Is That Possible?

 DEVOTION

IS THAT POSSIBLE?

Gen 5

5:1 This is the written account of Adam's line.

When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them "man." 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died. 6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. 7 And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died. 9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died. 12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died. 15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. 16 And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Altogether, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died. 18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. 19 And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died. 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. 25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died. 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah and said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed." 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died. 32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

NIV

This is the lineage from Adam to Noah, and what has this to do with anything that will instruct, teach, correct, or train us in righteousness. Of course, we could spend some more time on the fact that we are in the same likeness as Adam the first man, and so we are in the likeness of God, or we bear the image of God and we should be therefore living as image bearers, representing God. Then as we work through all this line of men we come to Enoch and we see a testimony of a man who walked with God, and then he was no more because God took him away. Two truths are revealed to us here. First, Enoch walked with God. The Hebrew word translated as walked has a more direct meaning of nearness, among, or with and this gives us a clue as to how it would be good for us to walk. Maybe if we formed it as a question, we would have to answer. Do we walk with God? What does it mean to walk with, near, among God? Perhaps we should add the second truth that might muddy the waters for us. As or because Enoch walked with God, he was no more for God took him away. Again, looking to the Hebrew we find this word no more meaning to not exist, to be nothing, a non-entity. This means Enoch did not die, he was not buried somewhere for he simply disappeared from the earth when he was alive, for God took him away. We are not sure we can even wrap our heads around the idea of being so close to God that someday God would just take us away, that we would not die, or have to go through that process before entering his presence. Jesus told us that because we believe in him, we will live even though we die and that whoever lives and believes in him will never die. Then Jesus asks the question, “Do you believe this?” We have the evidence of Enoch as a man who walked with God and was no more because he lived and believed and he did not die, for God simply took him away. How wonderful it would be for God to just take us away, but then the key here is that we must first walk with God. This takes us back to the question as to what exactly does walk with God look like? Secondly, we think we have many more distractions in life than Enoch did, however, is that an excuse for not walking with God? Enoch did live 365 years and had at 65 fathered Methuselah who was the man who lived longer than any other and Enoch had other sons and daughters throughout the rest of his 300 years before God took him. This means we still have the chance that we will not die, but that God will take us, we will no longer exist as an entity, but just gone. That sort of is similar to what we call the rapture, but it isn’t anything like it, as we just disappear, God takes us away. But first, we must walk with him as Enoch did. Is that possible?