Enoch - a Man of Few Words

There is a man in the Old Testament that has always fascinated me.
There is very little said about him but what is said begs our attention.

The man’s name is Enoch and we read about him in a few short verses in Genesis 5:19-14.

We are given very few facts about his life.
We are told his father’ name was Jared.
We are told that Enoch was 65 years old when his first born son was born. This son was Methuselah who is remembered to this day for his long life...969 years.
We are told that Enoch had other sons and daughters but we are not given their names.
We are told that Enoch’s sojourn on earth was a total of 365 years.

Not a lot of information as to what kind of a life he lived or what he did,
but there are two more pieces of added detail that make this man intriguing.

It says that Enoch walked with God for 300 years.

Reading between the lines we realize that something must have happened when Enoch was 65 that changed his life. All we know that happened that year is that he became a father. Could it be that becoming a father was such an incredible experience to him that his thoughts and mind turned to God? We don’t know …we just know from that year forward to the day he left this earth he walked with God.

Then we are given the amazing fact that one day God simply ‘took him’ and he was never seen again - he vanished off the face of this earth.

Can you imagine the confusion and alarm in his household when he does not come home at the expected time?
I imagine the servants would have been sent out to look for him and though they searched long and hard, they found no sign of their master.
He had simply disappeared.
When the servants finally returned empty handed …I would think his children would have gone out themselves to look for him, following familiar pathways, looking for him in all his favourite places.
Nothing.
How long would it have taken them to realize that God had taken their husband, father and grandfather? Did they grieve or were they simply in awe?

Did they think about what had made their father different? Did they talk about how Enoch had 'walked with God' ?

We are given one further clue about Enoch in the New Testament.

“By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.” (Heb.11:5)

Aww… here we are told why God took Enoch….it was because of Enoch’s faith in God.
Enoch was known as a man who trusted God.
It was his unfailing trust in God that pleased God so much he ‘took him’ -- translated him from the dimension of this world to the dimension of the world beyond --- without Enoch ever tasting death.
I think about Enoch walking with God every day ...every day more precious than the day before...and one day God just says, "I'm just going to take you home with me today."
Because of Enoch's faith??

Hebrews 11:6 says “Without faith it is impossible to please God…”

There is only one thing we can give God that pleases Him… our trust in Him.
The more we trust Him the more we walk with Him… the more we walk with Him the more we trust Him… the more we trust Him…the more we please Him in all we do.

Trust comes with knowing someone …. How did Enoch learn to know God?
Did he meet someone who knew someone who had known Adam and Eve?
Or did he read the evidence in creation (Rom 2:20) and learn to know the character of God and His trustworthiness?
Did he look at his own son and feeling the tenderness and love in his heart realize that God had to be even more tender-hearted and full of love toward His children?
I wonder …what were his life circumstances, his daily trials that tested his trust in God - and yet could not shake him?

Enoch – a man about whom we have recorded only a few words, and not one word that he himself spoke ….but oh… what an example he has set before us.

To trust God, to please God, to walk with God.

What higher aspiration could we possible have???