Have you ever wondered?

 What made Enoch the way he was?  Here is a man who walked with God every day, but nothing is ever mentioned about what happened while he walked with God.

  The next question is whether this is a figurative or literal walk.  According to Strong's, the Hebrew word is 'halak', which means "to walk (in a great variety of applications, lit. and fig.)", and Dake's notes state that 'halak' means 'to walk up and down, be conversant'.  I like the meaning of 'be conversant' because to me that means they talked.  How great it must feel to know that God is talking with you.  Most commentaries say that Enoch lived a Godly life and followed God, but why did the writer use the 'walk' rather than 'lived'.  The writer could have said Enoch followed God's teaching and lived a godly life, but he didn't.  In fact, twice the scripture says, "Enoch walked with God" (Gen. 5:22 & 24).  If all scripture is God's words, then why would God have the writer use 'walk' to describe a particular way of living, why not say 'lived' rather than 'walked'?  It gives one much to contemplate if one desires to contemplate such things, and I for one, do.  In fact, I enjoy asking questions and then trying to dig for answers, some of which I may never find, but I still enjoy the search.

  Now, imagine if 'walk' is the literal meaning of the relationship between Enoch and God.  One then must ask, what did the two of them talk about, for I cannot image one walking with God and not talking to Him, and in this conversation, God would be talking with Enoch as well.  In a way, I envy Enoch because of having such a close relationship with God; a close enough relationship that "God took him" (Gen. 5:24).  God only takes one other person after Enoch and that was Elijah (2Kings 2).  I try to imagine what kinds of things God told Enoch during their 300-year walk.  Just try to image what 300 years would constitute in a very close relationship with God.

  In Dake's Annotated Reference Bible, the side margin notes that "Enoch and Noah were the only antediluvians who 'walked with God'."  Considering the length of time that men lived and the short time span between Adam and Eve being in the garden and the occurrence of the flood, you would think more men would have walked with God.  That is not to say that there were no other godly men, for Seth's line had some men who did live godly lives, but none of them is said to have 'walked with God'.  I can only wonder why more of them did not walk with God.  What kept them from walking with God?  Dake's also says in the margin that "This walk might have been as literal as with Adam" (Gen. 2:19; 3:8).  I like the fact that someone believes as I do, or at least seems to believe as I do.

  So, back to Enoch and his walking with God.  Can you even imagine literally walking with God every single day, and was God physically walking with him, or is this a metaphorical depiction of God's actions?  The first time I ever read about Enoch, and I must have been about 11 or 12, I had a very visual image of Enoch actually walking through gardens and fields with God beside him and the two of them carrying on a verbal dialog.  Even at that age, I interpreted this to be a literal rather than figurative walk.  I still believe it was literally the two of them walking and talking together.  Interestingly enough, nothing is ever said about what God talked to him about.  One is bound to ask, what could God have been telling Enoch?  We know from Jude 14 that Enoch was a prophet because Jude says that Enoch prophecied the second coming of Christ.  This is one of the things that God had to have talked to Enoch about, and if there was one thing then there had to be more that God talked to him about.

  In Jewish tradition, there is a book of Enoch, but it is not a part of the Torah nor was it included in the Bible.  I always wondered why. There are versions of the Book of Enoch online, but I cannot help but wonder if it is the original from the Hebrew, or if someone might have added to or deleted from it over time.  There are also copies that can be purchased on Amazon.com and there you can also find information about the authors of the different translations of The Book of Enoch.  I will not provide any links because I will not say that what is in the book is to be believed as the word of God.  I think if one reads it, they should do so carefully and with discretion.  Nothing, in my opinion, should be believed at face value when it comes to dealings of faith or God; instead, it must be compared to what we do know as God's word in the bible, and then prayed about carefully.  So much for my warnings, back to Enoch.

 The next thing that is interesting about Enoch is that his walk did not take place until after the birth of his son, Methuselah (I found it interesting that Methuselah means "when he is dead it shall come" and Dake's adds that 'it' is the deluge).  Enoch was 65 years old when his son was born, and then it say that Enoch walked with God for 300 years.  In Genesis, it then states that "all the days of Enoch were 365 years", so the first 65 years, it appears as if Enoch was not walking with God.  Does that mean he did not live a godly life, or that after the birth of Methuselah something changed and the relationship he had with God become more or, maybe, much deeper. If Methuselah's name is prophetic, then Enoch had to have had a relationship with God before his birth, but why not say Enoch walked with God all his life unless there was some type of change in Enoch's relationship with God.  This leads me to ask, what type of change occurred?  My only answer seems to relate to a stronger or deeper relationship, or maybe a more spiritual relationship than prior to Methuselah's birth.  Many interesting questions still to ponder.

 If Enoch was so close to God, 'Why is there so little about him in the Bible?' is my next question.  He is only mentioned thrice; once in Genesis, then in Hebrews, and again in Jude.  (Gen. 5:22-24; Heb. 11:5; Jude 1:14-15)  As stated before, Jude reveals that God must have told Enoch something of the end times because Enoch prophesied about the return of the Lord.  What else, however, did God tell Enoch during those walks?  As a prophet, were there other things that Enoch shared with people?  The Bible tells us nothing else, but think about it, 300 years is a long time; a much longer time than anyone of us will ever live; long enough for Enoch and God to share much with each other.

  There are a great many questions to ask about Enoch beside his walks with God. For instance, what did Enoch do or know in order for God to take him? What did Enoch's family do when Enoch disappeared or did they know that God had taken him? What do we need to do to emulate Enoch if we so choose to emulate him?  

     Then again, are there Christians who want to emulate Enoch? Who is ready to walk off with God or be taken by God? Would God allow anyone to achieve that point in their relationship today? The scriptures do state that all men are allotted to die once, which means both Enoch and Elijah are still allotted to die.  This is why many claim that the two prophets in Revelations are Enoch and Elijah because neither of them has physically died.

Knowing and Trusting

". . . For I know the one in whom I trust . . ."  2 Timothy 1:12

How true are these words?  It is not the fact that I trust Him that I would question, but the comment 'I know the one."  How well do I really know Him, and how well do I need to know Him before trusting Him?  I guess the real issue is not 'trust' but 'know'.  How well do I want to know Him?  How well can I get to know Him?

One of the people I most admire in the bible is Enoch.  Enoch walked with God and became so close to God that he one day walked off with God.  What kind of a relationship did they really have?  Why are we not told more about Enoch?

So, what do I really know about God?

• He is an all loving father.  And how do I know this?  What father, if he did not have an infinite amount of love, would sacrifice his true son for the sins of his adopted children?  Only one who had so much love that in him that it transcends the understanding of man.
• He is the creator; this is something I have no doubts about even if I cannot physically prove it.
• He is forgiving.  This goes back to my first statement about Him being all loving.
• He is all knowing, for why would God even create man if he did not know ahead of time that there would be those who were worth His effort and who would love Him beyond all humanly reason.
• He is trustworthy.  He made a promise to Adam and Eve after they fell that He would send one who would crush the serpent, and He did by sending part of Himself in the form of a son, and then willingly offered that life to save mankind from his sins.
• He loves me; see what He did as a loving father, for if that is not proof of His love for me, than nothing is.  This statement is more than "He is an all loving father" because it pinpoints me specifically.  I feel it is very important to  remember that He Loves Me, not just everybody else because when I look at it that way, I forget that He does these things for me personally not a just some random person.
• He knows me; it says in the bible that He knew us before the foundation of the earth (Ephesians 1:4), and He tells Jeremiah that He knew him before He formed him (Jeremiah 1:5).  If that is true for Jeremiah, then I believe it is true of me also.  Besides, how can you love someone so unconditionally without know them?

This might not be everything that I know for sure, but I believe it is a good start.  I do like how the amplified bible reads: ". . . for I know (perceive, have knowledge of, and am acquainted with) Him Whom I have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on) . . . " 2 Timothy 1:12.

Is it not true that it is hard to trust those in whom you do not believe or have no acquaintance with or knowledge of?  I really like the term "acquainted with."  The Merriam Dictionary defines 'acquaint' as "to cause to know personally," and is that not what our relationship should be.  We should know our Lord personally; we should have a personal relationship with Him, and when we do, it is much easier for us to trust and believe in Him.

The Finite Mind

I have just received a study book called "This I Know For Sure" by Babbie Mason.  Now there are very few things I dislike about bible studies, but the one that I have the most trouble with is that there is a lesson for every day of the week, and I seem to have a problem following that schedule.

I guess my problem is that I look at things from to many angles. This title, for instance, has me already pondering what I do really know for sure about God, and my first 'for sure' item is that God is the creator of . . . and then I found myself limiting Him be thinking 'the universe.'  I had to stop right there and begin to wonder if that is true or not.  Oh, not that He created the universe but if that is all He is the creator of.  Then I began to realize that we have very finite minds.  We think in what we know and can see, but how do I know that God did not create other things that I cannot see.  Why do I limit Him in that fashion?

This is not the only time I have realized how finite my mind is; the first time was when I started to think about the concept that 'God always was;' He has 'no beginning' and 'no end.'  What a concept, but one I cannot see.  This thought, I have to confess, occurred when I was very much younger, maybe 12 or 13.  I spend sometime thinking about the idea of having no beginning, which is hard, for you see, we are told everything had beginning, and even Genesis talks about the beginnings.  The beginning of the world, the beginning of the flora and fauna, and the beginning of man and woman, but it does not tell us how God began because He had no beginning.  Try to image that; God just was and will always be.  After much thought, I finally realized I just had to accept that fact as true and not try to figure out how it could be true.

Now I am asking myself, what else might God have created that man has no concept or knowledge of, and why do He just credit the universe to His creation.  How do we know what else there is that exists that we have not way of understanding because our minds are so finite.  The other side of that coin is asking myself if I really understand what infinite is, and if I can conceive of such an idea in relation to God.

Infinite is such a vast concept, that I am not sure if my mind will ever be able to wrap around everything that word encompasses. When I was much younger, I watched, for the first time, the movie "The Incredible Shrinking Man."  It was not until much later that I learned it was first a book by Richard Matheson.  When I finally found a copy of the book and read it, the main character, Scott Carey, talked about a time when he would shrinking into nothingness because his height was exponentially decreasing.  Now here is the interesting thing, when he mind realized he would be below one inch, he thought he would just cease to exist, but what he discovered was that, even though he continued to shrink, his existence was not measure in a way that he understood because he would never decrease in height to disappear, but would decrease in measure that man no longer recognize as measurable.  Is that not what happens with God when we think about his creation.  We only acknowledge what is recognizable to our minds and fail to think past that, so we, in actually, are limiting God because of our 'finite' minds.

So, what do I know for sure?  I know that God is the creator, but I will not limit what He has created because there is so much I still have to learn and recognize even if it is not in this life time.  Oh the questions that will be answered when I finally reach heaven, but then I wonder if I will understand all the answers I have been looking for.  Will my mind still be 'finite' or will I finally have an 'infinite' mind.

Matthew 5:27-37: Clean Thoughts

Jesus warns his disciples that even their thoughts can be a sin when the thoughts are about something that is inappropriate.  So what does this mean for us?  How often have we had unclean or inappropriate thoughts whether in anger or in lust or in thoughtless moments?  How can we avoid such thoughts that are considered sinful and harmful to us and our relationship with Jesus?

This may seem a lot to think about, but a contemplation worth our time.  I know that I need to consider what I think about so that I'm not offending God or impeding my developing relationship with our Lord.  So, how am I do do this?  Is it not at times of the most emotional time or when we are too idle that we seem to let our minds wondering and sometimes it wonders in directions that are not acceptable or appropriate?  If that is the case, then I need to watch myself at such times so I do not fall in a trap that will take my mind places it should not go.  I must remember that the enemy if roaming the world seeking those he can devour.

So, why does this seem to be a problem for us not only as Christians but as nonChristians?  Could it be because Satan is the god of this world, and he really is seeking those he can devour with sin and corrupted lives?  I know I do not want to be one of those he can devour - I want only one God in my life, and that is a God who has forgiven me and will help me to improve my life for the better.  With that knowledge, then I know that I must watch what I say and how I think because when I am not controlling my thoughts, it is easy for words to slip out of my mouth that should not be said.  I must monitor not only my thoughts but my words as well.  It is so easy to be influence the world and other around us that we can conform to what others say and do without realizing it, and that is what Jesus was warning his disciples about.

Jesus wants us to keep our hearts and minds pure and free of the world's - Satan's - influence; He wants to be our guide, our protector, our main focus, and why shouldn't He - let me never forget that He willingly suffered and laid down His life for me so that I may have salvation and the hope of heaven.

Thank you Jesus for loving me enough to die more me in the most horrific manner possible at that time.  Your death was the beginning of my life.