Enoch: Pleasing Faith
Hebrews 11:5-6, Genesis 5:21-24
“When I was about ten years old, my dad, a medical doctor, received a special gift from one of his patients: a beautiful globe with shiny sequins,” says Matt Woodley. The globe spun around on its base and played one of my dad’s favorite songs. Dad proudly demonstrated how it worked: grab it by the base, slowly wind it counter-clockwise, and then release it, letting it spin clockwise while playing beautiful music. He told us, “You can touch it, but don’t wind it, because you might break it.”
A week later, while my dad was at work, I found the globe and brought it to my room. Although I heard my dad say, “Don’t wind it up,” I decided to wind it up anyway. I gave it a little twist and let it play. It played, but only for five seconds. So I gave it another twist and another twist and five more twists and then – snap! The globe separated from the base. I desperately tried to fix it. I tried forcing the two pieces together. I tried gluing it. I tried taping it. Finally, as I stared hopelessly at the two pieces of the globe, I realized it was broken beyond repair. So I went into my closet, shut the door, and hid.
It was Genesis 3 all over again.
Our world is like the broken globe: it’s been twisted too far, and we can’t put it back together again. Relationships break, our sexuality breaks, we’re slowly breaking the Earth. Our hearts break, nations break down and go to war, our health breaks, our politics break. All the glue, tape, and positive thinking can’t put it back together again.
The mysterious Old Testament man Enoch, seven generations removed from Adam and Eve through their son Seth, was well aware of the brokenness and deep darkness of the world in which he lived. He lived in the time leading up to Noah, who was his great-grandson. Genesis 6 describes that time in human history this way: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart,” (Gen. 6:5-6).
The time from Adam to Noah was a time of increasing sin and evil and wickedness and darkness in the human heart. It didn’t take long for human sinfulness to grow to the point where the Bible tells us that there was actually regret in God’s heart and mind for making us at all. It was a time marked by unparalleled bloodthirst and sensuality and violence and hoarding and greed. Survival and children to carry on your legacy were the only things that mattered.
That’s why, centuries later, when God first gave his law to Moses, he started with the Ten Commandments. We often think of the Ten Commandments as really high morality, but in their Old Testament context, they aren’t. They’re actually pretty basic. Worship only the true God, not false idols. Honor and respect your parents, even when you’re older. Don’t just throw the aged away because they are weak. Learn from them. Don’t kill other people. Don’t sleep with someone else’s spouse. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. This isn’t rocket science people! God wasn’t in that moment taking us to moral heights, although he did build on the Ten Commandments, and Jesus definitely deepened them. But here, he was teaching his people how to not live like animals. To fall below this moral line is to cease being human and begin behaving like animals.
Animals. That’s what humanity was like in the days of Enoch. That’s why, in Hebrews 11, Enoch appears as an example of enduring faith. Walking with God in the face of great resistance, in a world of great darkness. Turn to Hebrews 11:5-6.
Four short verses in Genesis give us the full account of Enoch’s life. Flip over quickly to Genesis 5:21-24. When the Bible establishes a pattern, and then breaks that pattern, the break in pattern is significant. As the genealogy from Adam and Eve to Noah progresses, the pattern is “so-and-so lived this long, and then had this child, plus others, and then lived another number of years, and then died.” That’s the pattern. But with Enoch, the pattern breaks. It doesn’t say “and he died,” as is the pattern for all the others. Those exact words, the pattern and repetition creating a rhythm.
When we come to Enoch, we read, “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” Enoch walked with God, and then he wasn’t here on the earth anymore. He is one of two human beings ever to live and not taste death, the other being the prophet Elijah. The word translated “and he was not” is actually the word “translated.” He walked with God on this earth, and then God translated him into heaven without his going through death. That’s all the Old Testament tells us about Enoch.
The tiny New Testament book of Jude gives us a little more information about him. Jude describes the sinfulness of humanity and then writes, “It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him,” (Jd. 14-15). Enoch was a light faithfully shining brightly in a very dark world.
Enoch’s faith enabled him to walk with God on this earth and please God, and because of that he became an earthly example of Christ’s defeat of death. He gained eternity without ever tasting death. Enoch lived in reliance on God, walking with God in a very dark world, and his life brought a big smile to God’s face. Enoch wasn’t perfect. No human being ever has been, except for Jesus, God in the flesh. Enoch was just as sinful as anyone else, but unlike the people around him, he didn’t walk in sin. He walked with God. When he fell into sin, he repented of it and sought forgiveness and restoration in his walk with God.
As we look at these two short verses about Enoch in Hebrews 11, we’re actually going to take them backwards, starting with V. 6 and then going back to V. 5, because it is faith that leads us to living our lives walking with God, while we hold on in hope to the fullness of God’s promise – eternal life in Christ. So let’s start with V. 6.
Faith is a belief that changes how I go about life. Faith in God starts with the belief that God is. That God exists. We can’t physically see God. So there’s an element of faith and trust there. But it doesn’t mean that our faith is unfounded, a blind leap into the unknown. Because we CAN experience God. And we CAN see the evidence of God in the order and intelligence we find behind creation. The exact ordering of things, the precision with which this universe operates speaks to a designing, creating intelligence behind it.
If I walk into our kitchen and find a pile of Alphabits cereal on the floor, I can assume that a mistake was made. Something happened by chance. But if I walk into my kitchen and find a line of Shakespeare spelled out on the kitchen floor, I’m going to assume that an intelligence of some kind put those letters in that exact sequence. If I found all the works of Shakespeare spelled out in Alphabits, I’d assume a much more sophisticated intelligence, and a whole lot of available cereal. DNA and genetic code form a precise description of someone so specific that DNA evidence can convict someone in court, and they form a sequence of information far more complex than all of the works of Shakespeare by far.
So we can know by observing the evidence that God exists. But we can know far more than just that God is. Once we believe that God is, we begin to wander what God is like. God is … what?
Think about it like this. I nervously approached the front door of a house in October of 1996. It was my first time attending a young adult small group Bible study after moving here to Traverse City a couple of months prior. The church I was working at didn’t have a lot of young adults at the time, so this was a group from another church in town, and I really only knew one of the people attending. It was the guy who’d invited me to join the group.
So I knocked on the door and this absolutely stunning young woman opened the door and said, “Hi. I’m Becky. Come on in.” And my heart did flip flops. My heart did flip flops all over again just thinking about that moment as I wrote this sermon. I had butterflies in my stomach driving home from the church that night! Her smile and her gorgeous eyes grabbed me right then and there. In that moment, I knew that Becky existed. That she “is.” But I also knew that I wanted to know more about what she is like. Becky is … who? What?
Over time I found that she is intelligent. Like extremely intelligent. Before we had kids, she used to solve MENSA puzzles for fun! She was getting answers and I didn’t even understand the question. I have two masters degrees, and the only way I’m even in the same ballpark as her intellect is if she has the flu AND covid AND hasn’t slept in about 3 days.
And then I learned that she’s a busy bee. She’s never still. If she’s still, its because she’s asleep. And not only is she always moving, she moves quite a bit faster than me. If you run into us at the grocery store, chances are you’ll find her somewhere ahead of me. She’s a lot shorter than me, but her natural pace is about twice what mine is.
She’s a fierce mom. If you hurt one of her kids she will take you out. And she really cares about people. She’ll give to others even when she has nothing left to give. She’ll give until she drops. And she’s incredibly private, so I’m probably going to get in trouble when we get home today.
So what is the God who “is” like? The name God gives as his name in scripture, Yahweh, means “the God who is.” “I am who I am.” As opposed to the false gods of this world, who are “not.” Colossians 1:16-20 tells us more about what the God who “Is” is like. God is … who? What?
God is creator. ALL that is, exists because God wants it to exist. God is the source of life. There is no life apart from God, who is life. But God didn’t just create everything and then leave it to run itself. God also continually sustains his creation. God creates all that is, AND God continually holds all things together and provides for his creation.
Now, Colossians 1 is actually describing Christ, who is “the image (the exact representation) of the invisible God.” Everything that is true of God is true of Christ. Everything that we see in Christ is true of God. So now we can SEE God in Christ. Jesus made God visible and real human beings saw him, knew him, spent time with him, interacted with him, learned from him.
And in Christ, God is revealed not just as creator and sustainer but as our savior. God desires relationship with us, wants us to know him as he knows us, and so in Christ, God offers forgiveness and mercy while honoring his justice and dealing with sin. And Jesus, the exact representation of God, is the goal of everything. Human history is moving toward its final consummation in him.
When we believe that God is, we are doing far more than just saying “God exists.” We are saying that Yahweh, the God who is, is creator and sustainer and savior and goal of everything. But when we believe that, we don’t just think it, we begin living according to that unseen reality. Look at V. 5.
If we go back to Genesis 5:22 says that “Enoch walked with God.” As the writer of Hebrews quotes this verse, he emphasizes that Enoch’s walking with God was pleasing to God. Genesis says he walked with God. Hebrews that he pleased God. And so he stepped into eternal life without tasting death. Enoch’s faith led to him walking with God. Not to him thinking certain things about God or being able to answer questions on a test, but to walking through this life with God. That’s what it means to place your faith in Christ. You begin to walk with him.
Walking with someone isn’t something that just happens. If you’re over at the Civic Center walking the mile long paved path around it, and you bump into a friend, there’s still something that happens before you walk with them. It doesn’t just happen. There is intention there. There’s a decision each of you make to walk together. It’s intentional. On purpose.
And out of that purpose, you begin to walk in the same direction, or toward the same destination, right? But you also sync up the path you will take toward that destination, and the pace you will take. You aren’t running ahead, or lagging behind. If that’s the case, you aren’t walking WITH that person. You might be walking near them at times, but you aren’t walking with them, able to listen to them and talk to them. That takes intentionally syncing your destination, path, and pace with theirs.
God invites us to walk with him. In relationship. Enjoying his company as he enjoys our company. That relationship is made possible in Christ. In his going to the cross for us. Accepting his forgiveness and mercy. And that leads to actually walking through life with him. Walking with him, taking up his direction and destination, his path, and his pace. As we walk with him, we talk to him and listen to him, getting to know him better and better, not just in our minds, but in our experience. And that pleases God. It brings a smile to God’s face. When you meet Christ in eternity, there will be smile lines on his face because your walk with him made him smile.
When you walk into your place of work, you are walking there with Christ. When you walk into your home, you are walking there with Christ. When you walk through your neighborhood or into a neighbor or friend’s home, you are walking there with Christ. When you interact with a difficult person, or even an enemy, you are doing that with Christ, treating that person as Christ, standing with you, treats them. That’s what a faith that pleases God is like.
And that faith leads to the full realization of all of God’s promises in eternity. Enoch stepped into eternal life without tasting death. We are not saying that you and I will not taste death. Enoch and Elijah are the only ones for whom that is true. We will taste death, but we will not taste its sting. St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, says, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Cor. 15:55-57). Why is death’s sting gone? Because the stinger was left in Jesus when he died on the cross for us. Death is a wasp with no stinger. A lion with no teeth. It looks scary, but that’s it. In Christ, the actual dangerous part has been taken from it.
Zeke was our son who died tragically in 2012 just a day before his 7th birthday. So he was never really “big.” But when he was even smaller, we took him to the doctor to get whatever shot he was due for at the moment. And he was terrified. When the nurse touched his arm with just her fingers, he started saying “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.” And the nurse said, Zeke, I haven’t done anything yet. I’m just cleaning the spot. Just watch that tv. I’ll tell you when I’m ready. And then she picked up the needle and deftly put the needle in his upper thigh, pushed the plunger, and then pulled it out and said, “All done.” Zeke turned to her with an incredulous look on his face and said, “Really? That didn’t hurt at all.”
That’s what death will be like for those who place their faith in Christ and walk through life with him. It will be scary for all of us. Because it looks scary. But when we’re standing in God’s presence with Christ a second later, I have a feeling we’ll say, “It’s done? That didn’t hurt at all. I can’t believe I spent my whole life worried about that.” Christ took the sting, so that we don’t have to feel it.
When we place our faith in Christ, the exact representation of the God who “Is,” we are not just saying that he is creator, sustainer, savior, and goal of all that is. We are accepting his invitation to walk through this life WITH him. Allowing him to set the destination, path, and pace. Often, his pace will be slower than we’d like. But he sets the pace. Unlike Enoch, we’ll walk right through death, but like Enoch, we won’t experience it’s sting. We’ll just find ourselves standing face to face with the unseen traveling companion we’ve been walking with all along, saying “It’s over? That’s it? Why was I afraid of that?” And we’ll look at his face, and see his smile. Let’s pray.
