Of Enoch it is written that he lived sixty-five
years and begat a son; after that he walked with God three hundred
years. During those earlier years, Enoch had loved and feared
God, and had kept His commandments. But after the birth of his
first son he reached a higher experience; he was drawn into closer
relationship with God. As he saw the child's love for its father,
its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep, yearning
tenderness of his own heart for that first-born son, he learned
a precious lesson of the wonderful love of God to man in the
gift of His Son, and the confidence which the children of God
may repose in their heavenly Father. The infinite, unfathomable
love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditations
day and night. With all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal
that love to the people among whom he dwelt.
Enoch's walk with God was not in a trance
or a vision, but in all the duties of his daily life. He did
not become a hermit, shutting himself entirely from the world;
for he had, in the orld,
a work to do for God. In the family and in his intercourse with
men, as a husband and father, a friend, a citizen, he was the
steadfast, unwavering servant of God.
His faith waxed stronger, his love became
more ardent, with the lapse of centuries. To him prayer was as
the breath of the soul. He lived in the atmosphere of heaven.
As the scenes of the future were opened
to his view, Enoch became a preacher of righteousness, bearing
God's message to all who would hear the words of warning. In
the land where Cain had sought to flee from the divine presence,
the prophet of God made known the wonderful scenes that had passed
before his vision. "Behold," he declared, "the
Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment
upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of
all their ungodly deeds." Jude 14, 15.
The power of God that wrought with His
servant was felt by those who heard. Some gave heed to the warning
and renounced their sins, but the multitudes mocked at the solemn
message. The servants of God are to bear a similar message to
the world in the last days, and it will also be received with
unbelief and mockery.
As year after year passed, deeper and deeper
grew the tide of human guilt, darker and darker gathered the
clouds of divine judgment. Yet Enoch, the witness of faith, held
on his way, warning, pleading, and teaching, striving to turn
back the tide of guilt and to stay the bolts of vengeance.
The men of that generation mocked the folly
of him who sought not to gather gold or silver, or to build up
possessions here. But Enoch's heart was upon eternal treasures.
He had looked upon the celestial city. He had seen the King in
His glory in the midst of Zion. The greater the existing iniquity,
the more earnest was his longing for the home
of God. While still on earth, he dwelt, by faith, in the realms
of light.
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for
they shall see God." Matthew 5:8. For three hundred years
Enoch had been seeking purity of heart, that he might be in harmony
with heaven. For three centuries he had walked with God. Day
by day he had longed for a closer union; nearer and nearer had
grown the communion, until God took him to Himself. He had stood
at the threshold of the eternal world, only a step between him
and the land of the blest; and now the portals opened, the walk
with God, so long pursued on earth, continued, and he passed
through the gates of the holy city, the first from among men
to enter there.
"By faith Enoch was translated that
he should not see death; . . . for before his translation he
had this testimony, that he pleased God." Hebrews 11:5.
"To such communion God is calling
us. As was Enoch's must be their holiness of character who shall
be redeemed from among men at the Lord's second coming.