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The Bible Says
After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:22).
1. Enoch went to Heaven without experiencing death. “Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24 NKJB). “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death” (Hebrews 11:5 NKJB). His remarkable experience points to the day when the redeemed will be “Caught up, to meet the Lord in the air” (I Thess. 4:16,17). 2. Enoch knew he was saved. “Before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5 NKJB). 3. Enoch was directed by the Lord Himself. “Enoch lived sixty-five years and begot Methuselah . . .” Genesis 5:21 NKJB).
Names in Bible times were meaningful. Methuselah’s name meant, “At his death the flood will come.” Therefore, Noah knew all the while he was building the ark that the flood water would not come until Methuselah died. It took Noah 300 years to build the ark. By that time Methuselah was older than any other man who ever lived (969 years). If the Ark was not quite finished, did Noah get a little nervous every time “Grandpa” caught a fresh cold? Or, suppose, one evening, the last nail had been driven, and the last screw in place --- and there was Methuselah, still in good health! Did Noah have such concerns? So far as we know, there was no one there to remind him that God’s plans are always correlated in advance. He, and He alone, controls the “times and the seasons” (I Thess.5:1). Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. Even Solomon is said to have walked with God. The important factor seems to be, how close do we walk with God? “He who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk just as He walked” (I John 2:6 NKJB). How did Jesus walk? He spent every moment possible in fellowship with His Heavenly Father. God does not expect perfection from an imperfect people, but He wants us to walk in the light we have. “If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:6,7 NKJB). More than 81 years ago when I accepted Christ as my personal Savior, I started walking in the light of God’s Word. There was more Bible truth that I did not understand than that which I understood. Through the years I have prayed that I might understand the truth revealed in God’s Inspired Book. The Holy Spirit is my teacher and I am still learning. In like manner I have prayed for power to overcome sin in my life. Anything we know to be wrong is sin. We do not want anything we do or say to be offensive to our Lord. Furthermore, when we fail to do any good thing God wants us to do, that too is sin. No matter how hard we try, we do fall short of God’s holy will for our lives from time to time. We then have to confess our sin, “And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7). “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). All born-again Christians walk with God. Solomon “walked with God,” at times. Peter learned to Love the Lord and his fellowmen, “With a pure heart fervently” (I Peter 1:22). John “leaned on Jesus breast” (John 13:23-26) and Christ whispered to him divine secrets, not revealed to the other disciples. Our joy in the Christian life depends largely on how close we walk with Jesus. I personally enjoy sitting down and reading the blessed old hymns. Each of those hymn writers must have experienced a close walk with the Lord and that nearness is reflected in the words they wrote. In 1874 Fanny J Crosby wrote:
More than friend or life to me. All along life’s pilgrim journey, Savior let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee, Close to Thee, close to Thee. All along my pilgrim journey, Savior let me walk with Thee. Not for ease or worldly pleasure Nor for fame my prayer shall be. Gladly will I toil and suffer; Only let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee, Close to Thee, close to Thee; Gladly will I toil and suffer; Only let me walk with Thee. Lead me through the vale of shadows; Bear me o’er life’s fitful sea; Then the gate of life eternal May I enter Lord with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee, Close to Thee, close to Thee. Then the gate of life eternal May I enter Lord, with Thee.
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