You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. (Deuteronomy 5) I want to bless you. I want it to go well with you. I want your days to be prolonged in the land I’m giving you. I want you to live–really live, “God declares.
Jesus said the same thing when He said, “I have come that you might have life abundantly.” (John 10). God’s plan and desire is not abundant life only presently–but on into eternity. In Genesis 5, we see the story of a man who walked with God quite literally.When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. (ESV)
At age 65, Enoch began walking with God. For three hundred years, he walked so closely with the Lord that it was if one day, the Lord looked at him and said, “Enoch, we’re closer to My house than yours, so why don’t you just come on up and stay with Me? Enoch never died. He was just raptured, translated, and snatached up into heaven, where he is living to this day.
You see, walking with God has benefits not only in this life but in heaven–where all things will be right, where every tear will be dried, where every question will be answered, where every problem be solved.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3 ESV) God not only declares that man should walk with Him, but He desires that man would walk with Him. That is, our walking with God is not only for our benefit but for His enjoyment. We see this in Genesis 3, a story we know well. After Adam and Eve rebelled against the Lord in the Garden of Eden, when Adam heard God walking in the cool of the day, he hid himself because evidently, God and Adam had a habit of walking together at that time. God showed up for His appointment, but Adam hid because now they were no longer in agreement.
God desired that man would walk with with Him. But man started doing His own thing–even though sin entered us, God did not give up on us. God sent His Son to be slain for our sin, to take away the disharmony, the disagreement, the barrier between us and God.
Jesus walked in perfect harmony with the Father. As people watched Him walk, as they listened to the words He spoke, as they saw the deeds He did, they followed Him. Why? He lived life the way it was meant to be lived. There was a quality, a vitality, an attractiveness about Him that caused people to want to know what He said, to travel where He was going. Jesus asks the question that needs to be asked of every individual who has ever lived: what are you seeking? What are you really after?
