WHAT FAITH BRINGS (PART 3)

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Hebrews 11:5-6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Because of faith, we believe that God rendered commands that led to the creation of all things, just as the scriptures depict in the very first chapter of the Bible. And through our belief in God and His almighty, divine sovereignty and eminence, we respect Him enough to give Him all the best we can give, just as He gives us His best.

This is what we have learned through the first two messages in this rather lengthy series titled “What Faith Brings” as we closely study what could be easily referred to as the faith chapter, Hebrews 11.

This brings us to our passage today as we look at verses 5 and 6. There we find the author of this letter sharing these words:

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

As we saw in yesterday’s message, the writer of Hebrews started using examples of Israelites who notably exercised faith in the scriptures. Yesterday, we looked at Adam’s son Abel and today, we move a little forward on Adam’s family tree to a man named Enoch.

Now, you may remember that Adam and Eve were blessed by God with a third son who they named Seth and when you look at the genealogy of Jesus in Luke, chapter 3, you find that our Savior traces back through Seth to Adam (Vv. 23-38). Moving forward from Seth, you will find that he fathered a son Enosh who then fathered Kenan. Kenan then fathered Mahalalel who fathered Jared who then in turn fathered Enoch.

We don’t know a whole lot about Enoch except what we find in the fifth chapter of Genesis. There we learn this:

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. Genesis 5:21-24

The man lived a very long time but of interest there were other documented people who lived before the Great Flood of Noah’s time who lived twice as long. His son Methuselah was one of them, weighing in at 969 years (Genesis 5:27)! Talk about blessed longevity!

So why did Enoch live so long before “God took him away”?

Well, we see in our passage that he walked faithfully with God which is another way of saying he was faithful to his Lord in the way he lived. By faith, he trusted his God and put that trust into action by being obedient in following in the Lord’s ways as he walked with Him through life.

This is just another thing faith brings to a believer. For when we are faithful to God, we realize just how much more faithful He is to us and as we walk with Him, just as Enoch did, we will strive to live in a way that is pleasing in His sight until that day when we are no more on this earth because our God will have taken us away to a much better place, His eternal kingdom where we can continue to be faithful to Him for all eternity.

I don’t know about you but I am so excited for that day when it comes.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.