Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #9 of Genesis, chapter 5 and we are looking at Genesis 5:21-24:

And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

I will stop reading there. As we have been going along following the last few calendar patriarchs, God tied His calendar to their lifespans and He sums up the years of each patriarch’s life. For example, God said in regard to Cainan in verse 14, “And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.” In regard to Jared, it said in verse 20, “And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.” We see that pattern is broken with Enoch. It is laid out similarly in Genesis 5:21:

And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:

But, we see some different wording in verse 22, after God tells us that he lived 365 years and begat sons and daughters and He adds, “And Enoch walked with God,” and then God sums up Enoch’s lifetime in verse 23, “And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years,” but there is no statement that he died. Then we find the explanation in Genesis 5:24:

And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

So the pattern that was established is broken because God did something special with Enoch than He had done with other people. Actually, when we read the Bible, it was a very rare thing that God did by “taking” Enoch and we will look at what that means a little later, but it basically means he did not physically die. God took him to heaven directly out of this world and Enoch did not die. When we search the Bible we also find that God took Elijah in a similar manner and at the time of the end of the world God will take all of His elect people that are alive and living on the earth when Christ comes to destroy the world and they will also be “translated.” They will be instantly changed and brought into heaven without dying. So Enoch is a special figure in Biblical history because he did not die, so we are curious and interested to find out what we can about him.

First of all, let us look at the age numbers God gives regarding Enoch. Enoch lived 65 years and then he begat Methuselah. At this point, we understand that this does not mean that Methuselah was born when Enoch was 65, but it means that Enoch had a son at age 65 from whose line Methuselah would later come. It could have been a son or a grandson or a great grandson, but he would come from that line.

Enoch was 65 and this number can be broken down. We break down numbers because the Bible does allow this and this might be a good time to show an example of where God Himself does this, in Revelation 21:12-13:

And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

There are 12 gates and then God breaks it down, three for each direction, and we can see that “4 x 3” equals 12 and the number “12” is a number that has its own spiritual meaning, which means fullness. But when it is broken down to “4 x 3,” the number “3” means the purpose of God and the number “4” represents the furthest extent or universality of whatever is in view and, in this case, it relates to the new heaven and new earth and all of God’s elect. That is why we break numbers down.

Now sometimes there is a number that cannot be broken down, but we can break down a number like 65. Right away we know that any number ending in the number “5” or “10” can be broken down into multiples of five. You divide the number 65 by 5 and you find it is “5 x 13.” That is where we get our two significant numbers because the number “5” cannot be broken down further and the number “13” cannot be broken down further. With the number “65” we cannot break it down with the number “7” or “11” or “17” or any other number. Only the two numbers “5 x 13” make up the number “65.” Since those two numbers are really what makes up the number “65,” when we break down the number there is added spiritual significance. Remember, every number is a word and words in the Bible have spiritual meaning. Again, the number “65” can be broken down to “5 x 13,” with the number “5” pointing to the atonement and the number “13” pointing to the end of the world. Does Enoch have anything to do with the end of the world? We were just discussing that he is a special figure in Biblical history because God translated him and at the end of time God will translate His people and He will “rapture” them like He did to Enoch. This would also relate to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ being ultimately fulfilled and brought to completion with the resurrection of our bodies.

Another interesting bit of information concerning Enoch at the point we are at in the Biblical calendar relates to some dates we already know. Creation was 11,013BC and then Enoch was born in the year 7106BC and that is 3,907 from creation. If you take the date of Enoch’s birth (7106) and add the year 1994, it equals 9,100 years. From the birth of Enoch until the dividing point of the Great Tribulation that came after earth’s 13,000th year of history in 1988 is 9,100 years. The number “9,100” can be broken down to “7 x 13 x 10 x 10.” The number “7” points to perfection; the number “13” points to the end of the world; and “10 x 10” points to completeness and it is doubled for an even stronger emphasis. It indicates that after 13,000 years the world will come to its complete end and all of God’s elect, typified by Enoch, will be translated and brought into heaven.

By the way, the name “Enoch” means “to dedicate” or “to train up,” like the verse, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

The first number was 65 and we saw it can be broken down to “5 x 13.” Then we have the number “300,” where it says, “And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years.” It can be broken down to “3 x 10 x 10,” or the complete purpose of God. Then it said in verse 23, “And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years,” and the number “365” breaks down to “5 x 73.” The number “5” relates to atonement, but we do not know a spiritual meaning for the number “73,” if it has one. However, the number “365” is very significant in itself as the total age of Enoch because it is the number of days in a year. It is the number of days in a year that God established at the very beginning when He created the sun, moon and stars and set the celestial clock in motion to keep track of time. Every year is 365.2422 days and, of course, if God is going to point to a year He is not going to add the “.2422,” but He is simply going to speak of the number “365.”

Enoch was 365 years old when God took him, so we can see that a year is in view and the Bible does speak of “the acceptable year of the Lord,” so this is something for us to just keep in mind. There is “the acceptable year” and the Bible also speaks of “the year of vengeance.” Enoch was taken up at the end of 365 and it may point to the body of believers being taken up at the completion of the “year” that is in view. Right now I am a little hesitant to say that “the acceptable year of the Lord” or “the year of vengeance,” but we do know that God is directing us to the completion of a “year.” So this is something for us to keep in mind.

As far as the timeline of history, Enoch was born upon the death of Jared and it is the year 3907 from creation. Again, Jared died that year and Enoch was born that year. It is “end to end” at this point in the Biblical calendar. The Biblical calendar patriarchs that God ties to keeping track of time are “end to end,” in that one dies and the other is born in the same year. So in the year 3907 Enoch was born and then he lived for 365 years. In his 365th year it is the year 4272 from creation and that is when Enoch was translated. We are keeping track of the overall years, but if you looked at it from creation in 11,013BC, then from Enoch’s birth in 7106BC if you subtract the 365 years, it is 6741BC. It is interesting that from 6741BC to the birth of Christ in 7BC is 6,734 years, which breaks down to “2 x 7 x 13 x 37.”

There are some interesting number breakdowns with Enoch’s lifespan. We typically project it into New Testament time and into our time and we compare it to see if it adds up to 1988, and so forth. But there are also some interesting dates from Enoch’s time period to other Old Testament dates, like the birth of Christ. From Enoch’s birth in 7106 to the year 4990BC, the date of the flood, was 2,116 years and that number breaks down to “2 x 2 x 23 x 23.” There is a doubling of the number “2” and a doubling of the number “23.” We know that God uses the flood as a figure of the end of the world, so it is not surprising that Enoch is used by God to tie into the events that unfold at the end of history. Enoch is related to the end of the world based on how God translated him into heaven. So it is interesting that there is a doubling of the number “2” and a doubling of the number “23” when we look at the time from his birth to the date of the flood.

Let us go back and look more closely at some of the language in Genesis 5:22:

And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

The same kind of wording is found in the next chapter, although it is not found elsewhere in the Bible that I could find, where they are worded exactly this way. Enoch walked with God. It says in Genesis 6:8-9:

But Noah found grace in the eyes of JEHOVAH. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Enoch was said to have walked with God and Noah was said to have walked with God. You can find all kinds of verses where men of God walked in the commandments of God or walked in the truth, or other such statements and that is actually what it means to walk with God. For instance, it says in 1John 1:6-7:

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

We walk in the light as he (God) is in the light. It also says in 2John 1:4:

I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.

Then it says in 2John 1:6:

And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

So it is very clear that the fact that Enoch and Noah “walked with God” simply means that they did the will of God. They kept His commandments and they followed the truth of God. They were not walking in darkness, in other words, as man naturally does and every sinner walks in darkness in their rebellious state. But, as the Bible says of Noah, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” and Enoch, too, was saved and after God saved Enoch he was given a new spirit and a new heart and in that new soul existence he kept the commandments of God perfectly. He had a desire to the will of God. This man lived over 9,100 years from our present time, but there is no difference in the Gospel. There is no change in how God saved him and his response to God’s salvation resulting in an ongoing desire to do the will of God.

The Bible tells us, “And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years,” and I think we can gather that he was saved the entire 300 years. Was he saved then when he was 65? It does not say, but it is possible. He could have been saved earlier, but it said that he walked with God 300 years. You can only “walk with God” after you have become saved. The Bible says in the Book of Amos, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” The word “walk” is a different Hebrew word in Amos, but it carries the same idea; you cannot walk with God unless you are in agreement with Him concerning His commandments. A person who is unsaved has a stony and deceitful heart that is desperately wicked and they cannot be in agreement with God regarding His commandments. That person may profess Christ with his mouth, but he is far from God.

So, we are told here of an individual that was saved for at least 300 years of his life. Again, the number “3” points to the purpose of God and “10” points to completeness. It is “3 x 10 x 10” that Enoch walked with God and that was God’s purpose for him to walk as a child of God for that length of time.

Following the 300 years of obedience to God and keeping God’s commandments and walking in His truth, God took him. We can see how Enoch is a good illustration of the elect of God because God’s elect are obedient. They are faithful. They keep the commandments of God and they do the will of the Father and it is all a result of what Christ has done and the enormous change that God has performed in them, as it says in Ezekiel 36:26:

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

This is exactly what God did to this early child of God named Enoch, just 4,000 and some years from creation. This wonderful believer was saved. He had a new heart and as a result the Spirit of the Lord in his new soul caused him to walk in God’s statutes. When you do that, you will find that God is with you. God also walks in His own commandments and He has obligated Himself to keep His own Word. He keeps His Law and He is not above His Law in any way. As the Lord Jesus demonstrated, He humbled Himself in submission to God’s commandments.