Tag: Genesis 5:21-24
Week 26–Day 1–Reward for walking with God
Scripture reading for June 22: Genesis 5:21-24 “”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.” Hebrews 11:5-6 “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. . .”
Have you ever wondered if your life was pleasing to God? Have you thought about the end of your life and where you might end up? Today, our life-span is seventy or eighty years if we are blessed to live that long. Some make it to 100 years but that is the exception. In the first book of the Bible, the ages of people listed there are much longer, giving them more time to reflect. Today we look at Enoch, a man who lived three hundred sixty five years and he walked with God after the birth of his son, Methuselah.
Enoch is mentioned in the Book of Genesis as the seventh generation from Adam, the first man. He walked with God after his son was born. Methuselah lived longer than any other person recorded in Scripture at 969 years. His name meant, “When he dies, judgment will come.” God revealed His plan to Enoch in this manner and by faith he chose to walk with God. After three hundred years, Scripture records that suddenly he was here no longer and that God took him away. Hebrews reveals that Enoch did not see death because God took him up. The reason he was taken was his faith walk. Jude records that Enoch prophesied to his generation about the coming judgment. In the year his son Methuselah died, the great flood came and God’s judgment fell.
I believe that Enoch is a picture of the reward of all who walk with God by faith. We are told as New Testament believers in Jesus to expect Jesus to come for His people and snatch them away to heaven. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) Walking by faith pleases God our Father and He gives eternal life as reward.
Prayer: Father, I desire to walk with You through this life and am willing to share Your Good News that through Jesus Christ, whoever believes will have eternal life. Amen.
It’s by faith!
Scripture reading for December 13: Hebrews 11-13
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Hebrews 11:1-3
One of the foundational aspects of our faith is trusting God as creator of all things. God alone has the wisdom and power to create the universe or cosmos out of nothing with His simple command! This particular aspect of faith is attacked in our land today by those who put their faith in the theory of evolution. Evolution is a type of religious system that puts time and chance as key ingredients to finding the basis of beginning in all things. A creator is ruled out and intelligent design is believed to be the simple product of chance or random happenings over millions or billions of years.
We who trust God and His Word know by His revelation how creation began. God simply spoke a command and it happened. Faith trusts what we cannot see but what God has said. Faith’s object is always God or His Word. God does not lie. He is absolute Truth and His Word is also Truth! The Bible records a number of human beings who trusted God’s Word and were commended by Him. There is a portion of that list in the rest of Hebrews 11! I want to focus on just one of these ancients, Enoch, who was the seventh generation from Adam through Seth.
“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 seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:5-6)
Enoch was known as a man who walked with God. He was a prophet who warned of the coming of the Lord with His holy angels in judgment. His only recorded message is found in Jude 14-15. Enoch began to walk with God after the birth of his son, Methuselah. (Genesis 5:21-24) The name “Methuselah” has a meaning of judgment coming when he dies. The flood came in the year Methuselah died and he lived longer than any other man recorded in Scripture. Enoch so walked with God, that he was snatched up to heaven without death and became a type of faith-walker that would inspire others throughout the ages!
There is no other means of pleasing God! Jesus is coming again. Will you walk with God today as if that were true and warn others about this coming event? Your reward will be better than Methuselah’s! We have a better resurrection in Jesus Christ! (Hebrews 11:39-40)