By Faith Enoch

God Took Enoch by Gerard Hoet

If you’ve read many folk tales or children’s stories, you know they often feature repeated lines or refrains. These refrains not only help us remember the story, but they often show us its main point.

Take the tale of The Three Little Pigs, for instance. When you hear “Little pig, little pig, let me come in,” you probably know exactly what comes next. Who can forget all the repeated lines in this story?

Once a story’s pattern of refrains is established, we know to watch for something to change. In The Three Little Pigs, the wolf “huffed and puffed” twice, and each time he blew down a little pig’s house. But at the third little pig’s house, the one built with sturdy bricks, the wolf “huffed and puffed, but he could not blow the house down.” This change in the refrain points to the story’s lesson: Wisdom and hard work paid off for the third little pig, and they will pay off for us, too.

When we read Genesis 5, which is the Old Testament passage containing the story of Enoch, the second person in the Hebrews 11 hall of faith, it helps to read the text a bit like we would read a folk tale. Of course, it’s true history, not a folk tale, but to record the history, Moses used a series of repeated lines with some unexpected changes. And just as the changes to the refrains of children’s stories are significant, so are the pattern changes in the historical account in this chapter. There’s a whole lot of meaning smuggled into small differences in the wording.

Genesis 5 is the genealogy of the main line of Adam’s descendants. It includes nine men, and follows a pattern—a series of repeated phrases—for each man on the list. Each one lived a very long life, had children, “and then he died.” 

Except for Enoch. The record of his life doesn’t follow the pattern.

Enoch was 65 years old when he fathered Methuselah. And after he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and fathered other sons and daughters. So Enoch’s life lasted 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him. (Genesis 5:21-24 CSB).

Like the other men, Enoch lived and had children, but just when we expect to hear, “and then he died,” there’s a twist. “Then he was not there,” we read, “because God took him.” 

This is a mysterious statement, isn’t it? What does it mean to be taken by God? One thing is sure: Enoch didn’t die, or Moses would have ended his account of Enoch’s life with the same line he used for the others. The other eight men died, but something different happened to Enoch. He just disappeared one day when God took him. 

Enoch lived his life differently, too. The other eight men just lived their lives, but Enoch “walked with God”—and Moses described his life this way twice for emphasis. 

When I was a child, I heard this phrase and imagined Enoch taking an afternoon stroll with God. But of course, “walked with God” is a figure of speech, and not meant to be understood literally. From Moses’s description of Noah, who also “walked with God” we know walking with God means living a righteous life (Genesis 6:9). Or to put it another way, to “walk with God” is to live a life that pleases him, which is why the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, translated “Enoch walked with God” as “Enoch pleased God.” This is what the figure of speech “walked with God” means.

These three verses are all the Old Testament says about Enoch, but it’s enough for author of Hebrews to include him in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. Here’s what he wrote about Enoch: 

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him (Hebrews 11:5-6 NIV?).

Just as he did with Abel, the author reasoned that since Enoch “pleased God” (He followed the language of the Septuagint.), and since it’s impossible to please God without faith, Enoch was a man of faith. Enoch knew God was there, he believed God was good, and he regularly sought him out (verse 6). We might say that Enoch had a deep and lasting relationship with God. And he lived his life waiting patiently for the reward he knew would come.

The author of Hebrews noticed the way the refrains changed in the verses about Enoch in Genesis, and knew this was significant.  He saw the different ending of Enoch’s life—being taken from this life without experiencing death—as the direct result of the different way he lived. God rewarded Enoch for his faithfulness by bringing him to himself. 

For the first readers of Hebrews, who were feeling cultural pressure to abandon the Christian faith, Enoch’s life is an example of someone for whom remaining faithful paid off. And it probably wasn’t easy for him to live a life of consistent faithfulness. After all, he lived only three generations before the flood when God wiped out all of civilization because of its wickedness. Do you think the culture was a whole lot less evil in his time? It’s likely Enoch was pressured to abandon his faith, but he kept on trusting God.

Like Enoch, if we are going to please God, it will be by faith. Yes, he is delighted by our obedience, but true obedience is the fruit of a faith. It can only come from a heart that loves God. Like Enoch, we will only truly walk with God when we trust that he is good, and that his goodness overflows to those who seek him.

It is by faith that we will receive our reward, too. We won’t skip death like Enoch did (although those who are still alive when Christ returns will), but we will be raised from the dead. And we will be with him, which for those who desire him more than anything else, is the best reward there is.    

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Previous posts in this series:

• By Faith the Ancients
• By Faith Abel

By Faith Abel

Cain and Abel Offer Their Sacrifices by Gustave Doré

Do you remember the brothers Cain and Abel, the first two children born to Adam and Eve after God banished the couple from the Garden of Eden? Cain was a farmer and Abel was a herdsman, and at some point, the brothers each brought an offering to God. Cain offered some of his crops, and Abel offered some of the first-born of his flock. “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering,” Genesis says, “but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor” (Genesis 4:4-5 NIV).

At this place in the story, anyone following closely has a question: Why did God approve of Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s? It’s not a simple question to answer, especially if you limit yourself to the facts of the story as told in Genesis. 

I remember learning in Sunday school that God accepted Abel’s offering because it included the shedding of blood, and foreshadowed Christ’s death, which would one day be God’s solution to all the problems his parent’s sin brought into the world. Cain, with his grain or fruit, brought the wrong kind of offering, so God rejected it. While we can’t rule out this answer to the question, the text of the story doesn’t mention it. What’s more, when God eventually instituted the Old Testament sacrificial system, he included both animal sacrifices and grain offerings. If God permitted grain offerings after the law was given, why would he not accept one from Cain?

Others answer the question by pointing to the degree of personal sacrifice required for each particular offering. God approved of Abel’s offering, they say, because he brought his best to God—something that really cost him. Cain, on the other hand, brought his leftovers. The Genesis account doesn’t exactly spell out this answer either, but it may hint at it when it says Abel brought “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock,” and Cain brought just “some of the fruits of the soil” (Genesis 4:3-4).

We have to go to the New Testament, to hall of faith in Hebrews 11 for a more direct answer to the question of why Abel’s offering pleased God but not Cain’s. “By faith,” we read, “Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead (Hebrews 11:4 NIV).”

Abel gave his offering in faith, the author of Hebrews said, and Cain, presumably, didn’t. God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering and rejection of Cain’s did not depend as much on the content or quality of each offering as it did on the motivation for giving it. Abel was certain God would keep his promises (see Hebrews 11:1), so he trusted him, and offered up the first-born of his flocks as an act of worship. 

Since the Genesis story doesn’t mention Abel’s faith as the reason God accepted his sacrifice—it doesn’t, in fact, say anything at all about his faith— it may seem as if the author of Hebrews plucked his conclusion about Abel’s faith out of thin air. But he was actually an attentive scripture reader and careful thinker. Two verses after this he will write, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Because both Abel and his offering pleased God, he concluded that Abel acted in faith when he brought his offering. And just a few verses before this, in Hebrews 10:38, the author quoted a line from Habakkuk that says, “[M]y righteous one will live by faith.” As he understood it, when God approved of Abel’s offering, he was, in effect, calling him righteous, and according to Habakkuk, those who are righteous live by faith.

Taking Abel’s faith as the primary reason God accepted his offering doesn’t necessarily rule out either of the other possible reasons. Perhaps God had already given instructions for bringing animal offerings, instructions that are not recorded in scripture. Or maybe Adam and Eve told the brothers that God had provided animal skins to cover them after they sinned, and the family concluded that covering sin required killing an animal. If Abel somehow knew that God specifically desired animal sacrifice, then his animal offering was a sign of his faith.

Or what if Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock because he wanted to bring his best to God? Wouldn’t this prove his love for God? Wouldn’t it show that he trusted God’s ability to provide more lambs or kids for his flock? Wouldn’t such an offering exhibit faith?

Of course, when the author of Hebrews gave Abel’s faith as the reason behind his better offering, he implied that Cain did not bring his offering in faith. When we read the rest of the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:5ff), Cain’s lack of faith becomes obvious. We would expect someone whose offering was rejected by God to be contrite, at least if they loved God, trusted him, and wanted to please him. But Cain was anything but contrite. He was angry—angry first, it seems, with God for not commending him, even though, deep down, he must have known the sin in his own heart. 

Still, God responded graciously to Cain’s rebellion. He offered him a way out of his bitterness and into God’s acceptance. Cain, God said, didn’t have to let his anger rule him. He could—and should—rule over it instead. But rather than repenting when God admonished him, or seeking God’s help to control his sin, Cain doubled down. He let his anger with God grow into jealous rage toward Abel. Then he let his rage grow into murderous hatred. Finally, he acted out the hatred in his heart and killed his brother. 

And so Cain became the world’s very first murderer. He was included in the Hebrews hall of faith only as foil for his righteous brother Abel. When the Bible mentions him, it is to warn us to not be like him (See 1 John 3:12 and Jude 11.) Cain is remembered, not for his faithfulness, but for his shocking sin. 

But Abel? His life was short (at least in comparison to those around him), and he died near the beginning of history, but he is mentioned in the hall of faith as an example of faithfulness. The author of Hebrews used Abel’s story to encourage his first readers keep on believing. They were tempted to turn away from Jesus, but he wanted them to be like Abel, who was approved by God because of his faith. He wanted them to keep trusting, to keep worshiping and serving Jesus, and to build their own track record of faith. By his faith, Abel, “though he is dead,” spoke to them. And since his story is told in Genesis and included in the hall of faith, Abel continues to speak to us, too. 

A few generations after we die, chances are no one will remember us. If Ancestry.com is still up and running, our descendants may know our names, but they will likely know little else about us. Still, if we are faithful like Abel, our lives can speak even after we are dead, probably not for thousands and thousands of years, but certainly to our children, and maybe their children, and to anyone else we have influenced in this life. Our track record of faithfulness may spur others to faithfulness, too. 

Abel’s short life reminds us that it’s never too soon to consider the story of faith we will leave behind.

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The first post in this series: 

• By Faith the Ancients

By Faith the Ancients

This is an article I wrote for an upcoming issue of my church’s newspaper. It’s the first of what I hope will be a series of articles on Hebrews 11. I’ve edited it slightly.

We’ve lost so much over the past two years — easy travel, lively celebrations, crowded church services, uninterrupted schooling, and more. Some have become estranged from friends or family, and some have lost friends or family without being able to say goodbye. Life has been hard. Maybe it’s beginning to return to something like normal, but we’ve hoped before only to be disappointed. And now we’re troubled by horrifying daily images of war in Ukraine. We’ve moved from one world crisis to another, it seems. Is there anyone who isn’t at least a bit discouraged by all these difficult circumstances?

The author of Hebrews wrote his epistle to people who were discouraged by their trials, too. Life as a believer in Jesus was difficult, and the Hebrews anticipated worse days to come. A few may have considered leaving the Christian faith altogether to avoid future trials. The author saw their despair and called them to the same kind of enduring faith the Old Testament saints possessed. 

And so, tucked into this New Testament book is what some call a “hall of faith.” Hebrews 11 is a running account of faithful people whose stories are told in the Old Testament and Jewish tradition. The author encouraged the original readers to follow the examples of these ancient men and women by trusting God even when the future seemed bleak.

But right before he began his list of faithful ancients, the author defined faith. It’s not exactly a dictionary definition, but more a description of the kind of faith that will endure when life is hard. Here’s how Hebrews 11 starts: 

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Hebrews 11:1-3 NIV). 

The author uses strong words to describe faith, doesn’t he? Faith is confidence and assurance. The kind of faith that endures is not a weak, “I so hope this is true!” but a firm conviction that something is true. 

And what is it that enduring faith is convinced of? It is sure, for one, of “things hoped for.” Or to put it another way, faith is sure that God will keep his promises. God made promises to the Old Testament saints, and they were certain he would fulfill them. He has made promises to us, too. He has promised, for instance, to always be with us. He has promised that he will make everything right in the end. He has promised that his people will live with him forever in a heavenly country, something the author focuses on later in chapter 11. By faith, we are sure he will keep these promises.

Enduring faith is also sure of “things unseen.” These unseen things include God’s promises (the things hoped for), but also past realities we didn’t see and present realities we can’t see. These things are as real as the mountains surrounding Whitehorse, and as real as the chair I am sitting on as I write, but they can’t be known through our five senses. The author gives an example of an unseen but real thing in the last sentence of these verses. None of us witnessed God creating the universe, but we know he made it because he told us so. The list of other unseen things we can be sure of is long. We know that God exists, for instance, and that he is faithful. We know that he parted the Red Sea and that Jesus died on the cross. We believe these things and more, not because we see (or saw) them, but because we take God at his word. We know these unseen things are real by faith.

God approved of all the men and women listed in the hall of faith because they were convinced of the unseen realities God had revealed to them. They believed that God existed, and that he was faithful. They believed his power, the same power with which he created the universe, would ensure that he kept his promises to them. In coming posts, as we go through the stories of these faithful ancients, we will see that their faith wasn’t always strong. Some seem hardly deserving of their place in the hall of faith in Hebrews. But ultimately, they fought their doubts and believed what God said. Even when God’s promises must have seemed impossible for him to keep, they believed him, and acted on his promises. They believed God, trusted him with their future, and did not lose hope. And by their faith, they pleased him.

The original readers of Hebrews were tempted to turn away from Jesus as their lives became more difficult. The writer encouraged them to stay faithful by pointing them to a few unseen realities. The key to their enduring faithfulness was being convinced that Jesus was a perfect priest and complete Saviour, and that because of his work, they too would one day dwell in the heavenly country with all the Old Testament people who were commended for their faith. Through Jesus, all their suffering would pale in the light of their final glory.

We don’t know what our next year will bring. It may be better than the past one (and we pray that it is), but it could also be worse. Our trials, past and future, may be different than the trials the first readers of Hebrews faced, but the key to our faithfulness is the same as theirs. Like them, and like the Old Testament saints, we look by faith beyond the years to come to our eternal future when we will dwell with God in the heavenly country, a country in which everything has been set right. No more disagreements; no more war. No more sickness; no more death. No more masks, either, for we will see Jesus and all the saints who went before us face to face. Our assurance of this unseen reality which God has promised us will keep us faithful throughout our lives, both during difficult trials and when life is trouble-free. And like the ancients and all believers throughout the ages, we will please God by our faith.