Enoch: I Wanted to Know More

For most of my life, Enoch was just a name I passed over in Genesis. Then I stopped and really read this verse:

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” — Genesis 5:24

That verse grabbed me. My first thought was simple: I want to know more. Where did God take him? What did Enoch see? What was shown to him? And if writings connected with Enoch still exist, what did he say about his journey into the heavenly realm?

Enoch is one of only two people in Scripture commonly understood as being taken by God without experiencing ordinary death. The other is Elijah. That alone made me want to slow down and investigate.

Those questions led me to 1 Enoch, an ancient Jewish writing preserved in the Ethiopian Christian tradition. It describes angels, the Watchers, judgment, the unseen world, and extraordinary visions of the heavenly realm.

For anyone who wants to read and investigate it for themselves, I have made a copy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible available here:

Read the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible

What Did Enoch See?

One part of Enoch especially caught my attention. In 1 Enoch 22, Enoch is shown separate places prepared for the souls of the dead. The righteous and unrighteous are not described as being together in the same condition while awaiting judgment.

That immediately reminded me of Yahshua’s story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31. After death, Lazarus is comforted while the rich man is in torment. The rich man begs for just a drop of water to cool his tongue, but there is a great gulf separating them.

That made me think about a deeper principle: separation matters. There is separation between righteousness and evil, holiness and corruption, and what belongs to the Most High and what stands against Him.

As in Heaven, So on Earth

If there is separation between righteousness and evil in the unseen realm, then I believe there is something there for us to learn about how we live here on earth.

That does not mean isolating ourselves from everyone who thinks differently. It means being careful about what we join ourselves to, what we accept, and what we allow to shape us. We can love people without participating in evil, show mercy without calling evil good, and live in this world without allowing the world to determine who we become.

And that brings me back to the most important thing Scripture tells us about Enoch: he walked with God.

Before the visions, before the angels, and before the mysteries, Enoch walked with God. Maybe that is the greatest lesson in his story.

The Holy Spirit Is My Guide

As I search and thirst for knowledge, I do not believe I am searching alone. Yahshua promised that He would send the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, to guide us.

“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth…” — John 16:13

During my own search, I feel the Holy Spirit guiding me and leading me in The Way of truth. Sometimes I feel corrected, sometimes challenged, and sometimes a passage I have read many times suddenly causes me to see something I had never considered before.

That does not mean every thought I have is automatically from the Holy Spirit. I still need to test what I believe, compare it with Scripture, and remain willing to admit when I may be wrong.

I do not want tradition, scholarship, denomination, or my own opinion to be my final guide. I want the Holy Spirit to lead me as I read, study, pray, and meditate on Scripture.

I Still Want to Know More

I want to know what Enoch saw. I want to understand what he wrote about the Watchers, judgment, the place of the dead, and the heavenly realm. I also want to understand why his writings were preserved in the Ethiopian Christian tradition while most Western Christians were never taught much about them.

But the deeper question for me is this:

What does it mean for me to walk with God?

Genesis gave me one sentence about Enoch:

Enoch walked with God, and God took him.

That one sentence was enough to make me stop, investigate, and ask questions.

And as I continue searching, I put my trust in the Holy Spirit to guide me in The Way of truth.

Shalom Peace.