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This is one of the most remarkable things, that in the midst of death one man is removed from this earth. It is said of Enoch that he “walked with God.” This is quite remarkable, by the way. Only two men are said to have walked with God. In the next chapter, we find that Noah also walked with God. These were two antediluvians, and they walked with God. There are actually only two men in the Old Testament who did not die. One of them is Enoch, and the other, of course, is Elijah.

Enoch is one of the few before the Flood of whom we have any record at all. We are told that he did not die but that God took him—he was translated. What do we mean by translation? Translation is the taking of a word from one language and putting it into another language without changing its meaning. Enoch was removed from this earth; he was translated. He had to get rid of the old body which he had. He had to be a different individual—yet he had to be the same individual, just as the translated word has to be the same. Enoch was taken to heaven.

We read that Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begat Methuselah, and after that he walked with God. I do not know what the first sixty-five years of his life were. I assume that he was like the rest of the crowd—this was a very careless period, moving now into the orbit of the days of Noah. But when that little boy Methuselah was born, Enoch’s walk was changed. That baby turned him to God. My friend, sometimes God puts a baby in a family just for that purpose, and if that baby will not bring you to God, nothing else will. For three hundred years after that he walked with God, and he begat other children, sons and daughters. “And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years”—that is how long he was on this earth, but he did not die. It does not say, “And then Enoch died,” but it says, “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”

The only way I know to describe this is the way a little girl described it to her mother when she came home from Sunday school. She said, “Teacher told us about Enoch and how he walked with God.” Her mother said, “Well, what about Enoch?” And the little girl put it something like this: “It seems that every day God would come by and say to Enoch, ‘Enoch, would you like to walk with Me?’ And Enoch would come out of his house and down to the gate, and he’d go walking with God. He got to the place that he enjoyed it so much that he’d be waiting at the gate of his house every day. And God would come along and say, ‘Enoch, let’s take a walk.’ Then one day God came by and said, ‘Enoch, let’s take a long walk. I have so much to tell you.’ So they were walking and walking, and finally Enoch said, ‘My, it’s getting late in the afternoon. I’d better get back home!’ And God said to him, ‘Enoch, you’re closer to My home than you are to your home; so you come on home with Me.’ And so Enoch went home with God.” I do not know how you can put it any better than that, my friend. That is exactly the story that is here.

McGee, J. Vernon: Thru the Bible Commentary. electronic ed. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1981, S. 1:ix-34