I love how the Recovery Version says concerning Enoch in Heb. 11:5, “By faith Enoch was translated so that he should not see death”.
Most versions say, “By faith Enoch was taken up” – but, if you think about it, to be translated means that you were once in a certain realm (or language) and then you were transported, taken into, transferred into another realm (another language). Enoch walked with God by faith to the point that one day God simply translated him from the physical realm into the spiritual realm to be with Him forever.
It’s not that Enoch one day was “suddenly raptured by God” as a result of how pious and moral he was….Rather, when he was 65 years old, he received a revelation of the fact that God will judge this generation, and the judgement is coming. Therefore, he named his son, Methuselah, and from then on he walked with God, fully believing in God’s word that He is coming soon to judge the world.
He walked with God so that he would escape the judgement and that he would be one with God, and he walked with God upward until he nearly “touched heaven”. One day, God simply took him to Himself – He translated Enoch into God’s presence.
In our walk with God in our Christian life today we need to see a revelation of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus, and we need to give ourselves to the Lord to walk with God, drawing closer to Him, believing in His word, and walking with Him in all the details of our daily life, so that one day we would touch heaven and we would also be translated from the physical realm into God to be with Him!
God is a Rewarder of Those who Diligently Seek Him
God is invisible. He cannot be substantiated, touched, felt, tasted or seen with any of our physical senses. How can we know God, touch God, or see God? The Bible says that he who comes closer to God needs to believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Enoch was our pattern: he was God’s seeker, and God rewarded him. He believed in God and in His word, and he sought God, walking with God for three centuries. God rewarded Enoch not only with the rapture at the end of his walk, but with His presence in a daily way.
We also need to diligently seek God, firmly believing that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. This means that we need to daily exercise our spirit to touch God, enjoy God, and know God.
We need to read the Bible with an open heart and an exercised spirit to know God’s thought and intention. We need to sing with our heart to the Lord, and we need to pray to fellowship with Him. In many ways and all the time, we need to seek God diligently so that we may receive the reward from Him.
God is a real Person, a living Person, even more real and living than we are. He is a rewarder, and we are His seekers! In all this, we need to have faith – an organic union with God in our spirit, in which we mysteriously enjoy all that God is to us as the Spirit with our spirit.
We have not seen the Lord physically, but we love Him; we don’t see Him at present, but we believe in Him and we exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory (1 Pet. 1:8). His reward is also His joy, His peace, His rest, His comfort, etc – all of which is His very being, which He dispenses into us as we diligently seek Him!
Eventually, He will reward us with the highest degree of life – escape from death and living forever (as He did with Enoch, see Heb. 11:5a; 2 Cor. 5:4; Rom. 8:6, 10-11; 5:17). Hallelujah! We are the Lord’s loving seekers, and He is our rewarder (see Psa. 27:4, 8; 42:1-2; 43:4; 73:25; 119:2, 10).
Believing in God’s Word and Walking with God
In Gen. 5:21 we see that when Enoch was 65, he had a son which he named, Methuselah (which means, “when he is dead, it will be sent”). Starting from that time, Enoch walked with God for 300 years until he was not, because God took him.
Based on Jude 14-15 and this portion in Genesis 5, Enoch must have received a revelation from God concerning His imminent judgement on the world. He prophesied that when Methuselah dies, the deluge will come. Methuselah lived 969 years, and if you calculate the years until his death, you will see that in the year Methuselah died, the flood came (Methuselah begot Lamech when he was 187; Lamech begot Noah when he was 182; the flood came when Noah was 600 years old).
Enoch received God’s word and believed it, and he walked with God, eagerly expecting God’s judgement on the unrighteous world and seeking to be delivered from it.
We also need to see that the Lord prophesied, I will build My church (Matt. 18:16), and, This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14). We need to believe God’s word and cooperate and coordinate with the Lord for the fulfillment of His word.
We need to be those who live, exist, breathe, and do everything for the spreading of the testimony of Jesus on the earth! May we be those who walk with God every day until we are not, because we are so full of Him who is!
All those who take God’s way of redemption, live a life of calling on Him, and live and walk together with Him can receive the reward from God to not even see death!
Because of Christ is our offerings, our Savior, and our Partner, He supplies us to such an extent that we would escape death both in our living and in our being. Also, He is saving us from all the by-products of death like moaning, reasoning, murmuring, gossiping, etc.
How we need to enter into the reality of being available to Christ to be raptured by Him and be His testimony on the earth! Our walk with God is gradual and upward – we walk with Him by denying ourselves and allowing His resurrection life to operate in us, and we will live in His presence, enjoying God and expressing Him, loving Him to the uttermost, until one day He will take us to Himself because He loves us so much!
As the loving seeker in Song of Songs, we will lean on our Beloved and walk in oneness with Him until our love story consummates in the New Jerusalem, where He makes us fully the same as He is in life, nature, and expression (but not in the Godhead) to be His bride for His satisfaction in eternity!
Lord Jesus, make us Your diligent seekers. We come to You every day to seek You, firmly believing that, even though we haven’t seen You physically, You are! And You are a rewarder of those who diligently seek You! Lord, we call on Your name and we seek You today to be rewarded by You with more of Your death-overcoming life. Remove any spiritual, psychological, and even physical death in our being. Keep us in the process of worshiping You according to Your way, calling on Your name to enjoy all Your riches, and walking with you day by day! We love You, Lord Jesus!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration (besides the Word of God and my Christian experience): bro. Dick Taylor’s speaking in this message and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 26), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization Study of Genesis (1), week / msg 10, Abel, Enosh, and Enoch.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Seek the Lord while He may be found, / Call upon Him while He is near: / Let the wicked forsake his way, / And the unrighteous man his thoughts: / And let him return to the Lord, / Unto our God, / And He will abundantly pardon, / He will abundantly pardon you— / Return to the Lord.
# I come to Thee, dear Lord, / My heart doth thirst for Thee; / Of Thee I’d eat, of Thee I’d drink. / Enjoy Thee thoroughly.
# Oh, we’ll stay on God’s life line, never turning aside. / We don’t care for vain knowledge, which will cause us to die. / Lord, we’ll touch You by calling on Your name each day; / Living in Your appearing, in Your presence we’ll stay.
