Walking With God

Genesis 5 Walking with God

Genesis 5 Walking with God

- Read Genesis 5:

Thank the Lord we didn’t make any memories on this trip, though we almost did. Drew bought a new truck last Monday, and so for the past week, we went out each evening when Drew got off of work, and Drew got to drive his truck on some rocky mountain trails in Colorado, while we got to see some beautiful scenery and and old silver mines. Those were some good times, though I’m old and a Florida flat-lander, so I was nervous on most of the trails we were on. In Florida you cross a ditch and they have guard rails up. In Colorado, there can be a 1000 foot drop off 12” from the edge of the road and there is nothing between you and meeting Jesus but air.

Wednesday evening as we were heading to the mountains, Drew was tired so I was driving. Driving down interstate 70 heading west, about 70 miles an hour, I was watching the heavy traffic when all of a sudden a wheel fell from the overpass in front of me, and landed in my lane. It bounced about 30 feet back up into the air, as the car in front of me and I are swerving, trying to keep from being hit by it when it lands again.

My swerving and braking wakes Drew up in time for him to see it, and causes Gladys and Paul to look up from the back seat to try and figure out what’s going on. Now, it could possibly have been my imagination, but I’m almost certain I heard Gladys and Paul start chanting from the back seat, “No memories, no memories, no memories,” as we passed the still bouncing wheel.

Memories. Funny how they work. Some are good and some are bad. Some we want to hang on to, and others we’d just as soon forget.

In the passage we just read, we find recorded the genealogy of Adam through the first number of generations.

Some times it’s easy to get confused and to begin to think that there are a lot of generations between Adam and and Enoch, but there aren’t. Enoch is the 7th generation since the beginning of time.

Let’s walk through it together. If we begin in the beginning, we would say Adam was born in year 0, and lived 930 years.

When Adam was 130 years old his son Seth was born

When Adam was 235 years old his grandson Enos was born

When Adam was 325 years old his great-grandson Cainan was born

When Adam was 395 years old his great, great, grandson Mahalaleel was born

When Adam was 460 years old his great, great, great, grandson Jared was

born

When Adam was 640 years old his great, great, great, great, grandson Enoch was born, and Adam lived until Enoch was 290 years old.

Now, in every generation the Bible says that each man in the lineage of Adam had “other sons and daughters.” Can you imagine what the family reunions used to be like in those days? All of those folks, at least all of them in the godly lineage, getting together from time-to-time, sharing meals and talking about the good old days?

And, I imagine Enoch talking to his great grandfather Adam and asking him again and again to tell him what it was like back in the garden of Eden before the Fall and before the Lord kicked them out. Grandpa, share the memories. Grandpa Adam, please, tell us again what it was like in the Garden when you walked with God. And for the qintillenth time, Adam again tells about walking in the Garden with God. He talks about the fellowship they enjoyed, the closeness he felt, the sense of purpose he felt as he knew what God wanted him to do each day as he tended the garden, and the times of laughter and joy they had as he walked with God.

It must have kindled something in Enoch’s heart to hear the first man’s memories of walking with God in the cool of the garden. Somewhere along the way, Enoch must have said, “I want to walk with God as well.”

The Bible doesn’t tell us a great deal about Enoch, about as much as you could write on a Post-it note. We know for instance that he is the son of Jared and the father of Methuselah. Enoch fathered Methuselah when he was 65 years old and then lived another 300 years before vanishing off the face of the earth without a trace.

During the time he lived though, the Bible records, “He walked with God.” Occasionally the Bible records that a person “walked before the Lord all of his days” ; or that a person followed God. But of only Enoch, Noah, and Isaiah is it recorded that they “walked with God”.