“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Genesis 5:24
Dear Ones:
It was in the days of Noah, when “…God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” (Gen. 6:5) that we find a man who distinguished himself by this: “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and NOAH WALKED WITH GOD.” (v.9) Why is this matter of walking with God so very important, indeed, of primary importance? When we look back at the Garden of Eden, just after the Fall, we find this phrase: “And they (Adam and Eve) heard the voice of the Lord God WALKING in he garden in the cool of the day.” (Gen. 3:8) Why does Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, write this word “WALK” instead of God just “speaking” to them? It is because God has chosen to associate with men. Beyond that, He reveals by this picture that He has created them to KNOW Him, to commune, or have fellowship with Him, to share this very LIFE that is eternal. The primary purpose and function of man is to commune with God, to walk with Him, to love and obey Him.
When we see Noah arrive on the scene of history, we find a total difference in context between the Garden of Eden and the decadent times in which he lived. Wickedness had arrived a point where there was no more room in the heart of man for even the thought of God, as “…the thoughts of his heart was ONLY evil continually.” (v.5) And yet, in that darkness, we find a man who “finds grace with God.” How? Certainly because of his very conscious sense of need for God, and his willingness to believe God, even in the face of the godless humanity that surrounded him. Scripture says that he was a JUST, or righteous, man. The only reason that this is stated is that Noah was a man who had chosen, and learned, to live by faith. What was the evidence of that choice to live by faith, and as his means of living? The corresponding result was: ” Noah WALKED with God.” (6:9)
With the coming of Abraham, we find another individual who has been called of God to learn to live BY FAITH. He too would be declared to be a man, to whom righteousness had been accounted, or attributed. It will be when Abram is ninety-nine years old, that the Lord would say to him: “WALK before Me, and be thou perfect.” (Gen. 17:1) It does not matter, concerning the circumstances of one’s life, nor one’s age. The call of God is the same, to walk with, and before Him. In the New Testament, Paul puts it in a slightly different way: “WALK in the Spirit,” (Gal. 5:16), being “…LED by the Spirit,” (v.18). In his letter to the Ephesians, he goes on to write: “…be FILLED with the Spirit.” (5:18) What is he saying here by these declarations? As in the Garden of Eden, we are called in the context in which we live, to LIVE by the Spirit, to walk with and by God the Spirit. Our walk is to be characterized by a walk “in love,” and one that is circumspect with wisdom. It is to be a “walk” that is “worthy of the vocation wherein ye are called.” (Eph. 4:1) Wherever God has called us, and regardless of the task set before us, we are to WALK with, by, and before Christ. The great call, and that for which Christ paid for our sins, reconciling us to God, is for this purpose today of being enabled to have communion with God, walking with Him.
Dear Father, apply the precious blood of Thy Son in the fullness of its power, to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness. Fill us with the Spirit, and keep us filled, as we set ourselves to walk by and before You. Strengthen us to live by “the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us.” We thank and praise Thee, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad