Title: Living with God (Gen. 05:21-32)
Contents If someone asks what is the life of faith, I would answer in one word, it is a life of walking with God.
In Micah 6:8, it is written, “Son of man, the Lord has shown you what is good. What does the Lord ask of you, but not to do justice, to love kindness, and to humbly walk with God?”
Enoch mentioned in the text is a believer who sets an example for all Christians. In Hebrews 11, which we call the chapter of faith, it is recorded that Enoch did not see death by faith, but was a man who pleased God (see v. 5). It was only because of his faith that Enoch was able to live a life of walking with God. There are not many people who believe in God today who can confidently say that they walk with God. I think this is because there is a problem with our beliefs. Then, what kind of faith is the faith that walks with God? Let's examine how to believe in God is the right faith through the following three characteristics of God.
righteous God
We must first believe that God is righteous. If we believe that God is just and just, we cannot do unrighteousness before God. Because a righteous God judges unrighteousness.
If you study the text, you will find the reason that Enoch walked with God. It begins with him realizing the judgment of God. When Enoch was fifty-five years old, he had Methuselah, and after begotten Methuselah, he walked with God for three hundred years. There is no record that Enoch walked with God before the birth of Methuselah. It can be seen that the birth of a son marked a turning point in the life of his father, Enoch.
Imagine the following situation. One day God called Enoch and said,
Enoch! The world has become evil. I, the holy and righteous LORD, can no longer tolerate the injustice of the world. I must judge this world . Show me a sign that tells the world that judgment is imminent. When you are to bear a son, you shall name him Methuselah. The meaning of its name is that judgment comes when he dies.
Finally, Enoch had a son. Enoch remembered the word of God and named his son Methuselah. Whenever Enoch saw Methuselah, he said that if the child died, judgment would come, and he must have remembered God's judgment.
Changes in our lives come when we live sensitively feeling that the day of God's judgment is near. If I live with God's judgment in mind, which will reveal all my sins throughout my life, I will try to live according to the Lord's will even if I am afraid of God's judgment.
I will introduce a snippet of the story of one of the butlers I know. One day, the butler became ill and went to the hospital and was diagnosed with cancer. Hearing what his family was saying outside the hospital room, he knew he had only a few months to live. At first, he was very surprised, but because of his faith, he accepted his death calmly. And he started to organize his life. I met people I needed to meet, solved problems to be solved, asked for forgiveness, paid off debts, and even wrote a suicide note. However, even after six months of being sentenced by the hospital, he was still in good health. When I went to another big hospital and did the test again, the result came out that the diagnosis of cancer was a misdiagnosis. People around him said a word at a time about what he should do because he expected him to die and used up almost all of the fortune he had saved up. However, he confessed that he had never lived a life as serious and rewarding as when he lived his six-month limited life.
Enoch's life changed from the moment he believed in God's judgment. The proof is in the New Testament. In Jude 14, 15, the Bible writer testifies of Enoch's life as follows.
Enoch, the seventh son of Adam, also prophesied of the men, saying, Behold, the Lord has come with ten thousands of holy ones, to judge all, and to deal with all the ungodly deeds of all ungodly and ungodly that he might condemn sinners for all their hard words against the Lord.
Enoch believed in judgment and proclaimed the message of judgment.
How much do you believe in God's righteousness? Because He is righteous, He cannot tolerate our unrighteousness. Our unrighteousness must be judged. God knows every sin because He examines every unrighteous language and unrighteous deeds of ours. If we believe that He will judge us, our lives will be different.
After hearing the word of God that the death of his son would be the beginning of judgment, Enoch walked with God for 300 years after giving birth to Methuselah. From the moment we realized God's righteousness and His judgment, we formed a right relationship with God and lived a life of walking with the Lord.
God of love
God is not only righteous but also loving. If we overemphasize only God's righteousness and judgment, we feel only afraid of God. In fact, many people have a fear after they have sinned. It is very painful to admit that there is a God who judges sin. So the more sinful people are, the more they deny God and turn away from God.
We learn from the Bible that God is both righteous and loving at the same time. We have committed a great sin that cannot avoid God's judgment, but God still does not give up on us. Rather, he comes first to the sinner. He wants to forgive us and restore our holy fellowship with God. This is also evident in the life of Enoch.
The name of Enoch's son Methuselah means that when he dies, judgment will come. Did the judgment actually come when Methuselah died? Methuselah had Lamech when he was 187 years old, and Lamech when he was 182 years old when he had Noah. Then, when Noah was born, his grandfather Methuselah would be 369 years old. Methuselah was the longest-lived man in the Bible and lived to the age of 969.
Now, in 7:11, 12, a surprising fact appears.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's year, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened, and it rained upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born, so the 600th year of Noah is the 969th year of Methuselah. As the name suggests, when Methuselah died, the springs of the great deep burst and the windows of the heavens opened, and the judgment of Noah's flood began when rain poured down on the earth for forty days and forty nights. God kept his promise.
We learn the reason for Methuselah's long life in the judgment of the flood. When Methuselah died, judgment would come, so God made him live long. It means that God has been patient with this evil world for a long time. God's righteousness had to immediately judge this wicked generation full of iniquity, but He endured it with love. God wants people to repent and return to restore fellowship with God and live with God.
The Lord's promise is not slow, as some consider slowness, but is patient with you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
Because God is righteous, He judges us. At the same time, God is waiting for people to repent of their sins and return to the Lord. The moment we come before Him and confess our sins, He forgives us, forgives us, and restores fellowship with God.
I do not believe that God walked with him because Enoch was particularly outstandingly holy. Because he was a human too, he must have made mistakes. But Enoch trusted the God of love and never left God. Every time he became weak, every time he failed, every time he made a mistake, he would have taken up his faults and sins before the Lord. And I would have asked the Lord's forgiveness.
The Lord forgave him and walked with him.
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