Biblical Oddities: Enoch

No discussion of Biblical oddities would be complete without talking about Enoch. He is probably the most famous oddity of all! A great many people are familiar with the story of the man who never died. We find him mentioned in the first book of the Bible:

Genesis 5:23: “And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”

Enoch lived to be 365 years old, and then God simply took him. Enoch never died. Instead the Lord translated him so that he would not have to see death. The book of Hebrews tells us that God did that because Enoch’s faith pleased God:

Hebrews 11:5: “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”

By faith Enoch pleased God and walked with God, and one day God took him and he was gone. Enoch’s faith literally saved him from death.

But that is not all there is to know about Enoch. The book of Jude tells us that Enoch was a prophet who spoke of the Second Coming:

Jude 1:14: “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

As far as can be seen in the Biblical record, Enoch is the very first prophet. Thousands of years before the first coming of Christ, Enoch spoke of then Second Coming. He foresaw the day when the Lord would return to Earth with His Church, executing judgment on the ungodly. (This is discussed in greater detail in Revelation 19:11-21.)

But there is more. Enoch named his son “Methuselah” – the man who is famous for living longer than anyone else mentioned in the Bible (a staggering 969 years). What many people don’t know is that his name has great meaning. It literally means “when he dies, it will come”. The year Methuselah died, the Flood came and destroyed the world.

That brings us to our last fascinating fact about Enoch. Because Enoch lived by faith and pleased God, Enoch never saw death; instead he was raptured. In fact, God removed him from the world before the Flood came and destroyed it. Thanks to his faith in God, Enoch did not have to live through the time of judgment; instead he was spared it.

Enoch, then, can be seen as a symbol of the Church. Just as Enoch pleased God by living by faith, so the Church pleases God by living by faith. Just as Enoch was raptured so he did not have to see death, so one day Jesus will return and rapture the Church, and those who are alive when He comes will never see death. Just as Enoch was taken before God poured out His judgment upon the world, so the Church will be taken before God pours out His judgment upon the world. It is an astonishing parallel.

Yes, it is true that Enoch was taken centuries before the Flood happened – but people lived for so long back then that the Flood occurred within a single generation of his departure. After all, the Flood came the year that his son died.

There is no way to know when the Rapture will occur. All we know is that it is imminent; it can happen at any time – but we know that it will come. Enoch was taken before God poured out His wrath upon a wicked world – and we will be taken as well.