Genesis 4:17 – “And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.”
I’ve been meditating on the messages we’ve heard since last Wednesday evening and a singular theme ties them all together: choice. Everyone must choose God, in faith, in order to please God. That choice, on paper, is a “no-brainer.” Yet, why do so many saved people end up in a spiritual Moab? Why do so many lost refuse to see the splendor of salvation?
As I was re-reading Genesis 5, which Bro Caleb Lindsey used as his text last Wednesday evening, I was reminded that there are two men named Enoch in Genesis 4&5. The Enoch we heard preached about chose to walk with God. The other had a different fate.
Cain, at some undisclosed time after he went out from the presence of the Lord, had a son. That son’s name was Enoch. Perhaps the two men named Enoch were alive at the same time, or perhaps one preceded the other, it does not make any difference. Cain’s son Enoch, chose to be heralded by man instead of being humble before God. His father, in the pride he had for his son, named a city, which Cain founded, after his son. Cain’s Enoch was heir to a city that bore his own name, yet no where do we find that he sought out his kinsmen, grandfather (Adam), Uncle (Seth), or any of their descendants to learn how to walk with the Creator (as Enoch, the son of Jared, learned to do).
Each of us possesses a duality which causes the majority of our struggle to live as God has commanded. Our spirit wishes, and longs, to fellowship with God as just as Enoch, son of Jared, walked with God. Contrary to that desire, or flesh lusts after the world and sin, seeking to build cities which bare our name and proclaim our greatness. Our life will be like one of the men named Enoch, we much choose which we would strive to emulate.
Abraham, learned from his ancestor Enoch, who walked with God. He sought for a city that was already contracted. A city whose builder and maker was God. When we choose to walk with God, we may forsake all the cities of the world but we become inheritor of a much grander and fairer city.
One day, an eternal day, I will set foot in the city that was prepared for me by Jesus Christ himself, and I purpose to draw as nigh to Him in my walk now out of love for all that He has already done for me.
Chase a city if you want; like Cain, the prodigal son, Jonah (when he sought Tarshish), and so many others. Or you choose to seek the Creator.
Your fellowservant in Christ,
Bro. Jordan Foster
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