Promises, Promises

In most cultures you can expect that your parents will pass something on to you when they die—an inheritance. Maybe it’s wealth or property. Though, today, there’s a growing group of wealthy people who have decided not to pass on their wealth to their children. Warren Buffet said,

“I still believe in the philosophy … that a very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing.”

Bill Gates, Mark Zukerberg, Sting, Elton John, Simon Cowell, Jackie Chan, George Lucas, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Joan Crawford, and many others have decided that their children should make their own way in life. Some have pledged to spend all their money, while other’s have pledged to give up to 99% of their wealth away to charities before they die.

That’s all well and good in today’s economy, but imagine a time when all wealth came from the land, and all land was tied to a family.

Back in the time of Israel, God designed a cyclical economy where every family had a chance at wealth, and a chance at redemption if their parents or grandparents failed to produce wealth when they had the chance. The Israelite economy was based on the land. Each family would divide up the land they had been given by God among their children, and the eldest in the family would inherit the largest portion of the land and the responsibility of taking care of the rest of the family. If the family got into a bind, they could sell a portion of their land to pay the debt, but every 50th year their debts would be satisfied and their land returned in the year of Jubilee. It was a system that demanded hard work to become wealthy, that enabled limited generational wealth to be passed down, and that prevented poverty from being passed down through the generations.

In God’s system, an inheritance was a promise of security and safety. It wasn’t an excuse for your children to do nothing. On the contrary, it was an opportunity for your children to grow into leadership and to bless the family and the world.

Not only did you inherited land, you also inherited the family name. It meant something to be a son of Jesse. It meant something to be a descendant of Caleb, the giant killer. One family, the Rechabites, inherited a commitment. When offered wine, they said, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever… that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.” (Jer 35:6-7)

There is one inheritance—one promise—that the Bible talks about more than any other and it begins with Adam’s son:

Genesis 5:1–4 (ESV)

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.

The inheritance that Adam passed down to Seth was promise and a responsibility. The promise was the one God made to Adam and Eve after they sinned and it contained two parts, a promise of judgment and a promise of redemption.

The promise of judgment was made clear in Genesis 2:17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.””

The promise of victory was made after humans sinned in Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”” This promise was further explained when in Genesis 3:21 “the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” He clothed them in the skins of promise. These were the garments made from sacrificial lambs when God showed them how to make an offering for their sins. The promise of a child who would crush the serpent’s head was bound up in each sacrifice.

Seth inherited these promises of judgment and redemption. He also inherited a responsibility to pass down these promises and faithfulness to God to his children.

Promises broken?

Were the promises real?

Seth told his son, Enosh about them, and Enosh told his son, Kenan about them. Kenan told Mahalalel, and Mahalalel told Jared who told his son, Enoch. An by this time 622 years had passed since Adam had received those promises. The world was looking like a much different place than when Adam first told Seth about the promises. For one thing, people were starting to doubt God’s promises of judgment and redemption. And when people doubt God’s promises, things get bad.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. We live a relatively short life. Even the long lives of the pre-flood generations were relatively short compared to the history of the earth. In contrast to us, God is playing a long game with millennia as his markers for time. We calibrate our thinking based on our short-attention span of days or months. Many determine that God’s promises are not real because we haven’t seen them fulfilled yet. This is exactly what Peter describes in the third chapter of his 2nd letter.

2 Peter 3:1–4 ESV

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

Walking with God

We live in a day of scoffers, and so did Enoch.

Let’s read his story in Genesis 5

Genesis 5:21–24 ESV

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

We don’t have a lot to go on to understand Enoch’s experience, we just know that the Bible says that he walked with God.

Some read Enoch’s story and they are inspired by what they perceive to be his sinlessness. How else could Enoch “walk” with a perfect God? Someone said it like this, “Enoch walked with God and God enjoyed his walks with Enoch so much that He decided to bring him to heaven so He could walk with him more often.” Was Enoch’s walk with God a life of sinlessness?

Or did he literally step out from his tent just before dawn, walk to the end of his sheep pen and meet up with God who was waiting for him there? Did they stroll through the open forest and sit under tall, majestic trees? Was his walk a physical, personal experience like you or I can have with a close friend?

Whether sinless perfection or a physical walk with God, for many of us, Enoch’s experience of walking with God seems out of reach. His faith doesn’t seem normal to us. We put him on a pedestal, way up there beyond what we are able to achieve. And yet, I think Enoch’s experience was exactly the same as the experience you and I can have. He was the inheritor of God’s promises, and we can be too.

Since we only have eight verses in the Bible to give us clues into Enoch’s life, we can only guess about his daily experience, but we do have enough clues to help us piece together a possible narrative.

The Story of Enoch

We already read Genesis 5 so let’s look at the other two passages in the Bible that talk about Enoch—Hebrews 11 and Jude.

Hebrews 11:5–6 ESV

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Notice the operating principle in Enoch’s life—faith. He believed God’s promises. Now let’s turn to Jude and notice the contrast to Enoch’s experience. These are the scoffers that Peter was talking about:

Jude 10–15 NLT

But these people scoff at things they do not understand. Like unthinking animals, they do whatever their instincts tell them, and so they bring about their own destruction. What sorrow awaits them! For they follow in the footsteps of Cain, who killed his brother. Like Balaam, they deceive people for money. And like Korah, they perish in their rebellion. When these people eat with you in your fellowship meals commemorating the Lord’s love, they are like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They are like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. They are like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. They are like trees in autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and have been pulled up by the roots. They are like wild waves of the sea, churning up the foam of their shameful deeds. They are like wandering stars, doomed forever to blackest darkness. Enoch, who lived in the seventh generation after Adam, prophesied about these people. He said, “Listen! The Lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

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From these few verse we find out four things:

Enoch walked with God

Enoch’s faith pleased God

God gave Enoch the responsibilities of a prophet

Enoch didn’t die, but instead God took him

Enoch most likely knew Adam because Adam was alive for another 308 years after Enoch was born.

Enoch’s great, great, great, grandfather was Adam’s son Seth, who the Bible suggests was faithful to pass along his inheritance to his children. Seth was obedient to God and when Seth’s family began to grow they expanded into the hills to raise animals and farm the land. Seth’s family lived in tents made from nature. Enoch probably had a similar lifestyle, farming and herding and spending time with God.

Seth’s older brother, Cain, chose a very different lifestyle. He fled the area near the garden of Eden after he killed his brother Abel and his family set up cities in the plains. They became known for their industry, art, and music. They built cities from metal and carved stone. They were also known for their selfishness, cruelty, debauchery and idolatry. They rebelled against God, and as the years progressed they began to deny that God even existed.

By the time Enoch became a prophet the children of Seth had moved close to the children of Cain, some of them even moved into the cities. The closer they got the more alike they became until just before the Flood God could hardly find a person who trusted Him; He declared that the thoughts of the hearts of all people were only evil continually (Genesis 6:5).

As Enoch heard about God’s love from Adam and Seth and his father Jared, he contrasted that with the selfishness in the world around him. More than anything else Enoch wanted to know God and be known by God. He explored God's works in nature as he farmed and herded. He talked with his elders and got to know everything they could tell him about God. He brought his sacrifices faithfully before God at the Garden of Eden and there he prayed for forgiveness and redemption. He held tight to God’s promise that a savior would come and free the world from the problem of sin.

But, like many of his family, Enoch struggled with a question: if God is loving and if he has promised a redeemer, why hasn’t He dealt with all the evil in the world yet? Why doesn’t He punish the wicked, and why doesn’t he reward those who follow Him with all their hearts?

Enoch watched Adam die, and then Seth—no reward. He watched several of Cain’s family die — no punishment for their sins.

Unlike many of his family members that took God’s seeming lack of response to mean license to pursue pleasure and selfishness, Enoch took his questions to God, and God answered Him.

God gave him visions of the future so he could see the final end of sin and the destruction of the wicked. He also saw the coming of the redeemer. He saw Jesus’ ministry and death on the cross. He saw Jesus raised from the tomb and then he saw the righteous raised to life at Jesus’ second coming.

After he saw all these things, God told Enoch to tell the world what He had shown him.

Enoch was the answer to the doubt, confusion, and wickedness of his time.

Enoch’s life and work and even his translation to be with God were witnesses for God to help the people of Enoch’s day believe in and understand God. He was the evidence of the reward God promised to give. Through Enoch God provided hope to those who wanted to live for God but struggled with doubt. The fact that Enoch was taken into heaven underscores all of his prophetic messages—it put's an emphatic exclamation point at the end of every statement. It says, Enoch was telling you the truth.

I don’t know if Enoch lived a sinless life—I doubt it. I’m pretty certain that sinlessness was never on Enoch’s mind. His focus was totally on loving and being loved by God.

Enoch spent time with God and by the power of God’s love Enoch’s heart began to reflect the heart of God. There’s no doubt that Enoch lived a holy life. But God didn’t take Enoch to Heaven because he was holy, he took him to heaven because He had a mission for Enoch to accomplish—the people needed to know the truth about God’s plan for salvation. They needed to be reminded of their inheritance—the promise of God’s salvation.

God took Enoch to heaven as a part of Enoch's testimony to the world.

Conclusion

Enoch’s life, his prophetic ministry, and his translation into heaven all pointed to God’s two-fold promise of judgment on evil and redemption for mankind. And those promises point to Jesus. When Jesus hung on the cross this prophecy from the psalms was fulfilled:

Psalm 85:10 NLT

Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed!

God, in justice, gave his life to fulfill the requirements of the law over sin, and in his unfailing love he gave His life to redeem you.

Redeem is such a great word. In our last message about the Son of God we discovered that because Jesus created Adam and is therefore Adam’s father, we too are the children of God. But, in Adam we rebelled and all of his children have been born in the image of Adam instead of God. That’s where the word “redemption” becomes exciting. The life-impacting inheritance we all get from our parents is a nature bent towards sin and corruption. From Adam, we inherit death. But Jesus offers us a new inheritance—the promise of life with God.

Every so often we celebrate the love of God in giving His life to redeem ours. We call it the Lord’s supper, or the communion service.

In this service we do something that’s kind of strange: we drink grape juice and eat bread, but we call it the blood and body ofJesus. When we participate in this ceremony we are recommitting ourselves to Jesus and expressing publically our belief that He is the fulfillment of all the original promises of God.

Paul put it this way:

Colossians 1:27 (ESV)

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Because of our hope in an inheritance through Christ we take Christ into our bodies. This is a symbol of what we do every day as we invite the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts.

God’s great desire is to be as close to you as he ever was to Enoch. The Bible says that Enoch walked with God, but our relationship with God is described with even more intimacy than Enoch’s. Jesus says,

John 15:4 (ESV)

Abide in me, and I in you.

Someday soon, Jesus will return, just like he promised, and take us to live with Him. Every time we participate in the symbols of the communion service we are remembering both Christ’s sacrifice to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law in bringing justice for sin, and His promised return to give us the inheritance He promised to Adam, to Seth, and to Enoch.

1 Corinthians 11:26 (ESV)

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

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Before we partake of the symbols of the Lord’s death we’re going to share in a service of humility. Like Jesus did with the disciples we’re going to wash each other’s feet.

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Communion:

Elder 1

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Elder 2

1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Jason

1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.