Our Walk With God
Genesis 5
Have you ever walked through a cemetery and paused to notice the dates etched into a headstone, giving the dates of their birth and death, with a small dash between them? That dash represents an entire life: moments of joy and sorrow, love and loss, faith and struggle. Generations who have gone before us are remembered in just a few carved words, quietly reminding us how brief life really is.
Genesis 5 reads much the same way. It feels like a walk through a cemetery—born, lived, fathered, died. One generation after another bears the weight of Adam’s fall, echoing the truth Paul would later declare: “For as in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Mortality marks every line of this chapter. And yet, in the middle of this sobering rhythm, one life interrupts the pattern like a soft light in the darkness.
“Enoch walked with God.”
In a world shaped by sin, decay, and the passing of time, what ultimately matters is not how long we live, but how we walk with God while we live. The early generations recorded in Genesis experienced extraordinary lifespans, yet none escaped death. Then Enoch appears—not as a man of great accomplishment or strength, but as one who chose a different pace of life. His distinction was not longevity, but communion.
“Enoch walked with God… and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:22–24).
Enoch was not silent in his generation. Jude tells us that he spoke boldly about God’s coming judgment (Jude 14–15). While the culture around him drifted further from the Lord, Enoch chose faithfulness over conformity, devotion over distraction, and trust over fear. His life bears witness that faithfulness to God endures even when the world declines.
God was pleased with Enoch’s walk. Unlike the others listed in Genesis 5, Enoch did not experience death—God took him. Many believers have seen in Enoch a quiet foreshadowing of the blessed hope—a life caught up by God, anticipating the promise that death will not have the final word (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). While Genesis does not press this as doctrine, the pattern reflects a truth seen throughout Scripture: God preserves those who walk with Him by grace. Enoch’s life is a gentle reminder that even in dark days, God honors a life lived near Him.
The New Testament clarifies what this kind of life looks like for us today. Paul wrote that before Christ, we once “walked according to the course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2, KJV). Conversion is not merely a change of belief—it is a change of direction. In Christ, we are called out of darkness and into the light (1 John 1:6–7).
This new walk is marked by wisdom and dependence. Rather than yielding to the flesh, believers are invited to walk carefully in these evil days, submitting daily to the Spirit’s leading (Ephesians 5:15–21). This path is not always easy, but it is marked by assurance and joy—knowing that we belong to God and that our lives are held by Him (1 John 1:4; 2:1; 5:13).
At its core, the Christian life is a posture before God. It is the humble, daily choice to trust Him, obey Him, and walk by faith rather than by sight (Micah 6:8; 2 Corinthians 5:7).
Enoch’s entire life is summed up in just three words: “walked with God.” May his testimony encourage us to live a life of quiet faithfulness—walking prayerfully and obediently with the God who walks with us.