"And He Died"

“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:5-6 ESV)

The writer of Hebrews emphasized that faith is essential to truly please God and to develop a personal relationship with Him, not merely to follow rituals or worship idols. Many mistakenly believe that their religiosity is the key to salvation. Many are “religious” but acknowledging that there is a god, or many gods, is not having faith in the one living God.

People will worship anything. Crosses, Saints, people, whatever they choose; however, their religiosity is misplaced. I must correct people when they call Christians spiritual or religious, and those words do not correctly define a Christian. We are believers in the one living God, saved by grace, through faith in Christ alone. Being “spiritual, or “religious,” does not mean you are earning your way to heaven. It means nothing to God.

Let us look at the Book of Genesis, chapter 5. I call this the chapter “and he died.” The reason is that, according to the lineage from Adam to Noah, everyone died except Enoch. Starting with Adam:

“When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.” (v. 3-5) 

To Lamech, the father of Noah: “When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters.  Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died.” (v.28-31)

Everyone in the lineage of Noah died, with the exception of Enoch. Let us look at what is written about this man. “When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.  After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” (V. 21-24)

Why did Enoch not die? Consider this: Scripture tells us that Enoch walked faithfully with God for 300 years. We cannot even walk faithfully for one day, much less 300 years. Many say, well, Enoch lived in a different time, and the world was not as wicked as it is today. Wrong. Humanity was evolving, and it was evil. Enoch bore Methuselah.

Strong's dictionary defines the name Methuselah as "man of the dart". This is based on the root words:

• Metu (from mat, Strong’s #4962) – “man.”

• Shelach (Strong’s #7973) – “weapon” or “missile.”

There is, however, another possibility regarding the name of Methuselah. The word metu may be derived from the word mot, meaning death, and the "u" is a suffix that means "their" - "their death". There is no way to know for certain if the final vowel in metu was an "o" or a "u," as the vowel pointings that make that distinction are of fairly recent origin. If it was originally an "o", then the suffix would change to "his" - "his death".

The word shelach (missile or weapon) is the noun form of the verb shalach meaning "to send" (a missile or weapon that is sent). Shelach has a more literal meaning: "to send something".

This gives us potential translations such as:

• Their death sends

• His death sends 1.

• 
  

Interestingly enough, the day Methuselah died, God sent the flood. Methuselah was the longest living person in the Bible, living 969. For 969 years, his name was perhaps a warning to all that destruction was coming. Remember, Methuselah was the son of Enoch.

Like Abraham, Enoch had faith in God before God made it clear that faith in Christ is the key to salvation. Enoch was considered righteous before God, as we know he “walked with God” his entire life. God took Enoch away. Meaning Enoch was alive when God brought Enoch into His presence. This sounds much like the rapture of the church when we will all be brought into the air to meet the Lord. This happened because Enoch had placed his faith in God.

As the writer of Hebrews told us, for us to be pleasing to God, to walk with God, we must believe, we must have faith. Our faith is rewarded in our salvation. Justification and sanctification occur by grace, through faith in Christ alone as our Savior. Salvation by faith is not a New Testament concept. When we look back through the Old Testament, men of faith were made righteous by faith. Abel showed his faith by building an altar and sacrificing to the Lord. The writer of Hebrews told us, “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.”  We already spoke of Abraham and Enoch, both righteous by faith. Faith in Christ is our saving grace.

Where are you in your faith? Have you been made righteous, justified before God? If your life were documented, what could be said about your walk with God? Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior? If not, seek Christ now before Christ calls believers to himself.

Grace and Peace.

1. https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/definition/Methuselah.htm, accessed 2/11/2026