“HE WILL TAKE ME TO HIMSELF”
“God will redeem me from the realm of the dead;
He will surely take me to Himself “
(Psalm 49:15, NIV).
ONE Of the most striking verses in the entire Bible is found in Genesis 5, which states, “Enoch walked with God, and then he disappeared because God took him away” (verse 24, NET). As W. R. Bowie said, “the description of Enoch’s life shines like a single brilliant star above the earthy record of this chapter»* There are some interesting details about Enoch; for instance, the fact that he was the seventh patriarch starting from Adam (see Judas 1:14); or that his life was shorter than that of all the other pre-Flood patriarchs, because he only lived three hundred sixty-five years (see Genesis 5:23). Furthermore, every patriarch’s earthly experience ends with the refrain “and he died;” but when we get to Enoch, the sequence is broken and it is said that God «took him away.» Instead of dying, Enoch” was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death” (Hebrews 11:5, NIV).
Why? Because he walked with God.
What does it mean to walk with God? According to Deuteronomy 13:4,” walking after the Lord our God” means keeping His commandments, obeying His voice, and faithfully serving Him. No wonder the Christian religion was simply called “the Way» (Acts 19:9) at first, because all those who, like Enoch, have turned their life into a constant walk with their heavenly Father are in that Way.
According to an apocryphal book, Jewish tradition remembers Enoch as someone who «pleased the Lord, … being an example of repentance to all generations» (Sirach 44:16).
Walking with God means living in harmony with His will.
What will happen when our lives are in harmony with God? God will take us to be with Him, just as He took Enoch. The phrase “took him,» lāgah is the same verb the Bible uses to describe the moment when the Lord took Elijah to heaven (see 2 Kings 2:3, 10, 11). You might think only Enoch and Elijah had that privilege, but in Psalm 49:15, we read, «God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; He will surely take me (lāgah) to Himself“ (NIV). Death has no permanent power over those who walk with God.
God has promised to take us with Him. Would you like to be in that group? Then I invite you to do as Enoch did: walk with God.
” W. R. Bowie, The Interpreter’s Bible, ed. Nolan B. Harmon (Nashville. Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1980), vol. 1, p. 530.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Avineyda Hernandez