Who was Enoch in the Bible?

Son of Jared, and father of Methuselah. Of him it is said he "walked with God, and he was not, for God took him"; and also that by faith he was translated, and that before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. A bright example in those early days of how by grace a man can have communion with God, and so please God, and be made sensible of it, thus enjoying the light of His countenance in walking with Him in a sinful world. Enoch was taken to heaven without dying, as the living saints will be at the coming of the Lord Jesus.

The line of Cain was composed of men in whom the flesh and the principles of the world found expression, whereas in the line of Seth God preserved a godly seed in men of faith. In both lines the man of outstanding character and power, the man in whom the respective tendencies found their complete expression, was number seven. In Lamech (Gen. 4:19-24) we have set out the world in its main features; in Enoch (Gen. 5:21-24) the believer's pathway through the world.

There seems to be a suggestion in Genesis 5:22 that the dawn of the new life in Enoch coincided with the birth of his son Methuselah. One can easily understand how this might be. Births and deaths are alike solemn family events, capable of being used by the Spirit of God to turn the heart to things eternal.

He was, however, no recluse or dreamy mystic, for the record is that "Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years, and had other sons and daughters." He entered into ordinary human life and knew all the usual trials and vexations as well as the joys of bringing up a family... In spite of that he walked with God, not in fits and starts, but with steady persistence for three centuries! A wonderful walk, the longest walk on record was that!

This we are informed by Jude, who has put on record for us the subject of his testimony: "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His holy ones..." Even at that early stage in the world's history a clear ringing witness was given to God's intervention in glory, an intervention which would bring conviction to the ungodly. Enoch did not spare his hearers. Ungodly they were both in deeds and words. The threefold use of the word ungodly in Jude 15 is very striking. We do not read that Enoch had any converts, but his witness was evidently marked by the utmost faithfulness and power.

Look, again, at the prophecy of God's patience involved in the meaning of Methuselah's name. It meant "when he is dead it shall be sent," that is, the flood. None have lived longer than he... Methuselah's great age was a standing witness of God's patient compassion, of His unwillingness to judge.

After three centuries of walking with God it must have seemed a simple and natural thing when one day "God took him," and Enoch exchanged his earthly dwelling for the very home of God Himself... He was translated "that he should not see death." ... it carries with it the glorious moral meaning that the power of God through faith could lift a man clean out of the domain of death.

He is a striking type of the church of God, which in her proper condition walks in devoted separation to God, bearing faithful witness to the coming of the Lord, and will be suddenly caught up to meet the Lord in the air, not actually seeing death... it has been suggested that the expression "was not found" implies that he was sought, possibly with the object of putting him to death. But God intervened: he did not see death at all!... let us note that all of this is the fruit of simple, honest faith.