There isn't all too much we find out from the Bible about Enoch, except that he "walked with God" (Gen.5:22), and accordingly, he "only" lived 365 years on this earth and then "was not; for God took him" (Gen.5:24). Apparently he was also a "fast learner," presumably like Abel, and others God can call Home from school earlier than the rest of us, and he simply wasn't needed down here anymore. He never even died, he was just taken. The only other person in the Bible to share this fate is the prophet Elijah, who ascends to heaven in a "chariot of fire" (2Kings 2:11). Apparently God has His special VIP type of saints for whom He personally sends a heavenly taxi to pick them up.

Perhaps in Enoch's day they didn't even use chariots of fire yet, but things went so slow, they simply walked. They had enough time. Enoch just went for one of his long walks with the Lord one day and perhaps said, "Do I have to go home again now?" And maybe the Lord answered, "Not, if you don't want to..." and he took him Home instead. We'll probably find out some day how it really happened. I'm sure.

According to the Bible, there are people who "will never see death" (John 8:51, Matth.16:28). In fact, the end of the world as we know it will appear in an event called "the Rapture" or the 2nd Coming of Christ, in which He will just call His believers to rise up into the air to Him (1Thes.4:16-18, Matth.24:30,31, Rev.11:12,15). What He has done for Enoch, He can do for others.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, according to the Bible (and this book is being written on the premise that the Bible is true), Enoch, Adam's descendent in the 7th generation, contrary to our current concept of "primitive man," was able to write. He wrote: "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all..." (Jude 14,15).

If we thought we were smarter than God, we could tell Him, "Well, You should have known better..." but in the end, God always finds a few who are worth all the trouble, after all. It's not that they are necessarily perfect, but at least they're crazy enough to believe in Him, instead of the Big Lie that rules the big, tough and strong who rule the world. Even when they start receiving such downright crazy instructions from Him as to build a gigantic ship, big enough to house a pair of every land animal in it, because something was going to happen that never happened before.

In the Beginning, we read, "God had not caused it to rain upon the earth... but there went up a mist from the face of the earth and watered the whole ground" (Gen.2:5,6). Furthermore, we find in Genesis 1:6,7 the strong indication that God created the sky as a separation between the earth's surface and waters which were above. If you ever wondered where most of that water came from that was supposed to have covered the earth during the flood: it was above the atmosphere beforehand, and simultaneously the reason for the long lives of men and animals and plants alike, explaining the size of some of them, as from "prehistoric" findings and fossils.

I guess, if one should wrap up the greatest lesson we can glean from Noah, it would be that "sometimes a man's just gotta do what he's gotta do," even if it may seem to be making absolutely no sense at all.

We traditionally picture Noah surrounded by the wicked who mock and scorn him for what he's doing. According to the Books of Adam and Eve, most of the descendants of Seth remain on some holy mountain until shortly before the flood and were separated from the descendants of Cain except for a few incidents. There are certainly more things about Noah we don't know than what we do know of him.

Most people figure it would have been too cruel for God to wipe out all of mankind. We sometimes tend to think better of ourselves than we really are. I personally trust God enough to know that He knew what He was doing, and believe that we'll all know someday that He knew best.

Nevertheless, the events of the flood must have been quite a traumatic experience for Noah, or at least for some reason or other we find him turning to wine in his later days. Things were just never the same again, after the flood: The climate must have been severely affected. There must have been water everywhere for years, until it finally sunk deep enough into the earth to bring about the dividing of the continents and the forming of the oceans a few generations later, in the times of "Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided" (Gen.10:25).

Whereas at the beginning of creation, God had ordained plants to be the food for man and animals (Gen.1:30), many believe that it was now, after the flood, that man and animals started to become carnivorous. The life-span of man and beast drastically dwindled because of the disappearance of the protective layer of water that had been above the atmosphere beforehand.

The signs of death and destruction must have been around everywhere for the first years, decades, if not centuries after the flood. No wonder Noah sought comfort in the drink (Genesis 9:21).

Contrary to modern thinking and "openness," we find here a first indication of God's thoughts on homosexuality (Gen.10:24), when Noah curses his grandson, Canaan for "what he had done unto him," without giving any specific details, except that wine and nudity had been involved...

(Heavenly input on Noah:)