Devotion 11
Enoch and Me
We've all heard about Enoch. There really isn't much to tell, but what we remember is that He didn't die the way we have to. Of course, that holds lots of appeal. Why wouldn't it?
But in the sermon I mentioned last week, the genealogical entry about Enoch was one of two main Scriptures. The other was about a man who left an ambiguous legacy because his epitaph — so to speak — is interpreted several different ways.
Not so with Enoch: "(He) walked with God and was not, for God took him!" (Genesis 5:24) The pastor emphasized the first part of the verse: Enoch walked with God. Actually he walked with God for 350 plus years before God translated him, scholars believe, in a manner similar to the prophet Elijah.
He didn't seem to have anything special to recommend him; he passed no litmus test; he simply walked with God. He wasn't a Moses, an Abraham, or a Paul. He was human and, therefore, imperfect, but his humanity didn't keep him from fellowship with God.
I started to think about this exercise of walking. Unless we are physically handicapped, we take walking for granted. We do it every day. In fact, it's the way we make normal progress in our daily living. Walking doesn't require any special training, although physical fitness buffs have their power walk, and the recommended style, distance and frequency for walking are open to debate.
But most of us just walk. It implies a leisurely way to proceed. We can do it easily with another person, thus supplying ourselves with companionship.
And that's all Enoch did. He walked with God. Oh, but I'd like more specific directions. A pattern perhaps or a recipe. But this is no cookie cutter lifestyle. "I can walk with God!" the pastor several times. "This means I can walk with God!"
Now I have always known that, but the awesome reality of that simple sentence has never come to life before. I am not just a workhorse, trying to accomplish God's will in my life. I am not just a servant, who takes orders.
God wants to fellowship with me. After all, that was the reason He created Adam and then Eve, wasn't it? He walked in the garden with them in the cool of the day. Let me "say" it again: God wants to fellowship with me. I'm back to "In the Garden." again. A line in the chorus always draws a response from my heart: "And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known." I believe that: No one else has the same relationship with the Saviour as I do. That's not an arrogant statement. That's the way it's supposed to be.
No cookie cutter pattern here. It's just the two of us, just as it is between the Lord and you. The joy you share with Him — or can share with Him — is like no one else's.
A line of song comes to mind as I consider how this is accomplished: "One day at a time, Sweet Jesus…One day at a time…." *
* Words and music by Marjohn Wilkin andKris Kristofferson. ©1973 by
Buckhorn Publishers, Inc.
For Further Consideration:
Genesis 5:21-24
Jude 14 & 15
Hebrews 11:5
II Kings 2:3-5
In the Garden
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear falling on my ear;
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me,
Within my heart is ringing.
I'd stay in the garden with Him,
Though the night around me be falling
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.
C. Austin Miles (1868-1946),
words and music, ©1912 and 1940,
The Rodeheaver Co.
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