“And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him”,
Genesis 5:24 (1 Thessalonians 4:17, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up”).
“By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death and was not found because God had translated (changed) him”, Hebrews 11:5. (1 Corinthians 15:51, “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed”)
Why did God “change” Enoch and “take him” so that he did not see death?
1. Enoch had maintained a long, consistent relationship with the Lord.
“Enoch walked with God three hundred years”, Genesis 5:22.
2. Enoch shared a personal relationship with the Lord.
God revealed to Enoch not only the coming judgment of the flood but when it would come. (Methuselah, the name given to his son, means “When he is dead it shall be sent”).
God also revealed to Enoch the coming of Christ in judgment upon the world: “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied....saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands (myriads) of His saints to execute judgment upon all who are ungodly”.
3. Enoch’s relationship with God greatly pleased God.
“Before his translation he had this testimony (from God), that he pleased (euaresteo) God”.
“For the Father is seeking such to worship Him (in spirit and in truth)”,(John 4:23). (John 4:23).