Genesis 5:
- Furthermore, Enoch lived sixty-five years and begot Methusalah.
- But Enoch walked with God after he had begotten Methusalah, for three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
- And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years,
- and he walked with God, and he was not seen, because God took him.
The statement that Enoch walked with God must in no wise be understood after the fashion of the monks: that he kept himself in some secluded nook and there lived a monastic life. Verily, so great a patriarch ought to be set upon a candlestick or, as Christ expresses it, upon a mountain (Matt. 5:14), so that he may shine in his public ministry.
In this fashion the apostle Jude also praises him in his epistle and says (Jude 14–15): “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesies concerning these things when he says: ‘Behold, the Lord will come with His thousands of holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness, which they have committed in their ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against God.’ ”
I do not know where Jude got this. But it is likely that there persisted in the memory of men, like a tradition, the saintly sayings and deeds of the patriarchs; and perhaps they also wrote them down. Thus it is this public ministry that Moses praises, and he exalts godly Enoch like a sun above all the teachers or patriarchs of the primitive world.
From this we gather that Enoch had an unusual fullness of the Holy Spirit and outstanding courage, because he was bolder than the other patriarchs in offering resistance to Satan and the Cainite church. For, as we said above, to walk with God does not mean to flee into the desert or to hide in a nook but to go out according to one’s calling and to offer resistance to the iniquity and malice of Satan and the world; moreover, to confess the Seed of the woman, to condemn the religion and the endeavors of the world, through Christ to preach another life after this life, etc.
This kind of life godly Enoch lived for three hundred years, like a chief prophet and priest who had six patriarchs as his teachers. Moses, therefore, properly praises him as a very excellent pupil who was taught and trained by several teachers, and those the best and most outstanding. Moreover, Enoch was so equipped by the Holy Spirit that he might be a prophet of prophets and a saint of saints in that first world. Thus in the first place, Enoch is outstanding because of his office and ministry.
In the second place, he is praised above others because God wanted him to be an example for the whole world, in order to give comfort and encouragement to the faith in the future life. Therefore this text should be written in letters of gold and should be impressed most deeply on the hearts.
This shows once more what it means to walk with God, namely, to preach another life than this one, to give instruction about the future Seed, about the head of the serpent that will be crushed, and about the kingdom of Satan that will be destroyed. This was what Enoch preached, who nevertheless was a husband and the head of a family, who had a wife and children, and also ruled his household and supplied their food with his labor. Do not give another thought to a monastic life which has the appearance of walking with God! And so for three hundred years after Methuselah’s birth this godly man had lived in the greatest piety, faith, and patience, and under a thousand crosses, which he nevertheless overcame through faith in the future Seed. And then he was no longer seen.
Observe in this passage the words which are replete with very important sentiments. Moses does not state what he had stated about the other patriarchs: “He died.” He says: “He was not seen,” something which all the teachers have diligently taken note of as a sure proof of the resurrection of the dead.13 In Hebrew the idea is presented briefly but very meaningfully, for it reads: “And Enoch walked with God וְאֵינֶנּוּ, and not he.” This means that, contrary to the hope and expectation of all the rest of the patriarchs, Enoch was lost or was not seen and had ceased to be among men.
Without a doubt, therefore, Enoch’s father and grandfather were perturbed by the very serious loss of so distinguished a man. They knew with what great zeal he had taught the faith and how much he had suffered. Therefore when they suddenly lose this man, whose piety had the support of evidence before God and man, in what frame of mind do you suppose they were?
Therefore provide me at this point with an eloquent poet or orator to deal with this passage as it deserves and with feeling. Enos, Seth, and all the other patriarchs do not know where Enoch had been taken. And so they search for him; his son Methuselah searches; his other children and descendants search. They suspected malice on the part of the Cainites. Therefore they may have thought that he had been slain like Abel and had been buried secretly.
At last, through God’s revelation by an angel, they learned that Enoch had been taken away by God Himself and had been given a place in Paradise. This, however, they did not learn on the first day or on the second, but perhaps after an interval of many months or years. Meanwhile they loudly lamented the holy man’s wretched lot as though he had been slain by the hypocritical Cainites. This is the rule, that cross and affliction always precede comfort. God does not comfort any unless they are sad, just as He also does not give life to any unless they are dead and does not declare any righteous unless they are sinners. For He creates everything out of nothing.
It was, therefore, an extraordinary cross and affliction for the holy patriarchs when they saw the removal and disappearance of the man who had governed the whole world with sound doctrine and during his entire life had performed many outstanding deeds. While they are mourning and grieving over the misfortune of the holy man, behold, comfort is at hand, and it is revealed to them that the Lord has taken Enoch away. Such a Scripture statement we do not have of any other human being except Elijah (2 Kings 2:11–12). Thus even in the first world God desired to give a clear example to prove that He had prepared for His saints another life after this life. In it they would live with God.
Furthermore, the Hebrew verb לָקַח does not denote “He took away,” as it almost seems to mean in our translation, but “He took to Himself.” Therefore these words are words of life which, through some angel, God revealed to Enoch’s father and to that entire generation of saints. Thus they would have in their possession the comfort and the promise of eternal life, not only in the form of a word but also in the form of an actual deed, just as He previously had done in the instance of Abel. How welcome this announcement was to them, when they heard that Enoch was not dead, that he had not been slain by ungodly men, and that he had not been taken away by the deceit and treachery of Satan but had been received by the living and almighty God Himself!
This is the special jewel which Moses wants to be particularly prominent in this chapter: that Almighty God takes to Himself not geese, not cows, not pieces of wood, not stones, and not the dead, but Enoch in person, in order to show that there has been prepared and set aside for men another and also a better life than this present life which is replete with so many misfortunes and evils. Granted that Enoch, too, is a sinner, nevertheless he departs this life in such a way that God grants him another life, an eternal life. Inasmuch as he is living with God, God is also taking him to Himself.
Thus Enoch walked with God; that is, in this life he was a faithful witness that after this life men would live an eternal life, thanks to the promised Seed. For this latter is the life with God; it is not that former life, which is physical and subject to corruption. And just as Enoch steadfastly preached this truth, so God fulfills and proves this message true in his person, in order that we may believe and maintain with assurance that Enoch, a human being like us, born of flesh and blood from the carnal Adam, as we are, was taken away to God and now lives the life of God, that is, the eternal life.
Before the generation of the holy fathers was aware of the facts, it was something dreadful to hear that Enoch, so holy a man, had disappeared in such a manner that no one knew where he was or how he had perished. Therefore his pious parents and ancestors were in great sorrow. But later on unbelievable joy and comfort was given to them when they heard that their son was living with God Himself and had been translated by God to the angelic life.
This comfort God reveals to Seth, who was the chief prophet and priest now that his father Adam, fifty-seven years ago, had fallen asleep in faith in the blessed Seed. At that time Seth was about eight hundred and sixty years old. Now an aged man and full of days and, therefore, because of his trust in the future blessed Seed, anxiously waiting for the deliverance of his body and desiring to be gathered to his people, Seth died with greater cheerfulness a short time later, namely, after fifty-two years. These years were a very short time for the holy aged man to draw up his testament, to visit his children and descendants, to preach to them, and to exhort them to persevere in faith in the promised Seed and to hope for the eternal life to which Enoch, his son and their father, had been translated and in which he was living with God. In this manner, with joy and in his ripe old age, the holy aged man comforted himself and his people and instructed them as he spent his days among them, bade them good-by individually, and blessed them.
If I were to die within six months, I would hardly have enough time to draw up a testament. For I would remind men of the sum and substance of my preaching; I would exhort and urge them to persevere in it; and, to the extent that I were able to foresee, I would admonish them to be on guard against offense in doctrine. This task could not be completed in one day or in one month. Therefore the fifty years which Seth lived after Enoch had been taken away were a very short time (for spiritual men have a method of reckoning time that is far different from the way used by the children of this world), during which he instructed his people concerning the grand comfort that after this life they should hope for another life, which God revealed by taking to Himself Enoch, our flesh and blood.
“Therefore,” said he, “do not follow your lusts, but despise this life and hope for a better one. For what evil there is in this present life! To how many diseases, to what great dangers, and to what awful misfortunes it is subject! Not to say anything for the time being about the things that are most important, namely, the spiritual evils which worry and torture the conscience: the Law, sin, and death itself.
“Why is it, therefore, that you desire this life so much and appear to be unable to get enough of it? We would have to terminate it voluntarily if God did not want us to live in order to praise Him, to give Him thanks, and to serve our brothers. Let us, therefore, zealously render God this service, and let us hasten with our sighs toward the true life to which Enoch, my son and your brother, was transferred by God Himself.” These and similar matters the holy aged man taught after he got to know this comfort.
After they had realized that Enoch, while still alive, had been translated by the Lord to immortality, they undoubtedly wished that they, too, might be released from this wretched life in the same manner, or at least through death.
If the holy patriarchs had such an eager desire for the future life because of Abel and Enoch, of whom they knew that they were living with God, how much more this is becoming to us who have as our leader Christ, ἀρχηγὸν τῆς ζωῆς, as Peter calls Him in Acts 3:15! They believed that He would come in the future; but we believe that He has appeared, and that He has gone away to the Father to prepare dwelling places for us (John 14:2), and that He is sitting at the right hand of the Father and is interceding for us.
Should we not, therefore, long for the future things and hate these present ones? It was not, as in the case of the patriarchs, Enoch or Abel who revealed to us the hope of a better life; it was Christ Himself, the Prince and Author of life. Therefore we should courageously despise life and the world, and wholeheartedly aspire to the future glory of eternal life.
It is here that we realize how great is the weakness of the flesh, which burns with desire and love of the present things but feels no joy about the certainty of the future life. For how can that be anything but certain of which we have so many witnesses: Abel, Enoch, Elijah, nay, even the very Head and First Fruits of those who rise again, Christ (1 Cor. 15:20)? Therefore the Epicureans are most deserving of the hatred of God and of men. Also deserving of our hatred is our own flesh, which often incites us, too, to Epicureanism, when we give ourselves up wholly to temporal cares and so smugly disregard the eternal blessings.
Therefore these words must be noted and carefully impressed on our hearts: that Enoch was taken away and received, not by some patriarch, not by an angel, but by God Himself. This was the comfort which made death bearable for the holy patriarchs, so that they departed this life with joy. Even at that time, before He had been revealed, they saw that the Seed which had been promised them was waging war with Satan and had crushed his head in the instance of Enoch. They had the same hope for themselves and for all their descendants who believed; and they despised death with the utmost unconcern, as if it were not death but a sleep from which they would awake to eternal life. For death is not death for those who believe; it is a sleep. When the terror, the sting, and the power of death (1 Cor. 15:55–56) are lacking, it cannot be called death. Therefore the greater faith is, the weaker death is; but the smaller faith is, the bitterer death is.
But here, too, we are reminded of our sin. If Adam had not sinned, we would not be mortal men; but, like Enoch, we would, without fear and pain, be taken out of this physical life to another, better, and spiritual life. Now that we have lost that life, this story points out to us that we must not despair of having Paradise and life restored to us. The flesh indeed cannot be without pain; but since the conscience has been quieted, death is like a fainting spell through which we pass into rest. That pain of the flesh would have been absent in the innocent nature; for we would have been taken away as if by a sleep, and, awaking shortly, we would have been in heaven and would have lived the angelic life. But now, when the flesh has been corrupted by sin, it must first be destroyed by death. So Enoch, perhaps when he was lying in some place covered with grass and was praying, fell asleep; and as he slept, he was taken away by God without pain and without death.
Let us, therefore, take note of this passage, which Moses wants to stand out as by far the most noteworthy story of the first world. What more astonishing event could happen than that a perishable human being—a sinner, born of flesh and blood, polluted and depraved by sin, so triumphed over death that in spite of all he did not die? Christ is a human being and righteous; but our sins bring it about that He is subjected to a most bitter death, from which He is freed on the third day and raises Himself up unto eternal life. And so in Enoch’s case this is unique that he does not die but, without an intervening death, is taken away to the spiritual life.
The rabbis very much deserve to be detested, for whatever Scripture has that is very excellent they pervert most execrably. Thus in connection with this passage they prate about Enoch that he was indeed good and righteous, but that he had a strong leaning toward fleshly lusts.14 God, therefore, had mercy on him and took him by death before he would sin and be condemned.
I ask you, is this not an outstanding distortion of this text? What need is there to say of Enoch alone that he had evil leanings, as if indeed the rest of the patriarchs did not have them and did not feel them?
Furthermore, why do they not notice that Moses says twice that Enoch walked with God? This is surely a proof that Enoch did not yield to the temptations but by faith bravely overcame them. But when the Jews speak of evil leanings, they have in mind lust, greed, and similar desires. Enoch, however, undoubtedly lived among more grievous trials, and, with Paul, he felt the well-known thorn (2 Cor. 12:7). He wrestled daily with the old serpent; and finally, after he had been thoroughly plagued and worn out by every sort of trial, he was commanded by the Lord to depart this life and to pass into the other.
But what sort of life it is that he is now living we who are still flesh and blood cannot know. For us it is enough to know that he was taken away also in respect to his body. Of this fact the patriarchs undoubtedly had knowledge through revelation, and they needed this comfort when they were about to die. This much knowledge we also have. But what Enoch is doing, where he is, and how he is living, we do not know. We know that he is living, but surely not this physical life; for he is with God, as the text plainly states.
And so this story is a noteworthy one. Through it God desired to impart to the first and primeval world the hope of a better life after this life.
Later on in the second world, which had the Law, God gave the example of Elijah, who was taken away by the Lord even as his servant Elisha was looking on.
We in the New Testament are in the third world, as it were; and we have a more outstanding example—Christ Himself, our Deliverer, ascending to heaven with many other saints. In every age God wanted to have at hand proofs of the resurrection of the dead in order to draw our hearts away from this detestable and troubled life, in which, as long as it seems good to God, we nevertheless serve Him by performing our governmental and civic duties and also, above all else, by leading others to godliness and the knowledge of God. But here we have no continuing place (Heb. 13:14). For Christ went away to the Father to prepare for us eternal dwelling places (John 14:3).
However, just as there are among us some who regard these truths as ridiculous and undeserving of belief, so there is no doubt that at that time, too, this account was held by the majority to be ridiculous. The world is always the same. Therefore these truths have been committed to writing by divine authority; and they were written down for the saints and the faithful that they might read, understand, believe, and follow them. They demonstrate the certain victory over death and sin, and concerning Enoch they point out the sure comfort that comes from the triumph over the Law, the wrath, and the judgment of God. For this reason there can be nothing more delightful or pleasing for the godly than these accounts.
But in the New Testament God’s mercy is truly superabundant. Although we do not discard accounts of this kind, we nevertheless have far more important ones, namely, the Son of God Himself ascending to heaven and sitting at the right hand of God. In this event we see that the head of the serpent has been completely crushed and that the life which we lost in Paradise has been restored. This is far more than the fact that Enoch and Elijah were translated. And yet in this manner God wanted to give comfort to the first world and to the following one, which had the Law.
Therefore this is the main doctrine set forth in these five chapters: that men have died and have lived again. Through Adam all have died. However, those who have believed have lived again through the promised Seed, as the history of Abel and of Enoch proves. In the instance of Adam, Seth, and others their death is indicated; for thus it is written: “And he died.” But in the instance of Abel and Enoch the resurrection of the dead and everlasting life are manifested.
The purpose of all this is to keep us from despairing in death and to give us the firm conviction that those who believe in the promised Seed will live and be taken to God, be it from water, fire, the gallows, or the tomb. Therefore we desire to live, and we must live—live in the eternal life which, through the promised Seed, comes after this life.
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13 Luther had developed this interpretation of Enoch in his sermons of 1527 on Genesis (Weimar, XXIV, 156–158).
14 Lyra on Gen. 5:24, sec. “1.”