October 8, 2017 The Beginning and the End XVIII. Enoch Walked with God Genesis 5:1-32, Micah 6:6-8 Dr. William P. Seel Easley Presbyterian Church Easley, South Carolina It is safe to say that the genealogies we find in the Bible are not our favorite portions of Scripture. When we are searching for hope or consolation or guidance, we don t often say, Hey, let s find a genealogy! And we pastors don t really like reading them out loud to you either some of those names are real doozies to get right! But to the ancient Israelites, these genealogies were anything but dull. In fact, to the Hebrews these genealogies were some of the best parts of Scripture. In fact, they found some pretty important revelations from God contained within those genealogies. For example, they would seize upon whatever anomalies might appear in the genealogy as perhaps revealing something of the purpose of God and about the nature and destiny of the person whose genealogy was being recounted. We find a good example of this in the genealogy of Jesus with which Matthew begins his gospel: the names of four women appear in that genealogy quite a surprise, given that lineage in Israel was only traced through the male line. 1 Four women, and rather interesting women at that women who had played a rather distinctive role in the Biblical story. Understanding who these women are and why they are included gives us, right from the start of Matthew s gospel, some important clues as to who Jesus is and what Jesus has come to do. And in our genealogy this morning, we find a similarly important anomaly in that long list of who fathered whom and how long they all lived. Towards the ends of that list we arrive at the name of Enoch. And the narrator then interrupts his genealogical formula in order to tell us that, Enoch walked with God. In fact, so important is this statement, that the narrator repeats it two verses later: Enoch walked with God adding this time, that Enoch walked so closely with God that one day God simply took Enoch up into heaven sparing him the curse of death. Now that is a rather remarkable statement that Enoch walked so closely with God that God took him straight to heaven at the end of his days. The genealogy then quickly resumes its normal cadence but we hesitate to move on. We can t help but want to know more about this Enoch who walked so closely with God that he didn t even have to die. And we are not alone in wanting to know more for the ancient Hebrews were also quite curious about this. And so, for example, in the apocryphal book of Sirach (apocryphal here meaning not accepted as Scripture, but perhaps still useful for the people of God), we find Enoch s walk with God being defined by the quality of his repentance: Enoch pleased the Lord, and was taken up; he was an example of repentance to all generations. 2 In the New Testament book of Jude, Enoch s walk with God is portrayed as a mission of prophesying God s judgment upon the
2 sinful world: It was also said about them that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly manner. 3 And then in the Letter to the Hebrews, Enoch is presented as a forerunner of the faith by which we are saved: By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death... Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 4 Now I am not going to argue with any of the Biblical writers on their understanding of what it meant that Enoch walked with God. But given the fact that absolutely nothing more is said in Genesis about Enoch s life except that he walked with God, I think there is room for us to take a slightly different approach for figuring out what this means. That rather than looking at all the places in the Bible where Enoch is mentioned by name, we look at all the places where the Bible speaks about walking with God. Which is why I have chosen our passage from Micah to help us think about what it means for us to walk with God. Chapter Six of Micah s prophecy begins with God complaining that His people Israel are ignoring Him, despite all the good He has done for them. Our passage begins with Israel s response to God s complaint: With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? What follows can be read almost as if Israel is being sarcastic, given the absurdly large numbers cited does the Lord want, a thousand rams or ten thousand rivers of oil, our firstborn children? At which point the prophet breaks in, interrupting and reminding Israel of what God has already told them He wants from them: He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? To do justice. To us justice is fairness before the courts of law fairness also in commerce and common dealing. And the Bible certainly upholds this understanding of justice. We are indeed to practice fairness in our dealings with others, whether individually or corporately fairness, honesty, innocent until proven guilty, no bearing false witness, and so forth. A small example I came across recently. Iván Fernández Anaya was running a distant second in a 3,000- meter race behind a runner from Kenya. But just shy of the finish line, the Kenyan runner stopped, apparently thinking he had already crossed the line and won the race. Fernández Anaya caught up to him but instead of running past the Kenyan runner, taking advantage of his mistake and winning the race for himself, he stopped beside the Kenyan runner. And with hand gestures, he then guided the Kenyan runner across the finish line into first place. Afterwards, he explained his actions to the press: I didn t deserve to win it. I did what I had to do. He was the rightful winner. The article then goes on to state: You can only applaud the man. He did what you d want your children to do if you re a good man, a gentleman, and a sportsman, or aspire to be. There are many people who d cheer their children on as they blew past the runner and took the prize. 5
3 Do justice. Practice fairness in all your dealings. But to be fair, the Biblical understanding of justice actually goes significantly beyond the concept of fairness. In fact, from the prophets onward, the Biblical understanding of justice is wrapped more around the idea of special concern for those who are weak and without a voice, for those who are in any way oppressed or misused and without power, for those who are socially or economically disadvantaged and without a shred of hope. When, for example, God speaks through Amos, instructing Israel to let justice roll down like waters, 6 it is this special concern for the weak and poor and oppressed that God is calling for. Or think of Jesus Himself, in His parable of the sheep and goats at the final judgment, warning us that how we treat the least of those who are our brothers and sisters the hungry and thirsty, the stranger, the naked, those sick or in prison how we treat the weakest and least and most needy among us will weigh heavily for or against us in that final judgment. 7 To do justice is to do more than just be fair in our dealings with others; it is also to treat those in special need with special favor and compassion and kindness and help. To love kindness. Kindness does not seem to be much the mood of the moment. Too many folks these days seem to be having way too much fun being angry and mean-spirited towards those with whom they disagree. And anger truly is fun in a very destructive and even selfdestructive sort of way. We mount up on our high horse of self-righteousness and the rightness of our cause and then ride off to trample out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. But, according to the Bible, God doesn t have much use for, or even much tolerance of, the destructive power of human anger. God prefers we try a little kindness or a lot of kindness, as the case may be. Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself which, at the very least, means treating one another with ordinary, everyday kindness. Treating even those whom we dislike, those with whom we disagree, with kindness. Anger is a dead-end, and the Bible tells us so. Presbyterian pastor John Ortberg tells this great story of getting cut off in traffic by another driver. His immediate reaction, he admits, was not to feel a wave of sympathetic kindness towards this other driver, but instead to flame up almost instantly into a white-hot rage. The other driver clearly felt the same, because he then began gesturing obscenely at Ortberg. Ortberg said he began to gesture angrily back not obscenely, of course, what with being a pastor and all. It took several blocks of driving before his rage began to subside. And then, he said, it suddenly dawned on him how un-christian his thoughts had been towards this other driver, how truly dangerous the depth of anger which he had felt. He says that he realized that he had chosen in that moment to respond to this daily life challenge in a way that was, in truth, harmful to his soul, harmful to that other driver s soul, and harmful to his own relationship with God. And he began to pray, God, I m sorry. I don t want to live that kind of life. I don t want to be that kind of person. Forgive me. Help me try again. 8 Nothing is headier, nothing makes us feel more empowered, then anger coupled with a sense of self-righteousness. But, also, nothing is more destructive. And God is seeking a people who will replace anger with compassion, self-righteousness with humility. A people who will love kindness. Do justice, love kindness and then, last, the most important of them all: And to walk humbly with your God. Which brings us back around, specifically, to Enoch. In addition to doing justice and loving kindness, what more, specifically, does it mean to walk humbly with our God?
4 We find a further clue in our genealogy. The word walk used to describe Enoch walking with God is the same word used to describe God walking in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Think back also to what we said it meant that we were created in the image of God way back in Genesis 1. Alone of all the creatures God had made, we were created in the image of God meaning that we were created, above all else, to be God s conversation partners. God speaking to us and us listening. We speaking to God and God listening. An intimate relationship of daily, hourly, moment-by-moment connection and conversation. That, finally, is what is being said about Enoch, I think and which hopefully also can be said of us: that we live our lives in constant communion with, in constant awareness of, the nearness, power, and love of God in our lives. I came across this passage a few months ago, and really liked it and wanted to share it with you I think this is a good time to do so, because it speaks to this idea of walking humbly with our God. The author begins by stating that the living out of the Christian life rests on two major premises: The first is that God is present in every moment and in every molecule, that his grace and his love are nowhere less than complete and full, anywhere in the universe, anywhere in time. What s happening here and now is as holy and as beautiful as anything that has ever happened or ever will. To deny this is to say that God is not God. The second premise is that the love of God and the grace of God are freely given, are nothing but gift, that there s nothing we can ever do to earn them and nothing we have to do. No matter how much I read or pray or do good works, I will never be more loved by God than I am in this very second. Yes, we should strive to be better, we should strive to be more moral and faithful people, but not in order to merit the love of God but rather as a loving and grateful response to it. 9 To walk humbly with our God is simply to live our lives every day, even moment-bymoment, with these two thoughts present in our hearts and minds that God is with us, and that the grace and love of God is upon us always. And so, to go through our day with hearts and minds open to the presence of God, open to the grace of God, open to the love of God, open to the whisperings of God. To go through our day knowing that the heart of God is open to us always and so to converse with Him, to acknowledge His presence in all things and in all moments, to talk with Him freely and openly as we go through the day together with Him. And this, I think, is a pretty good way to describe what it means that Enoch, that all of us, should walk with God: to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with our God. And this there is one thing more about old Enoch that we should note maybe the real surprise contained in that genealogy. Which is that Enoch was doing this, Enoch was walking with God in the midst of a time of great darkness. The Sin of Adam and Eve had led to the sin of Cain against his brother Abel. And the sin of Cain against his brother led us last week to Lamech and his vow of endless revenge, the myth of redemptive violence. And trust me, next week when
5 we get to Noah, things are going to get even darker on the face of God s good creation. But it was in the midst of this darkness that Enoch was walking with God. That just speaks volumes to me about the hope and confidence and assurance we have in God. This past week we have witnessed yet another horrible moment of darkness in this world of ours a moment so dark with evil even to shake our confidence in the ultimate triumph of goodness and in the power of love to redeem. But just as Enoch walked with God in the midst of darkness, so may we so do we. The darkness cannot stop us. For when we walk with God in the midst of darkness, we come to know two things. First, that the Light of Christ s redeeming love continues to shine, even in the darkness. And second, that all the darkness of this sin-covered world shall never be able to extinguish that Light 10 that Light of God s almighty Love, that Light of God s sure promise that, in the end, all things shall be brought round to good. Like Enoch, we are walking in the Light of God. We are marching in the Light of God towards that day when His Kingdom will come. 1 Matthew 1:1-17. 2 Sirach 44:16. 3 Jude 14-15. 4 Hebrews 11:5. 5 David Mills, While We re At It, First Things, (March, 2013), p. 66. 6 Amos 5:24. 7 Matthew 25:31-46. 8 John Ortberg, God Is Closer Than You Think (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2005), pp. 148-149. 9 Chris Anderson, Light When It Comes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2016), pp. 120-121. 10 John 1:5.