Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5; Jude 14,15
Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. .
Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied…saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Enoch, the seventh from Adam, is expressly called a prophet; and Jude has preserved a fragment of one of his prophecies, relative to the corruption of the ante-diluvian world, and the approaching judgments of God.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): This prophecy is not recorded in the Old Testament.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We read in Deuteronomy 33:2 of the Lord’s coming “with ten thousands of saints.”
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): That Enoch wrote a prophecy, and left it behind him in writing, does not appear from hence, or elsewhere―Enoch’s prophecy was not written, as we know of.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Perhaps it was not written, but oral.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Some say that this prophecy of Enoch was preserved by tradition in the Jewish church; others that the apostle Jude was immediately inspired with the notice of it: be this as it may, it is certain that there was such a prophecy of ancient date, of long standing, and universally received in the Old Testament church; and it is a main point of our New Testament creed.
C. H. SPURGEON: When Enoch thus prophesied, we do not know. That he did so was revealed to Jude and he, here, tells us of it―how Jude knew that Enoch said that, I cannot tell—it is another instance of Divine Inspiration.
CHARLES SIMEON: Whatever means Jude attained the knowledge of it, whether by tradition, or by some written memorial, or by immediate inspiration, we may be sure that it was delivered by Enoch; and we may be thankful that such a precious fragment of inspired truth has been preserved to us.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Enoch prophesied that God would come, and, with a flood, punish that impious race among whom he lived, as well as punish the impenitent with everlasting destruction. By a parity of reason, Jude intimates, that the wicked of his day―and of all ages―may also expect to meet with the due reward of their deeds.
ROBERT HAWKER: It should seem from what is here said, that there were characters in those days not unlike the scoffers the Apostle Peter describes that should come in the last days, who derided the day of the Lord’s coming, 2 Peter 3:3,4―“There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?”
JOHN GILL: With respect to Christ’s coming to judgment, that is certain from prophecies, particularly from the prophecy of Enoch―this being prefaced with a “Behold,” shows the certainty of His coming, which nothing is more certain, and to be depended on, as appears from Enoch’s prophecy, and others of the Old Testament; from Christ’s own promise; from the testimony of angels; from the words of the apostles; and from the institution of the Lord’s supper―“till He come,” 1 Corinthians 11:26―and from the general expectation of the saints.
C. H. SPURGEON: It is clear that Enoch encountered opposition. I am certain that he did so from the context in Jude, because the passage in Jude has to do with “murmurers” and “complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaking great swelling words”―It is clear that they spoke against Enoch, they rejected his testimony, they grieved his spirit and he mourned that in this they were speaking against God. For he speaks “of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
CHARLES SIMEON: He was a bold and faithful witness for God, and doubtless incensed many against him. And “God took him” from a persecuting and ungodly world, who probably enough were seeking to destroy him on account of his pungent admonitions. It is said “he was not found.” This may refer to some search made by his friends―see 2 Kings 2:16; or rather, by his enemies―see 1 Kings 18:10.
C. H. SPURGEON: Enoch’s departure was a testimony. What did the Blessed Spirit say by the fact that, “he was not, for God took him,” but this—there is a future state. Men had begun to doubt it, but when they said, “Where is Enoch?” and those who had witnessed his departure said, “God took him,” it was to them an evidence that there was a God and that there was another world. And when they asked, “But where is his body?” there was another lesson―that the body is capable of immortality!
CHARLES SIMEON: While Enoch was in the body, he could not endure the full splendour of the divine glory―but God translated him, both in body and soul, to the highest heavens; making him thereby not only an eminent type of Christ’s ascension, but an earnest and pledge to us, that our bodies shall hereafter be raised.
C. H. SPURGEON: He could not bear testimony to the resurrection, for he did not die.
D. L. MOODY (1837-1899): Andrew Bonar has said that Enoch took a long walk one day, and has not got back yet. With one bound he leaped the river of death, and walked the crystal pavement of heaven…Moses, the great earthly chronicler, tells us nothing of the manner of his translation, beyond this―“he was not, for God took him.”
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): What God did for Enoch, He can, and will yet do, for a whole generation of saints.
MATTHEW HENRY: Those that are alive at our Lord’s coming will be caught up into the clouds, without dying, 1 Thessalonians 4:11. But it is plain from 1 Corinthians 15 that it will not be without changing from corruption to incorruption. The frame of their living bodies shall be thus altered, as well as those that are dead; and this “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”―this corruptible body must be made incorruptible, this mortal body must be changed into immortal body.
D. L. MOODY: Those simple, yet mysterious words, “he was not, for God took him” seem written in anticipation of that coming mystery, when the world shall wonder because from the bed, or the mill, or the open field, one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
THOMAS COKE: How illustrious was the prophesy with which Enoch was inspired―and which shall surely be accomplished in its season! The day is now much nearer, when the Lord will come with ten thousands of his saints: may the ungodly remember it, and suppress in time their speeches which will then assuredly be reproved, and repent of their deeds, which, if unrepented of, however forgotten now, will be brought into open view, and draw down upon their heads the destruction which at present seems to linger.
