The First Man To Miss Death—enoch

Did you hear about the man who returned home from the grocery store, having bought everything on the list his wife gave him? She began removing items from the bags: one dozen eggs, two bags of flour, three gallons of milk, four bags of sugar, and five cans of cake frosting. His wife said, “I never should have numbered the grocery list.” Ever make a list of things to do and then wonder which to do first? Numbering the list doesn’t always help because the order in which you thought of the items is not necessarily the order of their importance. You might start to do the first thing only to realize you should be working on number three, since it is far more important. It is easy to fill your days with activities. They may even be essential activities. Life often comes at us at a frantic pace and we hardly have time to stop and think about what’s important. Instead, we do what is urgent. After all, the clock is ticking, the days are passing, and we only have so much time. All the more reason why we need to stop and think about what’s important. Suppose we did all the urgent things and met all the deadlines only to discover we left the most important things undone? Or suppose we did all the fun things, all the exciting things, and left the mundane things undone, only to realize that life is unraveling because we neglected the important things. Tim Redmond once said, “There are many things that will catch my eye, but there are only a few things that will catch my heart, it is those I consider to pursue.” C. S. Lewis said, “Put first things first and we get second things thrown in; put second things first and we lose both first and second things.” Is it no wonder Jesus, after mentioning several things people are tempted to pursue, pointed out how we can succeed at getting our priorities straight: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” MT 6:33. Ron McClung

THE FIRST MAN TO MISS DEATH—ENOCH

This man’s blood flowed in Christ’s veins, and when Christ comes we look at his life and say, “More than Enoch is here, because through Jesus’ walk with God we and Enoch, yes, and all the Lord’s elect out of all nations in all ages are enabled to find God and walk with him.”Those who choose to walk with god enjoy a relationship that others know little or nothing about. The world’s opinions of these people are that they are lonely and unpopular. There are only a few verses written about his man but they are loaded with information for us in our walk with God. He is the first man in the Bible of which it is said, “He walked with God.” He made a decision and his life is even given in pagan myths. "Is not this written in the Book of Jasher?" Josh. 10:13. "Behold it is written in the Book of Jasher." II Sam 1:18. This book has a couple of chapters in it about the life of Enoch. He was an ordinary man. We are not told that He wrote any books, led an army, was a great singer, or that he brought many to follow the Lord. We are given hope that God uses ordinary people for His work whether they ever are great in the eyes of men. There was a lady that we do not have the name of who as she was dying told her husband, “In the past ten years there has not been a cloud between me and my Savior.” A great preacher from the past, Spurgeon, said, “In many years he had not known more than a quarter of an hour out of fellowship with God.” We do have record that when he was 65 he had a son named Methuselah and then he walked with God for 300 years after that. He lived in a godless and wicked world. He lived in a day when walking with God would have been difficult because the world was on the verge of judgment from God.

Gen 5:17, 21-24, HB. 11:5-6, Jude 14, 15.

We learn from these verses we learn 1. He Walked God, 2. He pleased God, and 3. He gave a witness for God.

I. He walked with God.

A. He made a habit of walking with God. From what I have read this habit started when a baby was born. It seems that his son brought God into his life. Can you point to an event in your life when you turned to God and seeking Him became a habit?

1. Enoch walked with God outside of Paradise. Adam and Eve had walked with God in the Garden in the cool of the day. That is what made Paradise really Paradise, continual loving communion with his Maker? This is what they lost when they defied this loving Father. They had had every encouragement to show their affection for God and yet they turned away. The walk with God came to an end and out of Paradise they were sent so quickly, after first being made, but Enoch went on walking with God outside Paradise. God dealt with him personally. In a world where sin reigned and death prevailed Enoch walked with God. Here is the prophet Enoch showing to us the true future of man, blessed fellowship with God. Here is the Lord at work in our groaning world, and he is bringing back to man Paradise, the place of blessed fellowship with God. With eternal Paradise already in Enoch’s heart, we see him on his way to Paradise eternal.