Walking with God

“By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: ‘He could not be found, because God had taken him away.’ For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Enoch was taken from this life because he walked with God. The Greek Septuagint, which means translation of the Seventy, is the earliest known translation of the Hebrew Torah into Koine Greek sometime in the mid-3rd Century AD. In it, the phrase “Enoch walked with God” is translated “Enoch pleased God.” Enoch lived on this earth for 365 years which is a year for every day in a Calendar year. Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam which I think is significant because 7 is the number of perfection. Enoch had a pivotal role in the bible and there are indications that God revealed significant things to Enoch and entrusted him with intimate knowledge.

Enoch pleased God because he was a man of faith. He spent all of his time with God learning His ways and being led in His paths. He walked with God. This is the kind of relationship that God wants with us—close fellowship where we walk with Him and talk with Him continually. God is a God of relationship and all relationships take time. The love that God has for us is real and it is illustrated in the way He thinks of us as His Bride or as a Father to a child. Such intimacy takes time to cultivate and this requires us to spend alone time with God. When we are alone with Him, we draw closer and He reveals to us things about His character and His love for us. He values this time and it even says that He delights in us. He is the author and finisher of our faith. Faith is a muscle that needs to be developed. This requires us to trust Him. In order to trust Him we need to take the time to build up that faith by experiencing how faithful and good that He is. It says that apart from faith it is impossible to please God because without faith we cannot see Him or have this kind of trust. He is trustworthy and He has shown it by this great cloud of witnesses. As F.F. Bruce in his commentary “The Epistle to the Hebrews” said:

“Those who approach Him can do so in full confidence that He exists, that His word is true, and that He will never put off or disappoint the person who sincerely seeks Him. For all that He has revealed of himself, whether through the prophets or in His Son, assures us that He is altogether worthy of His people’s trust.”

What a blessing to walk with God. This is something that we can do daily. It says in His word that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. His desire is for us to spend time with Him. He is the creator of the Universe, but He wants to spend time with you. He values your fellowship and your thoughts and He wants to communicate with you in a tangible way. Like it says in Isaiah 55:

“Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord and He will have mercy on them, and to our God, for He will freely pardon. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher that your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’” Isaiah 55:6-9

He is waiting for us. He is listening to our heart’s cry. His desire is to spend time with us and to teach us things about Him. He created us to be imagers of Him, but in order for us to bear His image, we need to know who He is. Just like a Father teaches his son or daughter how to live, He wants to teach us so that we will be equipped to do what He has required of us to do in this world. The world we live in is full of lost sheep who need a shepherd. We all like sheep have gone astray and we need that voice to lead us out of this darkness into His glorious light. We need to look to the master of this universe—the one who created it all--and gaze on His beauty. It is truly overwhelming. We will never be able to plumb the depths of His majestic love and unending grace. It says it well in Psalm 36:

“Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.

Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,

your justice like the great deep.” Psalm 36:5-6