December 10

“And Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah.” Genesis 5:22

We do not know anything about Enoch before he was sixty-five years old, but after he begat Methuselah we discover something special: we learn that he walked with God for 300 years before he was taken up. This is very significant. When the burden of having a family came upon Enoch, he became aware of his unfitness. He felt the responsibility heavy on him, so he came near to God.

The record does not say that he walked with God only when Methuselah was born, but that he individually maintained this personal association as though convinced that unless he was intimate with God, he could not lead his son. Nor does it say that children distracted him from his course. He begat many sons and daughters during those three centuries, but all the while he continued to walk with God. Parenthood itself should not hinder people from this walk of faith; rather, since the bearing of family responsibilities reveals one’s true spiritual state, should it constrain them so to walk. And when the pilgrimage was completed, Enoch was not; for God took him.