The Seventh from Adam: Enoch’s Walk and the Prophecy of the Last Days

The list of genealogies in Genesis is often skipped over, yet hidden within these ancient records is one of the most powerful and unique prophetic narratives: the life and translation of Enoch. His story, a mere three verses in Genesis, is pivotal, especially for those focused on The Lord’s Return.

The Anomaly in the Genealogy

The book of Genesis presents the line from Adam to Noah as a relentless sequence of birth, life, and death: “And he lived… and he begat… and he died.” This pattern is broken only once, for Enoch:

“And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” (Genesis 5:23–24, KJV)

Enoch did not “die.” He was “taken.” This immediate transition to God’s presence serves as a profound type or foreshadowing of a final, glorious event: the removal of a righteous generation from the earth before a sweeping judgment.

Enoch’s Pre-Sinai Walk with God

Enoch lived during the antediluvian age—the time before the Flood—a period characterized by rapidly increasing wickedness and disregard for God’s foundational law. His life proves that righteousness, holiness, and the ability to walk in full communion with God were possible centuries before the Law was codified at Sinai. His life was the ultimate example of the principles before the tablets.

The phrase “Enoch walked with God” (Genesis 5:22, KJV) means he lived a life of sustained, intimate fellowship and obedience, a relationship so perfect that it transcended the natural limits of human life.

Enoch’s Prophetic Warning

The Book of Jude, the final book before the Revelation of Jesus Christ, confirms Enoch’s role as the first prophet to speak of the Second Coming of the Lord:

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 1:14–15, KJV)

Enoch, the prophet who was removed from the earth before the devastating judgment of the Flood, was the one who first declared the final, universal judgment of The Lord’s Return.

The Connection to The Lord’s Return

Enoch’s life provides a critical blueprint for the last days:

1. A Pattern of Removal: His translation before the global flood is often understood as a prophetic picture of how a righteous people will be removed (raptured) before the final great tribulation and judgment.
2. A Certainty of Judgment: His prophecy guarantees that the same moral standard that governed the antediluvian world—and which was rejected by them—will be the standard by which all ungodliness is judged when the Lord returns.
3. The Promise of Intimacy: The reward for his dedicated walk—the immediate presence of God—is the ultimate promise for all who faithfully follow the Lord.

Enoch’s brief story confirms that the principles of God’s law are eternal, that judgment is certain, and that the promise of The Return was declared at the very dawn of human history.