Walking with God

Enoch lived prior to Noah. When he was 65, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah for 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. (Genesis 5:21–24)

Walking with God is a bit difficult to describe, but it is something like walking with my husband. I try to match my stride to his, but he is taller and his steps are much longer. I cannot do it.

God’s strides are not like mine either, nor are His thoughts like my thoughts. He is going places that I would never guess and perhaps never go. His speed is different too, for at times I want to hurry and He is going slower, and sometimes He moves so fast that I’m caught totally by surprise.

When I walk with my husband, he often adjusts his long strides to my shorter ones. God does that as well. He knows I cannot match my stride to His. He is gracious and often slows down and adjusts Himself to me. He did it first in Jesus Christ . . .

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:14)

Jesus came to me, to all humanity for none of us can match our stride to His. He came to our level, our humanness, to save us from our sinful selves. He did it because we could not do it.

Yet Enoch walked with God. Does that mean he was some sort of superman? After all, he lived a long time and did not die. The Bible says God merely plucked him up.

Two answers: Enoch’s long life was not uncommon. His son lived nearly three times as long. In those days, the effects of sin may not have been as powerful. Also, some surmise that before the flood in Noah’s time, a mist covered the world and the harmful and aging rays of the sun were partially blocked. Whatever the reason, life span was longer.

As for Enoch not experiencing normal demise, this is rare. It happened to him, to Elijah, and perhaps others. It may be an intended foreshadow of Christ’s resurrection. It may also point to what some think is the taking up or rapture of all believers before the return of Christ. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

Chambers says of Enoch that his walk was about his ordinary days, not so much any super-hero days. That is true, yet it seems to me that no matter the size of the assignment, walking with God is considered the ‘normal’ Christian life. We stumble and tip over now and then, but we confess and get back on our feet as soon as we hate our sin, and God fills us with Himself that we might walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

Many times I’ve had to take a quick skip in an effort to try and keep up, and occasionally I detect a chuckle from my Father as He takes my hand to help me stay on the path. Yet all whimsy aside, this is an incredible thing God has done; the Creator of the universe stoops to my level, shortens His stride to match mine, that I might walk with Him? Utterly amazing!