Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:24

Genesis 5 is the record of death. There is a consistent pattern found in the chapter.

a. The years a man lives before a son is born b. The years a man lives after a son is born c. The total years a man lives and then his death

For example, the previous man is Jared.

"When Jared had lived 162 years he fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died" (Genesis 5:18-20).

We have this pattern throughout the chapter. And then we come to Enoch! Two changes are highly significant. First, verse 24 does not say "Enoch lived" but "Enoch walked with God." Second, Enoch does not die, but rather Enoch is no more because God took him away.

What an incredible man Enoch must have been. Enoch walked with God. He did not merely live the way others did. He walked with God. He lived close to God, intimate with God, obedient to God. He trusted God, served God, loved God. Enoch walked with God.

And not just for a few months or a few years. Verse 22 says Enoch walked with God for 300 years. 300 years!

Not only did Enoch walk with God, but he was so close to God that God just brings him up to heaven. His life is forever a sign of death's defeat, forever a reminder that death does not have the final word, forever a promise of God's grace, forever a symbol of the generation of believers who will not die when Jesus returns because they will be taken up to him.

Hebrews 11 gives us God's commentary on Enoch:

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God" (Hebrews 11:5).

God is still looking for men and women who dare to walk with him in the midst of an ungodly world.