The Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven to do the will of His Father Who had sent Him (John 6:38; Matt 26:39). The Lord glorified His Father, always doing the things that pleased Him (John 17:4; 8:29), and God twice declared from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17; 17:5).
Faith
It is not difficult to understand that the Father found delight and pleasure in His beloved Son Who loved Him (John 14:31), Who was sinless (1John 3:5), and always obeyed and pleased Him (Phil 2:8-9). However, when we read of Enoch, who was a sinner, we learn that he “pleased God” (Heb 11:5). Inevitably, we ask ourselves the question, “How could a man who was a sinner please God?”
Faith is the essential prerequisite to pleasing God (Heb 11:6). By faith we believe what God says. By faith we believe God’s promises. Abraham “believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Rom 4:3). Enoch had faith in God and pleased God. He knew God, and to really know God is to love God, to have implicit trust and faith in Him, and to want to be in His presence and worship and serve Him.
Walked with God
Enoch was “the seventh from Adam” (Jude 14). Adam lived for 308 years after Enoch was born and Enoch might well have had the benefit of what Adam could have told him of the nature, attributes, and ways of God. Enoch lived for 365 years. This is the shortest lifetime recorded in Genesis 5. When he was 65 years old, his son, Methuselah, was born and we read that “Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years” (Gen 5:22). Enoch walked with God, as did his great-grandson, Noah (Gen 6:9). To “walk with God” implies a steady forward progression, enjoying fellowship with God. Enoch obeyed the will of God as, and when, it was revealed to him. He was not slow to obey, nor did he go ahead of God’s revealed will in the sense of following his own ideas and desires. Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and two cannot walk together if they are not in agreement (Amos 3:3). Enoch lived consciously in the presence of God, in consistent and habitual communion with Him.
It would seem that Enoch was made aware of coming judgment, for he named his son “Methuselah” (Gen 5:21), which is translated, “when he is dead it will be sent.” Methuselah lived 969 years and, at the end of his long life, judgment came and God sent the flood.
Because of sin, God Who is holy (Lev 19:2), ultimately and inevitably brings judgment, but He is longsuffering and delays judgment so that souls might be saved (1Peter 3:20). Enoch walked with God in days when God was graciously withholding judgment. Things were getting worse and worse, leading to a time when wickedness was rife on earth and men’s thoughts were evil continually (Gen 6:5). Those evil days could be likened to the days in which we live, when God and His will are ignored and He is blasphemed and ridiculed. Enoch lived at a time which preceded the pouring out of judgment by a holy, righteous, sin-hating God. We, too, live at a time when judgment is being withheld, and in His love, longsuffering, mercy, and grace, God is giving people opportunities to repent and be saved by grace through faith in the Person and completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ (2Peter 3:9).
Enoch had faith in God and lived a life which was separated from the evil world around him. He was dedicated to obeying and serving God; he walked with God and pleased Him. Believers are enjoined to lead lives which are separated from the world; lives separated to God (2Cor 6:14-7:1; Psa 1:1), using their time to learn and obey the will of God. If we walk with God, we will not be conformed to this world. As we commune with Him in prayer and feed on His written Word, we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2).
The Lord Jesus Christ was faithful to His Father (Heb 3:2) and Enoch was faithful to God. Those of us who are believers are called upon to be faithful. God bestows upon believers gifts to be used in His service (Rom 12:4-8; Eph 4:8, 11, 12), and we are responsible to God for the use and development of these gifts as directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Stewards are required to be faithful (1Cor 4:2), and believers are stewards of all the resources, such as money, time, and mental and physical energy, which God bestows upon us. Using time and energy to meditate on the Word of God, and on His love, grace, and mercy, will cause a believer to experience joy, gratitude, and love, and an increasing desire to worship, praise, and thank Him. The believer will be increasingly motivated to serve Him in the assembly and in making known the way of salvation to those who are lost.
God took him
We read that “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Gen 5:24). Enoch was “translated that he should not see death; and was not found (Heb 11:5). Both Enoch and Elijah were godly men of great faith, and neither passed through death, but were taken directly to heaven (2Kings 2:11). Enoch was taken away from the world before the judgment of the flood came, and his translation prefigures the return of the Lord for believers. Enoch is a type of the saints who will be raptured to meet the Lord in the air (1Thes 4:13-17), before God sends the judgment of the tribulation period. Noah and the seven people with him in the ark were preserved during the flood and are a type of the Jewish remnant which will be preserved during the great tribulation.
Enoch, who had been taken away before judgment came, prophesied of the Day of the Lord and coming judgment, saying, “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all” (Jude 14, 15). This prophecy, which was the first given through a man, refers to the second stage of the Lord’s second coming when He will come in glory with His saints to judge the ungodly.
Enoch was taken to be with God without warning. Believers could be raptured to be with the Lord at any moment. Every believer should seek to make use of the time God gives to serve Him and to witness to those around of the love of God, Who did not spare His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but delivered Him up for us all (Rom 8:32). To please God, we must be consistent in our witness; our deeds and words must reveal the reality of our faith (James 2:17). Enoch was a man of outstanding faith. His life and works were evidence of his faith and he pleased God.
