#15. Enoch, the seventh from Adam. His threefold Witness.

     In the book of the generations of Adam are two significant entries.  The first is that of  Gen. v. 5:--

     “And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty five years, AND HE DIED”. 

     The second is that of  verses 23, 24:--

     “And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty five years, and Enoch walked with God:  AND HE WAS NOT, FOR GOD TOOK HIM.”

     The entry of death, first made against the name of Adam, is repeated with constant succession throughout this book of the generations of Adam, with the one exception of Enoch.  That Enoch did not die  Heb. xi. 5  affirms:--

     “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death;  and was not found, because God had translated him:  for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God”. 

     The words of the sub-title, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, are supplied by the Epistle of Jude, from which we may gather the corrupting ungodliness of the days of Enoch, and learn that just as the “last days” shall be “as it was in the days of Noah”, so also shall they be as the days of Enoch.  The seventh from Adam is not allowed to see death.  Here we may observe a prophetic foreshadowing of the end.  Just as the seventh day of  Genesis ii. foreshadows “the rest that remaineth to the people of God”, so the seventh from Adam foreshadows the triumph over the death of those who shall not sleep, but be changed at the last trump;  this last trump appears to be the sounding of the seventh trumpet of the book of the Revelation. 

     In a world of ungodliness, fifty-seven years after the death of Adam, Enoch was translated.  The name Enoch means “teaching” or “initiation”, and Enoch’s two prophecies show that he had an inner knowledge that guided him in the world of wickedness in which he was placed. 

     His first prophecy is the naming of his son.  When Enoch was sixty and five years old a son was born, and he named him Methuselah, which by interpretation is, “At his death it shall be”.  Of what does Enoch speak?  He speaks of coming wrath, he warned of the flood that was to destroy all flesh.  See how exact is his prophecy;  Noah was 600 years old when the flood came (Gen. vii. 6).  Lamech his father was 182 years old when Noah was born, and Methuselah was 187 years old when Lamech was born.  What is the total number of years then from the birth of Methuselah to the flood:--

187      Age of Methuselah at birth of Lamech. 

 182         Age of Lamech at birth of Noah. 

600                       Age of Noah at time of the flood. 

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    969 

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     Genesis v. 27  tells us that “all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died”.  At his death it shall be, prophesied Enoch, and at his death, to the exact year, the awful deluge came, so faithful is the word of God.  Yet note, and note well, the age of Methuselah is proverbial, even among unbelievers;  yet how few recognize in this a glorious exhibition of longsuffering;  the man whose death was to be the signal for judgment lived longer than any man before or since, it was as though God waited until He could wait no longer.  How strange a work is judgment, how the Lord delights in mercy. 

     Enoch’s second prophesy is recorded in Jude:--

     “Behold the Lord cometh with His holy myriads, to execute judgment against all, and to convict all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and concerning all the hard things that ungodly sinners spoke against Him” (verses 14, 15). 

     Enoch’s twofold prophecy resolves itself into type and antitype.  The flood, a real and dreadful judgment, was itself a type of a future day of wrath.  The ungodliness of the days of Noah which brought down the floods of wrath was in turn typical of the character of the time of the end.  “The coming of the Lord” therefore is no new doctrine, it is as old as Adam, for Enoch lived together with Adam for the last 308 years of Adam’s life;  Adam must therefore have understood the significance of Methuselah’s name, and must have heard Enoch’s prophecy of the Lord’s coming. 

     “And God took him”.  In the days which are drawing nearer it will again be true that “one shall be taken, and the other left”.  Enoch was taken in blessing, and did not see death (type of those who “are alive and remain at the coming of the Lord”).  Enoch’s twofold prophecy is confirmed by his consistent walk with God, and thus together sets forth a threefold witness that cannot be gainsaid.  Let us believe the literal accuracy of His Word, the graciousness of His purposes, the certainty of His judgments, and the blessed assurances of one day being with the Lord.