Genesis 5 + Psalm 5
Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Genesis 5:24
This verse breaks the normal pattern of Genesis 5 by ending with "and he was not, for God took him" rather than stating "and he died". Enoch did not die, God took him. Why? Hebrews 11:5-6 tells us the answer. Enoch did not die because of his faith. God saved him because of His faith. The same goes for us in the new covenant, we are saved by our faith.
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies;
make your way straight before me.
Psalm 5:7-8
This little section of the Psalm is a beautiful picture of faith! It shows that through God's love we enter His kingdom of heaven. It shows that reliance on God makes our path straight. I believe the combination of knowing salvation is through Christ and Christ alone and knowing that we need God's guidance and strength to guide us is a perfect picture of faith. It is the type of faith that Enoch probably displayed in his walk with God. The Psalm also mentions a fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is what makes us do good works. Salvation increases our fear of the Lord because in it we have greater wisdom of good and evil and our desire to please God increases. So we do not do good work to enter His kingdom but we do it out of love and fear!
It is incredible how detailed genealogy is in the Bible and how emotional writings can be in the Bible. The styles of writing are always unique and yet go hand in hand. It shows that all things are important to write down and record, the details and the emotion, the science and the experience. It is something that we can surely learn from that life is not all data and it is not all emotion. It is truth and truth can be revealed by either but we cannot rely on either to supply the truth. It is God's word that supplies the truth and it is the science and the experience that provides additional context into how it all applies! I can learn from this bit of wisdom on both science and experience! and also the overarching insight on writing things down and keeping records!
