Sermon Bible Commentary
Genesis 5:21-24
In the Bible, besides its ordinary characters, and besides its simply extraordinary men such as David, Solomon, or Isaiah, there is another and a still more interesting order, around whom hovers a shade of supernaturalism and mystery. Such are Melchisedec, Elijah, Moses, and Enoch.
I. Consider the life of Enoch. He "walked with God." These words seem to imply that Enoch possessed a remarkable resemblance to God in moral excellence; that he realised God's presence, and enjoyed His communion in an extraordinary measure, and that he publicly avowed himself to be on God's side, and stood almost alone in doing so.
We notice especially the quietness and unconsciousness of his walk with God. The life of David or of Job resembled a stormy spring day, made up of sweeping tempest, angry glooms, and sudden bursts of windy sunshine; that of Enoch is a soft grey autumn noon, with one mild haze of brightness covering earth and heaven.
II. Notice Enoch's public work of protest and prophecy. The Epistle of Jude supplies us with new information about Enoch's public work. It was not simply his walk, but his work, that was honoured by translation. He not only characterised and by implication condemned his age, but predicted the coming of the last great Judgment of God. He announced it (1) as a glorious and overpowering event; (2) as one of conclusive judgment and convincing demonstration.
III. Look now at Enoch's translation. How striking in its simplicity is the phrase "He was not, for God took him!" The circumstances of his translation are advisedly concealed: "translated that he should not see death." Many a hero has gathered fame because he stood "face to face with death," and has outfaced the old enemy; but death never so much as dared to "look into Enoch's eye as it kindled into immortality." The reasons why this honour was conferred on him were probably (1) To show his transcendent excellence; (2) To abash an infidel world; (3) To prove that there was another state of being, and to give a pledge of this to all future ages.
G. Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega,vol. i., p. 217.
References: Genesis 5:21. Expositor,2nd series, vol. vii., p. 321; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxii., No. 1307; Congregationalist,vol. xii., p. 561.