Genesis 3:10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
The first contact with God after disobedience resulted in man shrinking back and hiding his face from God. What happened is exactly what we talked about a few days ago in Seekers. Adam did not seek God even though God sought Adam. There was no face to face encounter.
God continued to seek man even after the fall or otherwise the events surrounding Cain and Abel would not have been a conversation between God and man. Since this is true then what is missing?
What was missing were consequences that do not lead to punishment. Was man capable of pleasing God in his sinful state?
Genesis 5:24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Hebrews 11:5 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.
This is an indication that sinful man can please God. What wasn’t said in Genesis was how Enoch walked with God. It was not until faith was in full view that we could attribute faith as the one thing that pleases God. So how did Enoch find the faith needed to walk with God?
I don’t know.
What I do know is that God was pleased with Enoch and spared him from the flood that was to come as his grandson Noah believed and obeyed God in building the Ark.
One man was saved from that great tribulation. Sure you can say that Noah and his family were saved in the Ark, but Enoch was saved without it.
What that tells me is God will save whom He wills regardless of what I think or believe.
Enoch’s way was not available to me, I needed an Ark, a life boat, in order to believe and obey God.