By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

It is tempting to think of Enoch as the picture of a perfect man, just like Jesus, since he was taken away without dying. This is in part because so little was known about him from the Bible. For context, I think it is important to consider the only other man who never died (as far as we know due to the record of history) — Elijah. Elijah was not a perfect man. In fact he, at one time, tried to run away from God’s calling out of fear and/or anger. This was because Jezebel, the Queen of Israel, declared she was going to kill him in retribution for his showdown with the prophets of Baal.

So if the context for being highly honored by God, to a level of forgoing death, is not perfection, what is it?

I think there are two things from Elijah’s and Enoch’s life that stand out to me: 1) They pleased God. This means they had a devoted faith in God and an all-out, “no matter the consequences” type of loyalty to his ways and his commands. They had, through obedience and faith, developed a heart after God’s own heart. And this gave them immense spiritual power in life. 2) They failed forward. When they fell, they got back up and worked through the failure, surrendering it to God. They then faithfully served him again.

This is the context into which the statement is made: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

So faith is both a faith in God’s existence and a faith in his goodness, and that he keeps his promises to reward his followers. It is a faith that is not so much theoretical as practical. This type of faith “acts before it sees” in obedience to God’s commands.

Lord, thank you that you do exist and are alive and active in my life. You want to know me, not just in my perfection, but also in my failures. You are more interested in the growth of my faith and my heart, than perfection. And you reward me when I serve you and your people!