ENOCH, THE MAN WHO WENTTO GOD 
As preached at the PCC prayer meeting by bro Linus Chua on 28 June 2002

In Genesis 3:15, we find the first declaration of the gospel in Scriptures.There, we see the first rays of gospel light penetrating into this dark andfallen world. Indeed, God was very merciful to man after the fall. He did notdestroy them immediately after they sinned against Him. He also gave them thatgracious promise of a Saviour, who would someday come to crush the devil anddeliver His people. But even though God showed mercy to man that day, He didnot remove the consequences and effects of sin from this world. God said toAdam in Genesis 3:19, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thoureturn unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, andunto dust shalt thou return.”

Since then, death, like a mighty sickle, has swept across all mankind cuttingdown everyone in its way, and unless the Lord Christ comes again in our lifetime, each one of us will also be cut down someday. I like the way R.C. Sproulputs it,

Death is a divine appointment. It ispart of God’s purpose in our lives. God calls each person to die. He issovereign over all of life, including the final experience of life…. We havedifferent vocations with respect to jobs and tasks that God gives us in thislife. But we all share in the vocation in death. Every one of us is called todie. That vocation is as much a calling from God as is a “call” to the ministryof Christ. Sometimes the call comes suddenly and without warning. Sometimes itcomes with a notification in advance. But it comes to all of us. And it comesfrom God.

I like that phrase—“[God] is sovereign over all of life.” His sovereignty overlife and death is especially seen in the lives of two persons that once walkedupon the face of this earth, but who now walk in a far better country—Enoch andElijah, the only two saints whom God plucked out of this earth, bypassing theordinary experience of death. We want to look at the first of these two.

The Bible doesn’t tell us very much about Enoch. Besides Hebrews 11:5 andGenesis 5:21–24, the only other place in Scriptures that tell us somethingabout Enoch is Jude 14–15. That’s all the biblical data we have on this man. Infact, we can summarise the life of Enoch under three simple points. Enoch: (1)the man who walked with God, (2) the man who witnessed forGod, and (3) the man whowent to God. I’ll like to focus ourthoughts on this third aspect of Enoch’s life, namely—the man who went to God,and share with us some simple lessons from his translation. But before that,it’ll be good if we briefly review the biblical account of Enoch’s going toGod.

The Biblical Account of Enoch’s Translation

Genesis 5:24 gives us the summarised account while Hebrews 11:5 gives us theexpanded account. Look first at Genesis 5:24. There we have Enoch’s translationstated both negatively and positively. Enoch walked with God: and he was not(negatively); for God took him (positively). What does the phrase “and he wasnot” mean? Well, a simple illustration I can think of is that of a magician whoperforms a “magic trick” and makes something disappear. Perhaps he puts a coinin his hand, closes it and when he opens it again, it has vanished—the coin wasnot. When God took Enoch, Enoch vanished from this earth. And it wasn’t amagician who made Enoch disappear. Oh no, God who took him.

It’s interesting that this word “took” in Genesis 5:24 is the same word used todescribe Elijah’s departure from this earth? 2 Kings 2:3, “And the sons of theprophets that were at Bethelcame forth to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will takeaway thy master from thy head to day?” (italics added). Just as Godtook Elijah up to heaven, so He took Enoch from this earth.

Hebrews 11:5 gives us a little more detail on Enoch’s going to God. Here, wehave two negative and one positive statements. Enoch was translated that heshould not see death (the first negative), and was not found(the second negative), because God had translated him (thepositive statement). Let’s look at each of them. Firstly, Enoch did not seedeath. He didn’t go through that frightening and terrible experience in which aperson’s soul is separated or rent from his body. That’s what death is about—thebreaking up of that mysterious, yet real, union of body and soul. Just asdivorce dissolves that bond between a man and a woman, so death dissolves thebond between one’s body and soul. But Enoch knew nothing of that frighteningexperience of dying and of death itself. He did not see death.

The second negative statement is “Enoch… was not found.” Thisphrase suggests to us that sometime after Enoch was translated, a search partywas sent out to look for him. (After all, you don’t say that something was notfound unless you had first been looking for it.) Again we see a parallel inElijah. Some time after Elijah was taken to heaven, some of the sons of theprophets came to Elisha and said,

Behold now, there be with thyservants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master: lestperadventure the Spirit of the LORD hath taken him up, and cast him upon somemountain, or into some valley. And he said, Ye shall not send. And when theyurged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men;and they sought three days, but found him not. And when they came again to him,(for he tarried at Jericho,)he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not? (2 Kgs 2:16–18).

We are told that a search party went out to look for Elijah. Similarly, therewere people who went looking for Enoch after he was translated. Perhaps theywent to those places where Enoch was known to have spent seasons of intenseprayer and fasting and seeking of God’s face; times when the burdens of livingin this sinful world was too much for him to bear and he would go out somewherealone to pour out his heart to God and have communion with Him, as anyone whowalks with God would. Perhaps, but whatever it is, we know that Enoch wassought out by those who knew him, but they could not find him.

Lastly, we look at the positive statement in Hebrews 11:5, “God had translatedhim.” In modern English usage, we normally think of the word “to translate” orthe word “translation” to mean the bringing of words from one language toanother. But the word “translate” also means to move or change one’s positionor condition. Perhaps a more helpful word for us than “translate” is the word“transport.” Enoch was transported from earth to heaven. He was transported,taken up, both body and soul, into another world. One moment he was standingon terra firma and the next he was gone from this earth. Godtook Enoch away. God translated him.

Well, this is all that the Scriptures tell us about Enoch’s translation. Howwas Enoch translated? Did anyone see him when he was taken up? Did Enochhimself know before hand, as Elijah did, that he was going to be translated?Did he have time to bid farewell to his wife, his children and his otherrelatives and friends before he went? There are many questions that we may askconcerning Enoch’s going to God, but the Scriptures give us no hint of ananswer. Well I’m sure that when we meet Enoch in heaven someday, we can ask himall the questions we want. For now we must wait patiently till then to findout.

But while we remain on this earth, there is one question that we must askconcerning Enoch’s translation: What is God teaching us from the biblicalrecord of Enoch’s translation? In other words, why did God take Enoch the wayHe did, and what does Enoch’s translation have to do with us today? Well, Itrust that we may, without fancy, draw some important lessons from Enoch’stranslation.

Lessons from Enoch’s Translation

Firstly, Enoch’s translation reveals to us the gracious purposes of Godin redemptive history. Enoch’s translation is a very important milestone in thehistory of redemption. He was translated almost a thousand years after the fallof mankind. The record of Adam and Eve’s sin and God’s dealings with His fallencreatures is found in Genesis 3. Then in chapter 4, we read of the first murderthat ever took place in this world, and we are also introduced to that godlessline that began to populate this world. Genesis 3:15 describes that line as theseed of the serpent. Then in chapter 5, we read of the godly line thatdescended from Seth, whom God had appointed in place of Abel. As we readchapter 5, we immediately notice that something is wrong—that while people wereliving for many hundreds of years, yet a time still came when each had to die.First Adam, then Seth, then Enos, then Cainan, then Mahalaleel, then Jared. Forsix generations this phrase, “and he died,” is repeated again and again.

So apart from Genesis 3:15, God doesn’t reveal anything more to mankindconcerning His great plan of redemption, until we come to Enoch in Genesis5:24. During those 1,000 years after sin entered into this world, the humanrace had witnessed time and again those words of God to Adam, “for dust thouart, and unto dust shalt thou return.” But the most significant death up untilthat point must surely have been that of Adam himself. It must have been a mostpoignant and moving moment in human history when the head of the human racehimself was finally laid to rest in the earth. Perhaps hundreds, if notthousands, of Adam’s extended family gathered together that day to witness hisburial. The only one whom God personally formed from the dust of the ground,was now returning to the dust—“for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thoureturn.”

Many, no doubt, would have heard Adam telling them of the enmity that Godinjected, the enmity that God was perpetuating, and the enmity that God wouldsomeday consummate with the coming of the woman’s seed to crush the head of theserpent. Yes, the gospel was handed down from one generation to another. Butone question must have pressed itself upon the minds of the godly when they sawtheir first father buried in the earth—will the dead live again? Does the bodyhave any part to play in God’s redemptive plan or does redemption only involvethe soul? Will our bodies, when we die, return to the dust forever? What willbecome of those who believe God’s promise in Genesis 3:15? Will they rise againfrom the dead?

Enoch was alive when Adam died. Then 57 years after that, long after Adam’sbody had seen decay and corruption, Enoch was translated that he should not seedeath. No doubt many of those who were around when Adam died and was buried,were still alive when Enoch was translated. And so when God took Enoch, the seventhfrom Adam, He was showing His people that there is indeed a place in Hisredemptive plan for their bodies. Enoch’s translation was a pledge that God wasgoing to redeem, not a part, but the whole of a person—body and soul. As anaside, isn’t it wonderful that God reveals His plan of redemption both by wordand by deed! By word, He spoke Genesis 3:15. By deed, He took Enoch, body andsoul, unto Himself.

Listen to John Owen’s comments on Enoch’s translation,

And this was a divine testimony thatthe body itself is also capable of eternal life. When all mankind saw thattheir bodies went into the dust and corruption universally, it was not easy forthem to believe that they were capable of any other condition, but that thegrave was to be their eternal habitation, according to the divine sentence onthe entrance of sin, “Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.” Butherein God gave us a pledge and assurance that the body itself hath a capacityof eternal blessedness in heaven.

Secondly, Enoch’s translation reveals to us the importance of walkingwith God in this life. In Enoch’s life and translation, we see the end of onewho walked with God during his time on this earth. Many Christians today thinkthat a consistent walk with God in the ways of God, is only for the morespiritual and serious believer like Enoch, and not for the “ordinary”Christian. But make no mistake, only those who walk with God in this life, asEnoch did, will go to God when they leave this earth. “They must walk with Godhere who design to live with him hereafter… they must please God in this worldwho would be blessed with him in another” (Owen). “In Adam God would give theworld a pledge of the fruit of sin, which is death; and in Enoch, God wouldgive a pledge of the fruit of holiness, and that is immortality and eternallife” (Thomas Manton). So we see very clearly that the fruit or the result ofsin is death, but the fruit of holiness is life eternal. Though walking withGod does not earn us a place in heaven, it is nevertheless an unmistakableevidence that we are true believers and are headed for the celestial city.

Said Balaam, that strange character, in Numbers 23:10, “Let me die the death ofthe righteous, and let my last end be like his!” But sadly, he was unwilling tolive the life of a righteous Enoch, and so instead, he died the death of thewicked. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, thatshall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reapcorruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap lifeeverlasting” (Gal 6:7–8).

While studying in college, I knew a fellow Christian who placed a lot ofemphasis on a Christian’s personal walk with God and I always appreciated histimely reminders. “How’s your walk with God?” he would often ask. “Are youstill walking in the ways of God?” This friend of mine knew the importance ofwalking with God. I’ll like to put that same question to you: How’s your walkwith God? Have you been walking with God today? Have you been walking with Godyesterday, or last week? It’s important to ask ourselves regularly whetherwe’re walking with God or not, remembering that if we don’t walk with God inthis life, we’ll not go to Him, as Enoch did.

Thirdly, Enoch’s translation reveals to us the reality of the world tocome. “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying,Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgmentupon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodlydeeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches whichungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 14–15). Enoch lived in a worldnot very different from ours, an ungodly generation where people generallydidn’t give much thought to their life or to the life to come. “Eat, drink andbe merry” was their motto. The thought of judgment, of sin, of hell, of thingsunseen, of things in the spiritual realm, yea even the very thought of GodHimself was snuffed out of their minds. All that was real to them was whatcould be seen and felt and tasted and smelt and heard. It was a sensual andfleshly age that believed only in the realities of this present world anddisregarded those things that were to come.

And so, it was in such an ungodly and unbelieving generation that Enochwitnessed for his God. Enoch preached, as Paul preached to Felix, ofrighteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, but the world would hearnothing of it. Enoch said, “The Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,To execute judgment upon all….” The world responded, “What is this fool saying?Where is the Lord? Where is His judgment? There is no God. There is no judgmentto come. These things are nothing but the ravings of a man gone mad!”

But what was God showing that wicked and perverse generation when He took Enochout of this world? God was both vindicating His servant and validating hismessage. It was as if God was saying, “Look here, my servant has been preachingto you about a world that you can’t see and about a whole spectrum of realitiesthat you can’t perceive with your physical senses. But you despise hispreaching, and act as if these things don’t exist. Well, I’ll show you thatthere is another world. I’ll take him from among you into that other world.”And so on a given day, God took Enoch unto Himself.

There is another world besides the one in which we now live. There is ajudgment to come. These things are real, not imaginary. We must all appearbefore the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things donein his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. What wedo in the body will meet us again on judgment day.

Are we walking with God? And are we witnessing for God? Indeed, this ungodlyand unbelieving generation needs to hear the same message that Enoch preachedin his day. This world needs to hear about the translation of that man fromthis world to another—that there is a world which Enoch is in right now, bodyand soul, in the perfect enjoyment of God; but that there is also a world inwhich unbelieving sinners will ultimately go to—a place of ever-lasting tormentin hell.

Again Owen says,

I am fully satisfied from theprophecy of Enoch, recorded by Jude, that he had a great contest with the worldabout faith, obedience, the worship of God, with the certainty of divinevengeance on ungodly sinners, with the eternal reward of the righteous. And asthis contest for God against the world is exceeding acceptable unto him, as hemanifested afterward in his taking of Elijah to himself, who had managed itwith a fiery zeal; so in this translation of Enoch upon the like contest, hevisibly judged the cause on his side, confirming his ministry, to thestrengthening of the faith of the church, and condemnation of the world.

Lastly, Enoch’s translation reveals to us the hope and comfort that allbelievers may have in this life. “Enoch was not merely translated for his ownbenefit and comfort, but for the comfort of other patriarchs against the fearof daily crosses in this life and against the terrors of death” (Manton).

I am persuaded that Job got his doctrine of the resurrection from Enoch’stranslation, and that he took much encouragement from it, especially during hisgreat trial. Why? Because Enoch’s God was his God, Enoch’s faith was his faith,Enoch’s walk was his walk, and Enoch’s going to meet God in the body wouldsomeday be his experience too. “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that heshall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin wormsdestroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25–26).

There were many other saints like Job, who walked with God, but whonevertheless saw death at the end of their life. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Daniel,etc., these all walked with God, yet they died. What was so special aboutEnoch? Why did God translate him and not the rest? Perhaps the answer hassomething to do with the fact that Enoch was the seventh from Adam. Considerthis: that after six generations of saints who laboured and toiled under theyoke and burden of sin, God took the seventh from Adam unto Himself, bypassingthe ordinary experience of death, to encourage all subsequent generations ofsaints that they too, after their six “days” of labour and suffering, will oneday enter into that eternal Sabbath rest. “Six days shalt thou labour, and doall thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God:… For insix days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, andrested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, andhallowed it” (Ex 20:9–11). And that is why the Sabbath is so precious to useven today, for the Sabbath is an emblem and type of that eternal Sabbath rest,which Enoch has already entered into, body and soul.

In Enoch’s translation, we see the words of our Lord Jesus Christ springingalive, giving us great hope, comfort and joy, “I am the resurrection, and thelife: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: Andwhosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (Jn 11:25–26; italicsmine).

Conclusion

Enoch’s translation reveals to us four things: firstly, the gracious purposesof God in redemptive history; secondly, the importance of walking with God inthis life; thirdly, the reality of a world to come; and lastly, the hope andcomfort that all believers may have in this life. I’ll end by quoting GeorgeWhitefield’s concluding words on the life of Enoch:

Does he not speak to us, to quickenour zeal, and make us more active in the service of our glorious andever-blessed Master? How did Enoch preach! How did Enoch walk with God, thoughhe lived in a wicked and adulterous generation! Let us then follow him, as hefollowed Jesus Christ, and ere long, where he is there shall we be also. He isnow entered into his rest: yet a little while and we shall enter into ours, andthat too much sooner than he did. He sojourned here below three hundred andsixty five years; but blessed be God, the days of man are now shortened, and ina few days our walk will be over. The Judge is before the door: he that comethwill come, and will not tarry: his reward is with him. And we shall all (if weare zealous for the Lord of hosts) ere long shine as the stars in thefirmament, in the kingdom of our heavenly Father, for ever and ever. Amen.

— 21 July 2002