Genesis 5:21-24: What Does It Mean to “Walk with God”?

INTRODUCTION

You know what a pleasure it was to take a walk with your best friend.

You were sorry when you got to your destination because of the pleasure you had with each other on your journey.

My sister, Mary Lyn, used to walk home from school with her friend, Mary Jane. Mary Jane lived about half way between our house and school. They would get so involved in their conversation that often Mary Jane would continue past her house until they got to our house. But they were so engrossed in their conversation that Mary Lyn would head back with Mary Jane to her house, so that they could finish whatever they were talking about. When they got back to Mary Jane’s house, they would part and Mary Lyn would come on home alone.

Several times in the Bible we read about how one or another of the Bible characters “walked with God.”

The first time we read this is in Genesis 5:21-24:

“When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred 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.”

I. Enoch’s story is way back in the beginning of the Bible, just after the story of Cain and Abel.

A. Six generations after Adam we come to this little story of Enoch.

All we know of Enoch is that he was the father of Methuselah, he had other sons and daughters, he lived for 365 years, he walked with God, and “he was not because God took him.”

B. We wonder: What did Enoch know about God? And how did he find it out?

Enoch had no Bible. He lived long before Abraham and Moses. Of course, he never heard of Jesus.

Enoch didn’t know that Jesus would die for his sins and be raised from the dead.

He didn’t know what the New Testament tells us about heaven.

But Enoch knew that there was a God, and he knew that God was his friend.

And people saw something in Enoch’s life that so impressed them that they said, “Enoch walks with God.”

And then one day Enoch disappeared from the face of the earth, and people were convinced that God had taken him.

And the memory of this obscure man was kept alive and passed down for hundreds of years until it was written in Genesis, the first book in the Bible in those four verses I just read.

II. So what does it mean to “walk with God”?

A. Life is a journey. Our day-to-day life is our walk through life.

Every day we walk a little farther, and finally we get to our destination.

Some people walk their journey through life more of less by themselves.

Some people have many companions on their journey.

If we are Christians we aim to make our journey with Jesus at our side.

B. To “walk with God” is to walk through my life with Jesus as my companion—a relationship of love and obedience and faithfulness and trust.

To walk with Jesus is to know that we are never alone.

In the Twenty-third Psalm we repeat: “Yea, though I go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, thou art with me…”

It is easier for us than it was for Enoch because we know God in Jesus Christ.

We can picture the man, Jesus. Enoch just had to imagine God, but he knew he was there, and he loved him and trusted him all the way.

Jesus said to his disciples: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.”

C. To walk with Jesus is to ask every day: “Jesus, what do you want me to do?”

To walk with Jesus is to love what he loves—and God loves people—all people.

To walk with Jesus is to be ready to serve—to encourage, to pray, to give, to listen.

To walk with God is to be generous in our judgments—instead of criticizing, to affirm people’s worth, to honor people.

To walk with Jesus is to be always thanking God.

To walk with God is to trust God instead of worrying about the things we can’t change.

To walk with God is to be sensitive to our sins, to be always repenting, to be always letting God cleanse us from sin.

To walk with Jesus is to offer my troubles and pains to God—to ask God to use my troubles and pains to make me a better, more understanding person, more tenderhearted—to get me ready for glory.

To walk with God is to “walk by faith, not by sight.” I don’t have to understand. I can live with questions. I only need to know what it is my duty to do.

D. To walk with God is to look ever toward the goal.

Walking with God isn’t just a stroll.

When we walk with God we are going somewhere—somewhere exciting—somewhere glorious. For the believer, the best is yet to come.

III. Then we read: “And he was not, for God took him.”

A. According to the tradition recorded in Hebrews 11:5: “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him.”

Someone said that maybe Enoch was walking with God one day, and it was getting late, so God said to Enoch: “We’re nearer my house than yours, so why don’t you just come home with me tonight?”

B. Unless the Lord comes before we die—which is unlikely—we’ll exit  this world through that door called “death.”

So I pray that God will give me courage and confidence, so that when that day comes I can exit with grace.

This is what I pray for, because I want my homecoming to be a witness that God is real to me.

Archeologists found a crudely-carved little tombstone in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) from the fourth century after Christ, and on it are carved these words: “Here sleeps the blessed Chione, who has found Jerusalem, for she prayer much.”

Not another word is known about Chione, who was probably only a poor, peasant woman. But how lovely that someone was so impressed with the way Chione lived for God that he was sure she had reached the New Jerusalem. And so he carved those words of remembrance on her stone.

CONCLUSION

In Lloyd C. Douglas’s novel The Robe, Marcellus asked Justus, “Where do you think Jesus went?”

Justus replied, “I don’t know, my friend, I only know that he is alive. And I am always expecting to see him. Sometimes I feel aware of him, as if he were close by. “Justice smiled faintly, his eyes wet with tears. “It keeps you honest,” he went on. “You have no temptation to cheat anyone, or lie to anyone, or hurt anyone—when, for all you know, Jesus is standing beside you.”

“I’m afraid I should feel very uncomfortable,” remarked Marcellus, “being perpetually watched by some invisible presence.”

“Not if that presence helped you defend yourself against yourself, Marcellus. It is a great satisfaction to have someone standing by—to keep you at your best.”

I would add: “It is a great satisfaction to know that you have an all-powerful, loving Friend to walk with you through thick and thin and at the end to bring you to Glory.

In Psalm 73 the psalmist writes about a crisis of faith.

He seems to say, “Where are you, God? Why is life so unfair?”

Then he goes to the Temple. He goes into the sanctuary, and he understands.

He says to God:

Nevertheless I am always with you.

You hold me by my right hand.

You will guide me with your counsel

and afterward receive me into glory.

My flesh and heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.”