Day Twenty four - Study on the faith of Enoch

Hebrews 11:5  By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

                  The next verse tells us,  “But without faith it is impossible to please Him.”  The subject is Enoch.  Since Enoch walked with God and since God took him,  it is obvious that Enoch pleased God.  And since he pleased God,  he must have been a man of faith because you can’t please God apart from faith.

                 When you read about Noah or Abraham,  it is easy to see the faith of these great men.  They did something.  They went somewhere,  but you don’t see any action of faith in the life of Enoch.  Hebrews tells us that Enoch was translated by faith.  It is not easy to see Enoch’s faith in his translation. God took him to heaven.  This is a very rare occurrence in the Bible.  In the Old Testament,  men did not go to be with the Lord in heaven after they died.  They went into paradise in the lower parts of the earth.  When we read about the rich man and Lazarus,  we see that Lazarus is in Abraham’s bosom.  Even Abraham was not allowed to dwell with God.  He spent his days before the resurrection of Christ in Sheol,  the place of the dead.   Again,  it is hard to see how faith had anything to do with the translation of Enoch except for this one thing,  “Enoch walked with God.” 

                  It has always been God’s desire to have heaven come to the earth. He wants to have heaven a part of this world’s system.  In the future,  the kingdom of heaven will come to the earth.  In the present time, God has a presence in this world in the indwelling Holy Spirit. Christ's coming to earth was summarized in his name "Emmanuel" meaning "God with us."  Because God has a desire to be “with us,”  he asks his children to “Abide in Him.”  He desires to have a fellowship with us.  He desires to walk with us.  Of all the good deeds we can do on this earth,  the greatest thing that we do is to walk with God.  Of all the passions and purposes that we have,  the greatest of all is to walk with God. 

An Exercise to increase our Faith:  Read Genesis 5:21-24.  Ask yourself what it means to “Walk with God.”  How does this show faith?  Is this the greatest show of faith in the Bible?  What would it mean if we walked with God?