ILLUSTRATION: The world says, "Seeing is believing, but the Word says, "No, believing is seeing."
That's why Hebrews chapter 11 begins by stating,
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen."
There is another saying that "If you want
to grow in your faith, walk with the faithful." So we are going to walk
with people of Faith (Abel, Enoch, Noah etc).
Surely one of the most
godly, as well as interesting, characters who ever lived was Enoch. He is one
of only two who lived before the Flood (Noah also, Genesis 6:9) of whom it is said that he “walked
with God.” He is also one of only two individuals who never died (Elijah, 2 Kings 2:11). Little is known about him, but the
Bible reveals him to be exemplary among men and special to God.
Enoch's name literally means,
"dedicated one" or "consecrated one." In other words, he
was "sold out" for God.
Some have suggested that Enoch’s ministry is not yet
over. All men die, for “it is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27), and Enoch has not yet died.
Perhaps he is one of the two tribulation “witnesses” (Revelation 11:3) whose messages are so much like
those of Enoch and Elijah who will be martyred, resurrected, and taken up to
heaven directly from Earth (vv. 4-12). At any rate, Enoch is certainly one of
the great heroes of the faith whom we shall meet some day.
1. ABEL - FAITH IN
THE BLOOD (v4). Abel gave us the first lesson for our life of faith.
Faith must based in the Blood Atonement of Christ. Because of sin, our life and
blessing in God cannot be based on our own righteousness, but only by trusting
in God’s grace, available through the Blood of Christ. He paid the price in
full for our salvation.
2. Enoch is an enigmatic figure in the Bible,
mentioned only a couple of times. Very little is said about him, and yet he
strangely appears in the “hall of faith” of Hebrews
11. Though little is said about him, the portrait that is drawn of him is
actually a beautiful and inspiring one. The author of Hebrews clearly has Genesis 5 in mind when he
speaks of Enoch. It is there that we learn how it is that Enoch earned a place
among the heroes of the faith. Enoch was not simply a man who walked by faith;
he was, in particular, a man who “walked with God” (Gen. 5:24). Enoch was pleasing to God because he not only lived his life by
faith in the God of heaven and earth, but he also lived his life in intimate
communion with God.
From the book of Genesis, the first sibling set in
history (Cain and Abel) embody the first scene of murder and martyrdom. Adam’s
family portrait is a broken one, and Eve, the mother of all living, is also the
mother of the brokenhearted. But God still showed them His grace. Cities are
built, music is made, and most importantly, “people began to call on the name
of the Lord” (4:26).
Toward the end of Genesis 4 we encounter
Lamech,
an obtrusive figure who cannot be missed in any study of Enoch. Lamech is
the antithesis of Enoch, yet Lamech and Enoch are intended to be viewed as
actors on the same stage, continuing the tension first displayed in Cain and
Abel. Cain and Abel were not only the two sons of Eve, they were also the
human beginning of what would develop into two opposing kingdoms—the kingdom of
God and the kingdom of Satan. In Cain and Abel, the tension between the two
“offspring” or “seeds” of Genesis 3:15 is perpetuated.
That tension continues to unfold on the scene of history as Lamech, the
seventh son of Adam in the line of Cain, proudly and boastfully exalts
himself. He is a kingdom builder of the worst kind, as his singular goal is to
glorify and enjoy himself. His loud, self-exalting claim to have killed
a man in Genesis 4:23–24 makes this
perfectly clear. He is Cain perfected, so to speak, as is seen in his vow: “If
Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold” (v. 24). Lamech, by his own
proclamation, is ten times as proud, self-righteous, and murderous as Cain, and
Lamech has sworn to take the law into his own hands and execute judgment as
though he were God. Lamech, the seventh son of Adam, is truly in line with the seed of the
serpent.
Playing opposite Lamech, however, is Enoch. Enoch
is also the seventh son of Adam, but he descends from the more faithful line of
Seth. In other words, if you created a family tree of Adam’s descendants, Lamech
and Enoch would each be seven generations down, but standing on opposite
sides—one in the line of Cain and the other in the line of Seth. One side will
prove to be chosen and faithful, and the other will prove to be rejected and
rebellious. Enoch clearly stands in the line of the faithful, and rather
than exalting himself with the proud boasts of Lamech, Enoch is a man of
humility and faith. Enoch walks with God. To walk with God in Genesis is
not unique to Enoch. The same wonderful affirmation is made of Noah (6:9)
and Abraham (17:1; 24:40), and the phrase clearly suggests that these godly men
lived in communion with God and in accordance with God’s ways. Later
in Scripture, God often referred to the necessity of Israel to walk in His ways
as the means of staying in right fellowship with Him. By faith, Enoch walked in
the ways of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
This leads us to Enoch’s being
“taken up.” According to Genesis 5:24, Enoch did not taste
death.
He lived a life of faith in which he walked with God, and in the midst of that
walk, “God took him.” What a marvelous statement. The text does not say that
Enoch simply went to heaven (though he surely did), but rather that God took
Enoch for Himself as one whose walk with God began on this earth and continued
into the joys of eternity.
In Abel we see the first example not only of
martyrdom, but of those who enter into heaven with God through the veil of
death. Enoch, however, does not taste death. He enters into God’s eternal
rest as one who lived by faith, walked with God, and then was miraculously
taken up into the presence of God. These are the two doors into heaven:
those who die and yet live by way of being raised up on the other side of
death, and those who are alive at Christ’s coming and are simply carried into
the bliss of eternal life apart from experiencing death.
The life and translation of Enoch display not only how
it is that we come to please God but also what the reward is for those who live
and seek God by faith. The reward is God Himself. This is exactly what God
tells Abraham in Genesis 15:1. God is Abraham’s
shield as well as his very great reward. What greater thing can await us in
heaven than that of perfected communion with God?
Hebrews 11:6 makes it very
clear that the life that is pleasing to God is a life lived by faith and by
seeking after God Himself. Faith is not meritorious. It does not earn
anything from God, as God’s favor and promises cannot be earned. Yet faith
receives and rests upon Christ in the gospel and apprehends the promises of God
in wondrous ways. Scripture compels us to join with faithful Enoch and
imitate his well-pleasing faith by seeking God and walking in sweet fellowship
with Him by faith.
God Himself is our reward. While we have already begun
to experience the joy of that communion with Him now by way of our union with
Christ, the fullness of our reward is something we must continue to seek by
faith until we enter glory either by the veil of death or by being caught up
alive into heaven. Our great calling is to seek the things of God. As we do,
the things of this world must, as the old hymn goes, “grow strangely dim in the
light of His glory and grace.” Pride. Arrogance. Self-exaltation. These are the
things that displease God and are found in the way of Lamech—the way of death.
But the way of life—well-pleasing life in the eyes of God—is humble faith and a
joyful seeking after God Himself. Those who seek will not only please God in this life,
but they will enjoy the greatest pleasure of all: the pleasure of walking with
God.
Enoch’s faith pleased God and the main way he showed his faith was in
coming to God continually, believing in God’s goodness, believing that every
time he would draw close to God, God would draw close to him and reward him.
Enoch shows us FAITH for FELLOWSHIP, faith to come close to God and spend time
with Him. Enoch teaches us that the main purpose of faith is not for healing or
miracles but to have intimate fellowship with God, for we were created for
this.
He walked with God, pleasing God by his faith by
coming to God with expectancy and God showed His pleasure with Enoch by taking
him to be with Him forever. Smith Wigglesworth said that Enoch walked with God
every day. One day he got so far out in the Spirit that God said to
him: ‘We are closer to My place than yours, so why don’t you just come
home with Me.’ So Enoch said O.K. He was the first man raptured in the
Bible! One day he just disappeared before their eyes. They sent out search
parties but he could not be found.
We will then have the same testimony as Enoch who
walked with God and was raptured. Jesus said to us (His Bride): "Let
not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My
Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you...I will
come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may
be also (this speaks of eternal fellowship, our fellowship with God
in this life is just a preparation and anticipation of our future face-to-face
fellowship with the Lord)” (John 14:1).
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