Enoch - Initiated before God

Enoch – Initiated before God

Genesis 5:23-24

One of the strangest events that we find in the Bible is what happened to a man named Enoch.  They tell us that this name literally means “initiated.”  He was chosen by God to give humanity a very special lesson on the value of being holy.  God often works that way through individuals, giving us special jobs to do, particularly jobs to reach other people.  He gives us all different talents, different abilities, different personalities, so that we can reach various people.  Not all of us would be able to reach the same people.  I might have trouble relating to a certain group of people that you might be able to relate to very well.  We are all different, that goodness, and that’s one of the things that make us special.

God may have a plan where he wants to show an entire society or area how Christians can be victorious.  We can be victorious through sickness, through pain, through pressure, through whatever we face in our lives.  God wants us to have a victorious life.  We just have to be willing to let him work in us and through us.  Enoch was a man that was selected to have this type of life.  Tonight let’s look at some of the things that we know, or can realize, about this great man.

God has a divine plan.  God’s plan from the start was for man and woman to be placed in a garden and have a wonderful life.  A life of no pain, sickness, work, nothing to draw them away from God.  But, Adam and Eve made a bad choice.  They chose to sin.  Even though God wanted to walk with them, talk with them, spend time with them, they chose to disobey his commandment not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

God could have made man into a robot that had to methodically follow everything that God said.  He didn’t make us that way, though.  Instead of doing that he gave us the right and the ability to make choices.  Think about all the choices you made this last week.  The choice of what to wear each and every day.  The choice of what to eat, probably 3 times, or more, a day.  The choice of where to go, what to do, who to talk to, the list of choices you made would be countless.  Another choice that you made, was the same choice that Adam and Eve made, the choice to sin.  That is what separates us from God, our choice to sin.

God wants us to chose to obey him, not because we are a robot or a puppet on a string, but because we love him and respect him.  We chose to love God or reject God.  We chose to obey him or disobey him.  Choices, choices, choices.

After just a few generations, humanity had degenerated.  People were wicked, God wanted someone to have fellowship with and he wanted the world to know that he still loved them and longed to have companionship with him.  He chose Enoch to be that example and companion.

Enoch was different from all others, as he walked with God.  His relationship was unique.  He had a perception of God and was in contact with his very heart.

The primary character of God is his divine holiness.  In his holiness, God is totally separate from sin.  God cannot sin.  He cannot stand sin.  He is pure, light, love.  He is honor and majesty.  His character is what sets him apart from the rest of creation.

God wants to fellowship with us.  Even though he is separated from humanity, who is full of sin, by his personal holiness, and lack of sin, he still wants to have fellowship with us.  He wants to spend time with us, and us to spend time with him.  He doesn’t want us to just spend time with him on Sunday’s either.  He wants to spend time with us on a daily basis.  He doesn’t want to have to beg us to come to him, he wants us to want to come to him.

Enoch shows us, and showed the world that he lived in, that fellowship with God was possible no matter how evil the time.  He made a decision.  That decision was to walk with God.  He had the power and ability to experience an intimate, divine fellowship with God and his holiness.  If Enoch could do that, others could have then, and still can today.  How can we do that, though?

Enoch had a history of human failure and sin to overcome.  Sounds like us today, doesn’t it?  He didn’t have the advantage that we have today, though, of having and example to follow.  He had to be the pioneer.

Enoch inherited the same sinful nature that all of mankind has had since Adam.  He was prone to do evil, but he chose not to.  The people around him tempted him, tested him, encouraged him to sin, but he made the choice to walk with God.

Every person that has ever lived has been placed under the condemnation of death.  All of us here this evening and every person that we know will die one day, unless God comes back first.  Enoch had seen people die.  Enoch had grieved over the loss of loved ones.  Eventually his father and children all died, but Enoch was different.

Enoch’s experience with God is what made things special.  In order to walk in full fellowship with God, Enoch had to separate himself from the sins of mankind.  He had to learn to live apart from sin and be close to God.  This is the only way that he could have walked with God.  God chose Enoch to show humankind the end result of a person that was totally committed to him.

God had something special in store for Enoch.  He had to meet certain requirements before he could receive it though.  What were these requirements?

He had to be a man of faith.  Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.   He had to have superior faith.  It is impossible for a man to experience the divine presence of God without faith.  Enoch’s faith allowed him to communicate with God. 

God rejoiced over the faith of Enoch.  God translated him.  What does that mean?  It means that he literally took Enoch to heaven bodily.  He did not experience death.  He did not have to suffer the effects of his sins.  His friends and family didn’t have to grieve, but I am sure they had questions.

Today, Enoch is still walking with God.  He is in heaven today, walking, talking, and praising our Lord.

That is the type of relationship with God that we need to strive for.  We need to be completely surrendered to God, completely sold out to serving him.  We should have the joy of serving him, the faith and dedication to serve him no matter what.