The Character and Translation of Enoch
J. A. James. Genesis 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. I. HISTORY OF ENOCH. II. CHARACTER OF ENOCH. III. CONDUCT OF ENOCH. The conduct of this antediluvian saint was the piety of intelligence; he understood God's claim and his own obligations, and it was not a mere custom. It was the piety of deliberate design and choice; he was not, so to speak, thrown accidentally into God's company, but chose to go to Him, and with fixed, determinate purpose, sought His friendship. It was the piety also of a minister of religion; and what is any minister of religion, without personal godliness, but an actor in the most dreadful tragedy ever performed on the stage of this world, since it ends not in the feigned, but the real, death and destruction of the performer? It was the piety of one who had few of those helps and advantages of divine revelation and ordinances which we enjoy, and therefore shows how God can, and will, help those in the Divine life, who are, by Providence, deprived of the assistance which others possess. It was piety, maintained during a long period of severe trial, a profession consistently upheld amidst all conceivable opposition for nearly four centuries, thus exhibiting a sublime instance of endurance, perseverance, and victorious faith. IV. TRANSLATION OF ENOCH. Enoch's translation was a testimony to that generation of which he was a member, and to the whole world from that time to this, of God's approval of his conduct. (J. A. James.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. WEB: Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.