Raptured

Surprisingly, Enoch is the seventh from Adam. Therefore, it can be said that death could not overcome the seventh (7 is the number of God). Enoch is a type of Christ, who would overcome death, and also of the living saints who will be caught up to heaven when the Lord Jesus Christ appears.

Enoch was not compelled to remain in the world until the iniquity of that generation reached its height and the judgments of God fell upon it. It is a great blessedness to be taken out of the midst of such an avalanche of perdition as that. So it will be also with the Christians who today walk with God and please Him.

In the days of Enoch there was, as there is today, a great development of arts and science. The sons of Cain sought to beautify a cursed world with the sweet sounds of the harp and the flute, but Enoch had found another, better world in which to delight. Enoch lived on the back of a world ruled by death and by the sons of Cain.

If we add Hebrews 11:5 and Jude 14-15 to Genesis 5:24, we have some important things regarding Enoch:

1. Enoch was a man of faith (he is the follower of Abel in the Hebrews 11 list). "By faith Enoch...". The starting point of a life that pleases God is faith; and this consists in living by looking with hope at things unseen.

2. Enoch walked with God, which implies separation, holiness and purity. "He not only walked after God, as all believers do, but he walked with God, as if he were already in heaven," wrote Matthew Henry. How could two walk together, if they did not agree? (Amos 3:3) How could two walk together if they did not share the same character and goals?

3. God transposed him. "Enoch was transposed that he might not see death, and was not found, because God had transposed him". To be transposed is to be miraculously removed from the earth. Not by way of death, but by way of glory. Enoch was the first, but many will come after him.

4. He had testimony of having pleased God. The inner testimony is clear and sure in those who please God. They do not walk in the dark, but see clearly. They have learned the art of denying themselves and allowing themselves to be guided by the Spirit of God.

5. He was a prophet - indeed, he was the first prophet - who testified of God's judgments upon an ungodly humanity: "Of these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with his holy ten thousands, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the wicked of all their wicked works, which they have wickedly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (Jude 14-15).

Enoch walked so close to God that he could see with crystal clarity the ungodliness of his generation. Enoch was so far removed from the surrounding world, on his way to heaven, that God took him before his time. Do we have this expectation?

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