Enoch lived in a time of great wickedness and turmoil. The people among whom he lived ‘denied’ the Lord, ‘sought their own counsels in the dark,’ ‘devised murder,’ and did not keep the commandments (see Moses 6:28). Even so, Enoch received the invitation from the Lord: ‘walk with me’ (Moses 6:34).
Although he felt inadequate and unqualified for the task, Enoch accepted the invitation. His covenant with God, to walk with Him, promised enormous blessings and opportunities-eyes to see, a mouth that would be filled with the words of God, the Spirit, power over the land (mountains to flee and rivers to turn from their course)-but not a guarantee of a life free from sorrow or hardship. He had to fight battles and to represent God in ways that ‘offended’ others because of his words and his choices. He had to continue in prayer and in preaching over a very long period of time. Ultimately, he had to witness the painful sorrow of the God of the whole earth, to witness the misery of His children as they turned away from Him, and to feel and know, at least in part, the heart-wrenching poignancy of such wickedness and unhappiness when there could be, indeed was offered repeatedly, such an abundance of light and joy.
In ‘process of time,’ even with the evident wickedness abounding, Enoch’s work helped convert and strengthen a people who became one-unified with the Lord and with one another in heart and mind (they were called Zion). A people who walked with God to such a degree that, eventually, they were ‘taken up into heaven,’ to walk with Him there (see Moses 7:21).
To walk with God is to follow the covenant path, set out by Him and designed for our greatest good. It is to have the grandest views of eternity, but also to feel the loneliness of the mocking voices of our brothers and sisters. It is to have power and confidence, but also to know the weariness of doing good in a world that does not recognize or want good sometimes. It is to endure in patience whatever battles we must fight, to experience both joy and sorrow over the choices of others and also to become intimately acquainted with our own weakness and inadequacy.
The beauty of walking with Him, however, is that we never have to experience any of those things without Him. His promise is that this covenant relationship, this ‘walk’ with Him, allows us to ‘abide‘ in Him-to stay, to continue with His power, His love, His grace, His knowledge in all of our journey. It is a promise of mountains moving and eyes that see His goodness in our lives. A promise of light and the companionship of the Spirit. A promise of partnership with the most powerful and knowledgable of beings. It is a promise of victory, of overcoming all things, of triumph because of Jesus Christ’s power and love.
In process of time, we, too, can find our hearts changed and molded along this walk to become like His. We can allow our experiences as we travel to refine us to the point that we become one in purpose and desire with the Savior. We can help gather others to this joyful ‘walk’. We can seek to walk with Him here in mortality to such a degree that we find it isn’t all that far to join that other Zion in heaven, that we have been together with Him all along.
