Adam
Seth
Enosh
Kenan
Mahalalel
Jared
Enoch
Methuselah
Lamech
Noah
There were ten generations between Adam and Noah. In Genesis 5, we have these ten patriarchs of ten families for ten generations. And only two out of the ten were crowned with this specific sentence: “He walked with God.”
Enoch and Noah. Two guys who walked with God, several generations apart from each other at that. Two guys who were in step with the heartbeat of God stood out among the hundreds of other fathers, sons, and brothers. Perhaps there were others who knew the Lord well, but they were not mentioned, and also as the generations led up to Noah we are told that man’s wickedness on the earth had become so great that He decided to send a flood because quite frankly, a good man was hard to find (Gen. 6:5-7).
God also showed His close relationship with these two in this way: They both were rescued quite uniquely. Enoch walked with God and “then he was no more, because God took him away.” (Gen. 5:24) Noah walked with God and God put his family on a boat to survive the flood. Not everyone who walks with God gets a quick and easy departure, or even first dibs on safety in a disaster, that’s for sure! But lets just say it’s special that He chose to do this for these two who stood out among the many.
God offers a daily walk with anyone who will take Him up on it. We have to realize that! There are not some chosen to be super Christians and the rest of us are left to memorize John 3:16, say a ritual prayer at dinner, and go to church on Sundays because it would feel weird not to. Honestly, it’s our choice whether or not we’re going to let our life be about Him or not. We can have as much of His presence and direction and hope and joy in our lives as we want…One thing about God that I continually fall in and out of awareness of is that He is an infinite and generous Source! How much I go to Him, how much I draw from His wealth of grace and love is up to me. Ever heard the phrase, “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”? Many times we are just standing at the edge of a life changing, thirst quenching River because it would take too much energy, or humility, or something, to get into it and make it our Home.
We each are given one life, and it could be spent doing great things and earning a great name among men…but all that is worthless in the end if we didn’t truly know Him through that personal daily walk. I love that this is how God wants it to be! That our life isn’t a race to achieve, but rather a journey to be ventured morning by morning, with our eyes not on everyone else’s walk but on our own.
