06.14. "Before his Translation"
"Before his Translation"
Two things are spoken of Enoch’s faith: his translation, and "before his translation." The latter, though mentioned last, must be considered first.
It was "by faith he was translated." It was by faith that, "before his translation, he was well-pleasing to God." In Gen 5:21-24, there is nothing said about his faith, but only about its results: "Enoch walked with God." This it is that connects him with the faith of Abel.
"Can two walk together except they be agreed?" This is God’s question by the prophet Amos (Amo 3:3). The answer is supplied in the fact, that, experimentally as well as historically, Abel’s faith must precede the faith of Enoch.
Abel believed God as to the way in which He would be approached in worship; and Enoch had the same faith, for he who cometh to God in worship must believe that He IS,[34] and that He BECOMES[35] a rewarder of them that seek after Him."
Cain and Abel illustrate the former; Abel and Enoch illustrate the latter.
Abel’s faith, chronologically, precedes Enoch’s faith; and it precedes it experimentally also. For there can be no "walk with God," until there is "peace with God;" and there can be no peace with God before there is the Divinely accepted sacrifice. In other words justification must come before peace. Hence in Rom 5:1 we read: "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God."
Enoch had Abel’s faith which witnessed to his agreement with God; and he had Abel’s righteousness, which enabled him to walk with God. So that we get here, an advance in experimental teaching.
Sin cut off man from communion and intercourse with God. God came down and walked with Adam before the entrance of sin (Gen 3:8). Adam and his wife heard the sound of Jehovah Elohim walking in the garden, in the cool of the day." But sin entered: "so Jehovah Elohim drove out the man" (Gen 3:24); and all communing, communicating, walking, talking and revealing were at an end.
Abel’s faith shows the first step in the way back to God. The shedding of blood gave remission of sin (Heb 9:22). The substitute was accepted in the stead of the sinner. The blood of Abel’s lamb effected what the sweat of Cain’s brow could never have accomplished. It gave "peace with God" and restored communion with God. It enabled man once more to walk with God, but on Redemption ground, and no longer on Creation ground. Hence, the experimental advance was that. God, who had spoken to Abel and made known, to and through him, how men must come to God in grace, spoke again to Enoch, and revealed how He would come to the earth in judgment. For it was Amos who says again: "Surely Adonai Jehovah will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets" (Amo 3:7), and David adds the Divine testimony—
"The secret of Jehovah is with them that fear Him:
And His covenant to make them know it" (Psa 25:14, margin). This blessed fellowship with God is based on blood; for, when we enjoy fellowship with God, then it is (and not in connection with sin), that we are reminded that "the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin." It is this which gives us boldness of access into the Divine light (the true shechina) of that presence, and preserves us alive when there.
"God is light" (1Jn 1:5).
We "walk in the light" (Eph 5:8).
"God is love" (1Jn 4:16).
We "walk in love" (Eph 5:2).
"God is truth" (1Jn 4:20).
We "walk in truth" (2Jn 1:4, 3Jn 1:3). In fellowship with God, which is the result of His peace which He gives, our ears are opened to hear and receive the truth which He reveals. To those "friends" God makes known what He doeth (John 15:13-15). For He said "shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?... For I know him...." So here, to Enoch, God made known His secret, and revealed the solemn fact, unknown to all beside; and unknown to Enoch until God revealed it to him.
Enoch "heard" God; and faith cometh by hearing.
Enoch "believed God," and this it was that made him well-pleasing to God, while he walked with God; and this it was that ended in his Translation.
God had spoken about His coming to execute judgment on the ungodly; but, it is equally true that God did not leave Enoch in ignorance of the fact that judgment would not come upon him; for he was godly. When God warned Noah, and Divinely instructed him as to the coming judgment (Heb 11:7), He at the same time revealed the blessed fact that He would deliver him and bring him safely through it. Surely He must have given the same Divine instruction to Enoch that he also would be translated before it came.
Otherwise, How could it be said that it was "by faith Enoch was translated," if he had not heard the word of the Lord, and believed what he had heard? (Rom 10:17).
Enoch must have heard the blessed, welcome, good and glorious news, that he "should not see death," but should be "translated" to heaven.
It is a perversion of the truth of God, to hold from Gen 5:1-32 (apart from Heb 11:1-40) that Enoch’s translation merely means "conversion from worldly life and carnal pursuits,"[37] or to say that it means an early death, and thus a transition from this "mortal life to the immortal."
Heb 11:1-40 is doubtless a Divine addition to Gen 5:1-32. The same Holy Spirit, who inspired Moses, inspired Paul, and gave us, by him, His own explanation. When He explains that, "God took him,"and "he was not found," He means that Enoch did "NOT SEE DEATH" at all, but that he was translated without dying, and was taken bodily from the earth.
It is equally a perversion to take the words "He is not here" used of a Risen Christ, and place them on a tomb-stone (as we have seen them) of one who is dead, and not risen.
Even in Gen 5:1-32 there is not the whole of the Divine revelation; for elsewhere we learn that Enoch’s body must have been "changed" when he was "translated;" for "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption" (1Co 15:50). At death, "the spirit returns to God who gave it," but "the body returns to earth as it was" (Ecc 12:7. Gen 3:19). At death, therefore, the body (the dust) remains on and in the earth. But, in Enoch’s case, his body "was not found:" because "God took him," and he did not die at all.
How wrong it is therefore for any to use those words, spoken of one who did not die, and use them today of any one who has died!
Yet, how common it is for us to hear it said of one who has died, "God has taken him," or "God has taken her"!
It is not true. It is not the truth. It is not only non-scriptural, but it is an unscriptural expression. In this case it would have been just as true for the Holy Spirit to have written "By faith Enoch died," instead of "By faith Enoch was translated."
But, people do not die "by faith." Most of them believe the teaching of demons that "There is no death, What seems so, is transition."
They believe the Devil’s lie rather than what they "hear"from the word of God. That word reveals the opposite of all the traditions of men. It teaches that There IS death;
What is not so, is TRANSLATION.
It required no faith on the part of Enoch to believe that he would die. It does not say Enoch died by faith. That would have been a matter of "sight." He saw death on every hand. Of each of the six patriarchs before him, it is recorded "and he died" (Gen 5:5; Gen 5:8; Gen 5:11; Gen 5:14; Gen 5:17; Gen 5:20). But of Enoch it is written, that he did "not see death," and the reason given is that "God, took him," and "he was not found." This implies that men looked everywhere for him, but the search parties could not find him dead or alive.
They could not find Enoch, for God had translated him. They could not find his corpse, for he had not died.
Doubtless there was much excitement, if not consternation. It was quite a new thing on the earth. If they searched, they did not search in silence; but must have wondered and speculated as to what had become of Enoch.
Even so will it be in the coming day of the translation of those who believe God, as to His promise to send Jesus Christ, and "take" them to "meet Him in the air," and "call them up on high" (Php 3:14).
God has revealed for "the hearing of faith," what He has in store for His saints.
He knoweth how to execute judgment on the ungodly; and He knoweth also how to "deliver" those whom He has justified (2Pe 2:4). As He delivered Enoch by translating him before the coming of the judgment by the Flood of waters, so will He deliver His saints from "the wrath to come."
Alas! how few of us are like Enoch and believe what God has written for our faith.
How few are, in consequence of this unbelief, walking with God. The many are walking with themselves, and engrossed with their own walk, instead of being occupied with what God has revealed!
How many there are who believe that they will go through the judgments of the great Tribulation! They must not be surprised if they find they are dealt with "according to their faith!"
If some (as many hold) are not caught away before it, as Enoch was, who will they be but "those who believe not!"
Who, of Israel, entered not into God’s rest when He bade them go up "by the hill-country of the Amorites," but wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and finally entered by the fords of Jordan? Those who provoked God with their "evil heart of unbelief" (Heb 3:12). To whom did God "swear in His wrath that they should not enter into His rest?" but to "them that believed not" (Heb 3:11, Heb 3:18).
Why could they not enter in? "Because of unbelief" (Heb 3:19). So we see the full solemnity of the lesson to be learned from Israel’s unbelief, and Enoch’s faith.
Enoch was "not in darkness" as were the ungodly to whom he prophesied as to the coming judgment: nor are we (1Th 5:4).
Enoch heard "by the word of the Lord" that the coming judgment would "not overtake him as a thief:" and he believed what he heard.
We read the same blessed hope for ourselves in the same "Word of truth" (1Th 5:1-4; Php 3:14). Do we believe it? That is the question that must remain with us; and do its own blessed work in our hearts. In 1Co 10:11 these things are specially declared to have "happened unto them by way of ensample (or type), and are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come." And in 1Co 10:5 it speaks of those who did not believe God, and says that "with many of them God was NOT WELL-PLEASED." But it is the very opposite that is declared concerning Enoch: for, "before his translation he had this witness borne of him that he had been WELL-PLEASING UNTO GOD."
Why?
"By faith Enoch was translated." That is the reason.
He believed what God had revealed to him about it: and this faith was well-pleasing to God. Do we believe what He has told us about our coming Translation? Do we look for our calling on high (Php 3:14) and walk with God while we witness and wait for that translation?
If we do, it will prove, like Enoch’s and Caleb’s and Joshua’s, a lonely walk, so far as man is concerned; but it will be "with Him" here, and soon "with Him" there; and, meanwhile, we shall have abounding happiness in the knowledge that we are even now, in the midst of all the confusion and corruption