God's Glory Church

The fifth chapter of Genesis shows us the genealogy of the patriarchs of ancient times. Starting with Adam, you can read how many years each patriarch lived and at what age he died.

But when you get to Genesis 5:21, you see an important difference in the story of the patriarch Enoch. He didn’t die! Instead, as the Bible says, “Enoch walked with God; and he was not, because GOD TOOK HIM” (Genesis 5:24).

Genesis 6:5 describes the conditions in which Enoch lived as he walked with God: “And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Perhaps living in such an environment, Enoch radiated light like a star in the dark. He must have been like an oasis of righteousness in a vast desert of wickedness.

What made Enoch different? That he walked with God! But what does this mean for you and me?

Walking with God means loving Him.

This is understandable…would you walk in front of someone you fear or disrespect or are indifferent to? Of course, you can hang around a little, but it’s impossible to stay there for a long time. But if an ardent feeling of love lives in you, then all you will do is walk where the object of your sighs lives, even if you physically cannot do this, then your thoughts and feelings will “walk” there non-stop.

We all “go” where we like. You won’t be able to drag a drinker with a lasso into the opera house, and an extreme sports enthusiast won’t be able to happily spend time embroidering. And the same thing is in the spiritual sphere of our existence: if I do not like God and His rules, then in principle I will not be able to walk in His presence. Of course, I can sometimes look there, but if there is no love or at least respect in my heart, well, at worst, some interest in how He lives or what He is like, then I will not stay there for long.

The Bible uses this expression very often with the word “walk.” If we examine it, we will see that people either walk before God or before other gods.

Jer.7:23 …he gave them this commandment: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people, and walk in every way that I command you, that it may go well with you.”

Deuteronomy 11:22 For if you keep all these commandments that I command you to do, and love the Lord your God, and walk in all His ways and cleave to Him… no one will be able to stand against you…

It goes without saying that where a person walks, there he speaks, thinks, and learns. Therefore, it is not surprising that people who walk before God are constantly in communion with Him; prayer for such people is not a duty that must be performed several times a day, but almost like breathing, which if there is not enough of it, it is immediately difficult to move and live. And fulfilling God’s commandments also becomes a natural thing. After all, while I walk before God, I learn from Him, willy-nilly. He does not lie… and I stop lying, He is loving… and I begin to love, He is wise… and I gain wisdom… So in our physical life, if I constantly go to my favorite workouts, and there is a good trainer, then my capabilities increase with each workout.

“Work without prayer is slavery, prayer without work is begging.” (Hudson Taylor)

So “walking” is, figuratively speaking, actually showing what or who you really love. Therefore, the phrase “Enoch walked before God” can be read this way: Enoch loved God so much that he always sought to be in His presence; Enoch was not at all interested in other “gods,” but only in the Almighty.

The Bible also warns us about the possibility of self-deception, when we can convince ourselves that we walk with God, that we love Him, but in fact we are just hypocrites:

Jer.7:9 How! you steal and kill and commit adultery, and swear lies and burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods which you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, “We are saved,” so that from now on you will do all these abominations.

Walking with God will always help change a person into God’s likeness. But if a person steals, kills, commits adultery, lies, gossips, etc., and therefore declares to everyone that he is saved, that he is a Christian, simply because he goes to the House of Prayer and even does some kind of service in the church, then he is deceiving himself.

When my life on earth comes to an end, I want people to be able to say of me, as they did of Enoch: “He walked with God.” Would people say that about you?

Time is short. The day when Jesus returns to earth is approaching. Today more than ever we need to learn how to walk with God!