5:24 Enoch walked. Twice Enoch’s walk with God is mentioned, and he is elsewhere (Jude 14,15) said to have been a great prophet who prophesied of God’s ultimate judgment on all ungodliness at His coming, as well as its precursive fulfillment at the coming Deluge. There are at least three apocryphal books that have been attributed to Enoch, and they may have preserved certain elements of his prophecies. However, in their present form at least, they actually date from shortly before the time of Christ and are certainly not part of the inspired Scriptures.

5:24 was not. It is not said of Enoch that he “died,” like the other antediluvian patriarchs, but only that suddenly he was no longer present on earth. The New Testament makes it plain that he “was translated that he should not see death” (Hebrews 11:5). Elijah had a similar experience twenty-five centuries later (II Kings 2:11). Both Enoch and Elijah were prophets of judgment to come, ministering in times of deep apostasy. Enoch, as the “seventh from Adam” (Jude 14), a contemporary of ungodly Lamech (Genesis 4:18-24), prophesied midway between Adam and Abraham, when God was dealing directly with mankind in general. Elijah prophesied midway between Abraham and Christ, when God was dealing with Israel in particular. Both were translated in the physical flesh directly to heaven (not yet glorified, as at the coming rapture of the church, described in I Thessalonians 4:13-17, since Christ had not yet been glorified).

5:24 God took him. The text does not say where God took him, but presumably he, like Elijah, was taken into heaven and into the personal presence of God. Elijah is definitely scheduled to return to earth to preach again (Malachi 4:5, 6; Matthew 17:11), and it may well be that Enoch will accompany Elijah, and they will serve as the two prophetic witnesses of Revelation 11:3-12, prophesying again of God’s coming judgment, this time to the whole world, both Jew and Gentile.