Enoch: A Faith Filled Walk (Hebrews 11:5)

This morning, would you stand and sing with me, please? My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed. I trust the ever-living one. His wounds. For me, no other argument. I need no. Jesus died, and my heart is weaned.

Salvation by my Savior's name, salvation through His blood. I need no other argument. I need no other. Jesus died, and my heart is weaned. He is a sick, the loss He came to save. For me, His precious blood He shed.

For me, His life He gave. I need no other argument.

Jesus died, and that He died for me.

Jesus, Your mercy is all my plea. I have no defense, my guilt throbs too deep. The best of my work's pierced Your hands and Your feet. Jesus, Your mercy is all my plea. Jesus, Your mercy in the cycling, the grounds of my hope.

Whatever I lack is still what I need. Praise the King who bore my sin, took my place when I stood condemned. Oh, how good You've always been to me! I will sing of Your mercy. Praise the King who bore my sin,.

I will sing of Your mercy.

Is all my lift my heart and my voice to sing of a treasure. No power can destroy. Jesus your mercy is all my joy. When I stood condemned oh how good you've always been to me. Sing praise the King. When I stood condemned oh how good you've always been to me I will sing.

They are made as we conscience they are bitches of kindness. He lavished on us his blood was a payment his life was the cost. We stood we could never. Our sins they are many his mercy is praise. Our sins they are many his mercy is mercy is.

Our sins they are many his mercy is just two.

Announcements this morning. Before I asked you to turn your Bibles for the scripture reading one on January 14th and 15th we have Justin Peters here for his clouds without water seminar and I just wanted to remind you of that if you haven't registered for that we would like you to register so that we know how many people to plan for in terms of refreshments for Friday night and Saturday.

It's a two-day seminar Friday evening two sessions and Friday for sessions. And we are not going to charge for that conference. We are just going to take up an offering for that and whatever is brought in more than the cost of the refreshments for that is going to go to Justin Peters ministry.

So please go to the church website register for that if you plan on attending either one of those two days and then second we're starting the next round of fellowship dinners which is your opportunity to be put into a group with three other families in the church at random and you'll get to enjoy fellowship with them and a meal once a month for four months in a row.

If you want to participate in that group please sign up on the table that is out in the foyer on the on the sign-up sheet. Out there. Turn your Bibles now please to the book of Jude. The book of Jude for our scripture reading.

We're reading this book because it mentions Enoch the character that we're gonna be looking at from Hebrews chapter 11. The book of Jude. We're gonna read the entire book. I'm not sure we've ever done that in a for scripture reading before but we are gonna read this entire book.

So settle in get ready all right. The book of Jude. Jude a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James to those who are the called beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you beloved.

While I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation I felt the necessity to write you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the Saints.

For certain persons have crept in unnoticed those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation ungodly persons who turned the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I desire to remind you though you know all things once for all that the Lord after saving a people out of the land of Egypt subsequently destroyed those who did not believe and angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode.

He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

Yet in the same way these men also by dreaming defile the flesh and reject authority and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment but said the Lord rebuke you.

But these men revile the things they do not understand and the things which they know by instinct like unreasoning animals. By these things they are destroyed woe to them. They've gone the way of Cain and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah.

These are men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear caring for themselves. Clouds without water carried along by winds autumn trees without fruit doubly dead uprooted wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

It was about these men that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying behold the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

These are grumblers finding fault following after their own lusts. They speak arrogantly flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. But you beloved ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ that they were saying to you in the last time.

There will be mockers following after their own ungodly lusts. These are the ones who cause divisions worldly minded devoid of the spirit. But you beloved building yourselves up on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Spirit keep yourselves in the love of God waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

And have mercy on some who are doubting save others snatching them out of the fire and on some have mercy with fear hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Be glory majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. We stand with me as we pray. It's about our heads father. Our hearts this morning have every reason to be joyful and and exultant in your grace.

We have every reason to come before you and to praise you and to worship you to adore you to say all of the true things that are that can be said about you because you are a God of grace and glory and love.

We thank you that you have saved us and redeemed us. We thank you for the spiritual blessings that we enjoy in Jesus Christ for the gift of faith for your preserving grace that preserves us and keeps us in that faith and for your sanctifying work that continues to draw us near to you enabling us to walk with you in holiness and in righteousness and in fear of the truth.

We pray that you would accomplish your every good purpose and pleasure in our hearts this morning that you would as we lift our voices lift our hearts toward you and draw near to us. As we draw near to you unite our hearts in fear of you and in the unity around the truth and that Jesus Christ may be glorified here amongst us your people.

That is our prayer that as your word is preached and as our your people meditate upon your words we are brought face to face with faith and the reality of Christ and who he is and what he has done for us that our hearts may rejoice in that we love you.

And we thank you as your people for all the great blessings that you have lavished upon us in Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.

Oh.

For giving us yours until the work is done. When I stand in I will see his face. Oh my father for giving us your son and leading your spirit till the world is in my greatest treasure I got like you. There is no true delight is found in you or grace.

Oh well to deep your love exceeds the heaven your truth the perfect wisdom my highest good and my my soul to fight the cruel deceiver and my shield against his hateful dog. My song when enemies around me my home when tides of sorrow my joy when trials are abounding your faithfulness refuge in you suffer at their call unto sin and shame at their call unto sin shame.

I redeem all my days. Bring glory to you glory to you. Please be seated and.

Enoch as a Faith-Filled Walk in Hebrews 11

Now please turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Let's begin with a word of prayer before we look at this passage our father it is our desire that you would speak to us through your word. We pray that our eyes may be opened and our hearts would be attentive to your word help us to see here another element or aspect of what saving sanctifying and securing faith means for us your people.

And we pray that you would give us grace to live in obedience to that and energize and encourage our hearts together through your word we play pray in Christ's name. Amen. We are back in Hebrews chapter 11.

And though we left for three weeks to look at Simeon in Luke chapter 2 we didn't really leave the theme of Hebrews chapter 11 since the theme of Hebrews chapter 11 is the theme of faith. And really we could take Simeon and pull him out of Luke chapter 2 and drop him right into Hebrews chapter 11.

Of course not in the early part of Hebrews chapter 11 but we could drop him in there and he would fit right in because he was a man of faith. Luke 2 says he was righteous which meant that he was a man of faith.

He was devout and careful in his obedience to the law of God to Scripture. So he obviously faith informed his obedience to the Lord. He was waiting expectantly for the hope and consolation of Israel. So that is a forward-looking trusting in God's promise that God would fulfill his promise to to his people and he was walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So all of those elements are wrapped up with what it means to be a man of faith. So Simeon fits our context. He kind of fits our theme though we haven't been in Hebrews chapter 11. So now we're transitioning to Enoch and he is the next in our series of Hebrews heroes of the faith.

And in Hebrews chapter 11 let's begin reading at verse 3 Hebrews 11 and we'll read through the end of verse 7. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible by faith.

Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous God testifying about his gifts and through faith though he is dead he still speaks by faith.

Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death and he was not found because God took him up for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God and without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him by faith.

Noah being warned by God about things not yet seen in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

There is a chronological order that is given to us here in Hebrews chapter 11. The chronology begins with Abel. He's the first example drawn from the Old Testament. And then we can trace the the chronology of these first few characters very easily through Hebrews 11.

As we parallel it with the first few chapters of Genesis we have Abel and then we have Enoch and then we have Noah and you. Of course you can trace each one of those men in the early chapters of Genesis.

The chronological order is intended to show us that as the argument of the author of Hebrews is faith was required in the very beginning it goes all the way back to the beginning. There was never a time at which men were accepted by God or pleasing to God on the basis of anything other than faith in God's promises and in God's Word.

So the chronology goes all the way back to the beginning to show us that even right after the fall God demanded that men come to him on the basis of faith. There's also a logical order not just a chronological order but a logical order to these characters in these first few verses of Hebrews 11.

The logical order is this. We begin with Cain who worshiped God who approached God in faith. And Cain shows us that before we can even walk with God before we can serve God before we can do anything else with God we have to first come to God on his terms embracing and accepting what he says by faith trusting that having offered the sacrifice or that a sacrifice having been offered for our sin we can come and approach God on the basis and the terms in which he demands that we approach him and that we can be accepted on those terms.

Abel worshipped in faith. His was a faith-filled worship. So even in approaching God he had to he had to have faith. Enoch is a faith-filled walk. Enoch is a man who walked with God. And before you can walk with God you first have to worship or approach God rightly through the means that God has laid out for him.

Noah is a faith-filled work. So Noah is the next one we're gonna get to him not next week but the week after that. Noah is a faith-filled work. His work was informed by his faith. So first we approach God then we can walk with God and then we can serve God or work for God.

There's a logical order and progression of this. Abel shows us a faith-filled worship. Enoch shows us a faith-filled work sorry walk. And Noah shows us a faith-filled work. So now Enoch and he is mentioned to us in verse 5.

He is the next example in our Hebrews Hall of Faith by faith. Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death and he was not found because God took him up for he obtained the witness that before being taken up he was pleasing to God.

He is an intriguing character. Enoch is an intriguing character because something so significant to set about him so so unique. In fact it's so unique that this only happened to one of the person in all of recorded history that he was taken up bodily physically into heaven having never suffered death.

That is very unique. Do you know anybody that that has happened to in your lifetime. You've known a lot of Saints a lot of righteous people. You don't know anybody that you could say that of. And yet so little is recorded about him that he's just an intriguing character.

He did not see death. Hebrews 11 verse 5 says he was taken up because by faith he pleased the Lord or he walked with the Lord. Enoch is only mentioned in three places in all of scripture. He's mentioned back in Genesis 5 where we're going to turn to here in a moment.

He's mentioned here in Hebrews chapter 11. And of course he's mentioned in Jude chapter chapter 1 verse 14 and 15. Jude verses 14 and 15 where Jude records a prophecy that Enoch spoke. Jude says this.

It was also about these men that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied saying behold the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

Apparently Enoch loved that word ungodly. It must have characterized somebody that he had in mind when he spoke those words. But Jude's quotation of Enoch his mention of Enoch raises an entirely other issue that is perplexing to us.

And it is this that Jude calls him a prophet. But back in the book of Genesis we have no words that are recorded from the mouth of Enoch. We don't have any record of anything he said in the book of Genesis.

And yet Jude cites him as a prophet. And even more perplexing and disturbing is the fact that Jude quotes a prophecy of Enoch contained in an apocryphal book. First Enoch. Now we have first Enoch available to us.

You can download it. You can read it. I downloaded this last week and I plan on reading at some point. Not. I didn't read it this last week obviously. But it is a book that is available to us. It is not a book that either the Jews or the early Christians regarded as scripture.

It is not quoted authoritatively as scripture by Jesus or the Apostles. Jude cites it or mentions it but he doesn't quote it as if he is quoting scripture. He quotes it as if he's simply quoting another historical document known as first Enoch.

So here's the perplexing question should we regard first Enoch as a canonical book that belongs in our New Testament. I would argue that we should not regard first Enoch as a canonical book and you might be thinking to yourself Jim first Enoch that kind of implies that there is a second Enoch.

Yeah and there is is second Enoch now the fact that there is a second Enoch does not necessarily imply or indicate to us that there is a third Enoch but there is there's first second and third Enoch now 30 nock does not necessarily imply to us that there is a fourth Enoch and as luck would have it there is no fourth Enoch at least not that we have but we do have first second and third Enoch so here are three books that are apocryphal they're outside of are canon, they're not included in the Old Testament, they're not included in our New Testament, and yet here we have these books which were allegedly written by Enoch or record the prophecies and the life of Enoch.

Those three books, one of them is quoted by Jude. That's really perplexing, isn't it? Here's what we would say about that. Let me just, and I want to dismiss this because it's intriguing and it raises kind of an interesting thing that we have to think through as Christians.

Just because Jude quotes a historical book that records the words of a prophet of God who spoke that does not mean that Jude regarded that historical book as inspired. It simply means that Jude regarded what was said about Enoch as accurate, and by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jude is recognizing that what this other historical writer said in 1 Enoch was an accurate representation of something that Enoch actually said.

And Jude includes it, and therefore we can be confident that Enoch said these words, he uttered this prophecy, even though the prophecy that he uttered is in a book, though recorded accurately, the book itself is not inspired, infallible, or inerrant, and so we don't include it as scripture.

Now, will you please turn back to Genesis chapter five, and we're only gonna be here for a few moments, actually probably longer than that, but we are gonna be coming back to Hebrews chapter 11, so don't lose your place there, as if it's possible for you to lose your place in Hebrews because your Bible just falls open to Hebrews by this point.

But turn back to Genesis chapter five, and we're gonna look at this genealogy, of course, not all of it, because I don't enjoy preaching on genealogies, per se. In Genesis five, there's genealogy that starts with the generation, that starts with Adam in verse one, and takes us all the way through Noah in verse 32.

In fact, I want you to notice that, notice the pattern of how Moses records this genealogy in Genesis chapter five. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

He created them male and female, and he blessed them and named them man in the day when they were created. It just all harkens back to Genesis one and two. Moses is simply summarizing what he taught there regarding the creation of man in two genders, male and female.

Verse three, when Adam had lived 130 years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. Then the days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters.

So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and then he died. Now that pattern is followed for each one of these patriarchs in Genesis five. Each one, the author tells us how long he lived, and then he had this son, and then after that, had that son, he lived X number of years.

And he does this for every last one of them, telling us, picking up with the previous one that he mentioned, giving us the lifespan, how long they lived, had a son, et cetera. That's the pattern that he follows all the way through here.

The intention of the author, unmistakably, the intention of the author, is to give us a chronology of the universe. He starts in Adam. And these long lifespans, don't let that bother you. That shouldn't disturb you at all.

If you understand, have a biblical worldview, and understand what sin has done, and how we are created perfect, the idea that there were long lifespans after the fall, before the flood, should not disturb you whatsoever.

These long lifespans, 800 years, 100 years, 150 years, 969 years from Methuselah, those are not allegorical, they're not metaphorical, they're not symbolic, they're not whatever else that you might put in there to try and soften that up to make it palatable to the modern age.

They're none of those things. This is history. And the author is intending, just so you're all clear, there is no point in Genesis that I do not regard it as history. From Genesis 1, 1, this is the history of the universe.

All the way through.

So the author is intending to give us, to date for us, these events. And he gives us a chronology beginning at Adam, taking us all the way through to Noah, to the flood. And after the flood, there is a precipitous drop-off in the lifespan of the patriarchs.

And here's why. The entrance of sin into a perfect creation caused the mutations in the genetic code as people were dying and people began to decay. And that took a long period of time when the genetic mutations were few and far between, and people had a lot of other people to choose from.

And even though Cain would have married his sister, yes, but there was not the genetic mess-ups that are in our genetic code today. But what you have happening at the flood is you have a genetic bottleneck where all of these mutations come together and they're condensed down into these eight people.

So then you do not have the dispersion of all of these different kinds of genetic variations. Instead, you have those variations and those genetic copying mistakes that take place in our human DNA. They begin just compounding at that point and the lifespans drop off.

I don't think it has anything to do with the topography or the geology or anything regarding the world before the flood and after the flood. It's a genetic bottleneck that takes place at the flood where those copying mistakes are then just boiled down and condensed into eight people.

And that's all the genetic material you have to go with. So when you start looking at the lifespans of these people in Genesis chapter five, there's a few interesting details that I think are essential for us to understand in order to appreciate who Enoch was.

Enoch was the great-grandfather of Noah. I'm not gonna read through the whole genealogy, but you can do this on your own time. Enoch was the great-grandfather of Noah. Now, Noah never would have known Enoch because Enoch was taken up before Noah was born.

So Enoch and Noah would never have known each other. Noah's lifespan overlapped all of the other patriarchs in Genesis chapter five, except Adam and Seth, okay? Noah's lifespan overlapped all of the other people listed in Genesis chapter five, except Adam and Seth.

Adam's grandson, Enosh, his lifespan would have overlapped Noah's for 100 years. Seth, who was Adam's son, died only 16 years before Noah was born, and Adam died only 126 years before Noah was born. Noah could have known Enoch, sorry, Noah could have known Enosh, Adam's grandson.

So you had Adam, Seth, and Enosh. Noah could have known him. Now, if you do the math and you figure it out going backwards through Genesis chapter five, you would find out that Enosh, that's Adam's grandson, was the great, great, great, great, one more, great grandfather of Enoch.

Because Enoch and Enosh, sorry, Noah and Enosh, get them right now, Noah and Enosh, their lives would have overlapped by 100 years. Do you think it's possible that Noah and Enosh, Adam's grandson, could have known each other?

Possible, isn't it? We don't know for sure if they did or not because Scripture doesn't say that they did. But if you knew that for the first 100 years of your life, your great, great, great, great, great grandfather was alive and he was the grandson of Adam and could give you a merely secondhand account of what life was like before the flood, would you not take some time to go visit your great, great, great, great, great grandfather and hear those stories?

You probably would. And listen, it becomes even more intriguing when you get past the flood and you start to look at the rest of the patriarchs in Genesis 11. There's another genealogy that's given in Genesis 11 that traces us from Noah all the way through the line of Shem to Abraham.

And here is something interesting. Shem and Abraham overlapped their lives by 150 years. Shem died only 25 years before Abraham died. That is Shem, the same one who was on the ark, Noah's son. He died only 25 years before Abraham died, which means that their lives overlapped by 150 years.

Noah died only three years before Abraham was born. That means that Abraham could have received from Shem details that Shem would have got, let's be really super generous and say it, from Noah, and Noah could have gotten those from Enosh, Adam's grandson.

So you're covering a long span of human history, but because of the lifespan, these people's lives overlapped by sometimes centuries and we need to keep that in mind. Now, Enoch was the seventh from Adam.

He was the seventh from Adam. That's what Jude says in Jude 14, verse 14, that he was the seventh generation from Adam. And that sets him apart from another Enoch that is mentioned at the end of Genesis 4, verse 27.

He is there called Enosh, and he's the son of Cain. So that is Jude's way of telling you which Enoch that he is talking about who was the prophet. This is the Enoch who was the seventh generation from Adam.

His father, in verse 18, is named Jared. Jared lived 162 years and became the father of Enoch. Then Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch and he had other sons and daughters. So all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.

Enoch lived, here's the entire account of Enoch's life in Genesis, beginning at verse 21. Enoch lived 65 years and became the father of Methuselah. Now, Methuselah is the one who lived 969 years. Any one of these patriarchs you could say this about, but Methuselah's one of those guys that you just wish you could have the compounding interest of his life, right?

Invest, say, $1 ,000 when you're 10 years old and then just watch it compound until you're 969 years old. You could buy the ark. You could buy all the materials for the ark.

If you could do that.

He lived 969 years. In fact, Methuselah died the year that the flood came. So Enoch is Methuselah's father. Methuselah had Lamech and Lamech had Noah. So Enoch is Noah's great-grandfather. And again, Noah would not have known Enoch because Noah was not born until after Enoch was taken up.

Enoch lived a relatively short life. It says at 65 years old, he fathered Methuselah, who then went on to live 969 years. He was the oldest lifespan recorded in Scripture. Methuselah died the year that the flood came.

Then after 300 years, it says that Enoch was taken up and he was walking with God. Verse 21, then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah. And he had other sons and daughters.

We do not know how many sons and daughters he had, but he was a family man with a wife. He had a family. And he walked with God for 300 years. By the way, that is a walk you can have with somebody who would never get old.

I could spend 300 years with a lot of people in this room and honestly, it would get old after a bit. Probably everybody but my wife. It would get old after a bit, but you could, even with my wife, I think maybe after 1 ,000 years or so, there might be nothing else to kind of talk about.

But with God, you can walk with God for 300 years and you never get tired of that fellowship. You can never get tired of that company. You and I are gonna stand face to face with the Lord for all of eternity and we are going to learn of him and learn about him and learn from him and there will never be an end to that because he is an infinite being whose all of his attributes are perfect and infinitely perfect.

And so there is no ability to pursue any one of God's attributes and ever get to the point where you think, okay, I've learned everything I can learn about that attribute. The only thing that makes us bored with such things is our limited intellect, our limited ability to appreciate those things.

That's the effect of sin. The fact that Enoch walked with God, you'll notice is mentioned twice in the text. Verse 22, then Enoch walked with God. Verse 24, Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him.

The was not there is just a reference to he was found not. The author of Hebrews says he was not found, indicated that they may have looked for Enoch and then didn't find him or he was taken away and people searched for him but they did not find him.

From the book of Jude again, we find out that Enoch was a prophet. He prophesied, this Enoch, the seventh generation of Adam, prophesied about ungodly sinners and a judgment that was to come, a judgment that would be accompanied by angelic hosts upon ungodly sinners over their ungodly ways for all the ungodly things that ungodly people did amongst the ungodly.

Remember the repetition of the word ungodly? Enoch was a prophet who spoke the truth in his own generation and the judgment that he prophesied was probably the flood though the indications from the text seem to indicate that the judgment that he talked about was the flood which would be seen within a few hundred years after he was taken up but that beyond that, there is another judgment that is to come that they would fit in really well with.

In fact, Jude says that Enoch was speaking of these men, the people in Jude's own day when Enoch said that these people would be judged indicating that Enoch's prophecy was probably not just of the flood, the judgment that was to come at the time of the flood but also a prophecy describing the ultimate judgment of which the flood is only a picture.

See, the global flood in the Old Testament just reminds us how God feels about sin and that no sin goes unpunished and that God keeps a reckoning of all the sin and it reminds us that God is going to judge the world again next time it's not gonna be by water, it's gonna be by fire but there is a judgment that is to come.

And so Enoch's prophecy probably had a double fulfillment. So that's all we get about Enoch from the book of Genesis in chapter five. Now turn back to the book of Hebrews. Turn back to the book of Hebrews chapter 11.

Wanted you to read of Enoch in his context and understand a little bit about him and his lineage. Hebrews chapter 11 and we're gonna be back in verse five. The focus of the author of Hebrews in the life of Enoch is on Enoch's faith and the role that it had in him walking with God.

Again, verse five, by faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death and he was not found because God took him up for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God.

And here's why the author of Hebrews is citing Enoch. Enoch's faith is notable because it was a faith that pleased God. This is something of which God was pleased. He obtained the witness, verse five says, that he was pleasing to God.

And the idea of a witness, that theme is something that we see all the way through Hebrews 11, particularly here in the early verses. Remember it's the idea of a martyr or a testimony, one who bears witness to something.

Who is the one who is witnessing that? Verse two, these heroes of faith gained approval, they gained the testimony. Verse four says Abel obtained the testimony, God testifying about him that his gifts were acceptable.

Who is the one who does the testifying in Hebrews chapter 11? Who's the one who gives witness or accreditation to that? It's God. When God embraced Cain, or sorry, when God embraced Abel and his gift as opposed to Cain, it was God testifying concerning Abel's gifts that they pleased him.

When God walked with Enoch, it was God's testimony that Enoch's faith pleased him. When God preserved Noah, it was God's testimony that Noah's faith preserved him, and that what Noah was doing was an act of faith.

These men were righteous, and God's embrace of these men, his walking with these men, his acceptance of these men, was in fact the testimony that God was given that their faith pleased him. Just it had always been faith that pleases God, and these men are evidence of that.

The language that he walked with God is not taken from, sorry, the language that he pleased God is not taken from Genesis 5. Genesis 5 says twice that he walked with God, but you'll notice that the author says that he obtained the testimony, he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God.

That's different language because the book of Genesis doesn't say that Enoch was pleasing to God. It says he walked with God. So why does the author of Hebrews change the wording to saying that he pleased God when Genesis says he walked with God?

Is there a difference between those two things? Not in the minds of those who translated the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament that the author of Hebrews was familiar with.

He's quoting here the language that the Greek translation of the Old Testament used. The Septuagint translates that idiom, walking with God, as he pleased God. So he's simply citing the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and he's using the language God was pleased with Enoch, rather than Enoch walked with God.