Key: Blue=Bible, Red=Author notes
Hebrews 11:5-6
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. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Good Day World!
I’m a little late with this post, but God is good either way. We just finished going through Abel and now it’s time for his great-great-great-great-nephew (I probably didn’t do this right), Enoch!
Like Abel, there’s not much mentioned about Enoch in the Bible. He reappears in the genealogy of Jesus as seen in Luke 3:37 and he is also mentioned in Jude 1:14, but again we do not see a lot of him in the Bible. Nevertheless, I still feel that we can learn so much from Enoch.
Genesis 5: 21-24
When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
The author of Hebrews took this context when he wrote about Enoch in the Hall of Faith. He believed that he deserved to be talked about because of what happened to him and how God was pleased by him. There seems to be a connection between what happened to Enoch and what happened to Abel. Just as Abel’s sacrifice pleased God, the life Enoch has lived pleased God as well. But let’s try to put this into a different perspective. About 500 years is past since the death of Abel to the birth of Enoch. Within that 500 years was there any human who pleased God? This is mere speculation but I believe that it really did take 500 years for someone to meet standards Abel set up. This helps explain the man Enoch had to be. Think about it! Another 400 years goes by, and Noah is born and we know what happened to the world when Noah comes into play. So, what does this all mean?
Romans 3:10-11
As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; There is no one who understands; no one who seeks God.”
I may be interpreting this scripture wrong (Please let me know), but Paul’s reason in saying this was to explain that no one is more righteous than anyone else. He used this verse, along with others, to argue that there’s not much difference between Jews and Gentiles, and both need Jesus. However, the original scripture in Psalms 53:3 talks more to the humans as whole. So, if it took 500 years for another man to receive praise from God like Abel did. Who was Enoch to God?
As mentioned above, the Bible does not say much about Enoch. We now know that he had to be a great man, if God is to be pleased with him, but who was he? In the book of Jude, we see a quote from Enoch that Jude uses to explain what God has in store for his enemies.
Jude 1:14
Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
It almost sounds like he was a prophet, but the first prophet ever mentioned was Abram, who we will see later in this series. Nevertheless, we see here how Enoch wasn’t afraid to “prophesy” to those who would listen to him. This is a more aggressive tone, but then we don’t see the entire message. My guess is that he is warning us to repent back to God (as most prophets do) or we will end up suffering at God’s own hand.
Another interesting note from my research, says that this quote comes out of the Book of Enoch, 1 Enoch 1:9. The Book of Enoch is considered a Pseudoepigraph, which are false works and texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or is a work whose real author bases his story on a person in history. It is not considered inspired by God therefore, doesn’t belong in the Bible. (Which is pretty cool! I like how it adds to how specific and true the Bible is. There’s like 20 or so books that scholars did not put in the Bible because based on the history, they felt it wasn’t true. This adds to the legitimacy of the Bible.)
Most sources agree that the Book of Enoch is a pseudepigraph, but there are still interesting things to be found in it. For example, the book of Enoch predicts the messiah coming to save the world. I will list some quotes here:
1 Enoch 50:3
They shall have no honour through the name of the Lord of Spirits, Yet through His name shall they be saved, And the Lord of Spirits will have compassion on them, For His compassion is great.
1 Enoch 46:1-4
And there I saw One who had a head of days, And His head was white like wool, And with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man, And his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels. And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden things, concerning that Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, (and) why he went with the Head of Days And he answered and said unto me: This is the son of Man who hath righteousness, With whom dwelleth righteousness, And who revealeth all the treasures of that which is hidden, Because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him, And whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness for ever. And this Son of Man whom thou hast seen Shall raise up the kings and the mighty from their seats, [And the strong from their thrones] And shall loosen the reins of the strong, And break the teeth of the sinners.
1 Enoch 62: 7-9
For from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden, And the Most High preserved him in the presence of His might, And revealed him to the elect. And the congregation of the elect and holy shall be sown, And all the elect shall stand before him on that day. And all the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who rule the earth Shall fall down before him on their faces, And worship and set their hope upon that Son of Man, And petition him and supplicate for mercy at his hands.
1 Enoch 69: 27
And he sat on the throne of his glory, And the sum of judgement was given unto the Son of Man, And he caused the sinners to pass away and be destroyed from off the face of the earth, And those who have led the world astray.
I placed the verses here from the Book of Enoch for the purpose of shedding more light to who he “may” have been and how even here, it predicts the coming of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. But, “Please take this with a grain of salt!!!” If God wanted it to be in the Bible, it would have been in the Bible…but it is not. Therefore, we cannot accept it as the true word of God. (Not sure how much I agree with what I said, this will require more research)
Genesis 5:24
Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
This verse is probably the most important reason why the author of Hebrews placed Enoch into the Hall of Faith. There are only 2 (maybe 3) people who have not experienced death within the entire Bible. Enoch, Elijah, and the disciple whom Jesus loved. I’m 100% sure about Enoch and Elijah, because they were directly taken to God. The disciple whom Jesus loved (I think it’s John, the son of Zebedee) was said to “remain alive until Jesus return,” only if Jesus wills it.
Enoch seems to be on par with Elijah as people who were ascended into God’s place without facing death. I found this very interesting. We know a ton about Elijah. Some even consider Elijah as the most powerful prophet in the Bible, for example one of my favorite stories must be the fire sacrifice where he challenged the prophets of Baal to a duel (lol) and utterly destroyed them (Pretty awesome). The Bible also explains how he was taken up.
2 Kings 2:11
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
Now we have no way of knowing how Enoch was sent into heaven. One thing we do know was that he was a man who was commended as one who pleased God and that God decided to take him and not let him die. We know that he wasn’t afraid to preach the Gospel and call people to repent. We know that he lived in a world where sin was rampant, yet could still walk with God for 300 years (Gen 5:22). I cannot prove it, but I do feel that the time he lived in was 100000x worse than it is now. But to remain faithful that long… and with the life span being about 700-1000 years, perhaps God had to take him out before he got too polluted.
We won’t know till we meet him up in Heaven, and man…it’s so unimaginable.
In conclusion, here are some take away points!
- Learn to be faithful and walk with God. Believe and ye shall receive!
- Don’t be afraid to boldly preach the Gospel! Even if everyone else is against it!
Enoch also has a very interesting fact. He is the Great-Grandfather of Noah! Noah is also the next person on our list, and is a person that I believe everyone, even non-Christians, knows. So, please look forward to the next chapter.
Quick side note: I was very lazy these last 2 weeks. This should have arrived here last week, but I was lazy. I believe laziness is a sin and it’s something that I really struggle with. Please pray for me that I can learn to overcome my laziness and put it towards something to help others. I am in the process of repenting, and I really want to try to make God first in my life as opposed to my own personal enjoyment. Thank ya’ll for reading, it really means a lot to me!
I love ya’ll,
Ayodeji Alaketu
