God Took Him
A Devotional Series from Genesis
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
5/21 Reading Portions: Numbers 30; Psalm 74; Isaiah 22; 2 Peter 3
Genesis 5:23-24
Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
GRACE
Yesterday, we meditated upon the truth of Enoch’s faith as pleasing to God, and that his life was therefore a prophetic type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we will consider the blessed type of salvation through faith in Christ. In other words, Enoch is a prophetic picture of you and me, wretched sinners that we are, who have been saved by God’s grace; that is, because of our Lord Jesus Messiah, this verse is applicable to every believer, for God took him. And Christ, our God, has taken us as well. It is written:
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
We are not our own. Christ’s substitutionary atoning death did not only save us, did not only satisfy the wrath of God that we surely deserve, but it purchased us for God’s own purposes and for His glory alone. We belong to Jesus Messiah, for He took us.
“But wait a minute, Brother Jon. Enoch didn’t die,” someone may rightly interject. Indeed, he did not. After six generations of “and he died,” the Holy Spirit makes the distinct and salient point of God taking the man for His own good pleasure so expressive that He does so by taking the man without his having to die physically (Heb 11:5). Our Lord Jesus explained it like this at the tomb of Lazarus:
“I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26
It is in John 11:26 that is most applicable here. While those who are alive and remain at the return of Jesus will be “raptured,” and will not die physically, this group is the exception, not the rule (Heb 9:27). Our verses today are applicable to all saints in Christ, both Old and New Testament, for everyone who lives and believes in Jesus shall never die, for God took Enoch, and Jesus has taken you and me as well. Hallelujah! What a Savior!