Dear Roger,
Our pastor mentioned Enoch in his Sunday sermon. I’ve never heard of him. He was teaching on the book of Jude and I never read much about either one of them. What are your insights?
Edgar
Dear Edgar,
I am going to teach you three short verses in Jude that describe the coming crisis in the end times, and the devastation Enoch predicted before the flood in Noah’s day. Enoch is one of the few end-time prophets we never hear about. Enjoy.
Iran and Iraq were not ready for the 7.3 earthquake that devastated the land and killed hundreds of people. The ground undulated like a waterbed disturbed from its calm serenity by a child jumping on to play.
Buildings collapsed by the hundreds, bridges collapsed, roads and sidewalks crumbled, and people 8,000 victims died or were injured. Some were buried alive.
They were not prepared for the crisis that faced them.
Jude, in verses 14-15 mentions such a coming crisis.
Jude 14-15: Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
Jude 16: These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
May I summarize the two statements Jude is making:
In verses 14-15 he says,
“God is attracted to a godly life and repulsed by an ungodly one.”
Then in verse 16 he says:
“Apostates don’t like God so they make up a god they can like.”
Or, “God is attracted to a godly life and repulsed by an ungodly one.”
We are all like that.
God says that a beautiful Christian life is like a sweet smelling aroma rising up to His nostrils.
Or, I might say, “a beautiful Christian life is like the fragrance of a juicy steak grilling on the barbecue—or chicken breast.
What is the opposite of that juicy, grilled aroma? Well, I know.
Julie and I on vacation and returned home to open the refrigerator door. The compressor failed—best we could figure at least two weeks earlier. The putrid, decaying meat aroma was overpowering. Had to tie on bandanas to go near the open door.
“God is attracted to a godly life and repulsed by an ungodly one.” We understand this. Now we can go on to verses 14-15.
Jude 1:14-15: Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”NIV
Enoch spoke these words just seven generations after Adam.
Enoch pronounced this prophecy about 900 years before the worldwide flood came.
What is unusual here is that while Enoch is a character in the Old Testament, this prophecy is not found in the Old Testament.
This quote is from the Jewish intertestamental book, 1 Enoch.
Enoch was a well-known book in the first century. It was one of Jude’s favorites. He has already made several references to it, I just did not point them out.
It is crucial to note that Jude does not refer to 1 Enoch as Scripture; that is, the critical word graphe (Scripture) is not used here. Since it is here we know Enoch spoke it.
Four times in this passage Jude quotes Enoch using the word “ungodly.” He says it so many times it becomes a rather awkward thing to read. Nevertheless we cannot mistake his meaning.
This strong word describes a total moral and spiritual breakdown, “impiety in thought and act”.
It is in a time of crisis that our true inner character will come out.
Be like Job: When all is stripped away, you want to be able to live with yourself. When you stand before God, you want your heart to beat at a pure pace.
“God is attracted to a godly life and repulsed by an ungodly one.” We understand this.
The contrast here is between these ungodly people back before the Flood and–
Enoch himself! Enoch was a godly man. This godly man was selected to pronounce the prophetic judgment upon the ungodly people.
Enoch appears in Genesis 5:21-24.
“When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” NIV
This verse means that Enoch did not die, but, like Elijah, was transported directly to heaven.
A little girl described this experience to her mother. “Mamma,” she said, “one day Enoch and God took a walk together. They walked and they talked and they walked until Enoch said, “Oh, my. God, it is getting late. I’d better go home.’ And the Lord said, ‘Enoch, we’ve been walking so long together, I believe we’re closer to my home than to yours. Why don’t you come home with me tonight?’ So Enoch went on home with God.”
Why did God take him on to Heaven? Hebrews 11:5, reads, “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.”
Our Father is attracted to a beautiful, lovely life.
Genesis 5:21: “When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.
After he became the father of Methuselah, he walked with God.
I am sure that during the first sixty-five years of his life, Enoch was certainly a man of God, but then something happened which caused him to enter into a closer fellowship with the Lord. He had a son.
Sometimes just having a son will draw us closer to God. We begin to think about values we want to pass on to our children. But there is more here.
When this child was born, Enoch was given the amazing revelation that when this child should die, every living creature upon the earth would be destroyed by a universal flood.
That was when God inspired this godly man to make a prophecy about a coming time of ungodly men on earth. “God will come with his angelic host to judge all the ungodly acts of all the ungodly people, etc.”
So, he named his child accordingly. “Methuselah” means “when he is dead, it shall come.”
As Enoch watched his son grow, every time this strange name was spoken, the terrible prophecy of God was repeated: “When he is dead, it shall come.” The life of all men hung upon the life of this one baby, this one boy, this one man, Methuselah.
According to the chronology of Genesis 5, it happened exactly as God prophesied. When Methuselah died, judgment from God was sent. The fountains of the deep opened up and the rains began for the next 40 days. (Tradition says that he died seven days before the Flood).
Now let me teach you a lesson. Who was the oldest man who ever lived?
Methuselah.
How old did he live to be?
969 years. See the lesson? Methuselah’s long live shows God’s grace and mercy.
Here is a picture of God’s grace. God extended the life of Methuselah for 969 years to provide maximum opportunity for men to repent and turn to God.
For 120 years before the fulfillment of the prophecy inherent in the name Methuselah, Noah went about as a preacher of righteousness amid the godlessness of his time, warning of the coming Flood.
Grace is when we receive what we don’t deserve.
The Prodigal Son ran away from his father, demanded his inheritance and wasted his life in wickedness. He ended up poor, miserable and alone. In desperation he returned to His Father to beg for forgiveness. To his surprise, Dad welcomed him with open arms and prepared a feast in his honor. Now, that’s grace. He received what he didn’t deserve.”
Wasn’t that nice? What a graceful thing for her to do. Grace is when someone gives you what you don’t deserve.
Grace is different from mercy. Mercy is when you don’t get what you do deserve!
English history records one of the assassination plots against the great Queen Elizabeth I was foiled when attendants discovered a woman dressed, as a boy page, hiding in the closet of the queen’s bedroom one night before she retired for the evening. They confiscated the long, wicked-looking hair pins she had intended to plunge into queen’s heart.
Immediately thrust before the queen for judgment, knowing that her case was hopeless, humanly speaking, she threw herself down on her knees and pleaded with the queen to have compassion on her and give her mercy.
Queen Elizabeth looked at her coldly and the following exchange occurred: “If I give you mercy, what promise will you make for the future?
The woman looked up and said, “Mercy that has conditions, mercy that is bound by precautions, is not grace at all.”
Queen Elizabeth caught the idea and replied, “You are right. I grant mercy and pardon without conditions.”
History tells us that the queen had no more faithful, devoted servant than the woman who intended to take the Queen’s life.
For 969 years God granted grace and mercy to the ungodly people of the earth. He gave them what they did not deserve—time to repent—and held back from giving them what they did deserve—judgment.
But, seven days after Methuselah died, the time for grace and mercy were over.
And the crisis began. The rain began to fall. Judgment had come.
The same thing is going on in our generation.
Jude uses Enoch’s prophecy as a touchstone to remind us of the coming judgment in the age in our generation.
2 Peter 3:9: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
God is now extending grace and mercy to mankind. But judgment is coming on the ungodly in our world.
Now let’s talk about this coming judgment.
Jude 14-15: Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” NIV
Both the Old Testament (Daniel 7:10) and the New Testament claim that Jesus will be accompanied at his 2nd coming by huge numbers of angels and by the saints (Matthew 25:31).
Jude’s word for judgment is krisis.
When we stand before God to be judged it will certainly be a crisis!
Who will be judged? Enoch said simply, “all”, but the Holy Spirit has enlarged upon this in scores of passages throughout the Bible.
There are numerous judgments mentioned in the Bible: Angels, fallen angels, the earth, the nations, cities, Christians, Non-Christians—which occur at different times and places.
Jude is specifically referring here to the judgment of the ungodly, the apostates, Non-Christians.
This Judgment is specifically called in the Bible the Great White Throne Judgment.
Revelation 20:11-15 describes the judgment and conviction of the ungodly dead.
Revelation 20:11-12: “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.” NIV
Revelation 20:13-14: “The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.” NIV
Revelation 20:15: “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
The Book of Life is the listing of all the persons who settled their cases with God before they died.
Not one person at the Great White Throne has their name in the Book of Life. No Christian will be judged here. Christians settled their case out of court with God a long time ago.
If your name is not in the Book of Life, you will be judged on your behavior, how good and bad you were on earth. God will look in the books of works at your life. It is not, more good deeds than bad deeds, or if you have a certain number of good works, you make it. The issue is, have you ever done just one thing bad. If you have you are judged as being unfit for Heaven and cast in punishment into the Lake Of Fire (Hell).
In the choir of life it is easy to fake the words, but someday each one of us will have to sing solo before God.
Let me show you something both merciful and graceful: Jesus declared plainly that no believer would ever come into judgment krisis.
John 5:24: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned (krisis); he has crossed over from death to life.” NIV
A Welsh poem tells how shortly after the creation God held a review of all the heavenly bodies He had created. One by one the sun, moon, stars, and planets all passed by. And as they paraded before Him, their Maker greeted each one with a smile. But when the earth passed, God blushed.
That is what happened before the Flood. The Bible says that God saw the wickedness of the earth and repented that He had ever made mankind on it.
“All have sinned.” Every one of us. All are condemned.
In John 5:24 we have a declaration of the gospel—how to go to Heaven.
How to avoid the “Krisis” of Judgment at the Great White Throne.
God looked at the sin-filled earth and knew the judgment that would come—so He devised the gospel (or good news plan).
God Himself would put on a body and come to earth and take sin’s punishment for all mankind. So Jesus died on the cross in our place and whoever believes in the Father’s plan in surrender, commitment, and like a marriage relationship to Jesus Christ, has sins forgiven and will never come to crisis.
God wants to take your life and make it something special.
Two brothers were convicted of stealing sheep, and in accordance with the brutal punishment of the day, were branded on the forehead with the letters “S. T.” which stood for “Sheep Thief.” One of the brothers, unable to bear the stigma, tried to run away to a foreign land. But people would ask him about the letters on his forehead. He wondered from place to place, full of bitterness, died and was buried in a forgotten grave.
But the other brother, who repented of his misdeed, decided to stay at home. He said to himself, “I can’t run away from the fact that I stole sheep, so I will stay here until I regain the respect of my neighbors and myself.
As the years passed, he gained a reputation for respectability and integrity. One day a stranger in town saw the old man with the letters “S T” branded on his forehead and asked a native what they signified. After thinking for a little while, the villager said, “It all happened a long time ago, and I have forgotten the particulars; but, I think the letters are an abbreviation for the word, “Saint.”
Yes, that is the grace and mercy of God designed to change us from the ungodliness of sin into people of honor and beauty before God.
Well, Edgar, I hope this information is both informative and inspiring to you. If you haven’t given your heart to Christ, today is the day!
Love,
Roger