Explanation: Today's reading tells the story of Enoch, who "walked with God. and he was not, for God took him." Enoch represented the seventh generation of descendants from Adam through Seth. We read about his counterpart, Lamech, through the line of Cain back at the end of Genesis 4. The fact that both men were the "seventh" from Adam points to their lives as fulfillment of the moral path each of the lines had chosen. In the case of Adam's line through Seth, Enoch represents the fulfillment of faith in God and cooperation with His plan. In the case of Adam's line through Cain, Lamech represents the fulfillment of unbelief and of seeking to secure for oneself the blessings of God's Kingdom through some other means than cooperating with His plan.
Lamech, like Cain in generations before him, murdered someone. Afterwords, he composed a poem to declare what he had done and its significance. His last line is this: "If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-sevenfold." God is the one who first announced sevenfold vengeance if anyone were to kill Cain. Lamech shows the controlling influence of his own self-will by not even waiting to find out how God judged his killing of the young man who wounded him. He declared his own judgment and dared anyone to challenge it.
Unlike Lamech, Enoch walked with God. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, we are told that two people "walking together" requires agreement between them. So Enoch agreed with God.
In yet another place, God scolded His people with these words: "He has told you, O man, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God" (Micah 6:8). We can assume that in addition to walking humbly with God, Enoch also was a doer of justice and a lover of mercy. In fact, no one can walk with God and not be a doer of justice and lover of mercy.
The New Testament bears out this assumption in the record of the Book of Jude of a prophecy announced by Enoch: "Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (Jude 14-16).
It's easy to see in Enoch's words an indictment of Lamech-type solutions to interpersonal and social issues. Jude makes this association even clearer in the verse that follows: "These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage." Lamech was a loud-mouthed boaster. His behavior overall was just the opposite of walking with God, doing justice, and loving mercy.
Enoch walking with God takes us back to the kind of relationship with God Adam and Eve enjoyed prior to the Fall (see Genesis 3:8). God "took him" rather than letting him die as yet another example of the "life" promised to those who believe in Him and cooperate with His plan. But Enoch's case suggests even more. Everyone else from the line of Seth mentioned in Genesis 5 lives a long life and then dies. But not Enoch. He is delivered from death. God takes him to Himself to continue his life in His presence. Enoch's story suggests that God's plan for restoring the earth as a place where His rule is fully honored and obeyed includes the following (along with everything else we have studied so far):
- The promised "life" under God's rule involves intimate fellowship with Him and appropriate relationships with all others
- The promised "life" under God's rule does not end with the time one spends here on earth prior to the establishment of His Kingdom
- There is ultimate victory over death for all those who believe in God and cooperate with His plan
Reflection Questions: What evidence is there in your life that you are living more like Enoch rather than Lamech? In what specific ways is your walk with God impacting your relationships? Your relationship with your spouse? Your children? Other family members? Your church family? People at work or school? Others in the community? How does today's entry impact the fear of death?
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