Enoch Preached Judgment and His Prayer was for First Rapture
From Faith to Faith, CFP, Watchman Nee
Enoch was an Old Testament character from whose
life we can glean something very helpful. We do not
know exactly when he repented or what kind of life he
had lived before he turned 65 years old. We know,
however, from the Biblical record that he began to
walk with God after he fathered Methuselah in his 65th year. From
that moment onward his life underwent a drastic change (“Enoch
lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah; and Enoch walked
with God after he begat Methuselah”—Gen. 5.21,22). Possibly it
is because he had seen a prophecy. He lived on earth a total of 365
years (see 5.22b,23), but during the last 300 of those years he
“walked with God.” And hence, the birth of his son must have had a
deep effect upon him. Moreover, if we carefully compute the years
Methuselah lived, we will discover that the Flood catastrophe began
to occur exactly in the year he died. So that evidently, at the birth of
his son Methuselah, Enoch had been shown by God the terrible
coming tribulation that was to befall the earth. He was awakened and
moved by the fear of God.
It is interesting to note that while Noah preached righteousness
Enoch preached judgment. Noah preached the way of salvation
because God told him to build an ark of safety. Enoch preached
judgment because this was what his son bore witness to. We can only
preach that which has affected us inwardly. By faith, Noah prepared
the ark. By faith, Enoch reaped the benefit of walking with God.
We would do well to know that sinners will be judged, the flesh
will be judged, and the world will be judged: “the day of the Lord
will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with
great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat,
and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2
Peter 3.10). Will we love the world if we truly know that such is its
end? Have we ever heard of a man who, knowing that a certain bank
was going bankrupt, would purposely deposit his money in it? If he
knows the impending bankruptcy of that bank, he will never deposit
any money into it. In like manner, then, we who know what the end
of the world shall be—even its being burned up—should never love
it again. Enoch perceived the meaning of Methuselah and was
therefore awakened to spiritual things, walked with God ever
afterwards, and was eventually raptured to heaven, as the Genesis
account of his later life tells us: “Enoch walked with God: and he
was not; for God took him” (5.24).
The Environment of Enoch
Can one ever say that because Enoch’s environment was better
than that of others that this was the cause for his walking with God? I
do not believe so, for let us look into his family situation: “Enoch
walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and
begat sons and daughters” (5.22). Some people have the idea that it is
natural for a preacher to walk day and night with God, but for those
who are burdened as they are with many family affairs, it is
impossible to do so. Yet notice what the Bible tells us about the first
man who walked with God: he walked with Him, and yet fathered
many sons and daughters who needed to be cared for. Others
maintain that they cannot walk with God because they must work
long hours in factories and be surrounded by the noise of many
machines. Enoch, however, as he walked with God for three hundred
years, was not without the burden of the noise of many children. The
life we receive is not supposed to be manifested only in a good or
pleasant environment; it is given to be manifested in any and every
circumstance whatever. This is not a matter of merely walking with
God under good environment; it is a matter of being able to walk
with God at all times and under any condition. Many children and
many family burdens cannot hinder a true believer from walking
with the Lord: that no matter how heavy these family burdens and
responsibilities are (and they indeed are not light!) he will not be
entangled by these things as unbelievers usually are: he is able to
walk with God under any such circumstances.
Let us notice, furthermore, that the time in which Enoch lived was
a very dark period. In Enoch’s day, Adam was still alive. And from
Genesis 4 we know that the descendants of the seed of Cain were
also still present on earth. What was their condition? “Lamech took
unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of
the other Zillah” (v.19). Lamech was the first man who broke God’s
rule of there being but one husband with one wife. Ever afterwards
throughout the earth the custom of polygamy was to spread. Adah
means “pleasure” or “adornment” or “the decorated.” This would
indicate that the women of that period were becoming fashionconscious;
they were inclining towards luxury. “And Adah bare
Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle”
(v.20). This is the first mention of how men would profit through
cattle raising. “And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father
of all such as handle the harp and pipe” (v.21). By this time men had
already begun to pay attention to music and amusement. “And Zillah,
she also bare Tubalcain, the forger of every cutting instrument of
brass and iron” (v.22). Such cutting instruments of brass and iron
were beginning to be fashioned as weapons of war. Hence war must
have had its beginning at that time too. Now in the midst of all these
conditions, we read that Enoch walked with God.
Licentiousness, profit planning, fashion and dress, amusement
orientation, and weapon manufacturing—are not all these the
phenomena of our own days? Yet God shows us here how Enoch in
his day was able to walk with Him for 300 years in such a time as
that! How about us today? Are we walking with God? G. H. Pember
of England was one who knew the Lord deeply. Several decades ago
he prophesied that people in the world would henceforth pay more
attention than before to music, higher knowledge and weapon
manufacturing. We know that all of this is true today. It would be
well if, under such circumstances as these, we could begin to walk
with God today as Enoch did in his day.
The Rapture of Enoch
“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and
he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had
witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well
pleasing unto God” (Heb. 11.5). How was Enoch translated or
raptured? By faith, says the writer of Hebrews. Wherein had he been
well-pleasing to God? He had walked for 300 years with Him.
Before his rapture Enoch had already had witness borne to him that
he had pleased the Lord. By walking with God, he had pleased God.
And by faith, he was taken by Him. Each one of us must so walk till
we too will receive the witness that we have been well-pleasing to
God. And then by faith we too shall be raptured.
Every believer will be raptured, but the first to be raptured must
be the overcoming believers. Only those who are ready and waiting
for the Lord will be raptured first. If you do not believe, you will not
be raptured. You must believe you will be raptured, otherwise you
will not be raptured. May God give us the faith of rapture!
It is most amazing that Enoch had this faith. One reason for his
faith was because he walked in good conscience with God. Faith and
conscience are connected. When conscience is breached, faith is
destroyed. Faith will leak out through the breach made in one’s
conscience; and without faith, there can be no rapture. Why do many
believers not believe in rapture? Because they do not walk with God.
If we walk day by day with our God, we will be given the faith of
rapture. The words of Hebrews 11.6 follow immediately upon those
of verse 5: “And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing
unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that
he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.” We are told here that
we must believe two things. First, we must believe that “God is”—
that is to say, we must believe that God is what He says He is.
Second, we must believe that God will reward all who seek after
Him. By this verse, then, we know that Enoch’s faith had these two
elements: first, he believed that God was what He said He was; and
at the same time he sought diligently to walk with God, believing
that he would be rewarded. Enoch sought to be delivered from the
future tribulation that was intimated to him at the birth of his son,
and so God rewarded him with rapture.
Have we ever asked God to deliver us from the great tribulation
which is coming upon the whole earth? Note what Jesus urged his
disciples to do: “Watch ye at every season, making supplication, that
ye may prevail to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and
to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21.36). Many take this word
of our Lord to mean that those who watch and pray God will deliver
from the coming great tribulation. But this is actually a call to
specific prayer; namely, that believers should watch and pray at
every season for God to deliver them from the great tribulation to
come. Now this was truly Enoch’s prayer. And whoever else today
prays such a prayer will also be raptured. In waiting for the return of
our Lord, let us earnestly ask God to deliver us from the coming
great tribulation. With each passing day the rapture is getting closer.
Let us walk before God with a conscience void of offense, waiting
single-mindedly for the rapture. So shall we believe in God, and so
shall we pray to God. Today is the time in which He prepares us.
Do we believe we shall be raptured? Do we pray that we may be
delivered from the great tribulation to come? How many of our
prayers have been answered? We should at least have this prayer
answered! Let us keep praying at all times until God answers us
this prayer.
Concerning this matter of walking with God, it is good that we
start well and continue well, but it is highly important that we end
well too. Many begin well in walking with God, but unfortunately
their ending is not in glory. Many are frightened when they hear
about the great tribulation and judgment to come. Yet it needs to be
seen that rapture is not something which suddenly happens in history.
The fact of the matter is that rapture occurs only after a walking day
by day with God until you are taken by Him, just as the Genesis
record says of Enoch: “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for
God took him” (5.24). The change which is to come “in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye”—as spoken of in 1 Corinthians 15.52—has
reference to the body, not to life. To be raptured is a matter of
walking together with God and not that of taking flight. Let us walk
and walk and keep walking with the Lord right into glory!
One brother has observed that the experience of a Christian is
chain-like—it is the chain-links of death, resurrection and rapture,
repeated over and over again; chain after chain until the Christian
reaches glory: one more death means one more filling of resurrection
life, which in turn means a coming nearer and nearer to rapture. Let
me repeat, that rapture is not merely a historical point-action event in
time: it is additionally an experience that builds up gradually until it
automatically and instantly culminates in glory.
Enoch walked with God for 300 years. And by the time he was
raptured, he was unquestionably quite familiar with God. One
brother has said that unfortunately many when they arrive in heaven
will feel strange in God’s presence because by that time they shall
not have conversed much with Him on earth! Oh, day by day let us
walk step by step with God until we are wholly sanctified. May God
be gracious to us that we may walk daily with Him as Enoch did. For
if Enoch could do it, is there any reason why we can not do so too?
