Learning from Enoch: A New Start in a New Year
Winter 2022
In 1879, the famous scientist Thomas Edison was working intensely to develop a lightbulb. Tradition tells us that, after a team of men spent twenty-four straight hours putting the finished product together, Edison gave a young boy the esteemed honor of carrying it upstairs. Scared of dropping the highly prized item the young boy anxiously sweated with every step. Tragedy struck and before the last step was reached the hard work of all the team came hurtling towards the floor and smashed into many pieces. It would take another twenty-four hours before another lightbulb was produced and although tired and weary, Edison had a choice to make: to whom would he give the esteemed honor to carry this new lightbulb? With a heart of forgiveness and compassion, he gave it to the same young boy.
A second chance is a great and gracious gift; and to many a new year is viewed in this light—a gift from the LORD to put right the mistakes we made in the year that is past. Is this not what you and I need? If so, there is hope and encouragement in God’s Word for us!
In Genesis 5:22 we read, “And Enoch walked with God.” Enoch did not always walk with God: Enoch’s walk had a beginning. No man or woman is born walking from the womb—be it physically or spiritually. This was true of Enoch. In Genesis 5:3 God makes it clear that Enoch was born in the fallen image of Adam (Genesis 5:3) and “by one man’s disobedience many (including Enoch) were made sinners” (Romans 5:19). One day this all changed for Enoch, for we are told in Hebrews 11:5-6 that Enoch believed God by faith and came to God in repentance—fulfilling the true meaning of his name which means “dedicated.”
Do you need to start walking with God this year? Do you need to get back on track in your walk with God this year? Be encouraged, it is possible! Believe in God’s forgiveness on the merits of Christ and come to God dedicating your life to Him. Christ promises, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37) and “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Perhaps you say you are like Enoch already: already you are walking with God. Not only did Enoch’s walk have a beginning but Enoch’s walk was telling. In Genesis 5:22+24 we are told “And Enoch walked with God”. This is different from being told, “And God walked with Enoch.” The former makes it clear it was Enoch’s choice to come and walk alongside God. The Hebrew form of this verb “walk” is intensive, revealing Enoch walked with God with all his heart. Enoch’s walk clearly reveals Enoch’s delight in God!
You and I may walk with people we do not particularly like in a line at a supermarket—but to willingly choose to walk with a person for three hundred years as Enoch did highlights that Enoch walked with God because he delighted in God! Enoch enjoyed God. Enoch enjoyed hearing God’s Word, knowing God’s presence, learning God’s will, and communing with God in prayer. Can you and I say the same? If a sermon goes on longer than we expected, do we inwardly sing, “More, more about Jesus. Tell me more about Jesus”? Or do we inwardly groan, “Less, less about Jesus. Tell me less about Jesus. Less of His saving fulness see; less of His love who died for me”? Do we delight in being in God’s presence: hearing God speak to us through His Word and talking back to Him in prayer? Is such our intense delight and willing choice each day? If not, then let us see 2023 as a gracious gift from God to right the wrongs of 2022!
Enoch’s walk revealed his delight in God. It also revealed Enoch’s obedience to God. If two people are walking together for a long period of time they are obviously walking in the same direction. This is why the prophet Amos asked, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). Enoch clearly walked in obedience to God. By Enoch choosing to walk alongside God, God had the leading role in the walk–a role Enoch humbly submitted to and obeyed.
The Spirit of God exhorts us in Proverbs 3:6 to acknowledge the LORD in all our ways. Is this our practice today? Do we not merely ask the LORD for guidance, but did we acknowledge the LORD as the Master and God of our ways—submitting every part of our thoughts, words, and choices to His Will as revealed in His Word? If not, will you and I ask God for grace to accept His gracious gift of 2023 and right this wrong.
Enoch’s walk also revealed his trust in God. I cannot speak for you, but I only tend to follow people I trust. The fact Enoch walked with God for three hundred years shows he trusted God. Often life can have its twists and turns as well as its difficulties and disappointments. Instead of giving up at such times Enoch trusted God in these times. Like the Psalmist, Enoch's trust in God was only ever leading him in the paths of righteousness so that goodness and mercy would always be seen as he looked back over his life (Psalm 23:3,6).
Are we those who are characterized by our trust in God or are we characterized by our complaints about God be it the path He is leading us down or the people He is leading us across? Perhaps we need to ask God for grace to sincerely believe like the Psalmist, “As for God, his way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30).
Enoch’s walk revealed a commitment to God. The English puritan John Owen said, “Every sin is a fruit of being weary with God.” Enoch did not walk with God for one year or two hundred years and then had years away from this walk having grown weary of God. No, Enoch walked with God for three hundred years. Like David, Enoch would say, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed” (Psalm 57:7). Enoch never got weary of God.
Perhaps you say, “But Enoch doesn’t live in 2023 with all its distractions and temptations. It was easier for him.” If so, then notice that Enoch’s walk is encouraging.
Not only was Enoch born with the same fallen passions and nature as you and me and not only was Enoch a normal man with no extraordinary gifts or achievements attributed to him, but Enoch walked in a time when it was said of the world, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). The wickedness of the days in which Enoch lived were so great God said, “The earth is filled with violence” and “all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” (Genesis 6:12–13). So wicked were the people of earth that God said, “It repented the LORD that he had made man”; “It grieved him at his heart”; and “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.”
In Jude verse 15 Enoch describes the people of his day not only as sinners but as “ungodly” sinners and so while it is true all sinners are ungodly, yet the sinners of Enoch’s day were especially ungodly: they vehemently wanted nothing to do with God and what God stood for!
Dear reader, Enoch did not live in days of revival. Enoch lived in days of wickedness and great rebellion against God. Yet in spite of all this, Enoch walked with God!
Do you want a heart that delights in God? Do you want a will that obeys God? Do you want a mind that trusts in God? Do you want a life committed to God no matter the temptation or trial? In summary, in 2023, do you want to be able to say with the apostle Paul, “For to me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21)? If so, then be encouraged! In Malachi 3:6 the LORD declares, “I am the LORD, I change not.” If the LORD was willing and able to save and make Enoch to be the man he was several millennia ago, the LORD is willing and able to save and make you and I to be such today! Christ has promised, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” (Matthew 7:11)
Rev. Paul Foster
Minister, Dromore FPC, N. Ireland