Enoch Walked and Talked

The Bible doesn’t share a lot about Enoch’s life, but it does tell us that he walked with God for 300 years until God took him to heaven. How beautiful that a person’s consistent devotion to God is what defines their life!

One thing we know is that Enoch must have been “continuing steadfastly in prayer” (Rom. 12:12, NKJV), persevering and growing closer to God in faith through his daily experiences. The earth was becoming increasingly evil in the time in which he was living, and Enoch kept busy serving God, but he couldn’t do this well without abiding in Him.

“In the midst of a life of active labor, Enoch steadfastly maintained his communion with God. The greater and more pressing his labors, the more constant and earnest were his prayers. . . . After remaining for a time among the people, laboring to benefit them by instruction and example, he would withdraw, to spend a season in solitude, hungering and thirsting for that divine knowledge which God alone can impart. Communing thus with God, Enoch came more and more to reflect the divine image. . . . Even the ungodly beheld with awe the impress of heaven upon his countenance.”—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 86, 87.

God doesn’t ask us to live like hermits or monks, so separate from the world that we are of no earthly use. Like Enoch, we can be productive and aware of the needs around us, but it’s only by walking and talking with God through a steady, abiding relationship that He can reflect His wonderful character through us.

We can pray anytime, anywhere. There is nowhere on earth that God doesn’t see or hear us (Ps. 139:7–12); He always hears the cries of our hearts, no matter where we are (read Lam. 3:55–57). Yet, there is something to be said for praying out loud instead of just in our minds. When we pray silently, we might become distracted or not even finish our train of thought or our sentence, and it can be harder for our thoughts to remain focused. But when we pray aloud, whether in a whisper or in our usual tone, it’s a reminder to ourselves that God is real, that He’s listening, and that we have something specific to talk about with Him.

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

Enoch was a representative of Christ as surely as was the beloved disciple John. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. To him was committed the message of the second coming of Christ. “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophe­sied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have ­ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” The message preached by Enoch, and his translation to heaven, were a convincing argument to all who lived in Enoch’s time. These things were an argument that Methuselah and Noah could use with power to show that the righteous would be translated.
That God who walked with Enoch was our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He was the light of the world then, just as He is today. Those living then were not without teachers to instruct them in the paths of life, for Noah and Enoch were Christians. The gospel is given in precept in Leviticus. Implicit obedience is required now, as then. How important it is that we understand the meaning of this word. Only two classes will be developed in the world—the obedient and the disobedient. This must be made apparent in all our labors. If we could only bear in mind that Christ, in disguise, is constantly by our side. “I am at your right hand to help you.” We are to be His witnesses to convince the sinner of sin. None can be compelled against their will, but they can be convinced. Christ is the miracle-working power that can do this.—Christ Triumphant, p. 63.

Of Enoch it is written that he lived sixty-five years, and begat a son. After that he walked with God three hundred years. During these earlier years Enoch had loved and feared God and had kept His commandments. . . . But after the birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and responsibility as a son of God. . . .
What a blessed thing it is that we have an Enoch! . . . Notwithstanding the corruption that was so great around him, yet he walked with God, and his light shone out to that degenerate age. And if Enoch walked with God amid corruption then, why cannot men and women walk with God today, in this age of the world?
Many of us know something of this experience. We know that in sadness and grief we feel very frail, but we know that Jesus is right by our side to sympathize with us, and He will help us. We can commune with our best Friend; He is right by our side. We need not go into the heavens to bring Him down, for He is right by us to help us.
As we walk in the streets with those who care not for God or heaven or heavenly things, we can talk to them of Jesus. We have something more precious than they to look upon—it is Jesus. He is with us in the moral darkness of this age. We can tell Him of the afflictions of our soul and the wickedness in the world, and none of these things need hinder us. We can talk with Jesus. We can talk with Jesus as Enoch talked with God; he could tell his Lord all about his trials. . . .
Enoch formed a righteous character, and the result was that he was translated to heaven without seeing death. When the Lord shall come the second time, there will be some who will be translated without seeing death, and we want to know if we will be among that number. We want to know if we are wholly on the Lord’s side—partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust—not by trying to make a clear path for our feet where we shall have no trials or difficulties to meet, but by placing ourselves in right relation to God and letting Him take care of the consequences.—Christ Triumphant, p. 42.\