Hebrews 11:5

Heb_11:5

Enoch was translated.

Enoch:

I. A CAREER DISTINGUISHED FOR ITS GODLINESS. Walked with God. His life was an embodiment of the Divine.

1. Devoted to God.

(1) Intimately acquainted with God.

(2) In constant fellowship with God.

(3) Full of confidence in God.

(4) Engaged in active service for God.

2. Satisfactory to God.

3. Commended by God.

II. A CAREER REMARKABLE IN ITS TERMINATION. Translated.

1. Exempted from the great trial of life. He was too full of the living God to die.

(1) A special honour for his extraordinary holiness.

(2) An intimation how all might have been taken out of the world, had there been no sin.

(3) A prophecy of victory over death for all the good at the resurrection.

2. Removed from the world in a unique manner.

(1) Pleasant.

(2) Mysterious.

(3) Final.

(4) Suggestive. Proving

(a) That there is a future state.

(b) That the body and soul exist hereafter.

(c) That the departed good dwell with God for ever. (B. D. Johns.)

Enoch, one of the worlds great teachers

1. It is strange that so little is said about Enoch.

2. The comparative shortness of his stay upon earth.

3. The manifest singularity of the life he lived.

I. HE TAUGHT THE WORLD BY HIS LIFE.

1. He walked with God. This implies

(1) An abiding consciousness of the Divine presence.

(2) Cordial fellowship.

(3) Spiritual progress.

2. He pleased God. As the loadstar seems to beam more brilliantly in the firmament the darker grow the clouds that float about it, so Enochs life must have been a luminous power in his age of black depravity.

II. HE TAUGHT THE WORLD BY HIS TRANSLATION

1. That death is not a necessity of human nature.

2. That there is a sphere of human existence beyond this.

3. That there is a God in the universe who approves of goodness.

4. That the mastering of sin is the way to a grand destiny.

III. HE TAUGHT THE WORLD BY HIS PREACHING.

1. The advent of the Judge.

2. The gathering of the saints.

3. The conviction of sinners. (Homilist.)

Faith the secret of holy life and triumphant death

I. THE FAITH BY WHICH THIS HOLY LIFE WAS MAINTAINED.

1. It was a belief in the nature of God. Enoch believed Him to be real, with a belief which reverenced, obeyed, trusted, loved Him.

2. It was also a belief in Gods gifts to all who seek them.

II. THE HOLY LIFE WHICH RESULTED FROM THIS FAITH.

1. Faith led him to please God.

2. This pleasing God was accompanied with the testimony that he pleased Him.

3. This testimony enabled him to walk with God.

III. THE TRIUMPHANT DEATH WHICH RESULTED FROM THIS HOLY LIFE.

1. This death is promised to faith.

2. It is the natural consequence of a holy life.

3. It is assured by the Divine love to those who please God. (C. New.)

Gods testimony to the faith of Enoch:

I. By WHAT AGENCY THIS STATE OF EXISTENCE IS SECURED. It must always be regarded as of the first consequence to ascertain the sources of human characters and human habits, and to what supports they are indebted for their permanence. For many purposes it is important to ascertain and to acquire information with respect to what we may call the secondary virtues of man--that is, those virtues which do not affect his relation towards God; but infinitely more important respecting those dispositions of mind which tend towards futurity. It is, then, above all things important to know how men are led to please God.

1. And here, it must be observed, that men never attain to the state of existence which is now to be described, whilst they are left to the ordinary operation of their own faculties, and governed by the ordinary impulses of their own passions and desires. While men remain in their original condition, under the government of the primitive tendencies of their nature, they are in fact the uniform and positive objects of Divine disapprobation.

2. This fact having been established, we are prepared to advert to a corresponding fact, which may also be scripturally established, namely, that men are brought into a state of existence that is pleasing to God, they are placed in it, and continued in it, solely and entirely by the exertion of the power of the Spirit of God Himself.

II. BY WHAT CHARACTERISTICS THIS STATE OF EXISTENCE IS DISTINGUISHED.

1. It comprehends faith in the Divine testimony. Faith has a peculiar connection with the approbation of God, in consequence of its being the ordained means of imputing to man the merit of a justifying righteousness, that in itself is sufficient to secure his final acceptance as the Judge of the universe.

2. This state of existence also comprehends obedience to the Divine commandments. It cannot be justly questioned by any one that the pleasure of God in man is connected with the conformity of man in heart and in life to the laws of God. The Being who, by the necessity of His moral nature, abhors iniquity, by the same necessity of His moral nature must delight in holiness. But one thing must be remarked by the way of caution. God is not pleased with mens holiness because there is anything of original or independent merit in it; He is pleased with it because He contemplates in it His own work; just as He was pleased when, after the Creation, He is said to have looked on it, and pronounced that it was all very good: He is pleased with it, because it sheds His own lustre, and reflects back the beauty of His own perfections: He is pleased with it, because it advances the revenue of His glory, because it secures the happiness of those in whom it dwells.

3. This state of existence comprehends gratitude for the Divine goodness. The offering of praise by believing men to God cannot but be pleasing in His sight; it is so with the gratitude which is offered in heaven, and At cannot but be so with the gratitude offered on earth.

III. BY WHAT ADVANTAGES THIS STATE OF EXISTENCE IS COMMENDED.

1. Those who exist in a state that is pleasing to God are privileged with near and intimate communion with God.

2. Those who exist in this state possess also the consolations and supports of God in all times of difficulty and of danger.

3. Those who exist in the state which is now described have the security of eternal and perfect happiness in heaven. Pleasing God has an especial connection with the joy of God. (J. Parsons.)

Enochs translation

I. THAT THE END AND THE GREAT PRIVILEGE OF FAITH IS TO BE TRANSLATED OUT OF THE WORLD INTO THE HAPPINESS OF THE ETERNAL STATE.

1. I shall prove the point by Scripture: Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1Pe_1:9). Heaven is there proposed as the chief reward of faith; all that we do, all that we suffer, all that we believe, it is with an aim at the hope of the salvation of our souls. The last article of our creed is everlasting life.

2. I shall by a few reasons prove the interest of believers in eternal life, and why faith gives a title to glory.

(1) Because by faith we are made sons; all our right and title is by adoption. Children may expect a childs portion.

(2) These are the terms of the eternal covenant between God and Christ, that believers should have a right to heaven by Christs death; therefore, whenever the Fathers love and Christs purchase are mentioned, faith is the solemn condition.

(3) Because faith is the mother of obedience, which is the way to eternal life; faith gives a title, and works give an evidence.

(4) By faith that life is begun which shall only be consummated and perfected in glory. The life of glory and the life of grace are the same in substance, but not in degree. Here faith takes Christ, and then life is begun, though in glory it is perfected (1Jn_5:12).

Use 1. To press you to get faith upon this ground and motive, it will give you an interest in heaven.

Use 2. It serves to direct you how to exercise and act faith in order to the everlasting state. Five duties believers must perform.

(1) The first work and foundation of all is to accept of Christ in the offers of the gospel; there is the foundation of a glorious estate.

(2) It directs you to exercise your faith to believe the promise of heaven which God hath made.

(3) Get your own title confirmed; lay claim to your inheritance.

(4) Let us often renew our hopes by serious and distinct thoughts. This is the way to anticipate heaven, by musing upon it (Heb_11:1).

(5) Another work of faith is earnestly to desire and long after the full accomplishment of glory. Faith bewrayeth itself by desires as well as thoughts. All things hasten to their centre.

Use 3. To exalt the mercy of God to believers; once sinners, and by grace made believers. Observe the wonderful love and grace of God in three steps

(1) That He hath provided such an estate for believers. What a miracle of mercy is this that God should think of taking poor despicable dust and ashes, and planting them in the upper paradise, that they should be carried into heaven and made companions of the angels.

(2) That this state is provided freely, and upon such gracious terms.

(3) That God should send up and down the world to offer this salvation to men.

Use 4. Comfort to Gods children against wants, and against troubles and persecutions, and against death itself.

II. THOSE THAT WOULD LIVE WITH GOD HEREAFTER MUST LEARN TO PLEASE GOD ERE THEY DEPART HENCE.

1. What it is to please God. It implies both coming to God, and walking with God.

2. The necessity of pleasing God.

(1) Because this is the means and condition without which we shall never come to enjoy God; it is the way to fit the sons of God for glory, though not the cause of glory (Heb_12:14).

(2) There is a necessity of it by way of sign, and as a pledge of our living with God hereafter--Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

(3) It is necessary by way of preparation. Those that walk with God are meet to live with God; they change their place, but not their company; here they walk with God, and there they live with Him for ever.

3. The necessity of pleasing God in the present life--For before his translation, it is said, he had this testimony, that he pleased God. There is a time for all things, and the time of pleasing God is in the present life.

(1) Because this is the time of grace. Here we are invited to walk with God: now we have the means, then we have the recompenses; here Christ Mat_11:28).

(2) This is the time of our exercise and trial.

4. The sooner we begin the better.

(1) Because you make a necessary work sure, and put it out of doubt and hazard. The time of this life is uncertain (Jam_4:14).

(2) In point of obedience, God presseth to now. God doth not only command us to please Him, but to do it presently (Heb_3:7-8). It were just with God, if you refuse Him, never to call you more.

(3) In point of ingenuity. We receive a plenteous recompense for a small service. When a man thinketh what God hath provided for them that love Him and serve Him, he should be ashamed that he should receive so much and do so little; and therefore he should redeem all the time that he can, that he may answer his expectations from God.

(4) It is our advantage to begin betimes, both here and hereafter.

(a) Here. The sooner you begin to please God, the sooner you have an evidence of your interest in His favour, more experience of His love, more hopes of being with Him in heaven; and these are not slight things.

(b) The sooner you begin with God, the greater will your glory be hereafter; for the more we improve our talents here, the greater will be our reward in heaven (Luk_19:16-19).

Use 1. If there be such a necessity of pleasing God, and giving up ourselves to the severities of religion, then it serves for reproof of divers sorts of persons; as

(1) Those that, though they live as they list, as if they were sent into the world for no other purpose but to gratify their carnal desires, yet lay as bold a claim and title to heaven as the best; they doubt not but glory belongs to them, though they cannot make good their title.

(2) It reproves them that think that every slight profession of the name of God will serve the turn; no, you must walk with God and please God.

(3) It reproves those that would please God, but with a limitation and reservation so far as they may not displease men or displease the flesh.

(4) It reproves those that adjourn and put off the work of religion from time to time, till they have lost all time; that use to put off God to the troubles of sickness or the aches of old age.

Use 2. If there be no hope of living with God without pleasing God, oh, then make it the aim and scope of your lives to please the Lord!

(1) Look to the commandments as your rule (Mic_6:8).

(2) Let the promises of God be your encouragement.

(3) You should make the glory of God your chiefest end, or you will be very irregular, and cannot keep pace with God in a constant course of duty. Look, as a man that hath a nail in his foot may walk in soft ground, but when he comes to hard ground he is soon turned out of the way, so when a man hath a perverse aim, he will soon be discouraged with the inconveniences that will trouble him in religion. The spiritual life is called a living to God (Gal_2:19). The end must be right, otherwise the conversation will be but a vain pretence, that will please men but not God Pro_16:2). (T. Manton, D. D.)

Faith exceptionally rewarded

I. WHATEVER BE THE OUTWARD DIFFERENT EVENTS OF FAITH IN BELIEVERS IN THIS WORLD, THEY ARE ALL ALIKE ACCEPTED WITH GOD, approved by Him, and shall all equally enjoy the eternal inheritance.

II. GOD CAN AND DOTH PUT A GREAT DIFFERENCE AS UNTO OUTWARD THINGS, BETWEEN SUCH AS ARE EQUALLY ACCEPTED BEFORE HIM. Abel shall die, and Enoch shall be taken alive into heaven.

III. THERE IS NO SUCH ACCEPTABLE SERVICE UNTO GOD, NONE THAT HE HATH SET SUCH SIGNAL PLEDGES OF HIS FAVOUR UPON, AS ZEALOUSLY TO CONTEND AGAINST THE WORLD IN GIVING WITNESS TO HIS WAYS, HIS WORSHIP, AND HIS KINGDOM, OR THE RULE OF CHRIST OVER ALL.

IV. IT IS A PART OF OUR TESTIMONY TO DECLARE AND WITNESS THAT VENGEANCE IS PREPARED FOR UNGODLY PERSECUTORS and all sorts of impenitent sinners, however they are and may be provoked thereby.

V. The principal part of this testimony CONSISTS IN OUR OWN PERSONAL OBEDIENCE, OR VISIBLE WALKING WITH GOD IN HOLY OBEDIENCE, according to the tenor of the covenant (2Pe_3:11; 2Pe_3:14).

VI. As it is an effect of the wisdom of God to dispose the works of His providence, and the accomplishment of His promises, according to an ordinary established rule declared in His Word, which is the only guide of faith; so SOMETIMES IT PLEASES HIM TO GIVE EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCES IN EACH KIND, BOTH IN A WAY OF JUDGMENT AND IN A WAY OF GRACE AND FAVOUR. Of the latter sort was the taking of Enoch into heaven; and of the former was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire from heaven. Such extraordinary acts, either the wicked security of the world, or the edification of the Church, do sometimes make necessary.

VII. FAITH IN GOD THROUGH CHRIST HATH AN EFFICACY IN THE PROCURING OF SUCH GRACE, MERCY, AND FAVOUR IN PARTICULAR, AS IT HATH NO GROUND IN PARTICULAR TO BELIEVE. Enoch was translated by faith; yet did not Enoch believe he should be translated, until he had a particular revelation of it. So there are many particular mercies which faith hath no word of promise to mix itself withal, as unto their actual communication unto us; but yet keeping itself within its bounds of reliance on God, and acting by patience and prayer, it may be, and is, instrumental in the procurement of them.

VIII. THEY MUST WALK WITH GOD HERE WHO DESIGN TO LIVE WITH HIM HEREAFTER; or they must please God in this world who would be blessed with Him in another.

IX. THAT FAITH WHICH CAN TRANSLATE A MAN OUT OF THIS WOULD, CARRY HIM THROUGH THE DIFFICULTIES WHICH HE MAY MEET WITHAL, IN THE PROFESSION OR FAITH AND OBEDIENCE IN THIS WORLD. Herein lies the apostles argument. And this latter the Lord Jesus Christ hath determined to be the lot and portion of His disciples. So He testifies (Joh_17:15). (John Owen, D. D.)

The translation of Enoch:

After the testimony borne to the life of Enoch, his translation scarcely surprises us. We almost look for some such apotheosis of his exalted virtues. Already he has more of the celestial than the earthly in his character; and is more fit to be the companion of angels than to associate with an apostate race. Even the outer nature has experienced the transforming influence of a long course of faith and devotion. Refined and purified beyond the ordinary state of a mortal body, we can conceive of it as fitly entering on immortality without undergoing the purification which death effects. Through a less trying ordeal it may soar to its place among the sons of God; and our moral sense is not shocked when such a superhuman reward is granted to one possessed of such superhuman excellence. Heaven must attract towards itself that which so much resembles itself. And what if the attraction be so strong, that the process of dying and the long waiting for the resurrection be dispensed with, and Heaven at once takes to itself that which is so manifestly its own? Although permitted to enter heaven by a path different from that which ordinary mortals tread, his body would no doubt undergo the change necessary to fit it for the kingdom into which flesh and blood cannot enter--a change in all probability similar to that which takes place in the bodiesof the saints who are alive at the coming of the Lord. We have no account of how or where Enochs translation took place. Perhaps it was promised before as the reward of his holiness, and that his faith in the promise might sustain him under his trials. In that case it would be a long-expected, much desired event. Or, perhaps, it was unexpected, and he was ignorant of what was taking place until the glories of heaven burst upon his view. But the conjecture most pleasing to us is that it was while he was entranced in devotion. When his soul left the world for awhile and soared upward to hold intercourse with God, when loth to disturb the vision and return to battle with the cares, and to be pained with the wickedness of the world, his body rises too, caught up by an invisible power, changing as it ascends, until it becomes pure as the home to which it hastens. Whether it came thus, or otherwise, is of small consequence. Come when and how it might, the transition must have been unspeakably glorious. His translation must have been designed to serve some important purposes. To him it was at once a dispensation of mercy and a mark of honour. A dispensation of mercy, because it severed him from the scenes of wickedness, which had vexed his righteous soul. God took him: properly, took him away. Away from the society of ungodly men, from their taunts and persecutions. Away from the wickedness over which he mourned. Away from the privations of this wilderness state. Away from the many ills to which flesh is heir, and the peculiar troubles which afflict the just. God had tested the fidelity of His servant. He took him away to be with Himself, and the weary one had rest. A mark of honour--for had not God sought to honour him, He might have removed him from all occasions of suffering in the ordinary way. To his neighbours his translation was a testimony to the truth of his prophecy. That prophecy (Jud_1:14-15) was addressed, without doubt, to the ungodly men of his own generation, and predicted the punishment which awaited them because of their ungodliness. And when even this terrible prediction failed to check them in their downward career, how fitted was his translation to make them pause and consider. From the apostles words he was not found, we suppose that the event was known, as if he had been missed by the men of his neigh-bourhood from his accustomed haunts. Doubtless there were eye-witnesses of the event, by whom the manner of his removal would be made public. And thus his absence would be a standing testimony to the truth of his prediction. Most forcibly would it say--Death is not the end of man; for Enoch, though not dead, has departed. As regards ourselves it is fitted most powerfully to commend to us the principle which produced in him such remarkable results. His character was a noble testimony to the power of faith; but his translation shows more impressively what wonders faith can achieve. See in this mighty work the evidence and illustration of the truth that all things are possible to him that believeth. And remember that a faith like Enochs can only be acquired through fellowship with God. While there must be faith in order to fellowship, fellowship fosters and strengthens faith. (W. Landels, D. D.)

The translation of Enoch

Did you ever witness the transit of a planet across the disc of the sun? Ah! but the transit of a soul from truth to truth, by what glass shall we notice that? By what glass shall we tell how the mind marches in its orb--how the spirit advances in its sphere? By what chronology shall we estimate the translation of the soul? But here we have that wonderful fact in the history of man--the history of a souls translation. On this world God will never allow His children to be found longer than they can be useful, either for His glory or their own growth. Even on earth, amidst all the blunders of our most imperfect sociology, what the man is after his translation, is, in more sensible circles, to be inferred from what he was before. There is a young man in my chapel who, to-morrow, will vacate an old inferior seat, held for many years at his desk, and mount to that envied and coveted place--first in the office; second only to that confidential post in the second room. Yesterday, in the office of the principal of the firm, his vigilance, his conscientiousness, his disposition, were all subjects of praise; and before this translation he has had this testimony--that he has pleased his employer. Among the long dun wolds of Kent there was great and unusual merry-making, on the farm of Henry Gibbons, this Christmas; for, although he was leaving his farm of one hundred and fifty acres, he was going to one of five hundred acres. To him, six months since, said his landlord, Henry, you know at Christmas the farm of Beechy Hollow will be vacant, and I love that farm. I was born and brought up there, and I must have somebody there I can trust. Now, that farm you shall have, for I can trust you. Thus in all the translations that are exemplary on earth, and which are removed from the influences of corruption and error, in every state of the advance the progressive spirit has this testimony--that he has pleased before his translation. What right have we to expect a higher rank before we have filled our present duty? You covet more. You have, I assure you, as much honour as you can bear. You have as many duties as you can fulfil. Believe me, there is an exact relation between your power of profitable possession and your power of expenditure. He had this testimony, that he pleased God. It was the testimony of faith. By faith Enoch was translated. In the scale of greatness, by which we rise to please God, the first place is assigned to faith, because it interprets the life; amidst abounding iniquity and hardness of heart, he yielded himself to God, to Gods pleasure and will. He pleased God. He walked with God. By this sublime phrase, I believe something more is intended than we can understand. Amidst the sublime scenes of those primeval woods and vales, what secret communings he held! There were then few illustrious progenitors: kings, statesmen, seers, and poets--he could not walk with those; he could only walk with God, With him now, the simple, poor man, to whom the Bible unfolds its treasures and prayer its armoury, and meditation its sacred refectory, and paradise its distant gleaming palace--with him may this man compare. Like Enoch, he walks alone with God in his simplicity and holy dignity. He pleased God--he was a preacher of righteousness, and part of his sermon has come down even to our own age. Very dreadful are the words of a man who comes from intimate fellowship with Divine holiness, to pour his pathos and his pity and his indignation over a lost world. Like Jonathan Edwards, a soul--a pity--a heart of holiness--a hermit existence--and a speech of fire. And then God took him--after three hundred and sixty-five years had been given to him, God took him; to show to the ungodly world that he was not limited to the ordinary operations of the laws of Nature, and to proclaim to the race of giants, the children of Cain, His authentication of His servants life--He translated him. (E. P. Hood.)

Walking up to our ascension

There may be a little difficulty in seeing how the translation, or ascension of Enoch, was the result of Enochs faith. Did he believe in an ascension? and was it given to his trust and expectation of that very thing? Where did he learn it? Yet, by faith Enoch was translated. We must enlarge the question. It is not always necessary, in order to secure a blessing, that we have a faith in that particular gift. No doubt a special faith, in a special thing, is often given and sometimes required. But faith goes to a certain level, while God goes far beyond the level of the faith. And it is a comfort to know that a general trust in God commands and secures individual mercies. You east yourself universally upon Gods faithfulness: and, beyond a doubt, God will fill in the details, which you never thought of, and which details He sees that you want. And death is a solemn thing. Death may be bitter, even to a child of God! Else, it would not have been said, as a part of the mercy, to Enoch, that he was ,, translated that he should not see death. Nor would it be made the running over of the cup of Jesuss sorrow, that He tasted death for every man. Nevertheless, if it please my heavenly Father to order otherwise, and that I should pass through my grave and gate of death to my body, it will be all well! There is no danger! there is nothing to fear! no real solitude! but only just enough to draw out my Saviours love! It very little matters whence I ascend, or how: I only care for the whither. But who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Pray for the gift of the faith in your ascension. See the degrees of faith as they are laid out in the opening of this chapter of faiths triumphs. The understanding faith in the Omnipotence of creation (Heb_11:3). Then the justifying faith in sacrifice (Heb_11:4). And then, in the third degree, translating faith--the faith of glory (Heb_11:5). Walk the walk of faith higher and higher--above the things that are seen. Walk, as Enoch walked--walk, as Elijah walked--walk, as Jesus walked--walk up to your ascension! (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Enoch opposing the current opinions of the day:

The mare and grand distraction between the child of God and the servant of sin is, that the one lives by faith and the other by sight.

1. A man is sometimes dishonest because the object which he sees engrosses his attention beyond the fear of punishment, which is a matter of faith; and he defrauds or steals. Again, in their judgments men of sin act by sight, not by faith, though men who do these things are compelled sometimes to declare them wrong, and to pronounce a judgment against their actions. They settle those things to be sins which appear to do the most immediate harm, and those to be less sins, or none at all, which do not cause so much immediate perceptible harm. Again, in their religion men of sin act on sight, and men of God on faith. See the worldly man in his religion, as he calls it. It is all the sight parts of religion, none of the faith parts.

(1) They come to church, that is something to be felt. There is the doing something that worse people do not do; therefore they hope by the irksomeness of the act to clear away some sins; they can realise the religion of that.

(2) They read the Bible sometimes; there is a little trouble in that, and it is something they can lay hold of.

(3) They give money in aims; this is something seen and felt; they are doing something more than others.

(4) They speak respectfully of the Church of the land and the ministers of the Church, because there is something easy in it, and by doing so they throw a garb of devotion over themselves, which they see many others have not got. So much is their religion, and here it ends. Men of sin act on sight, not on faith; they are only religious when they see and feel the good of it. Now turn to the religious man influenced by faith.

1. He judges sin by the law of God; he knows coveting is as bad as stealing, because it leads to it; and he knows God condemns the evil thought as well as the evil action.

2. In his duties he acts on faith. He foregoes the indulgence of angry passion, remembering the greater happiness and peace of a loving spirit and the favour of the Saviour who has declared the peacemaker blessed.

3. Above all, in his religion behold the man of faith. What he does is not to be seen of men, but of his Father in heaven, who shall reward him openly.

I. The 11th chapter of Hebrews is, as it were, a bright roll, unfolding to us the men who, in days gone by, have lived by faith and not by sight; they shine like fixed stars in the dark expanse of human life. Let us contemplate the character of Enoch, as showing forth a character influenced by faith, and behold in him another fruit of faith.

1. It seems to mean he knew God, had a just knowledge of God.

2. But it seems to mean, too, that he was intimate and familiar with God.

3. And again, he pleased God. His religion was not only feeling, taken up to-day, put down to-morrow; his religion influenced his practice, altered his conduct, helped him to stand forth the bold supporter of truth in the midst of a wicked generation. Such was his character. Now how was this the result of faith? This character, through a coming Saviour, procured for him translation to glory. He lived above the present world, and apart from the present people, by faith; that is, the tastes, the conversation, the occupation of all around would naturally have made his mind the same with theirs, had it not been for the exercise of the principle of faith. This was Enochs character, and this is the way it was affected by faith. Now let us apply this to ourselves. The fruit or working of faith, which Enochs character shows, consists in living separate from the opinions and practices of the day we live in, and protesting against the errors of that day by word or example; and this by faith.

But, in matters of practice, there are false opinions about in the world, which are against Gods revealed Word, and which consequently are to be rebuked and opposed by the man of faith.

1. Men tell us all devotion is enthusiasm. If a man spend much time in prayer; if a man give up the worlds society; if he be cheerful under affliction; if he have his happiness fixed in another world, not this, the world calls him an enthusiast pursuing a phantom, a dreamer, wholly mistaken as to what religion is, not a soberminded man. Now what does the man of faith answer? what does Enoch answer to the false report of an undiscriminating world? Behold the man of faith. He reads such passages as these, He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

2. But again, it is a prevailing error of the day that men need not give up the world; that the doing so is gloomy, melancholy and unnecessary. The man who is directed by faith, whose eye is looking for the unseen hereafter, who is not dazzled by the lamps of present pleasure and excitement, answers the erroneous opinion of the world by an appeal to the Bible.

(1) He may demand, What is the world, and what does the Bible mean by the world, if the utmost excess of gaiety--gaiety dissipating devotion, gaiety and pleasure inviting the support of infamous characters, gaiety ruining the health and wasting the time, company where God is never mentioned, where religion is never introduced, and where its introduction would be misplaced--if this is not the world, what is?

(2) He may show that the Bible plainly declares that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

(3) He may show that while such pleasure and such society is given up, we need not be gloomy; far, very far from it. Thus the man influenced by faith may answer and refute, like Enoch, the current opinions of the day, that the world need not be given up, and that those who withdraw from it are morose and gloomy. (E. Monro.)

The man that is missed when he is gone:

The suggestion is very beautiful as to the way in which he was wanted and missed when he was gone. It seems to point to some scene, veiled in one of Gods august silences, when Methuselah and the other sons and daughters found the tent or the chamber empty, sought the saintly father everywhere and found him not--found not even the body--could but infer, till God inspired and wrote it down, that which had happened--namely, that the life was so full of God, the walk with God so close and so intimate, the sight of God by faith so constant and so intuitive, that it had pleased the Divine Companion to make a new thing in the earth, to send down a hand from above and deliver His servant out of the waters of time, from the surrounding of the strange children of an untoward generation, and to carry him by a short and direct passage to the land of an everlasting rest and peace. We who know what one righteous man may be, in a house or in a city--how dear to his own, how necessary to a wider circle, whose counsellor, whose oracle, probity and wisdom and piety have made him--can faintly picture that sorrowful morning, when Enoch was not found, because God had translated him; when the life of that household, that neighbourhood, that country, must henceforth be lived without him--without his help, without his example, without his sympathy, without his prayers. I know not that we ought to desire to be missed when we are gone; but I know that, whether desiring this or no, we ought all so to live as that we shall be wanted when we are not found. There is no replacing, on earth, of the really missed one. That house, that town, that Church must learn to do without him. If the loss really leads any one to inquire into the secret of it--to ask why he was so much to others and to his own--to discover the royal road, which honest prayer is, into the sanctuary which he frequented, and into the companionship which was his strength; then the life, and the translation, will together have explained the mystery of the Divine purpose in ordaining both. (Dean Vaughan.)

Enoch:

He changed his place, but not his company, for he still walked with God, as in earth, so in heaven. (J. Trapp.)

Enochs translation:

Referring to the translation of Enoch, Rev. J. Chalmers, M.A., spoke of the two ways by which men have been taken from this world: the one, the golden bridge of translation, which only a few have been privileged to cross: the other, the dark tunnel of death, by which way the majority have had to go. But whether by the one way or the other, all who walked with God reach their glorious end--are with God. (Kings Highway.)

He pleased God

He pleased God

I. THE NECESSITY FOR PLEASING GOD. There is a God to please--a living God, who takes a continual interest in all human things; who thinks, feels, loves, and is grieved; and whose great endeavour, by all this complicated world-work that He carries on, is to educate human spirits, that they may, like Him, hate the wrong and love the right, and do it. There is a God who is pleased always when the least cause for pleasure is presented to Him. Just as we are glad when a child succeeds in a lesson; when a boy takes a prize; when a young man does some difficult work in a noble way; when a girl is like her mother in goodness; so God is glad when His children do well. All this shows, surely, that there is a necessity for pleasing God; that no man can be right, safe, happy, who does not aim to do this; and, in a measure, succeed in doing it. If God is not pleased with us, we cannot be right. Some say that the attempt to please God is an inferior aim, and that the real end we ought to keep in view is, to be right in everything. Let a man try to be right without any regard to God, and how far will he go? How do we know fully and clearly what is right without Gods gracious information? A little we know by our native moral sense, but for the perfect ideal of goodness we are indebted solely to Him. Therefore we must try to please Him. God, being God, is an infinite, absolute, all-perfect Being; holding in Himself all principles, all relations, all truth, order, and beauty; to please Him must, in the very nature of the case, be to do right.

II. NOW, as to THE METHOD of this; of course I do not pretend to give a full description of the method. That would be to describe the whole Christian life; for all duty, service, and suffering are with a good man parts of the one grand endeavour to please God. But I will say this, that it is not difficult to please God if only we take the right way of it. He is not a hard master. I believe we have no idea how simple, how natural, how human-like in the best sense is the joy of God in the obedience of His children. We have only to attain a simple, purified sincerity as to the motive, and then put a glow into the action, when God, beholding, will say, It is well. I am pleased; pleased with the action--with the worker--above all, because I can now give the reward. But we shall suppose the case of one who has not yet pleased God at all. How must he begin to do Son_7:1-13 I should say that to him the first feeling, if he is now wishing to do the will of God, would be a feeling of regret that he has not done it, a feeling of unfeigned sorrow; in other words, repentance. Then faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as representing the will of the Father, as communicating the Fathers grace, as crucified for our offences, and raised again for our justification. He is the propitiation for our sins, and the rectifier of our lives, and the guide of our steps, Redeemer from sin, and death, and hell. Then, after repentance and faith, there comes the whole process of practical obedience, filial and loving. When the yoke is taken in this spirit, it is easy; when the burden is lifted so, it is light. And life then is simple. It is but to walk with God and please Him so. It is but to see Him where He is; to hear Him when He speaks; but to serve and enjoy Him with a loving heart. That God will be pleased with such a course is just as certain as that a good father or mother will approve a loving obedience in a child. Just as certain as it is that God loves order and beauty, and goodness and truth.

III. THE RESULTS of doing this will be manifold, and very good.

1. We shall in this way please ourselves as we never can do in any other. It is well when a man brings himself up to the bar of his better self. There is something of God in a good man; the enlightened conscience is the echo of the Divine authority and will. A noble ideal is surely to be cherished, a generous purpose is to be held fast, and the soul is to be encouraged in doing this in every possible way. Now there is no way so direct and sufficient as the way of pleasing God; by a loving obedience to Him we reach and please and satisfy our better self.

2. Then, further, if we please God, we shall ourselves have pleasure in life and the world. He can make our enemies to be at peace with us, and He will, if we please Him. In the world we are to have tribulation, and yet we may be of good cheer, for we are victors.

3. Finally, come what may in this life, that always is sure. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. He is the great rewarder even in this life.

Do but a little service heartily to Him, and He will come to you with His rewarding love. You cry in wonder of so much munificence, My cup runneth over. All this will God give into your bosom and pour about your life, even here and now. Then what will He do hereafter to those who love and please Him? Earth does not hold the secret. It is reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

The duty of pleasing God

I. If we ask WHOM WE ARE TO PLEASE, reason, uninstructed by revelation or experience, would immediately say ourselves, or if reason did not say so, feeling would. We accordingly find that man, as soon as he begins to act, acts solely with a view to his own gratification. It would never enter his mind to act otherwise were he left alone. But then none of us are left alone. We are mixed up with our fellow-men, and are trained from our earliest infancy more or less to please them. And these two things, pleasing ourselves and pleasing our fellow-men, we contrive to carry on together. We please the world, and in doing so, we please ourselves, for we gain something that we desire from the world by pleasing it--if nothing more, its good opinion. But God comes in and disturbs all this. Please me, says self. Please me, says the world; and while we are striving to obey both, there is a voice from heaven which says, Neither must be obeyed: you must approve yourselves to Me. There appears before us a third competitor for our powers of pleasing; one of whom we never thought, and to whom not a feeling or principle of our nature inclines us to listen. So perverse are we that we cannot do it. They that are in the flesh, says the Scripture, cannot please God. You see then that we have no merely moral, half-heathen duty before us; it is a Christian duty.

II. How WE ARE TO PLEASE GOD.

1. We must begin with accepting the offers of His grace. We know that in order to please a fellow-creature we must fall in with his disposition and character. If he is a man of a kind disposition, we must on no account repulse his kindness, but yield ourselves up to it, and let him do us all the good he will. Now the great God of heaven is a God of infinite kindness towards us. Here is pardon for you, He says; here is peace; here is My love for you, My presence, My likeness, My joy, My kingdom. Look through My universe--there is everything for you that is worth your having. Now to please Him is to accept these offers. It is to let Him see that we value His kindness and care for His blessings.

2. To please God, we must conform ourselves to His mind and will. And this will show itself by our ceasing to be angry and discontented with His dealings with us; and still more clearly by our efforts to do His will. He pleases God the most who places himself entirely in Gods hands, and who strives the most after the holiness which God loves.

3. To please God we must aim to please Him supremely, far above all. Our first, supreme desire must be to approve ourselves in Gods sight.

III. WHY WE SHOULD THUS SEEK TO PLEASE GOD RATHER THAN ANY ONE ELSE.

1. It is easier to please Him. Only let us once accept the offers of love He has made us in His Son, and we can please Him; anything that we offer will be acceptable in His sight; the mere desire to please will give Him pleasure. Is it difficult for a child to put pleasure into a fathers heart? Does a mother require much from her infant to afford her delight? But what is a fathers or a mothers love to the love of the great God for us? As a shadow to a substance. His mighty love for us then makes it easy for us to please Him. But turn to the world. It is hard work to please that. What a multitude there is in it to gratify! every one wanting to be gratified in his own way, regarding you as nothing but the mere instrument of his pleasure. We may sacrifice ourselves on the worlds altar, but, alas! we shall gain nothing; the greater part of the world will be angry because the sacrifice has not been made for them only or as they would have it made. And then what a weathercock is the mind of man! How light and mutable! What pleases him today, he is tired of to-morrow, and offended with the day after. He who seeks to please God, has only one to please instead of multitudes; and He One who is considerate and merciful, and never requires us to hurt ourselves in order to please Him, and is always of one mind. That which pleases Him once will please Him for ever.

2. It is better to please God than any one else, more for our advantage. Think how little man can do for us, even if he is disposed and continues so, to do his best. Our greatest sorrows he can do little indeed to lighten, and our heaviest wants he car do nothing at all to supply. We cling to him as though he were all in all to us; an hour will come when we shall feet him to be a shadow. But think what God is. He is that God who made heaven and earth, and who could in a moment unmake them, bring them all into nothing again. He governs all things. He can give us whatsoever He will, and withheld from us whatsoever He will.

3. It is more ennobling to please God than to please any one else. The effort to please Him elevates the soul; seeking to please others debases it. We become like God by seeking to please Him. By keeping Him constantly before us we are changed into His image. This is not theory. I may appeal to every-day facts. Take the poor cottager whose heart God has touched, and taught to seek His favour. Apparently with everything around him to depress him, there is often an elevation in that mans mind which constrains us to wonder at him. He has risen to a loftiness of thought and feeling which we can scarcely understand. And it is his piety alone which has raised him, his simple and earnest desire to please his Lord. And then look at some of the worlds great men, men who live on the worlds favour and applause. How low do we frequently see them sink! We marvel at the littleness they betray.

4. Hence we may observe that a supreme desire to please God conforms us more than anything else to Christ our Lord. He pleased not Himself, the Scripture says. As we read His history we never suspect Him of having done so. It was not His own gratification that brought Him out of His Fathers world and kept Him in our world amid pollution and sorrow. He sought not His own honour here, He did not His own works, He would not speak even His own words. And a careful reader of His history will never suspect Him of having been a pleaser of men. He points upwards to His Father, and says, I do always those things that please Him. Now there is a blessed resemblance between Christ and His people. They have the same spirit that He had, and it is their joy and delight to have it. We say that it forms their character, they feel that it is a main part of their happiness. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

Pleasing God

I. HE WHO WOULD BE HAPPY MUST PLEASE GOD.

1. God is a pleasable Being.

2. God is pleasable by man.

II. HE WHO WOULD PLEASE GOD MUST COME TO HIM. Christ is the way into the loving presence of the Great Father. Man pleases Him by trusting in His Son, cherishing His Spirit, and following His example.

III. HE WHO WOULD COME TO HIM MUST BELIEVE ON HIM.

1. In the fact of His existence.

2. In the fact of His retributive ministry. (Homilist.)

Pleasing God

I. THE PRE-REQUISITES TO THAT STATE IN WHICH WE SHALL ACTUALLY PLEASE GOD.

1. A principle of faith in the revealed testimony of God.

2. A distinct faith in Jesus Christ, as Mediator, Advocate, and

Redeemer.

3. The Divinely-formed elements of a new character within us.

II. THE COURSE OF THOSE PERSONS WHO ACTUALLY PLEASE GOD.

1. Righteousness predominating.

2. Devotion accompanying.

3. Zeal inflaming and animating.

III. THE TESTIMONY GIVEN OF THIS FACT.

1. The inspired declarations of Holy Writ.

2. Conscience divinely aided and corroborated.

3. The outward events of life, as proved from the ordinary history, and from the experience and lives of Gods people. (J. Leifchild.)

What makes men please God?

There are four things which must concur to please God--all which are accomplished by faith, and by nothing else.

1. The person of him that pleaseth God must be accepted of God (Tit_1:15). God had respect unto Abel (Gen_4:4).

2. The matter that pleaseth God must be agreeable to His will (chap. 13:21; Rom_12:2).

3. The manner of doing that which pleaseth God must be with due respect to God, and that is in these and other like particulars

(1) In obedience to God: because He has demanded it. In this case we must say as Peter did, At Thy word I will do it (Luk_5:5).

(2) In humility, denying of ourselves, as he that said, Not I, but the grace of God which is with me (1Co_15:10).

(3) In sincerity, as having to do with Him that searcheth the heart. Thus did Hezekiah (Isa_38:3).

(4) With sedulity: like the two faithful servants with whom the Lord was well pleased; but not like the slothful servant (Mat_25:20, &c.).

(5) With alacrity and cheerfulness: for God loveth a cheerful giver (2Co_9:7).

(6) Within compass of our Calling (1Co_7:17).

(7) With constancy. If any draw back, Gods soul will have no pleasure in Heb_10:38).

(8) In assurance that God, who accepteth the person, accepteth also the work that is done. Hereby did Manoahs wife infer that God was pleased with that which they did (Jdg_13:23).

4. The end, which is Gods glory (1Co_10:31). The foresaid four general points are those four causes whereby everything is made perfect. Faith is the means whereby all of them may be effected and accomplished.

(1) By faith in Christ the person is accepted of God (Eph_1:6).

(2) Faith makes men subject themselves to Gods will.

(3) Faith makes men have respect, even to the manner of what they do to Godward; that it be done in obedience, in humility, in sincerity, with sedulity, with alacrity, orderly, constantly, and with assurance of Gods acceptance. All these may be exemplified in Enoch.

(4) Faith, of all graces, most aimeth at Gods glory. (W. Gouge.)

Enochs religion:

His religion was not a speculation or a theory, which he took up to-day and laid down to-morrow. It was not the vain dream of enthusiasm, which is founded on no steady and tried principles of reason, by which he was actuated. It was not the momentary impulse which induced him to take Gods side to-day and which left him at liberty to desert it to-morrow. It was rather a religion of reason and deliberation; a religion of faith in the Divine character and promises; a religion which influenced, and guided, and sustained him, at one moment as at another. It was the allegiance of the heart, flowing from the decisions of the understanding. It was the obedience and homage of the soul. It was the tribute of dependence, gratitude, and love. It was the sacrifice of the whole man, a reasonable and acceptable service. Probity, and truth, and righteousness were its bright results. Hence Enoch pleased God--God graciously owned his allegiance and accepted his intercourse. His aim was to please God, and it was accepted as such. He was the child of mercy, the disciple of truth and charity. Whatever might be the judgment which men formed of his character, God was ready to avow, Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord. (G. T. Noel, M.A,)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 11:5-6. By faith — That is, his firm faith in the being and perfections of God, especially his omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence; his truth, justice, mercy, and goodness; and in consequence of that exemplary holiness which was the fruit of this faith; Enoch was translated — Μετετεθη, was removed, namely, in a miraculous manner, from among men, God taking him out of this sinful and miserable world to himself. See notes on Gen 5:22-24. That he should not see death — He was changed probably in a moment, as Elijah afterward was, and as those saints shall be that are found alive at Christ’s second coming; and was not any longer found — Among men; an expression which implies he was translated privately, and that some (his relations and friends, doubtless) sought for him, as the sons of the prophets sought for Elijah; (2Ki 2:17;) because God had translated him — To what place these holy men were translated is not said; but their translation in the body, as Macknight observes, is recorded for an example, to assure believers that, in due time, they also shall live in the heavenly country in the body, and to excite them in that assurance to imitate Enoch’s faith.

For before his translation he had this testimony — From God in his own conscience; that he pleased God — The verb ευαρεστησαι, here used, occurs only in this epistle, namely, in this and the following verse, and in chap. Heb 13:16, in the passive voice, where it is rendered, God is well pleased. Three things are included in our pleasing God; that our persons be accepted; that our duties be approved of; and that we have a testimony that we are righteous or justified, as Abel and Enoch had, and as all true believers have. This is that pleasing of God which is appropriated to faith alone, and which alone shall receive an eternal reward. In a lower sense, however, there may be many acts and duties with which, as to the matter of them, God may be pleased, and which he may reward in this world without faith; as the destruction of the house of Ahab by Jehu. Enoch walked with God, and therefore is said to please him; that is, he set God always before him, and thought, spoke, and acted as one that considered he was always under God’s eye, and he made it his daily business to worship and serve him acceptably.

But without faith — In the being, attributes, superintending providence, and grace of God; it is impossible — For a fallen, sinful, and weak creature, such as man is, and such as Enoch undoubtedly was; to please him — Though no particular revelation is mentioned as the object of Enoch’s faith, yet from Moses’s telling us that he walked with, or pleased God, it is certain that his faith in those doctrines of religion, which are discoverable by the light of nature, and which are mentioned in this verse, must have been very strong, since it led him habitually to walk with God, so as to please him; for he that cometh to God — In prayer, or any other act of worship, or who endeavours to serve him; must believe that he is — That he exists, and that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him — And therefore, that he is wise and mighty, holy, just, and good. “By representing the existence of God and his government of the world as objects of faith, the apostle hath taught us, that the truths of natural religion are equally the objects of faith with the truths of revelation. And this doctrine is just. For the evidence by which the truths of natural religion are supported, being of the same kind with the evidence which supports the truths of revelation, namely, not demonstrative, but probable evidence, the persuasion produced by that kind of evidence in matters of natural religion, is as really faith as the persuasion which the same evidence produces in matters of revelation. Further, the faith or persuasion of the truths of natural religion which men attain, being as much the effect of attention, impartial search, and prayer, as the faith which they attain of the truths of revelation, it is as much a matter of duty, and as pleasing to God, [as far as it extends,] as faith in the truths of revelation.” — Macknight.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11:5 Enoch was taken up to heaven and thus did not face a normal death (see Gen 5:21-24). • “he disappeared, because God took him”: Gen 5:24.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Heb 11:5. Μετετέθη, was translated) Wherefore was he translated? Our faith waits for this. Gen 5:22; Gen 5:24, LXX., εὐηρέστησε δὲ Ἐνὼχ τῷ Θεῷ—καὶ εὐηρέστησε Ἐνὼχ τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ οὐχʼ εὑρίσκετο, ὅτι μετέθηκεν αὐτὸν ὁ Θεός.—μὴ, not) He was therefore translated from mortality without death to immortality.—πρὸ, before) Construed with εὐηρεστηκέναι, to have pleased [He had the testimony that he pleased God before his translation].—εὐηρεστηκέναι, to have pleased) Instead of to walk with GOD, before GOD, the LXX. have εὐαρεστεῖν, also Gen 6:9; Gen 17:1; Gen 24:40; Gen 48:15; Psa 116:9. Comp. Psa 26:3; Psa 35:14 [Heb. I walked]. It not only signifies to please, in a passive sense, but implies the desire of pleasing. Therefore Gen 39:4, שרת is εὐαρεστεῖν: comp. ἀρέσαι, Rom 8:8, notes.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb_11:5-6. The example of Enoch. Comp. Gen_5:21-24.

Πρίστει Ἐνὼχ μετετέθη] By reason of his faith Enoch was caught away; i.e. even during his lifetime was, like Elijah (2 Kings 2.), caught up to God in heaven. Comp. Sir_44:16 : Ἐνὼχ εὐηρέστησε κυρίῳ καὶ μετετέθη ὑπόδειγμα μετανοίας ταῖς γενεαῖς; ibid. Sir_49:14 : οὐδὲ εἷς ἐκτίσθη οἷος Ἐνὼς τοιοῦτος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἀνελήφθη ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς; Joseph. Antiq. i. 3.Hebrews 4 : ἀνεχώρησε πρὸς τὸ θεῖον.

τοῦ μὴ ἰδεῖν θάνατον] not consecutively [so that], de Wette, Bisping, al., but indication of the design of God: that he should not see or undergo death (comp. Luk_2:26).

καὶ οὐχ ηὑρίσκετο, διότι μετέθηκεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεός] derived verbally from the LXX. of Gen_5:24, as given in the text of the Cod. Alex.

πρὸ γὰρ … γίνεται, Heb_11:6] It is related in the Scripture concerning Enoch that he was acceptable to God. But this presupposes that he had faith. For to obtain Gods approbation without the possession of faith is impossible. Chrysostom: πῶς δὲ πίστει μετετέθη ὁ Ἐνώχ; ὅτι τῆς μεταθέσεως ἡ εὐαρέστησις αἰτία, τῆς δὲ εὐαρεστήσεως ἡ πίστις.

πρὸ τῆς μεταθέσεως] may be equally well conjoined with μεμαρτύρηται (Piscator, Owen, Huët, Bleek, de Wette, Conybeare, Delitzsch, Kurtz, Hofmann, al.), or with εὐαρεστηκέναι (Schlichting, Bengel, Maier, and others). In the former case the sense is: before mention is made in the Scripture of his rapture, the testimony is borne to him in the same, that he pleased God.

εὐαρεστηκέναι] By εὐηρέστησεν the LXX. translate the Hebrew וַיִתְהַלֵּךְ אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִים: and he walked with God, i.e. in communion with God, as His most devout worshipper.

Heb_11:6 is a truth of wholly universal application, so that only ἐστίν is to be supplemented to ἀδύνατον. With Er. Schmid, Limborch, Wetstein, and Schulz, to regard the first hemistich of the verse: χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον εὐαρεστῆσαι, as a special statement respecting Enoch, is grammatically inadmissible, since in that case χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον ἦν αὐτὸν εὐαρεστῆσαι or χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον αὐτὸν εὐαρεστηκέναι must have been written.

εὐαρεστῆσαι] sc. τῷ θεῷ, naturally understood from that which precedes and follows. The infin. aorist expresses, as in the case of the immediately succeeding πιστεῦσαι, the pure verbal notion, without regard to the relation of time. See Kühner, II. p. 80.

ὁ προσερχόμενος τῷ θεῷ] is he who approaches God, sc. to worship Him; comp. Heb_7:25, Heb_10:1. Wrongly; Luther, Calov, Wittich, Rambach, Schulz, Ebrard (transl.): he who (as Enoch) will come (or is to come) to God.

ὅτι ἔστιν] that he is, or exists. Arbitrarily importing, Jac. Cappellus: Series sermonis suadet, ut suppleamus ὅτι ἐστὶν αὐτοῦ θεός, i. e. qui accedit ad Deum, credere debet eum esse suum Deum. But also the complementing the verb by: that He exists as one to whom man can draw near with confidence, as the truly living, personal, almighty, all-wise, all-beneficent One (Bleek), is an unjustifiable act of reading into the text. The expression contains only the idea of existence.

καί] still dependent upon ὅτι.

μισθαποδότης] recompenser, sc. for the piety manifested in the ἐκζητεῖν αὐτόν (Rom_3:11; Act_15:17).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Heb 11:5 . Πίστει Ἐνὼχ μετετέθη .… “By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had witness borne to him that he had pleased God well; but without faith it is impossible to please Him well.” In the dry catalogue of antediluvian longevities a gem of faith is detected. What lay at the root of Enoch’s translation? Faith, because before he was translated he was well-pleasing to God, which implies that he believed in God, or as Chrysostom neatly puts it: πῶς δὲ πίστει μετετέθη ὁ Ἐνώχ ; ὅτι τῆς μεταθέσεως ἡ εὐαρέστησις αἰτία , τῆς δὲ εὐαρεστήσεως ἡ πίστις . In Sir 44:16 he is exhibited as ὑπόδειγμα μετανοίας ταῖς γενεαῖς . μετετέθη “was transferred,” removed from one place to another, as in Act 7:16 , cf. also Gal 1:6 , Jud 1:4 . In Sir 49:14 it is represented by ἀνελήφθη ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς . The succeeding clauses imply that his body disappeared. How the tradition arose we have no means of knowing, cf. Suicer, i. 1130, and the Bible Dictionaries. τοῦ μὴ ἰδεῖν may either imply purpose or result. For the former see Mat 2:13 , Luk 2:24 , Phi 3:10 ; for the latter, Mat 21:32 , Act 7:19 , Rom 7:3 , Heb 10:7 . The use of the passive μετετέθη favours the supposition that result is here expressed, and throughout the sentence it is the translation that is prominent rather than the escape from death, which is introduced rather as an explanation of μετετέθη . καὶ οὐχ ηὑρίσκετο .… These words are verbatim from the LXX of Gen 5:24 , and are quoted for the sake of bringing out clearly that God was the author of the translation. ( Cf. the misquotation in Clem. Ep. , chap. 9, οὐχ εὑρέθη αὐτοῦ θάνατος .) God translated him, and this is proved by the fact that preceding the statement of his translation Scripture records that he pleased God well, where the Hebrew has “he walked with God”. χωρὶς δὲ πίστεως ἀδύνατον εὐαρεστῆσαι . “But without faith it is impossible to please Him well.” The ground of this proposition is given in the following words: πιστεῦσαι γὰρ δεῖ τὸν προσερχόμενον .… “For he who cometh to God must believe that He exists and that to those who seek Him He turns out to be a rewarder.” To please God one must draw near to Him ( τὸν προσερχόμενον in the semi-technical sense usual in the Epistle), and no one can draw near who has not these two beliefs that God is and will reward those who seek Him. So that Enoch’s faith, and the faith of every one who approaches God, verifies the description of Heb 11:1 : the unseen must be treated as sufficiently demonstrated, and the hoped for reward must be considered substantial.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Enoch.

That he should not die.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Faith was the ground of his pleasing God; and his pleasing God was the ground of his translation.

translated-- (Gen 5:22, Gen 5:24). Implying a sudden removal (the same Greek as in Gal 1:6) from mortality without death to immortality: such a CHANGE as shall pass over the living at Christ's coming (Co1 15:51-52).

had this testimony--namely of Scripture; the Greek perfect implies that this testimony continues still: "he has been testified of."

pleased God--The Scripture testimony virtually expresses that he pleased God, namely, "Enoch walked with God." The Septuagint translates the Hebrew for "walked with God," Gen 6:9, pleased God.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. By faith Enoch was translated] It is said, in Ge 5:24, that Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. Here the apostle explains what God's taking him means, by saying that he was translated that he should not see death; from which we learn that he did not die, and that God took him to a state of blessedness without obliging him to pass through death. See his history explained at large in the above place, in Ge 5:22-24.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. By faith Enoch, etc. He chose a few of the most ancient, that he might make a transition to Abraham and his posterity. He teaches us that through faith, it was that Enoch was translated.

But we ought especially to consider the reason why God in so unusual a manner removed him from the earth. The event was remarkable, and hence all may know how dear he was to God. Impiety and all kinds of corruptions then prevailed everywhere. Had he died as other men, it would have not occurred to any, that he was thus preserved from the prevailing contagion by God’s providence; but, as he was taken away without dying, the hand of God from heaven, removing him as it were from the fire, was openly manifested. It was not to then an ordinary honor with which God had favored him. Moses indeed tells us, that he was a righteous man, and that he walked with God; but as righteousness begins with faith, it is justly ascribed to his faith, that he pleased God.

As to the subtle questions which the curious usually moot, it is better to pass them over, without taking much notice of them. They ask, what became of these two men, Enoch and Elijah? And then, that they may not appear merely to ask questions, they imagine that they are reserved for the last days of the Church, that they may then come forth into the world; and for this purpose the Revelation of John is referred to. Let us leave this airy philosophy to those light and vain minds, which cannot be satisfied with what is solid. Let it suffice us to know, that their translation was a sort of extraordinary death; nor let us doubt but that they were divested of their mortal and corruptible flesh, in order that they might, with the other members of Christ, be renewed into a blessed immortality.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(5) See death.—See Luk_2:26; Psa_89:48 (Joh_8:51).

And was not found . . . translated him.—An exact quotation from the LXX. (Gen_5:24). The word rendered “translated” is a very simple one, denoting merely change of place; but nothing can equal the simplicity of the Hebrew, “he was not. for God took him.”

He had this testimony.—Better, he hath had witness borne to him (Heb_11:2; Heb_11:4) that he hath been well pleasing to God. The form of the expression shows that the writer is again speaking of the ever present word of Scripture (Heb_4:9, &c.) That word does not record the translation of Enoch until it “hath” borne witness to him that he pleased God. The words “walked with God” are rendered in the LXX. “was well pleasing to God,” and it is this rendering that is quoted here and in the next verse. The writer himself supplies the comment in the next verse, which has a very close connection with this.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. Enoch was translated] Lit., “was transferred (hence)” (Gen_5:24; Sir_44:16; Sir_49:14; Jos. Antt. i. 3. § 4.

was not found, because God had translated him. Gen_5:24 (LXX. Cod. Alex).

he had this testimony] “he hath had witness born to him;” “Enoch walked with God,” Gen_5:24 (LXX. “pleased God”).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But without faith it is impossible to please him,.... Or do things well pleasing in his sight; or any of the duties of religion, in an acceptable way; as prayer, praise, attendance on the word and ordinances, or any good works whatever; because such are without Christ, and without his Spirit; and have neither right principles, nor right ends: for this is not to be understood of the persons of God's elect, as considered in Christ; in whom they are well pleasing to him before faith; being loved by him with an everlasting love; and chosen in Christ, before the foundation of the world; See Gill on Rom 8:8.

for he that cometh to God; to the throne of, his grace, to pray unto him, to implore his grace and mercy, help and assistance; to the house of God, to worship, and serve him, and in order to enjoy his presence, and have communion with him; which coming ought to be spiritual and with the heart; and supposes spiritual life; and must be through Christ, and by faith: wherefore such a comer to God,

must believe that he is; or exists, as the Arabic version; and he must not barely believe his existence, but that, as it is revealed in the word: he must believe in the three Persons in the Godhead; that the first Person is the Father of Christ; that the second Person is both the Son of God, and Mediator; and that the third Person is the Spirit of them both, and the applier of all grace; for God the Father is to be approached unto, through Christ the Mediator, by the guidance and assistance of the Spirit: and he must believe in the perfections of God; that he is omniscient, and knows his person and wants; is omnipotent, and can do for him, beyond his thoughts and petitions; is all sufficient, and that his grace is sufficient for him; that he is immutable, in his purposes and covenant; that he is true and faithful to his promises; and is the God of grace, love, and mercy: and he must believe in him, not only as the God of nature and providence, but as his covenant God and Father in Christ:

and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him; who are such, as are first sought out by him; and who seek him in Christ, where he is only to be found; and that with their whole hearts, and above all things else: and, of such, God is a rewarder, in a way of grace; with himself, who is their exceeding great reward; and with his Son, and all things with him; with more grace; and, at last, with eternal glory, the reward of the inheritance.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Ver. 5. By faith Enoch was translated] μετετεθη, or carried from one place to another. He changed his place, but not his company, for he still walked with God, as in earth, so in heaven.

That he should not see death] The Arabic version addeth, he was translated into paradise, where a plentiful amends was made him for that which he wanted of the days of the years of the lives of his fathers, in the days of their pilgrimage, Gen 47:9.

And was not found] And yet the Lord killed him not, as the Chaldee hath, Gen 5:24, but took him up in a whirlwind, say the Hebrew doctors, as Elijah was. He was changed as those shall be that are found alive at Christ’s second coming, 1Co 15:51, the soul and body being separated, and in a moment reunited. Subitus erit transitus a natura corruptibili in beatam immortalitatem, saith Calvin there.

That. he pleased God] ευηοεστηκεναι, he walked with God in all well pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, Col 1:10. Hence that testimony given him by his own conscience that he gave God good content.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By faith Enoch was translated - The account of Enoch is found in Gen 5:21-24. It is very brief, and is this, that “Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him.” There is no particular mention of his “faith,” and the apostle attributes this to him, as in the case of Abel, either because it was involved in the very nature of piety, or because the fact was communicated to him by direct revelation. In the account in Genesis, there is nothing inconsistent with the belief that Enoch was characterized by eminent faith, but it is rather implied in the expression, “he walked with God.” Compare 2Co 5:7. It may also be implied in what is said by the apostle Jude Jud 1:14-15, that “he prophesied, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints,” etc. From this it would appear that he was a preacher: that he predicted the coming of the Lord to judgment, and that he lived in the firm belief of what was to occur in future times. Moses does not say expressly that Enoch was translated. He says “he was not, for God took him.” The expression “he was not,” means he was no more among people; or he was removed from the earth. “This” language would be applicable to any method by which he was removed, whether by dying, or by being translated. A similar expression respecting Romulus occurs in Livy (i. 16), Nec deinde in terris Romulus fuit. The translation of the Septuagint on this part of the verse in Genesis is, οὐχ εὑρίσκετο ouch heurisketo - “was not found;” that is, he disappeared. The authority for what the apostle says here, that he “was translated,” is found in the other phrase in Genesis, “God took him.” The reasons which led to the statement that he was transported without seeing death, or that show that this is a fair conclusion from the words in Genesis, are such, as these:

(1) There is no mention made of his death, and in this respect the account of Enoch stands by itself. It is, except in this case, the uniform custom of Moses to mention the age and the death of the individuals whose biography he records, and in many cases this is about all that is said of them. But in regard to Enoch there is this remarkable exception that no record is made of his death - showing that there was something unusual in the manner of his removal from the world.

(2) The Hebrew word used by Moses, found in such a connection, is one which would rather suggest the idea that he had been taken in some extraordinary manner from the world. That word - לקח laaqach - means “to take” - with the idea of taking “to oneself.” Thus, Gen 8:20, “Noah took of all beasts and offered a burnt-offering.” Thus, it is often used in the sense of “taking a wife” - that is, to oneself Gen 4:19; Gen 6:2; Gen 12:19; Gen 19:14; and then it is used in the sense of “taking away;” Gen 14:12; Gen 27:35; Job 1:21; Job 12:20; Psa 31:13; Jer 15:15. The word, therefore, would naturally suggest the idea that he had been taken by God to himself, or had been removed in an extraordinary manner from the earth. This is confirmed by the fact that the word is not used anywhere in the Scriptures to denote a “removal by death,” and that in the only other instance in which it (לקח laaqach) is used in relation to a removal from this world, it occurs in the statement respecting the translation of Elijah. “And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel, came forth to Elisha, and said to him, Knowest thou that the Lord “will take away” (לקח laaqach) thy master from thy head today?” 2Ki 2:3, 2Ki 2:5; compare Heb 11:11. This transaction, where there could be no doubt about the “manner” of the removal, shows in what sense the word is used in Genesis.

(3) It was so understood by the translators of the Septuagint. The apostle has used the same word in this place which is employed by the Seventy in Gen 5:24 - μετατίθημι metatithēmi. This word means to transpose, to put in another place; and then to transport, transfer, translate; Act 7:16; Heb 7:12. It properly expresses the removal to another place, and is the very word which would he used on the supposition that one was taken to heaven without dying.

(4) This interpretation of the passage in Genesis by Paul is in accordance with the uniform interpretation of the Jews. In the Targum of Onkelos it is evidently supposed that Enoch was transported without dying. In that Targum the passage in Gen 5:24 is rendered, “And Enoch walked in the fear of the Lord, and was not, for the Lord did not put him to death” - לּה lo’ - ‘amiyt yityeh Yahweh. So also in Ecclesiasticus or the Son of Sirach (49:14), “But upon the earth was no man created like Enoch; for he was taken from the earth.” These opinions of the Jews and of the early translators, are of value only as showing that the interpretation which Paul has put upon Gen 5:2 is the natural interpretation. It is such as occurs to separate writers, without collusion, and thus shows that this is the meaning most naturally suggested by the passage.

That he should not see death - That is, that he should not experience death, or be made personally acquainted with it. The word “taste” often occurs in the same sense. Heb 2:9, “that he should taste death for every man;” compare Mat 16:28; Mar 9:1; Luk 9:27.

And was not found - Gen 5:24, “And he was not.” That is, he was not in the land of the living. Paul retains the word used in the Septuagint.

He had this testimony, that he pleased God - Implied in the declaration in Gen 5:22, that he “walked with God.” This denotes a state of friendship between God and him, and of course implies that his conduct was pleasing to God. The apostle appeals here to the sense of the account in Genesis, but does not retain the very “words.” The meaning here is not that the testimony respecting Enoch was actually “given” before his translation, but that the testimony relates to his having “pleased God” before he was removed. “Stuart.” In regard to this instructive fragment of history, and to the reasons why Enoch was thus removed, we may make the following remarks:

(1) The age in which he lived was undoubtedly one of great wickedness. Enoch is selected as the only one of that generation signalized by eminent piety, and he appears to have spent his life in publicly reproving a sinful generation, and in warning them of the approaching judgment; Jud 1:14-15. The wickedness which ultimately led to the universal deluge seems already to have commenced in the earth, and Enoch, like Noah, his great-grandson, was raised up as a preacher of righteousness to reprove a sinful generation.

(2) It is not improbable that the great truths of religion in that age were extensively denied, and probably among other things the future state, the resurrection, the belief that man would exist in another world, and that it was maintained that death was the end of being - was an eternal sleep. If so, nothing could be better adapted to correct the prevailing evils than the removal of an eminent man, without dying, from the world. His departure would thus confirm the instructions of his life, and his removal, like the death of saints often now, would serve to make an impression which his living instructions would not.

(3) His removal is, in itself, a very important and instructive fact in history. It has occurred in no other instance except that of Elijah; nor has any other living man been transported to heaven except the Lord Jesus. That fact was instructive in a great many respects:

(a) It showed that there was a future state - another world.

(b) It showed that the “body” might exist in that future state - though doubtless so changed as to adapt it to the condition of things there.

(c) It prepared the world to credit the account of the ascension of the Redeemer. If Enoch and Elijah were removed thus without dying, there was no intrinsic improbability that the Lord Jesus would be removed after having died and risen again.

(d) It furnishes a demonstration of the doctrine that the saints will exist hereafter, which meets all the arguments of the sceptic and the infidel. One single “fact” overturns all the mere “speculations” of philosophy, and renders nugatory all the objections of the sceptic. The infidel argues against the truth of the resurrection and of the future state from the “difficulties” attending the doctrine. A single case of one who has been raised up from the dead, or who has been removed to heaven, annihilates all such arguments - for how can supposed difficulties destroy a well-authenticated “fact?”

(e) It is an encouragement to piety. It shows that God regards his friends; that their fidelity and holy living please him; and that “in the midst of eminent wickedness and a scoffing world it is possible so to live as to please God.” The conduct of this holy man, therefore, is an encouragement to us to do our duty though we stand alone; and to defend the truth though all who live with us upon the earth deny and deride it.

(4) The removal of Enoch shows that the same thing would be “possible” in the case of every saint. God could do it in other cases, as well as in his, with equal ease. That his friends, therefore, are suffered to remain on the earth; that they linger on in enfeebled health, or are crushed by calamity, or are stricken down by the pestilence as others are, is not because God “could” not remove them as Enoch was without dying, but because there is some important “reason” why they should remain and linger, and suffer, and die. Among those reasons may be such as the following:

(a) The regular operation of the laws of nature as now constituted, require it. Vegetables die; the inhabitants of the deep die; the fowls that fly in the air, and the beasts that roam over hills and plains die; and man, by his sins, is brought under the operation of this great universal law. It would be “possible” indeed for God to save his people from this law, but it would require the interposition of continued “miracles,” and it is better to have the laws of nature regularly operating, than to have them constantly set aside by divine interposition.

(b) The power of religion is now better illustrated in the way in which the saints are actually removed from the earth, than it would be if they were all transported. Its power is now seen in its enabling us to overcome the dread of death, and in its supporting us in the pains and sorrows of the departing hour. It is a good thing to discipline the soul so that it will not fear to die; it shows how superior religion is to all the forms of philosophy, that it enables the believer to look calmly forward to his own certain approaching death It is an important matter to keep this up from age to age, and to show to each generation that religion can overcome the natural apprehension of the most fearful calamity which befalls a creature - death: and can make man calm in the prospect of lying beneath the clods of the valley, cold, dark, alone, to moulder back to his native dust.

(c) The death of the Christian does good. It preaches to the living. The calm resignation; the peace; the triumph of the dying believer, is a constant admonition to a thoughtless and wicked world. The deathbed of the Christian proclaims the mercy of God from generation to generation, and there is not a dying saint who may not, and who probably does not do great good in the closing hours of his earthly being.

(d) It may be added that the present arrangement falls in with the general laws of religion that we are to be influenced by faith, not by sight. If all Christians were removed like Enoch, it would be an argument for the truth of religion addressed constantly to the senses. But this is not the way in which the evidence of the truth of religion is proposed to man. It is submitted to his understanding, his conscience, his heart; and in this there is of design a broad distinction between religion and other things. Men act in other matters under the influence of the senses; it is designed that in religion they shall act under the influence of higher and nobler considerations, and that they shall be influenced not solely by a reference to what is passing before their eyes, but to the things which are not seen.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Henoch [Enoch] was translated, so as not to die nor see death. In Ecclesiasticus (Chap. xliv.) he is said to be translated into paradise. By these words, that he should not see death, it is the general exposition of the ancient interpreters, that he is not dead; but in what place, or in what manner God preserveth him, we know not. See St. Augustine, lib. de pec. orig. [on Original Sin] chap. xxiii.; St. John Chrysostom; &c. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death: by the Divine faith before described, that which reacheth home to God by Christ, Enoch, the seventh patriarch in a descent from Adam of the church’s line, Gen 5:21, all eminent prophet and Boanerges, denouncing judgment against the ungodly ones of his time, so as to awaken them to repentance, Jud 1:14,15, was taken by God, Gen 5:24. The apostle keeps to the Septuagint translation of the text. He was miraculously changed in his body from a mortal to an immortal state, and this without any separation of his soul from it. God, out of an extraordiary grace and favour to him, dispensed with the common sentence passed on the human seed in Adam, as he did many ages after this to Elijah. He died not: all the rest of the fathers of the church, Gen 5:5,8,27, the longest liver of them, died.

And was not found; he was not, Gen 5:24, neither among men, nor in their sepulchres, as others were, but had changed his habitation and society. If any went to seek him, as others did Elijah he was far out of their finding, 2Ki 2:17.

Because God had translated him; for God had taken him to himself in heaven, the place of his residence, and in the very act changed his body into a spiritual, powerful, glorious, and incorruptible one; as all ours, who are true believers, shall be at last, 1Co 15:51; 1Th 4:15; and so made fit for the place to which he was taken, made like an angel in person, and to be with those spirits in company; now did he fully see and enjoy him whom by faith he walked with beneath.

For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God; in the time of his life, and walking with God in this sinful world, all the time of his witnessing for God in it, God witnessed by his work on his soul to himself, by his ministry and life to the world, and by the prophet Moses’s record of it to all generations to come in the church once and again, Gen 5:22,24, that in his walking with God he pleased him. He was not only justified, graciously accepted, and beloved of him, but he did that which was pleasing to God, putting out in thought, word, and deed all the power of grace to act for God; preserving constant converse and communion with him; and had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but reproved them. By this he pleased God, and God testified to all the world he did so, by a miraculous translation of him from the world to himself. God cares not for, nor will take to him, such who please him not.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Example of Enoch.

Translated—Transferred, like Elijah, (2Ki_2:11,) bodily from earth to heaven.

That—In order that. It was the divine purpose that Enoch should be in the patriarchal dispensation the example of the immortality of man and the glorification of the faithful. So was Elijah in the Mosaic dispensation; and, crowning all, Christ in his own dispensation. So the pre-Christian writer, Sirach, says, (Sir_44:16,) “Enoch pleased the Lord, and was translated, an example of repentance to the generations.” And, again, (Sir_49:14,) “Upon the earth was no man created like Enoch; for he was even taken up from the earth.” And Josephus says, “He went to the divinity.”

That—In order that; expressive of the divine purpose.

See death—Experience death, Luk_2:26. He passed thus the glorious resurrection “change” (note on 1Co_15:51) without passing through the agony of dissolution. His spirit dwelt not in paradise; but both body and spirit ascended to the highest heaven.

Not found—No human search on earth could discover him. So Livy says of Romulus, “Nor then was Romulus on earth.”

He had this testimony—That is, it stands testified, before his translation, in the Genesis history, (Gen_5:24,) that he “walked with,” that is, pleased, God.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God; literally, hath been witnessed of that he had been well-pleasing to God. The allusion is, of course, to the testimony in Genesis, (Gen_5:24) the LXX being closely followed, which has, Euhresthsen Enw ouc huresketo dioti meteyhken auton O Yeov , whereas the literal translation of our Hebrew text is, "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, because God took him.

The character and the translation of Enoch.

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death," etc. That Enoch should immediately succeed Abel in this record of the ancient heroes of faith is not a little significant. How remarkable is "the contrast between the fate of Abel and Enoch! The one was crushed to the earth by the hand of a brutal and ferocious murderer; the other was conveyed to heaven, most likely by the ministry of some benevolent intelligence. The one met death in its most repulsive form, and will probably be the longest tenant in the sepulcher; the other entirely escaped it, and was the first to possess the happiness of perfect and immortal humanity. There is something instructive in these characters being placed side by side on the page of revelation. The contrast seems to furnish an illustration of the mysterious diversities of fact and circumstance, which are perpetually occurring in the moral government of God." Our text brings before us

I THE CHARACTER OF ENOCH"S LIFE UPON EARTH. "Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." It is a great and blessed thing that it is possible for man to please God. We know that we have grieved him by our many and heinous sins; and it is a fact full of encouragement that we may so live as to yield him positive satisfaction. In his infinite condescension he is so interested in us that our character and conduct are viewed by him either with delight or with sorrow. That man should please God implies:

1. A revelation of his will. Enoch had no portion of the sacred Scriptures. His revelation of God was small and dim as compared with ours. But evidently he believed in the existence of the Supreme Being, was convinced "that he is," and he knew something of his holy will. We live in the clear and full light of Divine revelation. "God hath spoken unto us in his Son." We know without any uncertainty what to do and what not to do, if we would please God.

2. Personal sympathy with him. The moral separation which sin causes between the soul and God had been removed in the case of Enoch. The consciousness of the Divine presence was not painful to him, but blessed. "Enoch walked with God." The will of God must have appeared to him not tyrannical or harsh, but reasonable and gracious; for otherwise his life could not have been brought into such relations with it as would please God. And still moral sympathy with him is an indispensable condition of pleasing him. While we regard him with suspicion or distrust, while we esteem his commandments as grievous, our lives cannot be viewed by him with complacency. As a first step towards pleasing God we must heartily "receive the reconciliation" which he offers to us m Jesus Christ. (Rom_5:10, Rom_5:11)

3. Sincere effort to do his will. To know and approve the will of God without cordial and continuous effort to conform to it cannot be pleasing to him. Enoch embodied his religious knowledge in his practical life; he translated his convictions into actions. And so must every one who would please God. (cf. Joh_14:21-24 Jam_1:25) It was by faith that Enoch pleased God. He walked by faith, not by sight. The Lord Jesus Christ presents to us the supreme and perfect example of pleasing God. His joy was to do the will of him who sent him. Twice the Father testified of him from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him." Him the Father ever viewed with infinite complacency, He is also the Reconciler of man unto God. Moreover, "he giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength," that they may please God in their lives. Let us trust him, accept him, imitate him.

II THE NATURE OF ENOCH"S REMOVAL FROM EARTH. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had translated him." Notice two points.

1. The nature of this translation. We have no means of satisfying all the inquiries which curiosity may make as to how this man of God was translated; but we may bring together a little of the light which the Scriptures shed upon it. It is certain that he did not pass from earth by the same way as other men; that he entered heaven without passing through "the gates of death." But his body must have undergone some great change; for "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven." This change was probably similar to that which is reserved for those who are alive at the coming of our Lord. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed," etc. . (1Co_15:50-54) St. Paul says, "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." What the properties and characteristics of the spiritual body are we know not as yet. But we think that the body of Enoch was spiritualized by God. Its vital relations with earth were severed; it underwent an essential change or changes. Previously it was mortal and corruptible; then it became immortal and incorruptible. Previously it was of the earth, earthy; then it became of heaven, heavenly. So changed was it that Enoch was no longer fit for earth; his body, as well as his spirit, unable to find its true sphere on earth, rose heavenward, Godward. His body was so refined and purified by God as to be capable of the blessedness and glory of heaven. And thus "he was not; for God took him." "He was not found, because God translated him.

2. The design of this translation. Why was Enoch thus removed from earth?

(1) His translation was a distinguished honor and reward to Enoch himself. By it he was taken from that dark wickedness and daring blasphemy (Jud_1:14, 15) which must have been so painful to a soul in sympathy with God, as was Enoch"s. But two men of all the departed myriads have been honored by God with a triumphant entrance into Paradise without passing through the gloomy portals of death. Of these, Enoch was one. His character was extraordinary, and extraordinary was his reward. There is a beautiful propriety in such a reward for such a life. It is remarkable that the only two men who passed from this world without tasting of death were distinguished as prophets fearless in rebuking evil-doers and asserting the Divine claims, and each in an age of dominant wickedness. And it would seem that their translation was a decided testimony from Heaven that he who stands unmoved, though alone, for God, is the man whom the King delights to honor.

(2) His translation was fitted to impress beneficially the men of that age. Enoch was a prophet to a race of daring sinners. His serene and holy walk had failed to benefit them; his prophetic exhortations and rebukes had embittered them against him; and now perhaps his sudden and strange removal from them will give new and additional emphasis and energy to the words which he had spoken, and the life which he had lived amongst them. They were living in the material and temporal alone; this translation was suited to impress them with the reality and importance of the spiritual and eternal. They were atheistic, some of them anti-theistic; but this extraordinary removal of the holy prophet of God from sublunary scenes would perhaps force upon them, at least for a time, the conviction of the existence and presence of a Power unacknowledged by them heretofore. Let us, through Jesus Christ, seek in this life to please God, and then, through Jesus Christ, death will prove our introduction to an everlasting, ever-increasing, and ever-brightening life. W.J.

The faith of Enoch.

Of Enoch we know next to nothing in one sense. We are ignorant of the details of his life; not even one great striking event is preserved to us. But of the great principle and result of his life we are not ignorant, and it is quite permissible for us to make conjectures by way of illustration. In considering what is here said, we must notice the order of the argument.

I WHAT HAPPENED TO ENOCH. He was translated so as not to see death. This must have happened in some way manifest to his neighbors, so that they might take knowledge of the event and profit by it. The translation is to he looked on in the light of a reward; but, after all, this may not be its chief significance. It may have been for the sake of others, to whom God"s approval of Enoch had to be made manifest. It is no slur upon Enoch to imagine that men as holy as he have been on the earth, yet they have had to die; perhaps live in privation, and die in pain. Therefore we can hardly be wrong in assuming that Enoch"s translation was in such a public way as to teach those willing to be taught, and act as a rebuke to the unbelieving. There is something eminently evangelical in such an operation of God. He would draw men to faith in him by showing what can happen to his believing ones. He shows the way of blessing before he shows the way of cursing. The translation of the holy, righteous man comes before the drowning of an impenitent race.

II WHAT THERE WAS IN ENOCH"S LIFE TO MAKE THIS TRANSLATION POSSIBLE. "He pleased God." Long before his translation he had had proof of this. God does not defer the signs of his pleasure. He has made us so that the way of obedience is the way of pleasantness, even while we walk in it. But all that God had thus given Enoch by the way was for his own sake. The common unheeding world knew nothing of the joys coming to Enoch through his religion. Now at last, in his translation, something shall be given for a joy to Enoch, and at the same time an instruction to the world. Enoch might have pleased God and yet not been translated; but he could not have been translated unless he had pleased God. Then from this inference the writer proceeds to yet another that Enoch must have lived a life of faith. To please God certain conditions are requisite, and in the very front of these is faith. We cannot please God unconsciously, as the heavenly bodies do in their movements, or a plant in its growth. We must do such things as the will of the Invisible requires. He will not be pleased with anything we do simply because we do our best according to the light of nature. But this is a matter which may be dealt with in a homily by itself.

III ENOCH"S EXPECTATIONS. God translated Enoch, but it does not follow that Enoch expected to be translated. All that Enoch could be sure of was that a good present would be followed by a better future. Enoch left this world by a gate that has been very rarely opened a gate the mode of whose opening we can hardly comprehend. It may never be opened again till that day which is hinted at in 1 Thessalonians, when Christ"s people then living will be caught up to meet their Lord in the air. If Enoch had expected translation without the pains of death, he would not have been showing the spirit of true faith. True faith will go on humbly serving God on earth, and feeling that entrance to heaven will come in God"s good time. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Enoch was not any longer found among men, though perhaps they sought for him as they did for Elijah, 2 Kings ii, 17. He had this testimony - From God in his own conscience.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The second instance is Enoch, concerning whom our apostle affirms, that he was translated, and that he was translated by faith; translated from one condition to another; from grace to glory, from earth to heaven. He was gathered by God, both in body and soul, to himself; and in a way of eminent grace and favour free from death. Hereby God gave the world a convincing testimony, that the body is capable of eternal life and happiness.

But how was he translated by faith?

Ans. Not efficiently; faith was not the efficient cause of his translation. That was an immediate act of divine power; not meritoriously, for it is recorded as an act of sovereign grace and favour; but instrumentally only; he was by faith brought into that state and condition of favour and acceptance with God, as to have this peculiar privilege conferred upon him. Some we find are carried to heaven by special prerogative, by privileged dispensation; By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death.

But observe farther, What went before his translation, and that was his pleasing God: Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. Such as would live with God hereafter, must study and seek to please God by walking with him here; would we come where Enoch is, we must walk as Enoch did. There is no hope of living with God in heaven, if we do not please him here on earth.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. By faith Enoch was translated. See Gen. 5:24; also Jude 14. His faithfulness was rewarded by a translation to heaven without first becoming a victim of death. Had this testimony. The testimony is that he “walked with God,” and God took him, because he was pleased with him.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

It was by faith that Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death

This can be stated in active form. AT: "It was by faith that Enoch did not die because God took him" (See: Active or Passive)

see death

This speaks of death as if it were an object that people can see. It means to experience death. AT: "die" (See: Metaphor)

before he was taken up

This can be stated in active form. AT: "before God took him" (See: Active or Passive)

it was testified that he had pleased God

This can be stated in active form. Possible meanings are 1) "God said that Enoch had pleased him" or 2) "people said that Enoch pleased God." (See: Active or Passive)

Now without faith

Here "Now" does not mean "at this moment," but is used to draw attention to the important point that follows.

without faith it is impossible to please him

This can be stated in positive form. AT: "a person can please God only if he has faith in God" (See: Double Negatives)

that anyone coming to God

Wanting to worship God and belong to his people is spoken of as if the person is literally coming to God. AT: "that anyone who wants to belong to God" (See: Metaphor)

he is a rewarder of those

"he rewards those"

those who seek him

Those who learn about God and make an effort to obey him are spoken of as if they were seeking to find him. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

faith

Enoch

die

believe

reward

seek

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

5. μετετέθη. Lit., “was transferred (hence)” (Gen 5:24; Sir 44:16; Sir 49:14; Jos. Antt. I. 3, § 4).

οὐχ ηὑρίσκετο. Gen 5:24 (LXX. God. Alex.).

μεμαρτύρηται. “He hath had witness borne to him”; “Enoch walked with God,” Gen 5:24 (LXX. “pleased God”).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5.] By faith (πῶς δὲ πίστει μετετέθη; ὅτι τῆς μεταθέσεως ἡ εὐαρέστησις αἰτία, τῆς δὲ εὐαρεστήσεως ἡ πίστις. Chrys.) Enoch was translated, not to see death (cf. LXX, Gen 5:24, after which this verse is framed: καὶ εὐηρέστησεν Ἐνὼχ τῷ θεῷ, καὶ οὐχ εὑρίσκετο ὅτι (ηὑρ. διότι Α) μετέθηκεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεός.

μετετέθη, as in reff., by a sudden disappearance from this earth: οὐχ ηὑρίσκετο, cf. the similar expression of Livy i. 16, in relating the supposed disappearance of Romulus in the storm, “nec deinde in terris Romulus fuit.” This translation was hardly, as Calvin, “mors quædam extraordinaria,” though he means this in no rationalistic sense, as is plain from his accompanying remarks:—but rather a change which passed upon him altogether without death, from corruptibility to incorruptibility, from the natural body to the spiritual. The τοῦ μὴ ἰδεῖν is purpose and purport in one. The construction, after a sentence and in relation to it, is said by Winer, § 44. 4. b, to be chiefly familiar, in the N. T., to St. Luke and St. Paul. See reff.), and was not found (see above), because God translated him. For before his translation a testimony is given to him (the perfect implies the continued existence of the testimony in the text of Scripture) that he hath pleased God (on εὐηρ. and εὐαρ. see Winer, § 12. 3. b. The temporal augment, usual after εὐ- and δυς-, is omitted in the κοινὴ διάλεκτος):

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Enoch. Gen 5:21 - 24. Comp. Sir. 44 16; 49 14; Wisd. 4 10. Was translated [μετετεθη] . The verb used of Enoch 's translation, LXX, Gen 5:24. In Act 7:16 of the transporting of the remains of Jacob and his sons to Sychem. In Gal 1:6, of the sudden change in the religious attitude of the Galatians. In Heb 7:12, of the change in the priesthood. That he should not see death [του μη ιδειν θανατον] . This may signify the purpose of his translation, but probably refers to the result. He was translated so that he did not see death. Comp. Mt 21:32; Act 7:19. Rom 7:3. 2 29 Was not found because God had translated him [ουχ ηυρισκετο διοτι μετεθηκεν αυτον ο θεος] Cited from LXX, Gen 5:24. For had translated rend. translated.

He had this testimony [μεμαρτυρηται] . Rev properly preserves the force of the perfect tense, "he hath had witness born to him." The testimony still stands on record.

That he pleased God. Rend. hath pleased. Comp. LXX, Gen 5:22,

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. ‘Evdy}] Gen. v. 21—24. Compare Ecclus. xliv. 16; xlix. 14; Wied. iv. 10. In Enoch the view of the true destiny of man was again revealed, fellowship with God. Side by side with advancing material civilisation the revelation of the spiritual life was also given.

μετεγέθη τοῦ μὴ ἰδ. Oav.] (Enoch) was translated so az not to 466 death, Vulg. translatus est ne videret mortem. For tho construction see c. x. 7, 9 (LXX. τοῦ ποιῆσαι) note.

Tho logondary intorprotation in Primasius is worth noticing: translatus est in paradisum terrenum unde quondam Adam ejectus est.

οὐχ nup....dsore μετέθ. ὁ 6] The writer follows the interpretative rondering of the ixx. while the Hebrow has simply: he was not, for God took him, a phrase which leaves the mode of Enoch’s departure from life quite open. Oomp. Wiad. iv. 10 f.

πρὸ γὰρ τῆς per.) Faith was the ground of the translation because his pleasing God is specially mentioned before this took place; and such pleasing implies faith. The circumstances under which Enoch lived gave prominenco to his Faith, Ina corrupt age he is said to have maintained that fellowship with God which is idontical with ploasing Iim.

μεμαρτύρηται] The witnoss stands

The word ἐκζητεῖν, which is common in the Lxx, wherever it occurs in the N. T. in the sense of ‘searching’ suggests the notion of strenuous endeavour: ὁ. xii. 17; Acts xv. 17 (LXx.); Rom. ili. 11 (uxx.); τ Pet. i. 10.

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.