By Angela C.
Hebrews 11:6 – Without Faith it is impossible to please God.
This morning I was reading the account of Enoch. Enoch was the man who was so pleasing to God that scripture says “God took him”. Enoch Gen.5:24
Yes, God took him. Took him where? God actually took Enoch out of this life without Enoch tasting death. God took Enoch straight to Heaven. Can you even imagine that? Imagine one day being here, and the next day NOT being here. Imagine God being so pleased with you that he decided you didn’t have to go through death? Not even Noah, Abraham or Moses was blessed in that way. I wonder what it was that God was so pleased with. We may never know (until eternity) the whole story, but we can learn from scripture what is pleasing to God, or put another way, what it is that gives God pleasure.
From my study this morning I am reminded that we can all know without a shadow of a doubt what gives God pleasure. That thing is Faith. But Faith in what? For our time, of course, it is faith in his son, Jesus the Christ, and believing and fully trusting in not our own works, but his “finished” work on the cross. So for the time when Enoch walked the earth, it was also Faith. It seems to me that during his lifetime, Enoch simply loved God and obviously adored him, worshiped him and obeyed whatever light God gave him. It must have been that Enoch’s singular desire was to seek God. Hebrews 11:6 says that … without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
I believe that the reason Enoch was so pleasing to God is that he gave his whole heart to God. We know from scripture that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God“, and therefore we know that Enoch had no less temptations or struggles in the flesh than we do. Something must have taken place in Enoch’s heart that caused a moral change in his life (1). Somehow, even before the law was given Enoch fell in love with God, wanted to please God and placed his whole heart in God’s hands.
Patrick Henry Reardon (2) (touchstone ministries) writes: Living before both Noah and Moses, Enoch was participant in neither of the covenants associated with these men. Not a single line of Holy Scripture was yet written for him to read. Much less did Enoch ever hear the message of salvation preached by the apostles. Yet, he was so pleasing to God by his faith as to be snatched away before his time, not suffering that common lot of death from which the Almighty spared not even his own Son.
What, exactly, did Enoch believe, then, that he should be such a champion of faith for the Church until the end of time? The Epistle to the Hebrews explains: “But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him” (11:6). This was the sum total of all that Enoch’s faith told him—God’s existence and his own duty to seek God to obtain the singular blessing that Holy Scripture ascribes to him.
And so today, once again I am reminded of the warning we find in Hebrews . . . warnings about ignoring salvation, warnings to believe in the TRUE God. (3) Bruce writes that it is not belief in the existence of a God that is meant, but belief in the existence of the God who once declared his will to the fathers through the prophets and in these last days has spoken by his Son. (Heb.1:1,2).
Therefore, in these last days the “way” to be pleasing to God is to give evidence that we believe God’s word is true. To give evidence and testimony about his son, Jesus. To “consider our ways” as Haggai the prophet has written. (Haggai 1:5) God indubitably wants our obedience as an outward evidence of our inward faith.
Today, I believe I have my answer as to why God was so pleased with Enoch. Enoch believed that God existed, he was a lover of God and a seeker of God. Enoch’s faith was rewarded with his translation from this earth to Heaven. As far as I know, God has never repeated for any other person what he did for Enoch. I don’t know, but perhaps it was God’s way to showcase an unforgettable lesson for us about true faith.
So . . . I have to ask myself:
- How am I pleasing to God?
- What proof could I give as evidence to that end?
- What is my faith based on?
- Do I think I can be pleasing to God and go to heaven apart from a faith in Jesus?
- Is my faith based on what I “do” or rather a sound and firm conviction that Jesus paid it all?
Enoch’s life is a powerful reminder to us of what truly pleases God, and a wonderful way to usher in the Holiday Season . . .
… For “wise men still seek him”.
(1) (pg.285) Bruce.
(2) Web. Reardon
(3) (pg.286) Bruce.