TOPIC:“A Walk that Ended in Heaven”
TEXT:Genesis 5:21-24; Jude 14, 15; Hebrews 11:5, 6
“And Enoch walked with God; and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24)
I begin my message with this pointed question: Have you given up on walking? Well, you shouldn't. This old fashioned way of getting around is good for you.
Now people walk for many different reasons: For EXERCISE. Doctor Stephen Sinatra, a leading cardiologist from Manchester, Ct., in his book, Heartbreak, writes: "Often my patients ask me what is the best form of exercise. I always give them the same answer...In my opinion, the best form of exercise is walking." As a matter of fact, I remember reading about a 56 year old doctor from England who started on a trans-continental hike from San Francisco to New York. Imagine, some three thousand miles of walking for exercise.
Or if not for exercise, it could be for an EDUCATION. Some years ago Reader's Digest carried an article about a young African boy who walked 2500 miles across Africa because he wanted an education in America. The story was entitled: “The Boy Who Walked to America.” There you have two people walking - one for exercise and the other for an education.
But listen now about a man who walked not for exercise or an education, but for ENJOYMENT, or better still, for companionship and communion with God. His name is Enoch, the father of Methuselah and great grandfather of Noah. He was the greatest saint, prophet and witness for God in the pre-flood period. The record we have of him is brief, but filled with beauty and splendor. Let us examine those Bible passages that deal so beautifully with his life.
Think, first of all, of the SANCTITY that CHARACTERIZED him. The way of describing and declaring Enoch's holy life is contained in the words of verses 22 and 24: "And Enoch walked with God." Enoch and Noah are the only two men in all of the Bible of whom it is said that they "walked with God." In this written account of Adam's line to Noah, . . .