By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before [his] translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God.
By faith Enoch left the world without dying. Genesis says only that God took him; Hebrews expands it. Two questions follow. What does it mean to be "taken up" (older translations say "translated")? And how could a man know, while still on earth, that God was pleased with him?
Scripture uses the word for ordinary transfers too, not only for miracles.
Scripture uses this term to mean a "change of place or status." Abner threatened to move the kingdom from the house of Saul to David, 2 Sam. 3:10. The believer is delivered from the power of darkness and is transferred into the kingdom of God's dear Son, Col. 1:13. Enoch was translated without dying, Heb. 11:5.
Genesis tells the ending in a handful of words.
He was "translated" to God. The brief record of Genesis is that at the end of the 300 years "he was not; for God took him." This is expanded in the New Testament. There we learn that faith was the energy in which Enoch walked with God, and in which at last he was carried into God's presence. After three centuries of walking with God it must have seemed simple and natural when one day "God took him." Enoch exchanged his home on earth for the very home of God Himself.
The chapter puts Enoch straight after Abel, and Kelly compares the two.
Faith does not always take the same shape, though it is the same divine principle working in man by the Spirit of God. So in the next witness we see the power of life, not the sense of death... Enoch looked to the same Messiah Abel did. He knew, as Abel did, that the woman's Seed must be bruised. But he also knew and felt sure that He would bruise the serpent's head. He saw life triumphant over the one who had the power of death. In that faith he walked, and he pleased God well. So his end on earth was not by death like Abel, but by a power of life that was his alone.
That life showed itself first in how he lived, and only then in how he left.
Then the life shows itself in the walk, and the power of that life is that he does not die at all... Enoch is not found, for God took him — death does not touch him at all. The power of death is done away.
Enoch preached judgment to a violent generation. Some read this phrase as a rescue just in time.
Reading verse 5, we cannot help feeling that Enoch's three hundred years of walking with God and his bold witness for God was about to end in violent death at the hands of the sinners before the flood. Just then God stepped in and translated him. They were after him, but before the blow could fall, "he was not; for God took him." God did not step in for Abel, who died a martyr's death. He did step in for Enoch. This man deeply displeased the men of his age, but he pleased God so much that He took him into His presence beyond the reach of his enemies.
Hole offers this as a likely reading, not a certainty.
Enoch knew where he stood with God before he left.
Verse 4 tells us that before Abel was slain he had the testimony that he was righteous. Verse 5 tells us that Enoch before he was translated had the testimony that he pleased God. One was right with God and he knew it. The other was agreeable to God and he knew it. Both knew on divine testimony.
Enoch prophesied judgment and was gone before it fell.
Enoch bore this witness a little before the flood, as Elijah did long after it. Both lived in times of great and growing wickedness. Both were prophets of a judgment that would not sleep. Both were taken on high without dying. Their removal points to the great translation ahead. It will be the portion of all the living saints who remain, when the Lord Himself comes down for them from heaven. They will be caught up together with the dead saints, raised to meet the Lord in the air.
If the same removal is ahead, the same walk belongs to now.
His life, separate from evil, was a testimony to the character of God, and God took him. His faith is connected with his translation, for he lived as one who did not belong to this world, but to another scene suited to God. And should not all this mark those who are awaiting their translation to heaven at any moment? Strictly speaking, the Christian has only one business here: to walk with God, to please God, to obey Him, and glorify Him.
- Walk. Three hundred years with God ended in one more step — from his home to God's.
- Life. Abel's faith owned death; Enoch's showed the power of life, so that death never touched him at all.
- Testimony. Before he went he knew God was pleased with him, and he knew it on divine testimony.
- Rescue. "Was not found" reads to some as a search cut short: God took him beyond the reach of his enemies.
- Hope. What happened to Enoch is held out as the portion of living saints caught up to meet the Lord.
But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]. For he that draws near to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them who seek him out.
The line just before says that Enoch pleased God, and this verse explains how: only faith can please Him. It then names two things anyone who comes to God must believe — that He exists, and that He rewards those who seek Him.
Genesis never says that Enoch believed. Commentators show how the writer of Hebrews works back from what Genesis does say.
The account in Genesis says nothing about Enoch's faith, but it tells us twice that he "walked with God." That is what the apostle seems to point to when he says that, before God took Enoch away, "he was commended as having pleased God." From that commendation the apostle argues that Enoch must have had faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God.
The logic runs one way: if Enoch pleased God, he must have had faith. Nothing else could have done it.
Take away real belief in God, and religious activity becomes play-acting. The verse splits into a starting point and an outworking.
Suppose someone does not really believe that God exists. Then his religious approach to God is pure hypocrisy. Faith is a true recognition of God. Nothing less than that can please Him. This is the basic essential. The last part of the verse shows faith at work, diligently seeking God. God will reward that seeking, because He is faithful.
One writer links this verse to what Scripture says about "the flesh" — human nature left to itself:
The flesh never trusts God. Its mind is hostile to Him... So its independence turns out to be hostility toward God. Because it seeks its own will, it does not and cannot submit to His law... "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." God's delight is in the Man who always sought and did God's will, not His own.
Many people conclude on reflection that some God must be behind everything. That conclusion is not what this verse asks for.
Even in these doubting days, many people cannot explain how everything came to exist without assuming that some sort of God exists somewhere. But that is reason, not faith. Only faith puts us in the presence of the living God. He knows, He sees, He acts, He makes Himself known, and He even rewards those who diligently seek Him.
We do not learn the two halves of this verse the same way. The world around us can teach one; only God can teach the other.
Whoever draws near to God "must believe that He exists." Man ought to know that much from the witness of His works (see Romans 1:19-20). But the second half — "and that He rewards those who seek Him" — a sinner could never know unless God's own gracious word told him.
Talk of God rewarding people can sound like earning. One writer answers that by asking where such wording belongs.
"He rewards those who diligently seek Him." Again, I say it plainly: you would never have found faith described that way in Romans 4. "What legal language!" some would say if they read it in a book. But here it is beautiful. The faith of a believer is a working thing. Will God ever be in debt to any man? No. He pays those who sow generously.
Another writer turns the verse into a personal test. Older translations read "diligently seek Him," and he presses that word. Faith is not one decision left behind in the past:
Faith is not an initial act and done with. Faith is the motive spring of the whole Christian life... Note the word, "diligently"—diligently seek Him. Does that characterize you and me?
The verse also carries a straight word of assurance. God has a history of moving toward people who were genuinely looking for Him.
God never fails an expectant heart... He sent a Philip to the eunuch in the desert of Gaza. He sent a Peter to the centurion, in the town of Caesarea. He sent a Paul to a woman who sold purple cloth, on the edge of Philippi. And He will send a message to whoever reads these lines, if that person is truly seeking God's salvation.
- Faith first. Nothing pleases God without it. Enoch pleased God, so the writer of Hebrews concludes that Enoch had faith.
- Faith recognises. Believing "that He is" means the living God who sees and acts, not a God argued into existence by reasoning.
- Faith is told. Creation can testify that God exists; only His own word tells a sinner that He rewards those who search for Him.
- Faith works. "Diligently" makes faith the driving spring of a whole life, not a single act finished long ago.
- Faith is met. God never fails an expectant heart. He sent Philip, Peter and Paul to people who were searching, and He still sends His message to anyone truly seeking Him.