Hebrews 11:5 gets into the strange story of Enoch, who “By faith was taken from this life,” and not only “did he not experience death,” he “couldn’t be found after God had taken him away” either. But the reason for all this happening to Enoch was that “before he was taken he was commended as one who pleased God.”
And that was hugely important because, verse 6, “without faith it is impossible to please God. Anyone wishing to draw near to him has to believe he’s real, and that he rewards those who really put their minds to knowing him.” That pleases God, as we see in the life of Enoch who, for 300 years “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22, 24), his reward being that God took him early into his presence forever.
But why Enoch and not other people too? Because among all the descendants of Adam and Eve’s son, Seth (listed in Genesis 5:6 to 32), only Enoch is mentioned as “walking with God.” Which really does stand out, knowing the backdrop to Enoch’s story, because the violence and evil leading up to Noah’s Flood was already escalating. It had started with Cain murdering his brother, which God foresaw spiralling into further revenge killings (Genesis 4:15) – and seven generations later up pops a descendant of Cain, a vicious man called Lamech, who murdered a person for wounding him, and then wanted massive revenge too (4:23-24).
It was into this sick world – and at the same time as Lamech too – that Enoch was born. But this is where Hebrews 11:4 comes to life, which tells of Abel “still speaking, even though he’s dead,” because when Seth was born to Adam and Eve in Abel’s place (Genesis 4:25), that’s when a shift away from Cain’s attitude began as people for the first time “began to call on the name of the Lord” (26).
What followed from that point on, then, were two lines of people, those from Cain and those from Seth, with two completely opposite attitudes to God. But only Enoch in the line of Seth truly caught on to Abel’s attitude toward God, of seeing what God had provided to enable humans to draw near to him, despite having failed him. Abel knew: it was a blood sacrifice – which we now know pictured the blood sacrifice of Jesus enabling us to draw near to God too.
It’s then in Enoch that we see what drew him near to God with a faith that really pleased him, described in Genesis 5 as “Walking with God”….(next blog)
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