THE Apostle has showed in the foregoing chapters of this epistle that the way of salvation spoken of and typified under the Old Testament dispensation has been fully displayed in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this chapter he deals with the reception accorded to God’s revelation by the Old Testament saints, and shows that the faith of His people under both dispensations was the same. Faith, he says, has had for its basis, from the beginning of time, the word of God’s revelation. That word was concerning things not yet seen, but to faith, they had all reality and sureness, because God who cannot lie, has spoken. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” Faith lays hold on the faithfulness of God to His word; His ability to perform what He has said, rests in the reality and certainty of what God has revealed. Faith moved Abel to offer up the only sacrifice which God would accept. He believed the promise of the “Seed.” He gave due obedience in worshipping God according to the pattern which, in all probability, was shown in the Garden of Eden.
The Apostle passes by a few generations whose names are mentioned in Genesis, and takes up the name of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, as an example showing forth the faith of God’s elect:—”By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
In endeavouring to speak a little on these words, as I may be helped, let us notice:—
I. The life of Enoch.
His life is set before us in the words—”By faith Enoch was translated,” and again in Genesis v. 24—”And Enoch walked with God.” The Apostle does not confine Enoch’s faith merely to his translation. He means that Enoch so walked with God that it pleased the Lord to put this honour on Enoch, even that he should not see death, but be translated. As Roman so scripturally puts it, there is the life, walk, and triumph of faith. Enoch and every other child of God received a living faith from the fountain of life which will manifest itself in a godly walk and conversation, and which will finally triumph over all the opposition that meets it in this world.
God is the author of all life. “He gives to all, life and breath and all things.” He “breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” It is He who quickens the soul of man dead in trespasses and sins, and plants the seed of living faith within. Enoch came to live unto God when the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in law and gospel shone into his soul. He came to know sin, and himself a sinner, lost and undone. He was brought to know God in covenant as reconciled to Him through blood. “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” Enoch came to full agreement that God is just in His anger and wrath against sin. The only resting-place for him as a sinner was in the revelation and promise given in Eden, and this became all his hope in view of eternity. He was reconciled in love to the Lord, and found peace for his soul by trusting in His word. Life, wherever it is, makes itself manifest by activity. It is impossible to have the life of faith and not to bear the fruits of it in walk and conversation. “Faith without works is dead.” Enoch’s living faith was proved by his close walk with God. He walked with God (1) in his acceptance of all the doctrines of truth; (2) in his obedience to all God’s commandments. He walked with him (3) in daily worship, approaching God through the appointed sacrifice which prefigured Him of whom the Eden promise spake. His constant aim was to have near fellowship and communion with the Lord, and that he might attain his desire, he endeavoured through grace to be conformed to God’s will in all things. (4) He walked with God in holding the truth intact when the generation in which he lived had almost wholly departed from the faith. We read in Jude the character of that generation, and it is summed up in one word—”Ungodly.” It would seem that the fearful declension spoken of in Genesis vi. 1-6, had already begun when the wickedness of man was great in the earth. The two families which had till then kept separate, the one called the sons of God, the other, the children of men, were amalgamated, and the result, as has been well observed, was a union of the Church and the World. There is no new thing under the sun, and the above event has occurred in the church in every age and more than once in our own land. When the Church is loyal to her Head, she keeps herself pure and unspotted in doctrine, worship, and practice, and refuses to compromise with the World by changing her attitude about its condition and ways. In Scotland, in our own day, we see the barriers which once existed between the Church and the World broken down, so that one needs not to go to the World for its pleasures and amusements; these can be had within the Church and among professors of religion. This state of affairs is denominated as modern and progressive, but the keeping to the rule of God’s word is styled old-fashioned and bigoted. The truth is that this generation has gone back to the sixth or seventh generation from Adam, and to almost all the apostacies from scriptural doctrine, worship, and practice which have taken place since then. Enoch, it seems, stood alone in that day maintaining God’s truth, and it mattered little to him that practically all the religious people of that generation were against him. He walked with God in this matter, and the worldly-wise people of his day walked away from God till the Flood came and utterly destroyed them.
Enoch walked with God in bearing testimony by his public preaching against the ungodliness of those around him. He was a faithful prophet, denouncing the wickedness of the age, and declaring that “the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed.” Alone, he contended against their grievous departure from the truth till he probably became the most hated man of his day. But though hated by man, he was beloved of God, and that did more than make up for his trials. It is wonderful that the only two who went to heaven without dying, Enoch and Elijah, were men who stood alone and made themselves obnoxious by their stern, unflinching attitude in defending the truth against the corruptions of men. It is evident from all scripture that God has a special delight in such a witness. It is not the man who temporises and compromises for the sake of outward peace that is pleasing to the Most High, but rather he who will not give up any fundamental truth, no matter what it costs.
II. The comfort of Enoch.
1. He was persuaded that he lived according to God’s word.
To the single eye, to him who serves the Lord with a whole heart, the will of God is not difficult to find and follow. His words “are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.” It is when the effort is made to serve two masters, God and Mammon, that one loses the plain path and begins to call light, darkness. It was clear to Enoch that his faith, life, and walk were in accordance with God’s word, and this was strength and comfort to his soul.
2. To Enoch, who did not hide iniquity in his heart, but who shunned it in all its forms, and gave all diligence to make his calling and election sure, was given the Spirit of adoption whereby he cried, Abba, Father.
In common with the people of God, the Spirit of God bore witness with his spirit that he was a child of God, and this caused that the peace of God kept his heart and mind.
3. He did not seek the fellowship of the Most High in vain.
The Lord answered his petitions and cries with words of comfort, giving him the sure testimony that he pleased God. It was shown to him that the Lord whom he served was on his side, and would never forsake him, no matter what he would have to meet. When one has such a testimony as this, he can well afford to ignore and deem lightly all the hatred and malice of man.
III. The translation of Enoch.
“He was not found.” This seems to infer that search was made for him. It is very probable that few in that generation would make any search for him out of love. It is more than likely that they hated him for his godly life and faithful testimony, and would search to see if he who condemned their wicked lives still lived. They would be glad to hear and know of his death. We are not without warrant to think this, for this is the spirit shown by wicked men in all ages to the confessors of truth. But he was not found by friend or foe. His place was empty; even the house of clay was absent, “for God took him.” He was translated from a world of sin to the habitations of glory; from all his griefs and troubles, to the eternal solace of the presence of God.
By his translation, a proof was given to that generation of the existence of man in the world to come, of the resurrection, of the eternal happiness of God’s people, and of the truth of Enoch’s own prophecy. By it, God testified to man of the delight He had in Enoch’s godly life, and in the faithful, uncompromising testimony he bore to the truth, in the midst of a declining age.