Genesis 5:22 “And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:”
“Great-grandpa, what was it like to actually see God? What does He look like? What does His voice sound like? Tell me again what He said to you when He walked with you in the garden! When will you take me again to see the cherubim? If they let us in, can we see God and talk to Him like you used to?” the boy Enoch enthusiastically and relentlessly questioned his oldest ancestor Adam while most of the world’s children were running about entertaining themselves with every kind of vice imaginable.
The name Enoch in Hebrew (chãnôk, H2585) means initiated, and derives from the root word chânak, which means “to narrow, or figuratively to initiate or discipline: dedicate, or train up” (Strong’s, e-Sword app). Enoch was certainly initiated and trained up in the fear of the Lord, and dedicated to everything spiritual. At some point he decided to make all that training his own in a very practical way. The catalyst seems to have been the birth of Methuselah, who was born to him when he was only 65. Far from distracting him, or dividing his attention, the birth of his son and the rest of his children only pushed him to seek God more urgently and personally than ever, and provided deeper insights into the nature of man, sin, and the character of God. The conclusion for us should be obvious: done right, family life will increase, not diminish our commitment to God.
But what does it mean to walk with God? Regular physical walking is in itself a discipline, especially if you train with someone way beyond your league. Now take that to a spiritual level and imagine walking with God every day, not for a few years, but for three centuries! Enoch’s is surely the longest walk on record in more ways than one, because in God, every step is a stride that measures with eternity. Consider, for example, this principle: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). Enoch’s patient perseverance can only mean that he came to be more congruent and synchronized with God than any other man alive. I don’t know about you, but I long to be connected to my Creator like that, and so I wrote the following verses to express that prayer. Will you join me in making it your own?
“I want to walk with You my God, but why would you for me regress?
I find Your way a narrow place, how would we pass, we two, abreast?
“I want to walk with You, my God, but how could I with you keep step?
Already I’m so far behind! I am your dust, and short of breath!
“I want to walk with You, my God, if run I must, I would, but how?
Oh, with this, my torturous pace, I’m sure to limit You just now!
“I need to train! I’ll run, I’ll sprint! Just let me try, be patient, please!
I want to walk with you my God!” I cry, and shout and plead.
Now I hear His voice, he says: “Wait my son, just wait!”
I turn, confused, “What? Wait?” I say. “I am to wait
for You?” “You are to wait on me.” He says, and offers me his hand.
“If you wish to walk as I, then you will need my strength, my might.
You cannot be in step with me while only by my side!
If we walk like that, it’s true, you’ll never keep my stride.
For you to walk with me, my child, just let me come inside.
When I’m in you and you’re in me, you’ll walk, and run, and rise
on wings! You’ll run and never tire! You’ll tread on snakes, and walk
on water and walk through coals of fire! That’s the way we’ll walk
together: You in me and I in you, together, so together!”
“…as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Cor 6:16).
“Wherefore […] let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
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