NOT SEE DEATH
Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
We are told that our faith in the Lord Jesus is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20). And here we have the Apostle Paul giving us his spiritual revelation of his reading of the Prophet Moses’ writings of Genesis 5:18-27. Let us prayerfully seek the Lord in this wonderful provision to build up our faith by this apostle and prophet!
When you read the fifth chapter of the Book of Genesis, one thing certainly stands out. And that is the reoccurrence of the phrase, and he died! For this phrase ends verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, and 31. Every man mentioned in Genesis five is said to have died except Enoch and Noah. But if we turn to Genesis 9:29, we there find those words applied to Noah! So the world before the flood was a world of longevity, but also of certain death!
God had warned the first couple regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And even though they walked out of that garden, physically alive, they walked out dead in trespasses and sin! It was as God has said! The very day they ate of that tree, they died spiritually! And spiritual death brought on physical death. And if a remedy is not found, physical death brings on eternal death!
So now we see why Enoch’s issue of faith was to believe God that he should not see death! And when this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (1 Corin. 15:54). And is that not the issue of every believer now alive on earth? Are we not all looking for the appearance of our Lord Christ so that our mortality may be swallowed up of life? Our very birth by the Spirit includes within it this very living hope! 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
This is not only our living hope from the beginning of our new birth, it is also the continuing hope throughout our entire earthly stay! 1 Peter 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
And not only do we have all that in common with our dear brother Enoch, but he also, having the same precious faith delivered to all saints, saw things not seen that pertain to us!
He lived approximately 65 years after Adam’s death and was translated approximately that same amount of time before Noah’s birth. So he was in that world that caused God to repent that he had made man! (Gen. 6:6). Because GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen. 6:5). What a dreadful day he lived in. – Much like the day in which we live! – Just like the days shall be at the return of our Lord!
Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. There was only self consciousness! There was no God consciousness! Man only existed for the satisfaction of his natural appetites. And God proclaims that to be only evil!
And what is the issue in the only recorded preaching of our brother Enoch? Listen to him preach! Jude 14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
His preaching concerned itself, not only with his day, but here, specifically with the days of the coming of the Lord! His faith evidenced to him the very days of those mortals, alive and remaining on earth, who themselves like him, would put on immortality at the end of the age! His faith revealed to him these things unseen by those who only had a natural consciousness!
But before his translation Enoch is said to have pleased God. And in this he is also a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in Matthew 3:17 we read, And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And the two things recorded in Hebrews 11:6, listed above, that are required to please God are; one must believe that God is, and one must be assured that God responds to a personal faith and hope in him! But Enoch didn’t just believe in a “higher power,” or a “first cause,” or even just a “supreme being!” For that is not of true, living faith! That’s just religious conjecture!
Enoch believed in the personal God that personally revealed himself to his own heart! He was not just mentally acquainted with some “god” that others taught him out of a Bible! He had no Bible! In the midst of those days so dark that all flesh had to be destroyed, he believed in the God of divine revelation! He believed in the God of The Word! His faith, – THE faith of all true believers, saw the invisible God and he acted upon that faith! THAT is the key to both Enoch’s and all of our everlasting life, wherein we all shall Not See Death!
For the last generation of true believers on earth shall also be living among a generation that shall be destroyed at the coming of the Lord, as themselves are translated! 2Thess. 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
And not only shall every one of God’s elect not see eternal death, but those who are alive and remaining on the earth at the Lord’s return shall, with Enoch, not see physical death! 1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
And how are we to enter into Enoch’s translation on a daily basis? We are to consider ourselves to be God’s living sacrifices, not living unto ourselves, nor seeking only our goals and ambitions. We are to be transformed, or translated, above it all to a higher consciousness of God by faith. For we are said to be seated in heavenly places as we sojourn on earth!
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Pastor Gene Breed