"And Enoch
walked with God: and he was not; for God took him."
The antideluvian
world grew darker and darker with the stain of sin. Passing generations of
faithful men watched the wickedness grow. And Enoch was born.
Enoch's first son
was born 65 years after he himself. And what a change it produced in him! Enoch
had grown up loving God, keeping His commandments, and believing, by faith, in
a Redeemer to come. But once his son came on the scene, such a change.
"After the
birth of his first son, Enoch reached a higher experience; he was drawn into a
closer relationship with God. He realized more fully his own obligations and
responsibility as a son of God. And as he saw the child's love for its father,
its simple trust in his protection; as he felt the deep yearning tenderness of
his own heart for that first-born son, he learned a precious lesson of the
wonderful love of God to men in the gift of His Son, and the confidence which
the children of God may repose in their heavenly Father. The infinite,
unfathomable love of God through Christ became the subject of his meditations
day and night; and with all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that
love to the people among whom he dwelt." PP 84.3
Three hundred years
passed, while this man of God's "faith waxed the stronger, his love more
ardent". He was given visions of the end of time. He saw Christ come, and
the state of the world as it would be before the second coming. He walked so close
with God that when he came forth from that quiet communion time with God, his
face glowed with light from Heaven.
And then, one day,
he "was not; for God took him."
Because he walked so
close. Because he was so close to
heaven. Only one step away, Mrs. White says.
And here's the
blessed, yet frightening, thought…
"The godly
character of this prophet represents the state of holiness which must be
attained by those who shall be the 'redeemed of the earth' (Rev. 14:3) at the
time of Christ's second advent." PP 89
Me.
In order to be one
of the redeemed of the earth, who never tastes of death, I need to be like
Enoch.
Lord, I am unworthy. All unworthy. And all unable as
well.
"My strength is
made perfect in weakness."
Father, teach me to walk as close to heaven as did
Enoch. And when You return for your children, may I be found to be Enoch in the
end.
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