40
Spiritual Gifts, Volume 3
his countenance while instructing those who would hear his words
of wisdom. His heavenly and dignified appearance struck the people
with awe. The Lord loved Enoch because he steadfastly followed him,
and abhorred iniquity, and earnestly sought heavenly knowledge that
he might do his will perfectly. He yearned to unite himself still more
closely to God, whom he feared, reverenced, and adored. God would
not permit Enoch to die as other men, but sent his angels to take him to
Heaven without seeing death. In the presence of the righteous and the
wicked, Enoch was removed from them. Those who loved him thought
that God might have left him in some of his places of retirement; but
after seeking him diligently, and being unable to find him, reported
that he was not, for God took him.
The Lord here teaches a lesson of the greatest importance by the
translation of Enoch, a descendant of fallen Adam, that all would
be rewarded, who by faith would rely upon the promised Sacrifice,
and faithfully obey his commandments. Two classes are here again
represented which were to exist till the second coming of Christ—
the righteous and the wicked, the rebellious and the loyal. God will
[58]
remember the righteous, who fear him. On account of his dear Son he
will respect and honor them, and give them everlasting life. But the
wicked, who trample upon his authority, he will cut off and destroy
from the earth, and they will be as though they had not been.
After Adam’s fall from a state of perfect happiness to a state of
misery and sin, there was danger of man’s becoming discouraged,
and inquiring, “What profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and
walked mournfully before the Lord,” since a heavy curse is resting
upon the human race, and death is the portion of us all? But the in-
structions which God gave to Adam, and which were repeated by Seth,
and fully exemplified by Enoch, cleared away the darkness and gloom,
and gave hope to man, that as through Adam came death, through
Jesus, the promised Redeemer, would come life and immortality.
In the case of Enoch the desponding faithful were taught that
although living among a corrupt and sinful people, who were in open
and daring rebellion against God, their Creator, yet if they would
obey him, and have faith in the promised Redeemer, they could work
righteousness like the faithful Enoch, be accepted of God, and finally
exalted to his heavenly throne.