Genesis 5 is a record of the living and begetting of some saved people, but they still lived under the ultimate result of the fall—death. Among these records, we find that one generation escaped death, and that was Enoch. Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and God took him away (Gen. 5:24). The reason that God took Enoch away was that he should not see death (Heb. 11:5). His being kept away from death was God’s ultimate salvation. This is salvation in full.
The way to escape from death was discovered by the seventh generation of mankind. Calling on the name of the Lord was discovered by the third generation, and four generations later, the way to escape the ultimate issue of man’s fall was discovered by the seventh generation, Enoch. Enoch lived in such a way that he was kept from the power of death. Before Enoch was taken up by the Lord and while he was living and walking on earth, death could not kill him. Enoch overcame the killing of death.
Enoch was the first person to be raptured. To be raptured is to be matured in life by walking with God. To walk with God is not to override God, not to be presumptuous, not to do things according to our own concept and desire, nor to do anything without God. To walk with God is to take Him as our center and everything, to do things with Him according to His revelation and leading, and to do everything with Him. It is not only to live for God and to do things for God, but to do things according to God and with God. Enoch walked with God in such a way, living and doing things according to God and with God, not according to his own desire or concept, nor according to the current of the age in which he lived.
Enoch’s being taken away by God did not happen suddenly. He continually walked upward with God until he touched heaven. Enoch walked with God day and night for three centuries, for more than a hundred thousand days. He walked with God day by day, becoming a little closer to God each day. At the age of three hundred sixty-five, as he was nearly touching heaven, he was taken away by God.
Man went from Adam to Abel and from Abel to Enosh, then he began to call on the name of the Lord to enjoy all His riches. Then in Enoch we see a man who walked with God. In Genesis 6 we see that Noah certainly was saved, pleased God, called on God, and enjoyed all that He is. In addition to all these positive aspects of the life of the saved ones, Genesis 6 shows us even more items.
Genesis 6:9 says that Noah walked with God. Undoubtedly, Noah inherited all the spiritual blessings from his forefathers, such as Adam, Abel, Enosh, and Enoch, and he followed his great grandfather, Enoch, to walk with God in a crooked, perverse, and adulterous generation. Noah stood for a strong continuation of the line of life and, with much development, he carried it on further.
Since Noah had found grace, walked with God by faith, and inherited righteousness, God was very happy with him, so He opened Himself to him, telling him to build the ark (Gen. 6:13-14). Thus, Noah was not only one who walked with God, but also the one who built the ark. The ark was for salvation. At that time, the ark of salvation was built up by Noah. Abel offered gifts to God, Enosh called on God, Enoch walked with God, but Noah, in addition to doing all of these things, did something more—he built the ark.
Noah’s life and work were not simply a matter of walking with God or of building the ark, but also one of changing that age. Satan had corrupted that age to the uttermost, and even God repented that He had made man on earth. But Noah found grace. Noah’s life was a life that changed the age. If we want to understand that Noah’s life was a life that changed the age, we must see God’s economy and purpose when God first created man.
There is a great contrast between Genesis 1 and 6. If you read the latter part of Genesis 1, you will see that God created man in His own image for the purpose of expressing Himself (1:26). God intended that man be His expression. Man was like a photograph, made in the image of God to express God. Furthermore, man was also committed with God’s authority that he might exercise this authority for God’s dominion on earth. Man was entrusted with God’s authority that he might represent God and set up a dominion on earth over all God’s creatures.
After God created man, He said, “Very good” (Gen. 1:31). On the second day of His work, God did not say anything, because on that day there were fallen angels in the air and demons in the water. It was impossible for God to say, “Good,” on that day. In the other days, God simply said, “Good.” Only on the sixth day, the day in which God created man, God looked at His work, especially on man, and said, “Very good!” In God’s eyes, man was very good.
In Genesis 6, God took another look at mankind. When God had His first look at mankind in Genesis 1, man was very good. But when God had another look at man in Genesis 6, He saw that man had become wicked and corrupt to the uttermost, and it grieved Him that He had made man. What a change from Genesis 1! Originally, man was on such a high level; but beginning from chapter three, he descended lower and lower. God is not a temporary God, but an eternal God. In Him there is no shadow of change (James 1:17). Once He makes a decision, it stands for eternity.
Let us read Genesis 6:5-7: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” If that had been all, there would have been no hope. But verse 8 says, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” This is one of the greatest verses in the book of Genesis. Satan was glad to hear that God was going to destroy man from the face of the earth, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That turned the situation and changed the age. God was not defeated! In the midst of apparent defeat, there was victory through a man who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That was the turning point. If you read history along with the Bible, you will see that in every generation, when Satan has done his best to damage the situation to the uttermost, there has always been one man or a few people who found grace in the eyes of God and who became the ones who turned the age. In Genesis 6:8 it says, “But Noah.” At the bottom of man’s fall, there is always a “but.” When man had fallen to the bottom, Noah was used by God to change the age.
From Adam to Noah, the Bible gives us an illustration or portrait of God’s redemption, of the way God wants His redeemed people to follow Him and of the work they should do. In Adam we see an illustration of God’s redemption. In Abel we see an illustration of God’s way of salvation—being acceptable to God by relying on the shedding of the blood of the sacrifices. In Enosh we see an illustration of man’s need for God and man’s calling on God to enjoy God’s riches. In Enoch we have a portrait of a person who is redeemed and walks on the way of redemption. We see how he walks with God to be raptured and escape death. In Noah we see a person who walks with God, and we see how he works with God to meet the need of the age, thus being saved to enter into a new age. He was a person used by God to turn the age.