Read Genesis 5:21-24; Hebrews 11:5

Walking with God

There is very little written about Enoch in the inspired record, but that which is said speaks volumes of the man’s character. He was the father of the oldest man on record (Methuselah, 969 years old), who was born when Enoch was 65. Moses says, “After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters” (Genesis 5:22). Nothing is said of his relationship with God prior to Methuselah’s birth.

Perhaps fatherhood caused Enoch to take stock of his life. Perhaps he had been heading down the wrong path, and he suddenly realized the importance his influence might have on his children. Perhaps he finally matured, finally grew up, finally became a man.

Fathers have a great obligation when it comes to their children. The apostle Paul exhorted the dads in Ephesus, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). The father, as the spiritual head of the household, should set rules and boundaries that protect and encourage his children to be faithful to God. Show respect to the revealed Word, not only with your words, but with your behavior. When one says one thing and does the opposite, trust can be destroyed. Hypocrisy will do to children exactly what Paul warns against: it will “provoke your children to wrath.”

Whatever his life was before he became Methuselah’s dad, Enoch spent his final three hundred years on this earth as a man of faith. Moses says that “Enoch walked with God three hundred years” and, as a result, “God took him” (Genesis 5:22,24). The Hebrews writer says it more explicitly: “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found because God had taken him’; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5).

Are you walking with God? Are you pleasing Him?