25 JULY
Perseverance
‘And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.’ Genesis 5:24
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Jude 12–25
The beginning of Enoch’s walking with God seems to be marked out (verse 22) from the time when he begat Methuselah, when he was about sixty-five years old. But whether it is so or not, we are sure there always must be a beginning, for as we are born in sin and under the law, we have neither skill nor power to walk with God. He is found of them that seek him not. He walked with God 300 years. So as long as he remained in the world, he persevered in this good way. He was not weary but endured to the end. Of too many it may be said that, according to outward appearance and in the judgement of men, they walked with God—some a month, some a year, some several years—but sooner or later they gave it up, and have outlived their profession. This is mournful. May the Lord revive, restore, recall all such wanderers, or their end will be dreadful. Enoch maintained his course of walking with God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. This I think may be gathered from the fallen state of mankind and from Jude 14–15. Enoch was a prophet and, like other prophets, surrounded by those who hated him because he testified of their evil deeds. The natural course of Enoch’s abode upon earth was manifestly shortened. He lived upon the earth not half the time the rest of the patriarchs did before the flood. So the best of men are frequently cut short.
FOR MEDITATION: Enoch’s removal was:
(i) a mercy to himself. His eyes and ears and heart had been pained long enough—the world was growing worse and worse and he was taken from the evil to come.
(ii) in judgement to others. They had abused and resisted his testimony, therefore they shall hear no more. It is a dark sign upon a place or people when the Lord takes away his servants and ministers from them. But he often deals so when his Word is accounted a burden.
SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 13 [2/3], GENESIS 5:24
Milo 