This morning the local Baptist minister presented a sermon that placed focus on Enoch. He pointed out how Enoch walked with God.
This comes from Genesis 5:24. One translation [NIV] puts it this way: “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
The King James Version says, “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”
The pastor mentioned that the Septuagint translation – the Greek transfer of Hebrew text, thus a paraphrase, not the original – presented “walked with” in a way that meant “Enoch pleased” God.
The root Hebrew word written is “halak,” which means, “to go, come, walk.” As such, the past tense can be read as saying, “Enoch went with God.”
Now, the Baptist minister then presented some opinions about what his congregation could use to model Enoch, where they could all equally claim, “I walked pleasingly with God.” This gave the impression that all one needs to do to be just as holy as Enoch is to say things like, “I do what God says to do,” without having ever heard the voice of God personally.
That misses the point of what the true meaning is for Genesis to say, “And Enoch walked with God.”
A couple of years ago, when I still held out hope that the Episcopal Church had some priests who were truly in service to Yahweh and followed His insightful lead, in order to be true good shepherds of flocks in need to divine guidance, I visited a blog created by the only Episcopal priest I had personally heard orate sermons of any merit and value.
This was during the dark days of COVID19, when the Church had tucked its tail between its legs and forbid any gatherings of Episcopalians in the buildings that were owned by that organization. Instead of holding church as before, all priests were told to find out how to present some livestream media presentation of mock services, which their congregations could watch each Sunday … to feel like a church service was being held.
It was during this time that I began to watch multiple priests, whom I knew (but had never heard orate a sermon); and, in that process I realized just out how widespread the ignorance of Scripture was in Episcopal priests. I witnessed firsthand how spiritually empty those priests were. All they offered was dogmatic ritual [prayer book procedures], which was followed from a book of rites that did not have prepared sermons to go along with the 'playbook.'
The priest whose blog I went to was not the lone priest of a church or parish. Instead, he was one of several in a school of priests – some cathedral setup – where their livestream services were difficult to watch.
When I read this priest’s homily, he ended it happily with imagery that gave the impression of him walking hand-in-hand with Jesus and God, as if they all three skipped down a dirt road together, each equal and separate. His words painted him as walking with God, where "with" meant "on the same path."
In the words of “Church Lady” (Dana Carvey): “Isn’t that special?”
Now, this priest’s blog is no different than anyone else’s blog, in the fact that any and all comments made are "pending approval." Any comments posted that are poorly received are most likely never going to be shared by the blogger, allowing his or her followers to read.
Like all my blogs, his blog posts had no comments or conversations that I saw. I was moved to talk to him personally about his homily, knowing how I wished my homilies and commentaries would generate a deep conversation about the true meaning of Scripture.
I critiqued his homily honestly.
After he responded with a demand that I call him and discuss my views personally on the phone (which I did), he basically threatened to beat me up, should we ever cross paths.
So much for him skipping merrily down the dirt road, hand-in-hand with Jesus and God.
That Episcopal priest, just like the Baptist minister I saw on the Internet, did not know the truth of the meaning “walking with God.”
Now, the Baptist minister said something like walking with God means that God then sends Jesus to walk with God's believers. That presence only requires belief in God and Jesus. It is the same imagery created that projects anyone calling himself or herself “Christian” as getting to walk with Jesus.
To “walk with God” means to marry one’s soul to Yahweh. God is not in possession of physical legs; so, God does not “walk” in the flesh. One’s soul is in a body of flesh, which does have legs; so, it physically walks. However, to “walk with God” means that soul is no longer the god of its flesh. A divine marriage of one’s soul to Yahweh means the complete and total surrender of self-worth, in submission to Yahweh’s way of life.
That way of life – where “life” means the promise of eternal life, as opposed to the mortal death that will release a non-committed soul for Judgment and recycling back into the plane of reincarnation – is the total agreement to forever follow the Commandments brought down by Moses.
Those Commandments are not memorized and intellectually remembered (rather than followed). They are written on the walls of one’s heart – one’s soul becomes one with each Command – which means that soul “walks in accordance to the direction of God.”
One no longer thinks, "should I do this to be holy?" or "can I do that and be sacred?" One acts [Hey! Didn't someone write a canonized book by that name?] as Yahweh Commands one … without having to think about anything [but the brain still works and becomes more in love with Yahweh, when one sees the beauty of His Commandments].
When one’s soul has surrendered self as its god, becoming the subservient wife of Yahweh [all bodies of flesh are daughters of the world, regardless of what sexual reproductive organs are present], then that wife becomes the womb in which the resurrection of Yahweh’s Son is born. This is when “walking with God” becomes as Jesus reborn.
All self-identity vanishes, when one has married Yahweh and become His Son reborn.
To "walk with God" then means to serve Yahweh as a true priest in ministry, sent with the soul of Jesus to teach the truth that saves other souls.
When one truly “walks with God,” one’s soul has been chosen to serve Yahweh as His Son, which means teaching the truth of Scripture to others, so their souls will find the truth the motivation to likewise submit completely to Yahweh and His Will.
This is why Peter (with John of Zebedee) reached down to a lame beggar and "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" commanded him to … walk. Peter (and John) walked with God, with the proof being they spoke for Yahweh as His Son reborn within each of them. They passed on the Spirit of Yahweh to the lame man, who rose and also walked with God.
This is not a temporary way of being. It is the way of eternal life … forevermore a soul walks with God. So, when that spiritual change takes place, one's soul (like Enoch's) has been taken away.
With this understood, it then becomes important to realize that the translation that says, “Enoch walked with God” is incorrect. The word “hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm” has been translated as “God,” when the truth says “Enoch walked with a divine soul merged with his own soul.” The word “elohim” means Enoch’s soul became married to Yahweh, resurrecting the soul of Adam-Jesus, making the soul of Enoch take on the angelic properties of eternal life, as opposed to the limits imposed on a body of flesh that is death.