Commentary on Genesis Part 15

* The great sorrow of the patriarchs at Enoch's disappearance and their great joy over such an experience 59.

* Seth at the time was high priest, old and tired of life, and died soon after Enoch was taken 60-63.

* What Luther would do if he knew in advance the day of his death 61.

* This temporal life full of want and misery 62.

* The results of Seth's preaching after Enoch's ascension 63.

* The longing of the holy fathers for eternal life, and how it should serve us 64.

* Lamentation over the great corruption inherent in our flesh 65.

16. Enoch's ascension was great comfort to the holy patriarchs in meeting death 66.

* Of death.

a. It is not death to believers, but a sleep 66.

b. In what way death is a punishment of sin, and how it is sweetened 67.

* Luther's thoughts of Enoch's ascension 67.

17. Enoch's ascension extraordinary, and well worthy of consideration by all 68.

18. The rabbins' foolish thoughts of Enoch's ascension refuted 69.

19. Enoch doubtless had many temptations 69.

20. Enoch ascended even bodily, and not with that life which he now lives 70.

* How and why G.o.d willed that the world should have in all times a sign of the resurrection, and hence in the first world Enoch ascended, in the second Elijah, and in the third Christ 71.

* Lamentation over the unbelief of the world 72.

* Christ's ascension more significant than Enoch's or Elijah's 73.

* The chief doctrine of the first five chapters of Genesis 74.

* How and why death and the resurrection of the dead are set forth 74.

III. ENOCH.

44. There is one history, however, that of Enoch, the seventh from Adam, which Moses was not willing to pa.s.s over for the reason of its being extraordinarily remarkable. Still, even in this case he is extremely brief.

In the case of all the other patriarchs he mentions only the names and the number of their years. Enoch, however, he delineates in such a manner that he seems, in comparison, to slight the other patriarchs and, as it were, to disparage them as if they were evil men, or at least slighted of G.o.d. Did not Adam also, and Seth, and Cainan, together with their descendants--did not all these, also, walk with G.o.d? Why, then, does Moses ascribe this great honor to Enoch only? And is the fact that G.o.d took Enoch to be understood as if the other patriarchs are neither with G.o.d nor living? Yes, they all, like Enoch, now live with G.o.d, and we shall behold them all, at the last day, s.h.i.+ning equally with Enoch, in the brightest glory!

45. Why, then, does Moses discriminate in favor of Enoch? Why does he not bestow the same praise upon the other patriarchs? Although they died a natural death, and were not taken by G.o.d, yet, also they "walked with G.o.d." We have heard above concerning Enosh that in his times, likewise, mighty things were done. It was in his days that "men began to call upon the name of Jehovah," that is, that the Word and wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d began to flourish; and as a result holy men once more "walked with G.o.d." Why is it then, we repeat, that Moses does not laud Enosh equally with Enoch? Why does he bestow such high praise on the latter only? For his words are these:

Vs. 21-24. _And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with G.o.d after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years. And Enoch walked with G.o.d: and he was not; for G.o.d took him._

46. When Moses says that Enoch "walked with G.o.d," we must beware of taking the monastic view in the premises, as if he had kept himself secluded in some private corner, and there lived a monastic life. No, so eminent a patriarch must be placed on a candlestick, or, as our Saviour Christ expresses it, set as a city on a hill, that he may s.h.i.+ne forth in the public ministry.

47. It is as a bearer of such public office the Apostle Jude extols him in his epistle, when he says: "To these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the unG.o.dly of all their works of unG.o.dliness, which they have unG.o.dly wrought, and of all the hard things which unG.o.dly sinners have spoken against him," Jude vs. 14, 15. From what source Jude obtained these facts I know not. Probably they remained in the memory of man from the primitive age of the world; or it may be that holy men committed to writing many of the sacred words and works of the patriarchs as they were handed down from age to age by tradition.

48. It is this public ministry that Moses lauds, exalting the pious Enoch as a sun above all the other patriarchs and teachers of the primeval world. Wherefore, we may gather from all these circ.u.mstances that Enoch possessed a particular fullness of the Holy Spirit, and a preeminent greatness of mind, seeing that he opposed with a strength of faith excelling that of all the other patriarchs, Satan and the church of the Cainites. To walk with G.o.d, is not, as we have before observed, for a man to flee into a desert, or to conceal himself in some corner, but to go forth in his vocation, and to set himself against the iniquity and malice of Satan and the world, and to confess the seed of the woman; to condemn the religion and the pursuits of the world, and to preach, through Christ, another life after this.

49. This is the manner of life led for three hundred years by the greatest prophet and high priest of his generation, Enoch, the man who had six patriarchs for his teachers. Most deservedly, therefore, does Moses extol him as a disciple of greatest eminence, taught and trained by many patriarchal masters, and those the greatest and most ill.u.s.trious; and, moreover, so equipped with the Holy Spirit that he was the prophet of prophets and the saint of saints in that primeval world. The greatness of Enoch, then, consisted in the first place in his office and ministry.

50. In the second place, he receives preeminent praise because it was the will of G.o.d that he should be an example to the whole world in verifying, and showing the comfort of, the faith in the future life.

This text, therefore, is worthy of being written in letters of gold and of being deeply engraven in the inmost heart.

51. Here we have another view of what it means to walk with G.o.d. It is to preach the life beyond this present life; to teach concerning the seed to come, concerning the serpent's head that is to be bruised and the kingdom of Satan that is to be destroyed. Such was the preaching of Enoch, who nevertheless was a husband, and the father of a family; who had a wife and children, who governed his household, and procured his subsistence by the labor of his own hands. Wherefore say or think no more about living in a monastery, which has merely the outward show of walking with G.o.d. When this G.o.dly man had lived, after the birth of Methuselah, 300 years in the truest religion, in faith, in patience and in the midst of a thousand crosses, all of which he endured and overcame by faith in the blessed seed to come, he appeared no more.

52. Mark how pregnant these words are with power! He does not say, as he expresses himself concerning the other patriarchs, "and he died,"

but "he was not," an expression that all scholars have come to regard as a pure proof of the resurrection of the dead. In the Hebrew this meaning is most strikingly brought out. And Enoch walked with G.o.d, and _veenenu_, "he was not." The original signifies that Enoch was lost or disappeared, contrary to the thought or expectation of all the other patriarchs, and at once ceased to be among men.

53. Without doubt, at the severe loss of so great a man, both his father and his grandfather were filled with grief and consternation; for they well knew with what devotion he had taught the true religion, and how many things he had suffered. When they had thus suddenly lost such a man as Enoch, who had strong testimony of his G.o.dliness both from men and from G.o.d himself, what do you think must have been their feelings?

54. Find me, if you can, a poet or a fluent orator to do justice to this text and to treat it with power! Enosh, Seth, and all the other patriarchs knew not by whom or whither Enoch was taken away; they sought him, but found him not. His son Methuselah sought him, and his other children and his grandchildren sought him, but they found him not. They suspected, no doubt, the malice of the Cainites, and they probably thought that he was killed, as Abel was, and secretly buried.

At length, however, they learned, through a revelation made to them of G.o.d by an angel, that Enoch was taken away by G.o.d himself, into paradise. This fact they probably did not know the first or the second day after the translation, and perhaps not till many months, or it may be many years, afterwards. In the meantime the holy men bewailed his wretched lot, as if he had been slain by the Cainite hypocrites. It is always the divine rule that the cross and affliction should precede consolation. G.o.d never comforts any but the afflicted, just as he never quickens unto life any but the dead, nor ever justifies any but sinners! He always creates all things out of nothing.

55. It was a severe cross and affliction to the patriarchs when they saw taken away from them, to appear nowhere among them, him who had governed the whole world by his doctrine, and who had done so many ill.u.s.trious deeds in the course of his life. While these patriarchs were mourning and bewailing the misfortune of the holy man, behold!

consolation was at hand, and it was revealed to them that the Lord had "translated" Enoch! Such an expression we have not concerning any other man than Enoch, except Elijah. G.o.d willed, therefore, to testify by an object lesson, that he has prepared for his saints another life after this life, in which they shall live forever with G.o.d.

56. The Hebrew verb _lakak_ does not signify "translated" according to the impression conveyed by our use of the word, but "received to himself." These words are, accordingly, words of life, revealed by G.o.d through some angel to the patriarch Enoch, and to the whole of that generation of saints, that they might have the consolation and promise of eternal life, not only through a word, but also through an act, as before in the case of Abel. How delightful must have been to them this proclamation, when they heard that Enoch was not dead, nor slain by wicked men, nor taken away from them by the fraud or snares of Satan, but translated; that is, "received to himself" by the living and omnipotent G.o.d.

57. This is that bright gem which Moses sought to display in the present chapter--that the omnipotent G.o.d did not take unto himself geese, or cows, or blocks of wood, or stones, but a man, even Enoch, to teach there was reserved for men another and better life than this present one, so filled with evils and calamities of every kind.

Although Enoch was a sinner, yet the manner of his departure from this life proved that G.o.d had prepared for him and brought him to another and eternal life; for he entered upon the life with G.o.d, and G.o.d took him to himself.

58. Accordingly, Enoch's walking with G.o.d signifies that he was in this life a faithful witness of eternal life to be gained after this life through the promised seed. This is what living with G.o.d means, not the mere animal life subject to corruption. Inasmuch as Enoch constantly preached this doctrine, G.o.d verified and fulfilled this preaching in the patriarch himself, that we might fully and surely believe it; in that Enoch, a man like unto ourselves, born of flesh and blood, as we also are, of the seed of Adam, was taken up into heaven by G.o.d, and now lives the life of G.o.d, that is, an eternal life.

59. Before the generation of patriarchs knew the facts in the case, it was appalling to them to hear that so holy a man as Enoch had disappeared so completely that his whereabouts or manner of death was beyond everybody's ken. Great, therefore, was the grief of the pious parents and elders. But afterwards incredible joy and consolation were theirs when they heard that their son lived with G.o.d himself and had been translated by G.o.d to an angelic and eternal life.

60. This consolation G.o.d made known to Seth, who was the greatest prophet and high priest after his father Adam had fallen asleep in the faith of the blessed seed fifty-seven years before, Seth having then arrived at about his eight hundred and sixtieth year. Seth, being now an old man and full of days and without doubt fully confirmed in the faith of the blessed seed to come, and anxiously awaiting deliverance from the body and earnestly desiring to be gathered to his people, died with greater joy about fifty-two years afterward, because of the translation of his son Enoch. Fifty-two years were indeed but a short time for an old man wherein to make his will and visit all his grandchildren, and preach to them and exhort them to persevere in the faith of the promised seed and to hope in that eternal life unto which his son and their father Enoch had been translated to live with G.o.d.

In this manner, doubtless, the aged saint employed his time among his descendants, bidding farewell to and blessing each one. Full of years and full of joy, he no doubt thus taught and comforted both himself and them.

61. If I knew that I were appointed to die in six months' time, I should scarcely find time enough wherein to make my will. I would remind men of what had been the testimony of my preaching, exhort and entreat them to continue and persevere therein, and warn and guard them as far as my powers of mind could do so, against the offense of false doctrine. All these things could not be done in one day, nor in one month. Those fifty years during which Seth lived after the translation of Enoch, formed but a very short period for him (for spiritual men have an altogether different method of calculating time than the children of this world) in which to instruct all his family in the nature of this glorious consolation--that another and eternal life is to be hoped for after this life, a hope which G.o.d revealed to his saints by the marvelous fact of his having taken to himself Enoch, who was of the same flesh and blood with ourselves.

62. "Follow not," said he, "the evil inclinations of your nature, but despise this present life and look forward to a better. For what evil exists that is not found in this present life? To how many diseases, to what great dangers, to what dreadful calamities, is it not subject?

to say nothing now of those evils which are the greatest of all afflictions, those spiritual distresses which burden with anguish the mind and conscience, such as the Law, sin, and death itself.

63. "Why is it then, that ye so anxiously expect such great consolations from this present life as to seem incapable of ever being completely satisfied? Were it not for the fact that G.o.d wants us to live to proclaim him, to thank him, and to serve the brethren, life is such as to suggest its voluntary termination. This service, therefore, let us render unto G.o.d, with all diligence. Let us look forward with continual sighs to that true life to which, my children, your brother Enoch has been translated by the glorious G.o.d."

These and like things the aged saint taught his people after his great consolation had been revealed. There is no doubt that after it was understood that Enoch was translated alive into immortality, they longed for the time when they also might be delivered out of this afflicted life, in the same manner, or at least by death.

64. If, then, those G.o.dly patriarchs of old so anxiously looked forward to the eternal life and desired it to come, on account of Abel and Enoch, whom they knew to be living with G.o.d, how much greater ought to be our expectation and desire, who have Christ for our leader unto eternal life, who is gone before, as Peter says in Acts 3, 20-26.