Walking with God

Last night we visited a church in Littleton, CO. The pastor was doing a series on Hebrews 11, going through heroes of faith. Enoch was the person he talked about and I learned a few new things that had never jumped out at me before....

Enoch walked with God. I've always been drawn to the fact that those simple words were spoken about Enoch: "he walked with God." It sometimes has made me envious, and other times I am in awe of that fact. Oh to have that be my epitaph!

But what really jumped out at me last night were two things:

1. Enoch didn't always walk with God.
Genesis 1: 21,22 say "When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters."
It is never too late to start walking with God! Enoch didn't walk with God until AFTER his wife gave birth to his firstborn son when he was 65! We aren't told what happened to change his life. It may have been the simple change that happens when many people become parents and all of a sudden they don't feel so wise, mature, or capable of raising up a man being in this crazy world. This change causes them to look beyond themselves and search for meaning, answers, and the true reason for living- God. Whatever happened to change Enoch seems to be pretty drastic since from then on, for the next 300 years he walked with God and even walked so closely to God that he didn't even taste death, but God simply took him to heaven with Him. Can you say, wow?!? I can't even imagine. This close walk leads me to second thing that I noticed...

2. Adam DID begin walking with God.
Adam walked personally with God daily, but because of his sin in the garden of Eden, and his lack of walking with God after that he wasn't even mentioned in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11! If you read and calculate the years Adam and his descendants, including Enoch, lived you will find that Adam lived up until just a few years before Enoch was "translated" to heaven. This means that Adam had centuries to get back into fellowship with God, but for some reason he never did, or at least not to a closeness like before. He even was able to see Enoch walking with God for over 200 years but still never changed! I think that's tragic. He died just as any other man when he started out his life in such a unique way- the first man who walked and talked with God in the garden of Eden!

I guess I never thought about these two men together before and how different their lives were even though they lived at the same time. It encourages me to finish strong and not depend on my rich Christian heritage, or whatever I've done for and with God in the past. If I'm not walking with God NOW it won't matter. Secondly, it gives me hope for loved ones who aren't yet walking with God. I still have hope they can turn to God and walk with Him and please him just as Enoch did. What do the lives of these two men tell you?