Solomon Aggrey - Following His Glory

God put Adam in the garden in Eden and told him, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’ (Genesis 2.16-17). The devil using the serpent deceived the woman, the wife of Adam. She ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and gave to Adam, her husband to eat. So, they disobeyed God and rebelled against God’s word, and declared themselves independent. As a result, the Spirit of God which had taken residence in them left and they lost their oneness with God.

Even though God knew what had happened, He went to the garden in Eden looking for them. ‘Where are you?’

Adam and Eve had heard the Voice of God walking in the garden and had hid themselves from His presence (Genesis 3.8). Adam replied, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’

The rebellion of Adam and his wife had made them naked before God. God did not tell them to hide themselves, but they hid themselves because they could not endure God’s presence.

‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?’

Adam and his wife, Eve, forfeited their unique relationship and communion with God when they sinned. They lost the image and the likeness of God with which they were created. Adam and Eve acquired a different image, a different constitution, and a different nature. They became of the flesh, no longer guided by God’s Spirit but by their own minds, desires and will. Adam and Eve also lost their influence or dominion on earth and the devil took over the dominion of the world.

When Adam and Eve saw they were naked, they covered themselves with fig leaves, but God killed innocent animals and covered them with the tunics, showing them that the way or the platform for direct access to God’s presence had changed (Genesis 3.21). The new way was that man would have to come to God and fellowship with Him through the sacrifice of innocent blood. The blood was the life of the animal, so the blood of the innocent animal in principle was exchanged for the death which sin brought. Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden in Eden. All mankind was at the loins of Adam when he sinned, and came out of Adam’s fallen nature. So, mankind sinned.

The word of the Psalmist implies that God used to visit Adam and Eve in the Garden in Eden. “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalms 8.4). It would not be incorrect to infer that Adam and God were good friends and they used to take walks together in the Garden in Eden, enjoying some time together before Adam’s fall. Adam therefore might have seen God face to face or seen a form of God’s presence, even though the Bible is silent about it.

The Bible does not tell us of anybody with such a close relationship with God until Enoch, the seventh patriarch. ‘Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters… And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.’ (Genesis 5.21-24). Enoch, walking with God, was consistently close and intimate to such an extent that God shared His heart with him, as a friend. God told Enoch of the whole plan of salvation of mankind, including the flood judgement and the earthly coming of His Son, Jesus.

God showed Enoch the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God, the antitupon of all sacrifices in the Old Testament. Jude, speaking about the patriarch Enoch, says, “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying:

‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints to execute judgement on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’

Jude 1.14-15.

So, the earliest prophecy of the Second Coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ, came from Enoch, the seventh patriarch, about four thousand years before Jesus Christ was born. Enoch tapped far beyond his time, into our time, because he walked closely with the eternal God.

Walking so close with God would have entailed knowing the will, desires and the pleasures of God and living a life of holiness, consecration, and oneness with Him. The prophet Amos questioned, ‘Can two walk together unless they are agreed?’ In other words, one has to have the nature or the image of God to be able to walk with Him.

I believe Enoch literally walked with God in the garden in Eden because it was the place God had a closer relationship with Adam. In that case, Enoch might have been given access to the Garden in Eden, either through visions, dreams and trans-locations. Therefore, Enoch might have seen God face to face or a form of His presence, but the Bible is silent about it (one can find it in extra-biblical books). The way of Access to God had been changed, after the sin of Adam. The way had to go through the sacrifice of an innocent animal. So, what special grace did Enoch have, to walk so close with God as a son of Adam? There was no ‘church’ and no religion. So how did he do it? There might be an ancient way which mankind is not aware of. ‘Thus says the Lord; ‘Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.’ (Jeremiah 6.16). I am interested, and would like to know the old path and pursue it.

Enoch lived at the time when sin and wickedness were dominating the world. It was the time some angels, referred to as sons of God, took wives of the daughters of men and produced sons with hybrid DNA, called mighty men and men of renown (Genesis 6.1-4).

Those hybrid sons were giants. They taught mankind wickedness, witchcraft, occultism, war, and many other evil things, so that evil and wickedness were so great on the earth that God grieved He had created mankind. God used Enoch to preach righteousness and bring correctness and repentance to the world at that time. ‘By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found, because God had taken him’, for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.’ (Hebrews 11.5). Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah. I believe the word of righteousness might have come to Enoch after the birth of Methuselah; how to avert the flood judgement and the final fire judgment. He heard the same Voice that walked in the Garden of Eden looking for Adam and Eve. This time, God was looking for and reaching out to the erring mankind and angels.

Enoch means ‘initiated’ or ‘dedicated’. He was the first preacher of righteousness. He preached to the sinful world, including the fallen angels, about the coming flood judgement. His first-born son was Methuselah. The proper name ‘Methuselah’ means ‘a man of dart’ or ‘a man of javelin,’ but from the roots of the name – Muth, meaning ‘death’ and ‘shalach’ meaning ‘to bring’ or ‘to send forth’ – the name Methuselah could mean ‘his death will bring.’ The Dake Annotated Reference Bible states the meaning as ‘when he is dead it [the deluge] shall come.’ So Enoch named Methuselah prophetically, ‘his death shall bring the flood.’ Methuselah lived 969 years; the longest of all the patriarchs. In the same year that Methuselah died (about 1656 years after Adam), the flood judgement came.

Enoch, as the first preacher of righteousness and repentance, was an example of “the voice of the one crying in the wilderness … make straight in the desert a highway for the Lord.”

‘The voice of the one crying in the wilderness; prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together … O Zion, you who brings good tidings, get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, you who brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’ Behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand and His arm shall rule for Him; behold His reward is with Him, and His word before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom and lead those who are with young.’