Our goal and purpose for living is to be pleasing to God, right? God has called us out of darkness, forgiven us of our sins, and longs for us to be with Him in Heaven. Our aim is to obey God in faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God because those who want to be saved must believe that He exists and that He will reward those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). We want to live a faithful life so that we can face death with confidence. With the assurance of hope that after we die we will hear the best words ever spoken; the words of Jesus when He says “Well done good and faithful servant.” We will all have to wait, though, to hear those words until the day of the Lord comes before or after we die. We will not receive our reward until all is said and done.
But think about this: Say you are living a faithful life and because you are so pleasing to God He decides one day to just take you to Heaven right then and there without ever having to face death. Before the day of Judgment came. How would you feel about that? I hope our response to that is “WOW”! Speechless. Inexpressible. Imagine the joy. The thrill. The excitement. Getting to go be with God in His presence just like that.
Someone did get to experience that. That is exactly what happened to Enoch. Genesis 5:21-24 reads, “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. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” The text simply says that he “walked with God.” What exactly does that mean? The Hebrew writer sheds more light on it. Hebrews 11:5 says, “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.” Enoch walked with God in that he lived by faith. He listened to God. He believed God. In faith he obeyed God. Enoch was pleasing to God. That was his goal and purpose for living. Apparently he pleased God so much so that God took him from the earth to be with Him. Enoch didn’t have to experience death. He didn’t even have to live another 600 years on the earth. What an amazing thought. What an amazing example.
Enoch lived by faith. Everything he did was done by faith in God. In his faith he stood firm against sin and ungodliness (Jude 1:14-15). I think it wise that we follow the example of a man who God chose in such a way. Living by faith is pleasing to God. Therefore, we need to make sure that everything we are doing is by faith in God and His will. Obeying Him in righteousness. Living in such a way as to be pleasing to Him. In all that we say, do, and think. That’s why Paul said in Ephesians 5 that we need to find out what is pleasing to God and understand His will. By faith Enoch was pleasing to God. By faith I am too.
A Cord of Blue 