Ps 89:15:īlessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, o LORD, in the light of Thy countenance. According to Scripture, that is the real happiness of every true Christian. Walking with God was the most important thing about Enoch's life. It was a Relationship marked by Fellowship with a Mighty God ← ⤒ □ Paul writes to the church at Ephesus: "According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love" (1:4). If we are Christians, it can only be explained in terms of God's sovereign grace. The words of Gen 5:24, "Enoch walked with God", witness to the truth that God's gracious purpose is sure. I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be their God. Paul writes in 1 Thess 5:10: our Lord Jesus Christ "died for us, that, whether we wake (that is, live in this world) or sleep, we should live together with Him." That is God's purpose, that men and women shall be brought together as His people and be with Him forever. Why did Christ come into this world? In a word, He came to end our broken communion with God, to bring us into perfect communion with Him. It was that promise that Jesus Christ came to fulfill. This is God's promise again and again in the OT: Thus we have the unfolding story of the Old Testament scriptures - God calling and redeeming men and women through to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to David. These are the people to whom Enoch belonged, who testify that God is redeeming and reconciling and sanctifying His people. The names in Genesis 5 make up the early genealogy of the church. At the very end of 4:26 we read that after that darkness and sin: "to Seth there was born a son and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the Name of the LORD." That is to say, in the midst of the darkness of sin God by His Spirit was calling a people to be His people. The explanation is this that after man had fallen into sin, God in Gen 3:15 spoke to Satan the tempter in the presence of man: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed." God said: 'I am going to take from the seed, the offspring, of Eve a people that will be My people.' That indicates that the blessing of paradise was being restored. What Adam and Eve had failed to do in paradise, that Enoch did in this fallen world. When we read that "Enoch walked with God", we are to understand the truth that God has not abandoned His purpose for man. It was a Relationship that was marked by God's Grace ← ⤒ □ Yet we read in Genesis 5:22, 24: "Enoch walked with God". God says to man in Isaiah 55:8: ".My thoughts are not your thoughts". God is spiritual, but we are earthly and sin-bound. We no longer by nature enjoy the presence of God. From then on that has been the truth about our state by nature. Through wilful disobedience man broke the fellowship with God, no longer desired to be in "the presence of the LORD God", and hid himself "from the presence of the LORD God" (Gen 3:8). Paradise was a place of fellowship with God. Paradise was a place of harmony between God and man. That was the situation in the Garden of Eden. In other words, he is made for communion with God, for the companionship of God. He doesn't belong in any real sense to the animal creation he is made in the likeness of God, in the image of God. Genesis 5:1: "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him." Man is unique in this world. The early chapters of Genesis remind us of God's original purpose for man. Genesis 6:5 summarizes it:Īnd God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We have the picture unfolding of man fallen away from God and what happens to man in that condition. We have the first account of murder, the death of Abel, the first occasion of lust when Lamech took to himself two wives, the first description of covetousness and greed, etc. Genesis 3 through 6 describes the first development of man after the Fall. It was a Relationship that did not Arise from Nature ⤒ □ God was his portion and this was his regular experience. God was so much part of his daily life that the presence, the help, and the guidance of God were at the center of his life. When the Bible tells us that Enoch walked with God (Gen 5:22, 24), it says that Enoch knew and experienced the nearness, fellowship, and closeness of God.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |