Twice in Genesis 5 it’s mentioned that Enoch “walked with God” (verses 22 and 24). He was also “commended as one who pleased God” in Hebrews 11:5. So, based on Enoch’s “walking with God” tying in with “pleasing him,” what does pleasing God involve?
According to verse 6, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” So it’s faith that pleases God, but faith in what? Two things in that verse are mentioned: the first, “believing that God exists,” and the second, believing that “he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
For Enoch the first part, “believing God exists,” was likely easy, because “God” wasn’t a stranger to people back then. Following the birth of Seth (replacing the murdered Abel), “men began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25-26). So God was openly spoken about, just as lots of people today openly speak about God – and believe he exists.
Scientists and mathematicians, for instance, come to believe God exists based on the fixed laws of nature, and the amazing fine-tuning of the universe. Others come to believe in God because of the obvious contrast between good and evil, or because they grew up in a home and culture that took it for granted that God exists.
But something else stirred in the mind of Enoch, mentioned in the second part of Hebrews 11:6, that “God rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Enoch saw God in this light too. Which makes sense, because why would people “call on the name of the Lord” in Genesis 4:26 if they didn’t believe he was a personal God who responded to their call too?
So people back then didn’t stop with just believing God exists. His existence stirred something personal – just as it did in Abel, who gave God the best offering he could (Genesis 4:4), and in response “God looked with favour on Abel and his offering.” So instead of humans and God drifting further and further apart, a desire began in humans to please God, to which God responded with favour.
Which led to Seth, Abel’s replacement, inspiring a growing tide of people turning to God, and God responding – and in particular Enoch who loved pleasing God in all his daily walk through life, to which God responded by personally sparing him from “experiencing (a typical human) death (Hebrews 11:5). To Noah next, whose own walk with God highlighted “The righteousness that comes by faith”….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 