Genesis 5:22-24 22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
The elusive existence of Enoch has long fascinated followers of the Abrahamic faiths. The terse account of his life has led to a variety of extrabiblical writings that seek to ‘fill in the gaps’ of his existence.
Beyond empty speculation, how can the biblical material around Enoch help us grow in faithfulness to Christ? How can the curious case of Enoch’s elusive existence help us along our faith journey?[1]
In light of this Easter season, what follows reflects upon how Enoch’s elusive existence speaks into resurrection hope.
Enoch as a godly individual who overcomes death.
To be sure, Enoch is clearly a figure the author of Genesis wants us to notice. His life, described in just three verses, is anything but immaterial. He lived 365 years on earth – the same number of days in a solar year.[2] His life, though documented with brevity, represents fullness of existence.
Even more noteworthy is how his life on earth ends. The pattern in Genesis 5 is that all from Adam live and all from Adam die – illustrating that death reigned through Adam (Romans 5:17). Yet in Genesis 5:24, we read, “he was not, for God took him.” His fate rebels against death’s inevitability.
But why was Enoch’s fate so unique? The author tells us twice in just three verses: Enoch walked with God. This repetition is deliberate. What’s more, this phrase is rarely used in Scripture.[3] More commonly, the Bible speaks of walking before God. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and some kings of Israel walked before Him, emphasizing obedience and subordination.[4] But to walk with God suggests closeness, communion, and companionship. It means interaction. It means living in the sweet awareness of God’s presence with us. This is what we were made for – fellowship with the living God through Christ.
How, then, can we walk with God like Enoch?
Thankfully, we have more than three verses on Enoch to go by. We are told in Hebrews 11:
“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:5–6).
To walk with God is ultimately about trust. It’s about believing that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. That’s the key. Often, we don’t seek God or seek Him half-heartedly because we don’t really believe He will respond. But God wants us to draw near, promising reward to all who do so in faith. Here’s the crux of the issue: do we believe that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him? Walking with God begins with this trust.
But even this trust is not something we muster up on our own. Walking with God does not begin with our initiative. It begins with God’s. He so desired for us to walk with Him again that He gave His only Son to make open the way. And now, through Christ, He invites us to draw near. Through the resurrected Christ, we have “access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18).
Enoch as part of a godly line that overcomes death.
The name ‘Enoch’ first appears in Genesis 4. But while their names are identical, their significance couldn’t be more contrasting. The Enoch of Genesis 4 is the son of Cain and becomes the namesake of a city – a symbol of human ambition, self-glory, and life lived apart from God (v17). The Enoch in Genesis 5, from the line of Seth, is entirely different: he walks with God.
He is “the seventh from Adam” (Jude 14) in the genealogical line through Seth.[5] In biblical genealogies, the seventh is often symbolic, a number of completion or rest. But this becomes even more striking when we compare him to the seventh from Adam in Cain’s line: Lamech. Lamech is known for his violence and boasts of revenge (Genesis 4:18-24). So, we have two sevens from Adam – one marked by walking with God, the other by rebelling against God.
Genesis 4 and 5, then, present two lines of descendants from Adam. The line of Cain is ungodly and the line of Seth is godly. The line of Cain fades away from the story, but the line of Seth carries the biblical story forward, leading ultimately to Jesus Christ, the Promised Seed (Genesis 3:15).
The church father, Augustine, traced this deliberate contrast through Scripture and described these two lines as two cities: the City of Man and the City of God. These two cities represent the enduring spiritual reality that stretches through History and into eternity. One city is destined for destruction. The other for eternal life. One city leads to death; the other to life everlasting. One is Babylon doomed for destruction (Revelation 18:8); the other is New Jerusalem destined for deliverance (Revelation 21:2).
Conclusion
In conclusion, Enoch’s elusive existence offers a powerful signpost: Enoch did not taste death. But more than that, his line leads ultimately to the Promised Seed (Genesis 3:15). This Son of Adam and Son of Enoch not only tasted death but conquered it. Christ did not merely escape death, he overcame it. In union with Christ, we can face death not with the desire to escape it but with defiance which says with Paul, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)
[1] After all, the Apostle Paul says in Romans 15:4, that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
[2] Many have tried to explain what this might symbolize, but at the very least, it signals his significance.
[3] Only two people in the Old Testament are described in this way – Enoch, and just five verses later, Noah (Genesis 6:9).
[4] What is important for us to know is that we cannot walk with God unless we walk before God. Jesus says the one who loves him is also the one who “has my commandments and keeps them” (John 14:21).
[5] Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, and then Enoch.
