June 29, 2022
Author: Pastor Gordon Cook
June 29, 2022
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.
Genesis 5:22-24
The Christian life is put under a lot of different images. There is a
lot of different graphic pictures of how a Christian lives and what a
Christian can expect. You have the imagery of warfare in Ephesians 6;
the image of a pilgrim, this isn’t our home; you have athletic imagery
of running a race and fighting or boxing, Paul picks up that imagery in 1
Thessalonians; the image of marriage, of family. What Paul uses more
than any other graphic image is that of walking. Some 30 times he picks
up the image of walking; 8 times in Ephesians, 5 times in Romans, 4
times in Corinthians, 3 times in Philippians, 3 times in Colossians, and
many more times. He uses expressions like, “We are to walk in the
Spirit,” “We are to walk worthy of God,” “We are to walk in the truth,”
“We are to walk as children of light,” “We are to walk worthy of our
calling,” and Colossians 2, “As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk you in him.” So we are to walk like Jesus Christ.
Why
did Paul use that walking metaphor? He probably did a lot of walking
himself and maybe he enjoyed walking. But the better answer is he is
making good use of his Old Testament Bible. Next to Jesus there was no
one who made better use of the Old Testament than the Apostle Paul. In
the book of Romans you see him regularly referring back to his Old
Testament Bible quoting Scripture as he seeks to explain the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
This graphic metaphor of walking to describe the
believer is found in the Old Testament in the book of Proverbs and
several instances in the Psalms. We can go all the way back to Genesis
where the first time it is used is in reference to God, God walking in
the garden. The first person where this graphic image is used is Enoch
here in Genesis 5. This was before the flood in what has been called the
Antediluvian World. That is the big word for “before the flood.” We
know from Genesis 6 just how bad the world was before the flood. Why did
God bring the flood? The world was so bad, total depravity, you could
say, it was at its worst. We read in Genesis 6, “God saw the evil of
mankind was great on the earth; every purpose of the thought of their
hearts were only evil.” That is quite a description of human depravity.
“Every thought, every purpose of their hearts were only evil”. But in
the midst of all of that darkness, Enoch walked with God.
And
look how long he lived, 365 years. He could have been saved in his early
teens or late teens; we don’t know when he was saved, but he walked
with God for 300 years. That’s an encouragement. Think of that, 300
years in the midst of such oppressive darkness. He didn’t get swallowed
up in the black hole of darkness.
The concept of walking carries
with it fellowship, intimacy, and joy. To walk with God means you stay
close to God. That’s the secret, isn’t it? You stay close with God,
you’re not running ahead of God, you’re not lagging behind God, you’re
walking with God. If we desire to continue our own walk with God we need
to be close to God. One of the best ways to stay close to God is
prayer. Hebrews says, “draw near to God,” again, language of prayer. As our world gets darker and darker we can trust that God will keep us.
I
recently heard the former Attorney General, William Barr, make a
statement as he was speaking at the University of Chicago as a keynote
speaker say, “Western civilization is facing its deepest crisis since
Jesus Christ.” That is quite shocking language. He makes the point that
this civilization that we have been blessed to have been part of in the
Judeo Christian tradition is increasingly under attack by what he calls,
“militant secular forces.”
The Bible does say that we don’t know
when it is all going to work itself out, but it does seem to indicate
that the closer we get to the end the worse it gets. I think there is a
tension, it gets better in some respects but it gets worse. “Iniquity
will abound,” says Jesus, “and the love of many will grow cold.”
Certainly when we are living in a time when we see increased wickedness
and darkness it is easy to get afraid, even for our children. You wonder
sometimes, how can anybody make it? Don’t forget Enoch. Enoch walked
with God in the darkest of times.
Dr. Piper said, “The older I
get, the more urgent my prayers. Preserve me, keep me.” That is
something we should be praying. We could pray for walking grace, that
God would keep us persevering. He is a God who keeps his people. He is
called the keeper of Israel. We need to pray to him that he would show
his keeping, preserving mercy as we run this race and as we walk with
our God.
BACK