The revelation progresses further with Enoch. How good it is that in Enoch there is a man walking with Elohim (5:22). Elohim is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Without the Son to redeem us, to be our Redeemer, how could sinful man walk with God? How could the holy God who lives in unapproachable light come to walk with men? Hallelujah! In the Godhead there is not only the Father but also the Son who is our Redeemer. You may think that in Enoch’s time the Lord Jesus had not been crucified. This is your view. This is not God’s view. In Revelation 13:8 we are told that the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world. This means that before you were born and before Enoch was born, in God’s eyes Christ had died already. So the holy God was altogether free to come to a sinner through Christ, and a sinner like Enoch was free to walk with God. Isn’t this wonderful! Enoch had a companion, and God had a companion. They were walking together. What a wonderful thing that a man can walk with God!
Enoch went further than calling upon the name of Jehovah; he walked with God. Sisters, don’t just call on the name of the Lord. After you call upon the name of the Lord you need to walk with the Lord. When you go to see your husband, the Lord Jesus needs to walk with you. What kind of life is this? This is the life under God’s dispensing. It is by this that God can carry out His dispensation, dispensing Himself into man. In the Bible walking means to have your life, to have your being, to do things, to say things, to think things, to go anywhere. To walk with God is to have your life with God. This does not mean that God would be willing to go every place and to do everything with Enoch. Sometimes God would probably say no, that He would not go there, or that He would not do a certain thing. Suppose at that time Enoch would not go along with God. That would break their walking together. In our experience we realize this. Too many times we call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus comes to walk with us. But then we want to do something which He does not want to do. When we insist on doing our thing, this breaks the company, the walking together. After calling upon the Lord’s name, you have to go with the Lord. Then the Lord would go with you. Don’t ask Him to follow you; you have to follow Him. It is not that God walked with Enoch, but that Enoch walked with God. God did not live Enoch’s life, but Enoch lived God’s life. He was living a life that was God’s life. Isn’t this wonderful!
Enoch not only walked with God, but also was taken away from death (Gen. 5:24). Genesis 5 is a record of death. It tells us that this one died, that one died, and another one died. Everyone was under death, but Enoch was kept from death. By walking with God day after day for three hundred years he was kept in everything away from the element and atmosphere of death. This kind of “God-walking” kept Enoch from death.
In principle today it is the same. Whenever we walk with the Lord and live with the Lord, at that time we are kept away from death. We all have experienced that if we don’t walk with the Lord and live by the Lord, we are under death. Hallelujah! There is a living way to be kept away from the power and dominion of death. This is a part of God’s dispensing. As we walk with Him, He is dispensing Himself into our being, so we are kept away from death.
From Enoch we go on to Noah. As a continuation of Enoch, Noah not only walked with God (6:9), but went further and worked with God according to God’s salvation (Gen. 6:14). He was one in the same interest with God. At that time God was very much interested in building the ark. But God did not do it by Himself. He charged His co-worker, Noah, to build the ark for Him. So Noah worked with God. In the Lord’s recovery we are co-workers with God. What God is interested in, we are too. We have a common interest with God. Today the Lord is also building up an ark, the church life. God wants to build up the ark for His testimony. He would not do it by Himself directly. He would only build up the ark through the persons who are His co-workers. The co-workers of God must be co-walkers. If you do not walk with God, you can never work with God. Are you building up the local church? That is wonderful! But you have to walk with God. Only the co-walkers with God can do God’s work. Noah was such a person. How good it is that Noah was a person who was not only fallen and redeemed, who was not only brought back to God, who not only called on the Lord’s name, who not only lived by Him and walked with Him, but also worked with Him. He had a common interest with God.
Noah was not building something else. He was building the ark. The ark built by Noah was a type, not of a historical Christ, but of a present Christ. It is not a Christ far away from us, but a practical Christ. Today in the Lord’s recovery, we are building up such a Christ. We are building up a practical and present Christ to be a salvation, not only to ourselves, but also to others. The local churches are building up the ark for the salvation of so many others, because we are now in a common interest with God.
What is salvation? It is God’s dispensing in His dispensation. God carries out His dispensation that He might be dispensed into all His people. At least a little bit of the divine nature was dispensed into Adam. More was dispensed into Abel. Still more was dispensed into Enosh and into Enoch. A greater portion was dispensed into Noah so that he could become a co-worker of God. He could have a common interest with God. Are you not today’s Noah? You have to say, Yes! Why? because first you got fallen, and then you got redeemed. Then you got brought back to God, and today you are calling on His name. You also are walking with Him and working with Him. What is your interest today? I have the assurance that deep within you there is the conviction that your interest today is common with God. Your interest is just God’s interest. This is why you would forget about so many other things except the church life. You love the church life because God is for the church, and the church is God’s interest. You are one with God, so His interest is your interest. This means you are today’s Noah. Eventually Noah with his entire family entered into the ark, entered into what he had worked for God and with God (Gen. 7:7) to be kept away from the judgment of death-water. Today we should follow the same steps, not only to work with God, but to enter into what we have worked with God and for God, that we may enjoy the practical and present Christ and be kept away from the judgment of death.