Walking with God

"And Enoch walked with God; and he was not,

for God took him."

Genesis 5:24 (New American Standard Version)

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death;

and he was not found because God took him up;

for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.

And without fiath it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God

must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."

Hebrews 11:5,6 (New American Standard Version)

 

When I lace up my walking shoes and head out through my neighborhood on these pleasant autumn days and evenings, I think about Enoch, who "walked with God".  It is a privilege to live in a Mediterranean climate, where the same crops grow that grow in Israel, where so many of the Bible stories and parables are located.

 

Just around the corner, a neighbor has a fig tree. When I walk under its sprawling branches, trying to avoid the fruit that drops onto the sidewalk, I think of Jesus' encounter with the fruitless fig tree, which bore all the characteristics of a fig tree except the fruit. Jesus cursed the tree and it withered from the roots up. The tree was a symbol of the unbelievers within the nation of Israel, who had been given the truth through Moses and the prophets, yet refused to accept Jesus as Messiah, when he appeared in person among them. They bore all the characteristics of God's people except the saving faith in their Messiah. And, "without faith, it is impossible to please God". (Hebrews 11:6) 

 

Our next-door-neighbor has an olive tree, which makes me think of the illustration of the natural olive tree, being the Jews, and the wild olive branches, being the Gentiles, who are grafted onto the natural trunk.  In Romans 11, Paul instructs us Gentiles not to be arrogant against unbelieving Jews, because the Jewish faith is the foundation of the Christian faith.  We need to be praying for the Jews to accept Jesus as Messiah (Psalm 122:6; Romans 11:30-32).

 

Do these two tree stories seem to contradict one another?  They don't, really.  There are individual Jews who rejected Jesus as Messiah and came under God's curse, because they did not accept salvation through Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:16,17) And, there have been and will continue to be Jews who recognize Jesus, by faith, and accept his salvation. (Acts 6:7; Romans 11:23-28)

 

That's a lot to ponder on a walk with God!

--Posted by Mama O.