Enoch conveyed into heaven

Weekly Devotion

"By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, 'and was not found, because God had taken him'; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Hebrews 11:5 (Read Genesis 5:21-24)

The Bible tells us of Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, that he "walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:24).

At the relatively young age of 365, Enoch was taken directly, without seeing death, to be with the Lord God in heaven. Enoch was translated; that is, changed from a temporal, earthly existence to an eternal, heavenly one. His body and soul were taken from this earth into his eternal and heavenly home.

Such a conveyance directly into heaven is hard for us to understand. In all of human history, Elijah the prophet is the only other human being to escape death and be taken directly to his heavenly home (cf. 2 Kings 2:11). Even the Lord Jesus Christ first died for the sins of the world before He rose again on the third day and then 40 days later ascended into heaven.

Enoch walked with God by faith, trusting that God's ways are right and that God would send the promised Seed of the woman to redeem him from sin and eternal death. In the book of Jude, we learn that Enoch also testified in his time of God's coming judgment upon all who continued in their ungodly and rebellious ways (v. 14f.).

To walk with God by faith is no different today. Believers know and believe that God's ways are true and right and trust in God's mercy and forgiveness for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for the sins of the whole world and rose again on the third day.

Believers walk in fellowship with God the Father, agreeing with Him about their sinfulness but trusting in Him to graciously forgive their sins and accept them as His own dear children for the sake of Jesus Christ, who lived a righteous and holy life in mankind's stead and made full atonement for the sins of all when He suffered and died upon the cross (cf. 1 John 1:7 -- 2:2).

Like Enoch, believers are pleasing to God and righteous in his eyes because all their sins have been washed away in Jesus' blood. Their works too are pleasing in His eyes because they flow from faith in Him and are made pure through the blood of Jesus.

Believers have already been conveyed. The Bible says of believers in Jesus that the Father "has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:12-14). God has graciously translated or conveyed His children from the kingdom and rule of darkness and sin into the kingdom of grace and forgiveness -- the kingdom of His own dear Son.

Believers will be conveyed into God's eternal and heavenly kingdom when Jesus returns. The Bible says to all who believe: "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself" (Philippians 3:20-21).

So, Enoch walked with God by faith and was taken directly into heaven. All who today walk by faith in the Son of God, trusting in Him for mercy and forgiveness, have been conveyed from the kingdom of darkness and spiritual death into God's kingdom of grace and life. And, on the last day, they too will be conveyed into heaven -- their earthly bodies will be changed into glorious and heavenly bodies like that of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:35ff.).

Jesus, let me ever walk with You by faith so that, as Enoch was conveyed from this world into your heavenly kingdom, so I may arise and live with You forever in Your eternal and glorious kingdom. Amen.

[Devotion by Randy Moll. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

Editorial on 06/27/2018