he (Enoch) was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.” I can only assume that Enoch’s faith-walk was quite extraordinary.
3. Enoch passed on his walk with God, and his faith, to his offspring. God flooded the earth because “He saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” So the Lord said he would “wipe mankind from the face of the earth . . . But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” (Gen. 6:5-8) I don’t know what Enoch did to ensure that his descendants, and especially great-grandkid Noah, would carry on his faith. To be honest, I wish I did. If I am honest, I will admit I am a bit mystified that some of the men of God that the Bible greatly commends had somewhat spotty records in bringing up godly kids. I don’t want a spotty record. And I don’t think the emerging generations - a few hundred of whom are worshipping and praying in the Global Prayer Room at IHOP as I write this from that locale - deserves a spotty record. They need literal, and spiritual, fathers and mothers of whom it can be said “they walk with God.”
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