When we came to the church life, the church life provided a sphere—a sphere of promise. It is the sphere that the Lord promised to Abraham and his descendants: “Now lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; For all the land that you see I will give to you and to your seed forever…Rise up; walk through the land according to its length and its breadth, for I will give it to you” (Genesis 13:14-17). We are the descendants of Abraham; wherever we walk, that is our territory. But we have to walk with God. Walking with God is not an action, but a domain in which to live.
𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞. The whole Bible records the history of the true second generation, a new genealogy that began with Seth. His birth signified a new beginning after Cain fell: “And Adam knew his wife again. And she gave birth to a son and called his name Seth, for, she said, God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, because Cain slew him. And to Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time men began to call upon the name of Jehovah” (Gen. 4:25-26). Even though man had fallen terribly, mankind had a new beginning once again through this very specific line of life: the generation brought forth from Seth when he begat his son, Enosh.
Enosh marks the first instance in the Bible of men calling upon the name of the Lord. The name Enosh means “frail, mortal man.” Like Abel, who lived with the understanding that he was merely “breath or vanity,” men at the time of Enosh realized that their life was vanity—that they were frail and mortal. The new generation started with the understanding that we are frail—that we are born in that frailty, and would depend on and look to God’s way. Out of that realization, they spontaneously began to call upon the name of the Lord. That calling is an entrance into a new life supply. Although those on this line were vain and weak, by calling on the name of the Lord they were made rich and strong, for they entered into the riches and strength of the One on whom they called. (ref. Gen. 4:26, footnote 1a) Enosh gave up being a hero—gave up his pride, his dignity, and his self-righteousness—because he understood his own condition, his own limitations and mortality. All he could rely on was calling—connecting to that intrinsic life supply. Just as a baby in the womb never fights its mother to eat, simply receiving and taking in life from that umbilical supply, we also are supplied and governed by that life.
In contrast, Cain tried to be strong, not frail, and ushered in the second fall of man; he tried to avoid death by building up human culture and cities by his own power. Even though he grew up as Adam’s first son and knew his own genealogy, he made the conscious choice to live separated from that intrinsic line and supply of life. The result is that Cain’s life took on a false security and became unstable—a life of toiling and fear. But Enosh recognized his own frailty and, for some reason, he wasn’t scared of his own mortality. He simply called on the Lord’s name and, in doing so, received that intrinsic life supply.
That recognition in us is just like a fingerprint; we find ourselves in the spiritual reality—the way we were made to be. Only then can we come out of the life of wandering. This spiritual reality—the truth of who we are, of our frailty, and of our source of life—is a help to man to turn back to God. Adam and Eve fell. Yet as we read in Genesis chapter 5, the line of life from Adam and Eve continued to progress, deepening the experience of man’s salvation. God preached the gospel to Adam and Eve, but their grandson learned to call on the Lord, and out of that deepened relationship with the Creator, their great-great-great-great-grandson would be our pattern to walk with God. Walking with God is a deeper progression in life from calling on His name; it is the life that results from constantly calling on him. To walk with God is to do what God wants to do, to go where He wants to go rather than where we want to go.
Hebrews also tells us that Enoch was walking with God for three hundred years “by faith,” and was someone who not only obeyed God but was diligently seeking after Him, believing that “He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Heb. 11:5). This is how fallen man could be well-pleasing to Jehovah, and this is how man could recover the relationship of God and man and ultimately escape the sting of death: “And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). Enoch was the first person in the history of the Bible to be raptured. Although many Christians talk of the “rapture” at the end times, not many see that within the first five chapters of the Bible, we can already see what kind of maturity in life and relationship with God form the principle and basis for man’s rapture—it is not as mysterious or strange as we human beings imagine it to be. This principle forms an intrinsic line that we’re continuing today.
Although, to some people, Genesis chapters 4 and 5 may seem like a mundane collection of names and numbers, from Enosh to Enoch we actually see a picture of the progression of the line of life in the Bible; we see a deepening of the experience of salvation that we as believers can have through continuing this lineage of life. This life gives you the sense to live—to call just as we spontaneously breathe the air, to walk by faith and diligently seek after Him. It is in this domain—this sphere—that we gain Christ, the very good land that was promised to us.
Actually, today we have more than Enosh, Enoch, or any of the Old Testament saints. As Hebrews tells us, while these saints “obtained a good testimony through their faith,” they “did not obtain the promise.” Today, we have “something better” that is not just promised, but lived out. (Heb. 11:40) Because the Spirit has come, we have the true mingled experience of calling and walking and even being completely one with our God. When we call, we have a direct line to the Spirit in our spirit, so that we call, live, and walk by the spirit inside of us. This is the New Testament living and how we can gain new territory in the Lord, step by step, day by day.
(𝐴𝑏𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑎 𝑔𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛 07/31/2020, 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟.)