And Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methushelah.
Genesis 5 reads like a register of funerals. Then the list slows down for one man. Enoch reaches sixty-five and fathers a son, and from there his story turns. Why does the record of his walk with God start only after this birth, and what did that son's name tell the world?
This chapter's refrain, "and he died," falls on every man in it but one.
Genesis 5 is "the book of the generation of Adam," a chapter over which the shadow of death is apparent in the often repeated expression "and he died" — a shadow universal in its effects, and one which the power of God, the living God, alone can remove. It is a blessed thing to read in such a chapter that "Enoch walked with God … and God took him." By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death (Hebrews 11:5).
Two men in Genesis share this name.
His name was the same as that of Cain's son, the man the world's first city was named after. "Enoch" means "dedicated." So we may say of the one that he was dedicated to the world, and of the other that he was dedicated to God. Eternity will show which had the better part.
Scripture tells us nothing of Enoch's first sixty-five years. Only after this son is born does the record of his walk with God begin.
There seems to be a suggestion in the next verse that the dawn of the new life in Enoch happened at the same time as the birth of his son Methuselah. One can easily understand how this might be. Births and deaths are alike solemn family events, and the Spirit of God can use them to turn the heart to things eternal.
For parents, this can start in the small hours of the night.
Happy are the parents who can walk with God as they walk the floor with a crying, restless infant. Those dreaded night watches become heavenly talks with their best and dearest Friend. You will find the silent house, when everybody else is asleep, is just the place where your Lord and you can walk together undisturbed.
The words "walk with" point first to company.
To "walk with" implies companionship. If you saw me going down the street in conversation with someone, the suggestion would be that I enjoy his company. God values this in His people more than anything else. … While others were busy making a name and a place for themselves here, building their city and perfecting their crafts, "Enoch walked with God." The presence of God and communion with Him meant more to his heart than anything a sin-cursed earth could give.
But it is no soft thing. It holds together qualities that seem to pull against each other.
How much is involved in these three words, "walked with God"! What separation and self-denial! What holiness and moral purity! What grace and gentleness! What humility and tenderness! And yet what zeal and energy! What patience and long-suffering, and yet what faithfulness and uncompromising decision! … It is not merely living by rules and regulations, nor laying down plans of action, nor making resolutions to go here or there and do this or that.
Enoch kept this up for three hundred years, and not in seclusion.
He was no recluse or dreamy mystic, for the record is that "Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters." He entered into ordinary human life. He knew all the usual trials and troubles, as well as the joys of bringing up a family. … Despite that, he walked with God — not by fits and starts, but with steady persistence for three centuries! A wonderful walk — the longest walk on record.
The name Enoch gave his son carried a message.
Look at the prophecy of God's long-suffering wrapped up in the meaning of Methuselah's name. It meant "when he is dead it shall be sent" — that is, the flood. Nobody has ever lived longer than he did. He was older than Adam with his 930 years, and older than Jared with his 962 years. He even outlived his own son Lamech, who reached 777. That great age stood as a witness to God's patient compassion, to His unwillingness to judge. … In the end God's patience came to a close. Methuselah died. That year the flood came.
- Setting — Genesis 5 repeats "and he died" over every name. Enoch's walk is the one line death does not close.
- Start — the record of that walk begins at a cradle. A son's birth may well have been what God used to turn Enoch's heart, and the same door stands open to every parent.
- Substance — walking with God means enjoying His company above anything the world is building. It draws in holiness, gentleness, zeal and patience at once. It is not a set of rules.
- Stamina — three hundred years with no breaks, lived among sons and daughters and ordinary troubles. The longest walk on record had the most ordinary setting.
- Sign — the son's name announced mercy: "when he is dead it shall be sent." God stretched that life longer than any other. When Methuselah died, the flood came.
And Enoch walked with God after he had begotten Methushelah three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
Genesis 5 is a list of names that all end in death, until one man breaks the pattern. Enoch walked with God for three hundred years while raising a family — so what is that walk, and how did it begin?
The verse dates Enoch's walk from a specific event: the arrival of his son.
Genesis 5:22 seems to hint that new life dawned in Enoch at the very time his son Methuselah was born. It is easy to see how this could be. Births and deaths are both solemn family events. The Spirit of God can use either one to turn the heart to eternal things.
The word "walked" is not decoration. It describes who chose the direction of Enoch's life and who kept the speed.
As Enoch walked with God, his activities came under Divine control. He had the happy privilege and responsibility of keeping in touch with God. That way he could know His thoughts and understand His ways. Then God ordered his life and path, for it was His to show the direction and set the pace. God led the way, and Enoch was at His side, led by Him with understanding. His walk was not like a dog's, faithfully following his master's steps, because Enoch was given a wonderful grasp of God's mind and purpose, as Jude's letter makes plain.
Genesis says nothing about how Enoch came to this. The New Testament supplies the missing link, and it is not effort but faith.
This is where faith begins, whether for Enoch or for ourselves. It leads us to the knowledge that GOD IS, and that is something very different from believing that there is a God. Even today, many people cannot explain how everything came to exist without assuming a God of some kind, somewhere. But that is reason, not faith. Only faith puts us into the presence of the LIVING GOD. He knows, He sees, He acts, He makes Himself known, and He even rewards those who seek Him with all their heart. In days when all thought of the living God was fading from people's minds, Enoch by faith had the living God before him. He sought Him with all his heart, and so he found Him. There began that remarkable walk with Him, which lasted three hundred years.
The same verse that records the walk also records sons and daughters. Enoch did not step out of family life, and he did not walk with God in short bursts.
Enoch did not live in an easy day. Jude tells us that ungodliness was everywhere in Enoch's time... But he walked with God — he walked with God! He sensed in his heart that God wanted his company. And God so worked in his heart that Enoch answered God's own desires as he walked with Him. He didn't walk with God casually; he didn't walk with God now and then; he didn't walk with God for a few moments; he walked with God for hundreds of years. He didn't go into a monastery to do it, for we read in Genesis 5:22 that "Enoch walked with God … and had other sons and daughters."
A long walk is made of single steps. Enoch took his steps quietly, one at a time.
Enoch, in a day when there was no Scripture, walked with God. For 300 years he walked according to the mind of God. Such a walk makes very little noise in the world... It was a very quiet, very unshowy walk. At every step it simply asked, "Where is God in this step?" Did the people of that day ask, before they put a foot down, "Is God in it?" No — it appears that Enoch walked alone with God. He had a set of thoughts and ways peculiar to himself, but the same as God's.
The setting gives Enoch's walk its force.
Genesis 5 is one of the most solemn chapters in Holy Scripture. It is a chapter of death. Eight times over we read of one and another that "he died." This sets before our eyes the wreck of everything here, which is the fruit of sin. What a remarkable thing: right in the middle of this dismal list of dying men, we read of one who did not die.
- Cause. The walk began at a cradle. Methuselah's birth seems to be the moment eternal things gripped Enoch's heart.
- Root. Faith held the walk up — faith that God is, and that He rewards those who seek Him.
- Shape. God chose the direction and set the pace. Enoch kept close enough to know His mind.
- Setting. All this happened in ordinary life, among sons and daughters, in a day full of ungodliness. Enoch never hid away.
- Result. In a chapter that repeats "he died" eight times, the one man who walked with God is the one man who did not.