At first glance, today’s reading seems rather mundane. We have the author of Genesis presenting a family tree full of names, years of life, & death. While we might puzzle over such inclusion, its original audience would have thought nothing was amiss. Lineage was very important to the Jewish people. A family tree was a very proper & essential introduction to a story.
In the midst of this litany of names, we learn of a man named Enoch. Enoch was 65 years old when he became a father to Methuselah. (Trivial Pursuit fans are already familiar with Methuselah, who lived a Guinness Book of World Record 969 years.) More importantly for us, when Methuselah was born Enoch began to “walk with God.”
Sadly without today’s media, we know nothing of Enoch or his life. Was he poor or wealthy? Was he good looking? Was he popular? What was his vocation? What did his house look like? Was he fast & strong? And was he a PC or Mac user? (More than likely, he probably wanted to steer clear of any apple related products. – Apple references 2 weeks in a row? C’mon. – Editor)
Could it be that all of those descriptors, seemingly so important to our culture, don’t matter? What if we were forced to describe ourselves in 1 sentence? Would it be tennis player, top salesman 17 months in a row from 1996-1997, owner of a 2010 Prius, resident of a prestigious neighborhood, or known for that incredible 79 we scored on the golf course in 2001? What if all of the time we spent on our jobs, hobbies, health, looks, & acquiring status really didn’t count for anything? Boy, those people will feel rather foolish at their lack of focus on what is truly significant. Won’t they?
So what can we discern about Enoch? I suspect he enjoyed an ordinary life as a husband & father. There is an old saying about believers: they don’t necessarily do extraordinary things, but rather do ordinary things extraordinarily well. I think Enoch began to experience God as he enjoyed all of the travails of parenthood.
I think he was a good friend. I have no doubt that he must have stood out from the norm of his society. (Spoiler alert: Something big happens in a just a few pages to confirm that Enoch’s culture was on the wrong track.) Perhaps they teased him behind his back for being a “square” and not going with the crowd. But I also think they trusted him. That if they were in the need of counsel, they sought him out. That if some accident should occur in the middle of the night, they knew they could count on Enoch to properly care for their home & family.
I think he was a good businessman. His word could be counted on. He was ethical in a world of commerce that was probably rather cut-throat. Without having to constantly watch your back, it would have been a relief to trade with someone like Enoch.
The honorific, “he walked with God” is not attained overnight or on a whim. It would have required years of dedication, years of service, & years of letting your word be tested. I suspect his friends & colleagues were quite comfortable honoring Enoch this way. His life had been transformed & his daily walk with God was obviously apparent.
I love this quote from George H. Morrison, a Scottish preacher from the late 1800s:
“….there is one proof that is never antiquated & never loses its power of appeal, and that is the power of the man who walks with God. It is easy, it is always easy, to deny the inspiration of a book. But the one thing men can never do is to deny the inspiration of a life. And when that life through ever-lengthening years is calm & beautiful & wise & blameless, it wins a power over the hearts of men with which nothing on earth can be compared.”
The example of our lives can have the power to inspire others. What will they say about you & me?
