Genesis 5 Walking with God

At the end of chapter 4, in verse 26, the author of Genesis tells us, “At that time people first began to call on the name of the Lord.” Apparently at that time God removed his manifest presence from the earth. That means even after the first people sinned, God continued to manifest his presence openly on the earth. But sometime after the first murder, God withdrew his presence. So people began to call on the name of the Lord as an act of faith. Their experience is more like ours.

Then in 5:22-23, the author tells us about a man named, “Enoch”, who “walked with God”. It appears that Enoch walked in such close fellowship with God, calling on the name of the Lord by faith, that one day he disappeared because God took him. This incident tells me that God wants to walk with us—he wants to cause us to sense his presence and all that means. Enoch also became the first of several people who leaped into eternal existence without dying. New Testament prophets like Paul predict that one day when Jesus returns, millions of believers will experience something similar (see 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Pretty cool.