Enoch's Call - Genesis 5:22-24; Moses 6:26-30

The book of Genesis is pretty light on details when it comes to Enoch, saying only the he ‘walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” That doesn’t mean a whole lot to me, only that he was one of the righteous ones. Fortunately, other scripture gives us much more insight, not only into this remarkable man, but also into the gospel and it’s workings in humanity throughout ancient times. The IM notes, “Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam. He was born 630 years after the Fall, was ordained to the priesthood at 25 years of age, and at 430 years old he and his people were taken into heaven without tasting death (see D&C 107-49). An additional quotation from the prophecies of Enoch is found in Jude 1:14-15, and more information on his life is found in Luke 3:37 and Hebrews 11:5.” So it appears that the history of Enoch is found not only in exclusively LDS scripture but in the New Testament as well. This implies that the New Testament authors must have had access to a significant of scripture that we don’t have, which is really sad to me. The IM further notes that there are 7 topics covered by Enoch in the book of Moses: 1. The fall of man 2. Salvation and how to achieve it 3. Wickedness vs. righteousness in his day 4. Cause, purpose, and effects of the coming flood 5. Satan’s triumphs and God’s sorrow 6. The first advent of the Messiah 7. The second advent of the Messiah “and his peaceful, millennial reign It seems that Enoch wasn’t a stable city dweller for he “journeyed in the land, among the people, whether that is because of his way of life or his calling to preach repentance, I’m not sure. We do know that while he was thus journeying, “he heard a voice from heaven, saying: Enoch, my son, prophesy unto this people, and say unto them- Repent, for thus saith the Lord: I am angry with this people, and my fierce anger is kindled against them.” God is angry with the people because “ever since the day that I created them, have they gone astray, and have denied me.” This might make God sound a little bit petty, like “I’m mad because you’re not doing what I say,” but we have to remember that not doing what God says isn’t just about blind obedience, it’s about peace and happiness. The result of the people not listening to God is they have engrained in their society “their own abominations have they devised murder.” Its murder and violence and adultery that plagues the people because they didn’t listen to God, so it sounds to me like these are pretty high stakes. God’s command to Enoch is to warn the people, “They have brought upon themselves death; and a hell I have prepared for them, if they repent not.” He says that he’s also had the gospel preached to the people from “the beginning of the world,” so this isn’t something new. It’s interesting, I wonder if because the people on the earth at this point were so close to the beginning when Adam had the gospel and the priesthood and taught it to all his children, that they were held to a higher standard than we are today. I’ve thought a lot about the flood and the state of the people beforehand and it seems like Enoch was kind of the net filtering out people who would accept the gospel, which makes sense. I’ve wondered if God was willing to spare Sodom for the sake of only 50 righteous, surely there were more than throughout the whole world at the time of the flood. But if the “world” at this point was relatively small and Enoch and other righteous people preached repentance and those who accepted the gospel had go live in the city of Enoch because of the wickedness of everyone else, then it would make sense that only the wicked were left when the flood came. There is a part in the IM that discusses “Did Methuselah die in the flood?” debating his righteousness or wickedness. The IM notes that all evidence demonstrates that Methuselah was righteous and “once his work was done he may have been translated too, for during the nearly seven hundred years from the time the city of Enoch was translated until the time of the Flood the righteous saints were translated and joined Enoch’s people.” If this is the case then it would make sense that all the righteous were taken away from the world and then all that was left was the wicked. But for me this begs the question, why not just leave the righteous there to live among the wicked like we are doing now? I know that there was some talk of Enoch being a great military man back when we were studying another part, maybe the righteous could not be left alone by the wicked and it always took God’s divine intervention to save them. That’s interesting to think about.