Following His Glory E-Book

Solomon Aggrey

• Herausgeber: novum pro Verlag
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 397

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

The Holy Bible begins with the words, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." However, the Bible also describes God as One who declares the end from the beginning; and so the Old Testament was written to conform to the eternal mind of God and what is to come. The New Testament fulfils and gives the true meaning to the foreshadowing and prophecy in the Old Testament. What happened to the children of Israel on their journey to the promised land, according to Apostle Paul, happened to them as examples. If the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to the promise land is properly decoded, it will reveal the roadmap which is laid out for mankind.

Leseprobe

Contents

Imprint 2

Introduction 3

Foreword 10

Chapter 1 - The Voice In The Garden 16

Chapter 2 - The Voice In The Fire 39

Chapter 3 - The Vessel Is Made Ready 57

Chapter 4 - Show Me Your Glory 71

Chapter 5 - The Abiding Glory 93

Chapter 6 - Crossing The Jordan 109

Chapter 7 - Gilgal Experiences 130

Chapter 8 - The Glory On Mount Zion 140

Chapter 9 - Coming To Mount Zion 157

Chapter 10 - The Early Outpourings 169

Chapter 11 - Through The Second Outpouring 191

Chapter 12 - The Sound Of Abundance Of Rain 209

Imprint

All rights of distribution, also through movies, radio and television, photomechanical reproduction, sound carrier, electronic medium and reprinting in excerpts are reserved.

© 2022 novum publishing

ISBN print edition:978-3-99107-732-9

ISBN e-book: 978-3-99107-733-6

Editor:Ashleigh Brassfield, DipEdit

Cover images:Rolffimages | Dreamstime.com

Cover design, layout & typesetting:novum publishing

www.novum-publishing.co.uk

Introduction

I have been very reluctant to write a book. A solicitor who visited our church said to me, ‘Write a book about what you are teaching, and I will help you to edit it.’

I said, ‘No!’

Some other members of my church approached me and said, ‘Pastor, why don’t you put these messages into a book?’

I said, ‘No.’

There are millions of Christian books on the market. Some are excellent and are inspired by the Holy Spirit. The moment you begin to read them you feel the imprint of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, there are millions of other Christian books, the motives of which are obscure. Some are written for fame, some for prestige, some for money, and some to add the word ‘author’ to the names of the writers. These books make sense and have Bible quotations, may seem correct theologically, give good advice and have laudable conclusions, but they do not have the life of the Spirit of God. What you get from them is only in the mental realm. They are of the flesh, and what comes of the flesh is flesh, however much they are polished, presented and applauded. They do not work to advance the kingdom of God. The reason why I was reluctant to write a book was because I did not want to birth or add to these millions of flesh books. If it was not in my destiny to write a book, I was not going to force it.

There are also other books, which are released from the kingdom of darkness or empowered from the forces of darkness. They also quote the Holy Bible, and may seem doctrinally correct on the surface, but what they offer is spiritual death. The object of these demonic books is to bring people into darkness, bring confusion, cause people to doubt the Lord and to introduce a different image of Jesus Christ. The moment you begin to read such books, you also begin to lose your zeal and fervour for the Lord. Some of these books unknowingly introduce you to demons and witchcraft. Every Christian needs the help of the Holy Spirit to perceive such crafty counterfeits and choose what to read, especially in the time and age we live in.

Later the Lord suddenly began instructing me to write in dreams and visions. I was still not enthusiastic about it. The Lord sent some other prophets to confirm His word and to tell me to begin to write. I dragged my feet for a long time. OK, what am I going to write? Then the Lord told me in a flash of inspiration that the spirit is the pen. I began then to sense what was in my spirit, and when I put it on paper I was shocked myself at what I began to write; about the glory of the Lord God.

When it comes to anybody writing about the glory or the manifest presence of God, one has to humbly acknowledge his or her complete inadequacy and utter dependence on the Holy Spirit. Even those mighty prophets in the Bible who saw the glory of God found it very difficult to describe it in human language. As I continued to write I felt the Lord’s leading to follow the patterns of His glory He had already set in the Old Testament.

When the children of Israel came out of Egypt at the first Passover, the Bible says, ‘And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.’ (Ex 13.21-22). The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire together was the physical manifestation of God’s presence. So, the children of Israel followed the manifest presence of God, which would lead the way and also search out a place for them to camp.

‘Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.’

Exodus 40.36-28

The manifest presence of God led them through the Red Sea, through dry and desolate lands, through the wilderness of Sin until they came to the wilderness of Sinai. On Mount Sinai God descended in His glory and spoke to the children of Israel audibly. The children of Israel later said the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire. God gave them the law and instructed Moses to build a sanctuary so that He could dwell among them. The children of Israel built the tabernacle of the Lord, the centre of which was the Ark of the Covenant located in the most holy place of the tabernacle. On top of the Ark of the Covenant was the mercy seat. It was on the mercy seat the glory of God would appear to speak to the High Priest.

When the children of Israel left Mount Sinai, they followed the glory of the Lord by following the tabernacle. It took them through one camp after another for 40 years, until they reached their destination. In the Moabite plains the children of Israel had to cross the waters of Jordan into their promise. By that time Moses, Aaron and Miriam had died. A new commander and leader, Joshua, was in charge. He instructed the children of Israel:

‘When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.’

Joshua 3.3-4

The children of Israel followed the Ark of the Covenant through the waters of Jordan into Canaan; the land of their promise. The land of Canaan ‘flowing with milk and honey’ was really a symbol of God’s dwelling place in heaven which was a place of endless riches and delight. The Israelites had to go through the wilderness for 40 years before crossing over the Jordan into the Promised Land. Had anyone been left behind in the wilderness, he/she would not have survived the heat of the day, the cold in the night, the drought, the famine, and the perils of dangerous animals in the wilderness. ‘Following the Glory’ was crucial for their journey, their survival and for their promise.

What happened to the children of Israel throughout their journeys until they reached the promise land was a pattern to us. ‘Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.’ (1 Corinthians 10.11). All that happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness was a pattern for our time and generation. We too must follow the glory of God if we have to reach our inheritance and destiny. We are going to pass through some difficult, rough, and hard times, persecutions and tribulations. We must also identify and follow the glory of God if we are to survive.

In the end time, the activities of the antichrist system and the corresponding judgement of God will make things impossible in the natural world. The Bible says, ‘He who endures to the end shall be saved.’ It also says, ‘Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ We need to follow the glory of God more in the times we live in. Coming very soon are times when we cannot afford to walk in error and ignorance. We shall need the hand of the Omnipotent, the mind of the Omnipresence and the word of the Omniscience to survive, otherwise we shall lose our promise and even be destroyed.

Yet today, believers know more about gifts of the Holy Spirit and the anointing but know very little about the glory of God. The world has seen the Pentecostal Revival, Evangelical Revival, and the Charismatic Revival. In all of them, there was a measure of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We have read books about the glory of God and heard preachers preach about it, but we have come to the point where we need to experience it for ourselves.

I started as an Anglican priest. While praying the heavens opened and I saw a mighty building, like a church. It stayed in my view for about one minute and slowly dissipated. I was not prepared for that. As a normal Anglican priest, I was not quite conversant with such visions then. What is the meaning of this? I began a search for understanding. Perhaps the search for God had begun earlier than I thought, I don’t know. But the search for God still continues in my heart. How does one look for and search for an invisible God who is infinitely bigger and greater? How does one begin to search for the Creator who is omniscience, omnipresent and omnipotent? Where does one begin? The search, I realised, must begin within our own hearts. Therefore, our ideas and concepts about God must be true and not only depend on what we have been told or what we have read from books. We should allow the Holy Spirit, who is Spirit of truth, to guide and lead us to our destination, for we don’t know the way.

Some Christians speak as though it were easy to enter into God’s manifest presence and parley with Him. No! To put the rhetoric aside, the search for God is arduous and requires too much diligence to encourage any casual seeker. It is not for those with the wrong motives; it is for those who are truly serious and prepared to pay any price for an encounter with God. ‘And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart,’ says God through the prophet Jeremiah. The pattern of the journey of the children of Israel gives us clues.

God has guided my hands in many ways. He has led me back to the Old Testament shadows, copies, and patterns and shown me how they relate to the time in which we live. God is holy, not only in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament. He is the same God. Holiness is His nature, His essential self. He cannot do anything without His holiness. In the same way, God is love and He cannot do anything that is not love. So even God’s judgements are part of His loving nature and holiness.

God has chosen to guide man to fulfil His original intent. Man, through the first, Adam, decided to declare independence from God, walk away from Him and hide in fear. The Spirit of God therefore left the earth, but God promised to re-send His Spirit through Jesus Christ to guide us back to Him and to our inheritance. Without the Spirit of God, no man can find Him. Religion blossoms because of man’s attempt to find God without His help. We must come out of our religious beliefs in order to find God.

The Bible is much deeper than any theologian, any denomination, and any commentator. No one in the flesh has the full understanding and complete answers to all it has to offer mankind. Until we are transformed into Christ’s image we shall continue to see only in part and have different views and interpretations of the same thing. Whatever theological bias you hold, and whatever denomination or persuasion you belong to, does not matter to God if you are truly searching for Him. If you are truly seeking and searching for God, then we might be on the same side or in the same boat despite our theological differences.

You are perhaps going to read about something that you won’t like; something that would even seem to offend you and your doctrinal viewpoint. You may not like the style and language in which this book has been written. I would not be surprised. Sometimes I go back to what I had written earlier and wonder, ‘Did I really write that?’ Yes, the spirit is the pen. I am not writing to satisfy any doctrinal viewpoint; not even my own. If you are looking for something to disagree with or criticise you will find plenty in this book. I don’t hold any superior knowledge than what is written in the Holy Scriptures and perhaps what other inspired men of God have written and said. God is still speaking. He has never stopped speaking to those who can hear. Just because it is different from yours does not make it false.

If this book helps you to get a little glimpse of the Lord or helps you to get a little closer to His presence, then its purpose is served. All the glory goes to the Lord, for He only is worthy.

If, on the other hand, I have misinterpreted or misrepresented what the Holy Spirit is saying to me and to the church, I ask you to forgive me. I pray the Holy Spirit to impart to you Himself a true picture of what He wants to say to His church in the unique time in which we find ourselves.

The time in which we live is crucial. There has never been a time like this and there will never be. It is possible we might be the last generation to witness the second coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ. If this is the case, then we have a special and unique assignment to fulfil and we need to prepare ourselves. May God guide your steps to discover and follow His glory in the time in which we live.

Solomon S. Aggrey

Foreword

It is of paramount importance, right from the beginning of this book, to believe and understand that the whole Bible is the word of God. The word of God is not only the New Testament but also the Old Testament. The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are one and the same. It is a complete lack of understanding of the plan and purpose of God to try to show that the God of the New Testament is better or different from the God of the Old Testament, ‘For I am the LORD. I do not change.’ (Malachi 3.6).

The Old Testament conceals the will and plans of God, and the New Testament reveals the will and the plans of the same God.

‘Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from the ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.’’

Isaiah 46.9-10

It is like God’s signature tune, to declare the end from the beginning. There is no other god like Him. If by God’s grace the blindness which came over the eyes of nation of Israel in the wilderness is removed from the eyes of many Christians, we will realise that the first few books of the Bible encode the whole message, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the plan and the will of God. It was delivered to the Old Testament saints in shadows, types, and copies. To decode these prophetic messages one need to have an idea about the true meaning of these shadows, types and copies.

Everything God made and did in the world had to conform to the already existing realities and precedents in eternity. An example is the building of the Ark of the Covenant. ‘And see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.’ The true Ark of the Covenant was revealed when the Word become flesh and dwelt amongst us. In the New Testament one will find a lot of references to the Old Testament because the Old Testament forms the basis for the proper understanding of the New Testament. If one throws away the Old Testament, one has thrown away the foundation and disfigured the complete understanding of the message of God.

Moses, as the mediator and the redeemer of the children of Israel, was a type of Jesus Christ, the true Mediator and Redeemer. The nation of Israel can also be seen as the first nation, a type of New Testament nation, called ecclesia, church. Many of the things that happened to the first nation are reflected more fully in the New Testament.

‘So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come but the substance is of Christ.’

Colossians 2.16-17

The Old Testament was the shadow. What a powerful shadow! But what is a shadow? The Greek word for shadow is ‘skia,’ which means an imperfect copy or a reflection of the true substance. A shadow is an image cast by an object, making a form, a sketch, or an outline of the primary or the original object. The Bible says, ‘the substance is of Christ.’ Jesus Christ existed before the foundation of the world (Revelations 13.8), and He cast shadows in the Old Testament.

It means the laws, ordinances, statutes, times, seasons and feasts in the Old Testament, as powerful as they were, only presented shadows of the life and ministry of Christ, the anointed one. In other words, the laws, ordinances, statutes, times, seasons and feasts were images of the Lord Jesus Christ concealed, which became revealed in the New Testament. ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’

In the time of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ had not physically come to the earth, and the New Testament was in the future. So how can someone or an object which is not present cast a shadow? The substance or the original substance was already existing in eternity. When the light of God fell on Him, who was already existing in eternity, it cast a shadow in the Old Testament. The Old Testament, then, was pointing to the original intent of God, which was fully revealed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament.

‘Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.’

1 Corinthians 10.11

The reference points of these ‘examples’ were the experiences the children of Israel went through, especially in their journey to the promised land; the cloud, the glory of God, the wilderness experiences, the signs and the miracles. The Greek word for ‘example’ istupos.Tuposmeans a type, a constituent element of some reality which is yet to come; a prototype or a preview; that which is yet to be evolved, developed and perfected. So, the events which occurred in the Old Testament, especially to the children of Israel, were types, prototypes and previews of what was to happen to the children of God in the New Testament, the ecclesia (the church).

God also used copies in the Old Testament to point to the heavenly realm and what was to come in the New Testament.

‘Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.’

Hebrews 9.23-24

Two different Greek words are used for the word ‘copies.’ The first one ishupodeigma.It means ‘an example or an exhibit for imitation or for warning.’It can be seen as a specimen or a pattern of imitation. KJV uses the word patterns, so it reads, ‘Therefore it was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens,’ pointing us to the imitation of the things in heaven. The earthly tabernacle with all its utensils and services, so powerful, was just a copy. So, God hid the knowledge of the heavenly things in the earthly copies in the Old Testament.

He told Moses, ‘Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishing, just so you shall make it.’ (Exodus 25.8-9); so the earthly tabernacle was a copy, a ‘type.’

The second Greek word used for ‘copies’ is ‘antitupon’, meaning antitype. It is a combination of two words,anti, meaning equivalent or in its stead, andtupos, which we have already encountered as meaning a type, prototype, or preview.Antituponis therefore a form or a figure corresponding or representing a type or the prototype.Antituponis a figure answering to and representing a reality or the substance of the ‘type.’ The ‘type’ is in the Old Testament and the antitype is in a New Testament. In the Old Testament, God deals with the ‘types,’ copies, patterns and shadows, and in the New Testament, God deals with the antitype, the original intent and the substance.

With this understanding we can begin straight away to see that what happened to the saints in the Old Testament (like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses) were really shadows and patterns of what would happen to the New Testament saints. Apostle Paul says categorically in Galatians 3.29, ‘And if you are Christ’s you are Abraham’s seed, and heir according to the promise.’

The glory of God is addressed more in the Old Testament than in the New Testament because in the New Testament the glory of God is first and foremost within us. We are the temples of God. However, the Old Testament gives us more understanding of the nature and the character of the glory of God. Jesus Christ is ‘the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His Person.’ (Hebrews 1.3). He was the last expression of God which became flesh (John 1.14). So, one cannot know God unless He reveals Him. He said, ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father.’ All the shadows, copies, examples, and patterns were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Man is created as a pattern of the Ark of the Covenant. We have the spirit, a soul, and live in a body; spirit, soul and body. The glory of God dwelt in the most holy place in the Old Testament. So, the glory of God dwells in the spirit and not in the soul nor in the body. To discover the glory of God in us we have to bypass or go through the body and the soul.

The soul, which is self-conscious, acts like the veil in the tabernacle, to prevent us getting into our spirits. So even though the glory of God and the kingdom of God are within every truly born-again believer, we have still to learn to discover and engage them. I do not believe the soul is bad, but we need to bring our souls in line with our spirits and with God. You see, the children of Israel left Egypt, but Egypt was in their hearts. They had to learn to bring their souls in line with the will and purpose of God before entering the promised land. And this is exactly what we have to do.

God is in us, but we have to learn to discover Him. Many of us behave as if God is not in us, but only in heaven. Until we discover the God in us, we shall not know God, however much we try to substitute His presence with other things. It also means that we shall not be able to influence the world around us. ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’ Unless we turn this hope into a living faith, we still don’t know and have not experienced the glory of God. In the last days, discovering and following the glory of God will be crucial to our survival.

Chapter 1 - The Voice In The Garden

When God finished creating the heaven and the earth and saw that everything was good, He said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth,’ (Genesis 1.26). God gave Adam (mankind) dominion over the whole earth. ‘For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honour. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.’ (Psalms 8.5-6).

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.’

Isaiah 40.3-11

Enoch brought good tidings of Jehovah’s favour to the people of his day. He taught that people should lead righteous lives and change their ways so that God would have mercy on them and not bring judgement upon them. The people of his day did not listen to him.

Apostle Paul also speaks of Enoch, saying, ‘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. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.’ (Hebrews 11.5-6). Enoch was a man of great faith and so committed himself to seeking after God, walking in faith and obedience. He brought the message of the love of God as well as the judgement of God to his generation. Enoch pleased God and was raptured/translated to heaven, without seeing death.

Enoch, the seventh patriarch, symbolises the final remnant before the great and final judgement. He points to the fact that the last perfect or matured sons of God before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will walk with God so intimately that they will live in two realms (heaven and earth) at the same time. God will be their rest, comfort, and supply in difficult and evil times. Methuselah gave birth to Lamech and Lamech gave birth to Noah. Lamech said of Noah, ‘This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.’ (Genesis 5.29).

‘Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth … I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.’

Genesis 6.5-8.

Methuselah did not walk with God, nor did Lamech, son of Methuselah, but Noah was righteous and walked with God. The Bible says, ‘Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation. Noah walked with God.’ (Genesis 6.9). The meaning of Noah is ‘rest’ or ‘comfort.’ He was the tenth patriarch from Adam, the second preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2.5) and the second man who walked with God after Adam. Noah, like Enoch, lived in a terrible time; the period of time when violence, wickedness, evil, and sin were dominating the world.

The sins of Enoch’s generation continued into Noah’s days. As mentioned earlier, the sons of God from a previous creation sent to help mankind had married the women of the earth and had children of mixed genealogy called mighty men and men of renown:

‘Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose …There were giants on the earth in those days and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.’

Genesis 6.1-4

The word ‘giants’ in Hebrew is nephilim (from nephil). It originates from a root word, naphal, meaning to fall. So, the giants could be referred to as fallen men, but they were not the same as the fallen angels who rebelled with Satan. They were living alongside mankind in the time of Adam and Eve. The mighty men and the men of renown, children of the sons of God, were people with hybrid DNA. They were half spirits and half human, and were considered as semi-gods. They had superior knowledge and ruled the humans at that time. The names of some of the giants appeared in Greek mythology as Hercules, Jupiter, Pluto, etc.

As I have mentioned above, the mighty men and the men of renown corrupted mankind and taught them fornication, adultery, evil, wickedness, war, murder, occult science, witchcraft etc.

‘Wickedness of man was great in the earth and every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil …the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.’

Genesis 6.5, Genesis 6.11

Violence was and is one of the original characteristics of Satan. ‘By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing, out of the mountain of God …’ (Ezekiel 28.16). The world, in the time of Enoch through to Noah, was trading on the same platform as the devil, as it does today.

The root of the problem was the fact that the original human DNA was corrupted. If the activities of the mighty men and the men of renown were not stopped, the human race was doomed. ‘So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.’ (Genesis 6.12). The devil might have intended to corrupt and destroy the seed of the woman through whom the Messiah would come. The flood judgement wiped out the mighty men and men of renown, but they found their way back to the earth and were referred to as Anak (Numbers 13.22, Joshua 15.13), Rephaims, Zumins, Emim (Genesis 14.5), Zamzummims (Deuteronomy 2.20).

‘All flesh had corrupted their way on the earth’ but ‘Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation. Noah walked with God.’ (Genesis 6.9). The Hebrew word for perfect is tamiym. It means complete, entire, sound, and whole. It indicated that Noah’s DNA code was not corrupted or tainted. Noah had been able to separate and preserve himself from the sorcery, witchcraft, occultism and the corruption of his day. He had the perfect genetic code through which the seed of the woman (Jesus Christ) would come.

‘And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher-wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.’’

Genesis 6.13-14

‘By faith Noah, being divinely warned of the things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of righteousness which is according to faith.’

Hebrews 11.7

Noah was warned of the flood judgement because of his walk with God. ‘Things not yet seen’ included ‘the flood.’ Scripture in Genesis 2 suggests that there had not been any rain or flood before that time, so both Enoch and Noah had no physical knowledge of the flood except for what God told them or what they might have seen spiritually. They had to take the prophecy of the flood judgement by faith. Enoch therefore was the father of faith and righteousness and Noah the heir. Enoch mentored Noah; to put it another way, the mantle of Enoch fell upon Noah. They both were teachers or preachers of righteousness and they both walked with God.

God destroyed all living creatures on earth in the flood judgement except Noah, his family and samples of each kind of all living creatures, male and female. When the flood subsided, Noah and his family came out of the ark and started the human race again. God made a rainbow covenant with Noah that He was not going to destroy the world again by flood. The new race began to multiply and build cities and nations. But mankind, left to itself without the Spirit of God, could not produce a government like that of the kingdom of heaven, so they created various imitation governmental structures and systems to govern themselves; none of them perfect. The seed of chaos and darkness through Adam was already embedded deep in mankind and man could only produce his kind.

When the Bible says that ‘Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation. Noah walked with God,’ it does not include Noah’s wife, nor his children and their wives. Therefore, there were traces of corruption still on the face of the earth. ‘And Noah begot three sons; Shem, Ham and Japheth.’ Out of the three sons, Ham showed a tainted nature or DNA, the source of which might have come from the corruption of his day.

After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard, became drunk with wine and uncovered himself. His son, Ham, dishonoured his father by not covering his father’s nakedness, and Noah cursed him.

‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren … Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servants.’

Genesis 9.26-27

God made Shem the head of his brothers and the carrier of the promised seed, family blessing, and promise, and Ham the least.

Canaan was the fourth son of Ham (Genesis 10.6). So, the curse of Ham was to be fulfilled in the life of Canaan and his descendants. The descendants of Shem would have to wait until the iniquity of the Amorites (seed of Ham) was full and ready for judgement before the blessing of Shem could be realised (Genesis 15.16).

According to the Scripture the sons of Ham were Cush (Sudanese and Ethiopians), Mizraim (Egyptians), Put (Lybians) and Canaan (Sidonians, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and the Hamathites) (Genesis 10.6, 15-18). All the people who lived on the land of Canaan, which God gave to the descendants of Shem, were the descendants of Canaan. The land of Canaan was the very place the Nephilim, the mighty men and the men of renown, reappeared, so they might have been connected to the descendants of Ham.

Noah was 500 years old when he begot his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth (Gen 5.32). He was 600 years old when the flood came (Genesis 7.6). So, for about 100 years Noah was building the ark and preaching righteousness. The Bible indicates that the divine longsuffering waited while the ark was being prepared, but only eight people were saved from the water of judgement, the family of Noah, even though there was a Voice in the wilderness calling all the people to repentance for about 100 years (1 Peter 3.20).

Noah heard the same Voice Adam heard and Enoch heard in the garden in Eden and also became a teacher and preacher of righteousness. ‘Repent, turn to the Lord. Change your ways. Change your image. Judgement is coming. The Lord is gracious, He will pardon, He will forgive if you turn to Him again.’ Elijah cried in his day, ‘How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal follow him …’ (1 Kings 18.21).

Why did the people not listen to Noah? First, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had conditioned them to look at things around them only from the natural and the flesh’s point of view. What is this old man talking about? His mind is not working properly. Everything seems alright. Why is he talking about rain and judgement?