It Is The Way The Record Is Written

Enoch, Moses, and Elijah all have something in common. Their life stories end in curious ways. Enoch is translated that he should not see death (Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5). His story ends like this and it mystifies us.1Moses dies in full vigor on Mount Nebo after viewing the promised land, and no man knows where he is buried (Deut 34:1-7). The unusual details surrounding his death stir our curiosity. And Elijah is swept up to heaven as he walks and talks with Elisha (2 Kgs 2:11). His story also mystifies us; it is literally left in mid-air! Every one of these stories is open-ended. Every one of them calls for completion. It is the way the record is written.

Enoch, Moses, and Elijah all have something else in common. Their stories find some sort of resolution on the mount of transfiguration. So, in fact, do the stories of all faithful men and women. But we will come to this later.

In the New Testament, also

The New Testament is not without similar curious stories. Philip the evangelist is caught away by the Spirit after preaching Christ to the eunuch from Ethiopia. The eunuch sees this and goes on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:39). The apostle Paul is caught up to the third heaven — into paradise — and sees and hears glorious things that defy human description (2 Cor 12:1-4).2And, in due time, we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, a prospect that Paul says should comfort us (1 Thess 4:16-18). In all of these cases life goes on.

It is worth thinking about these Biblical stories under one overarching theme. They are all “hereafter events”. They all involve faithful people. They are all miraculous. And they all hold promise for the future. They all tell us something about the things that God has in store for those who love him.

It is certainly no accident that God has provided at least one of these “hereafter events” in every age of man’s frailty. Enoch lived before the Flood; Moses in the earliest days of Israel’s history; Elijah during the dark days of Israel’s decline. Their experiences prompted hope in something better beyond this life. And when we come to the New Testament, hope finds fulfillment in the transfigured Lord Jesus Christ. It is the way the record is written.

Enoch

“And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Gen 5:21-24).

The Letter to the Hebrews adds this:

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb 11:5-6).

The story of Enoch is unique in the Old Testament, with the exception, of course, of Elijah’s experience in 2Kgs 2. The idea of his translation challenges us for explanation, as witnessed by the strange things that have been written about it over the years.

We get caught up, and we allow ourselves to get distracted, by the question of what happened to Enoch. The fact is that we are not told. So let it be said that we will be on solid ground, and remain on solid ground, if we avoid explanations that circumvent the fundamental Biblical principle of sin and death. In other words, it is axiomatic that all men die, without exception.

But having said this, the Biblical account of Enoch is deliberately framed to show us a man who lives and whose death is not recorded. It is the way the record is written.

And what kind of man is this? It is the man who comes to God and walks with God. It is the man who believes that God is and that he rewards those who dili­gently seek him. It is the man who pleases God. Enoch was this kind of man, and God gave him a unique foretaste of the reward. In a miraculous way, under circumstances that are only hinted at in the early chapters of Genesis, God gave Enoch life instead of death.

In 1870, the year before his own death, Bro. John Thomas wrote some wonderfully perceptive words about the translation of Enoch:3

“Such was the religion of the righteous among the Antediluvians. They were faithful and obedient; and, as the earnest of what awaited them in the fullness of time, ‘Enoch was translated, that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God.’ Thus they were taught that the corruptible body should put on in corruption, and this mortal should put on immortality, and so ‘death should be swallowed up in victory.’ ”4

Enoch was God’s archetype of the redeemed for a world that desperately needed redemption. His miraculous deliverance gave hope to those who were hanging on by faith.

Moses

The unique experiences of Moses began long before his death. It is he who wrote about Enoch. It is he who wrote the word that was in the beginning, declaring God’s purpose to create men and women who would be with him and be like him:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion … over all the earth” (Gen 1:26).

Almost certainly Moses understood that it was God’s purpose to show his glory in a body of redeemed men and women. And Moses became God’s archetype of the man of glory.

  • God commanded Moses to draw near to him: “Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him” (Exod 34:4).
  • And God drew near to Moses: “And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD” Exod 34:5).

There is resurrection language in the ascent of Moses, and there is advent language in the descent of God. It is the way the record is written.

And there was glory for the man who met with God: “And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai … that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him” (Exod).

The glory that beamed from the face of Moses was temporary, as we know. None of the Old Testament archetypes — Enoch, Moses, or Elijah — experienced anything permanent. The enduring glory remains for the age to come. But Israel had a glimpse of the glory in Moses.

In due time, God commanded Moses to ascend another mountain: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou shalt be gathered unto thy people” (Numb 27:12-13).

The fuller record is to be found at the end of Deuteronomy:

“And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” (Deut 34:1-7).

The story calls for completion. Moses was allowed to see the Promised Land but was not allowed to enter it. God is not unkind! He does not toy with His children and then toss them away! He gave Moses a glimpse of things to come: a “not now, but hereafter” lesson for him and for every faithful man and woman who reads what is written in the record.

And why tell us that Moses still had the vigor of manhood when he died? Is it not to make us understand that God interrupted the life of this faithful man when so much more could have followed? And is there not much more to follow, beyond this life? God will renew the strength of Moses; this faithful man will mount up with wings as an eagle; he will run again and never be weary; he will walk again and never faint!

God alone knows where Moses is buried. That is all that matters for any faithful man or woman. It holds the promise of resurrection from the dead.

Elijah

We turn the clock forward 700 years: “And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal” (2 Kgs 2:1).

The story continues by telling us that Elijah and Elisha went from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan. It was a journey that took them back to Moab where Moses died. “And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground” (2Kgs 2:8).

The entire story calls for comparison with Deut 34 and the early chapters of Joshua. Elijah and Elisha were leaving the land that Moses had seen and Israel had entered under Joshua. In the process they made another “not now” statement. To leave the land of promise is to say that the kingdom is still future; the land that God will give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their seed, is an inheritance still to come.

Yet, in this context, Elisha asked for an inheritance! “And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me” (2Kgs 2:9).

A double portion is the inheritance of the firstborn; and in this case not just any inheritance.5A gift of the Spirit portends the inheritance of life. Elisha received a token of eternal life to come.

And then it happened: another “hereafter event” that held promise for the future: “And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kgs 2:10-11).

The LORD came and took Elijah to heaven.

A point is worth inserting here. We often think of Moses as the representative of the Law and Elijah as the representative of the Prophets. But when it comes to the “hereafter events” of the Old Testament, Moses represents those who have died, and Elijah represents those who are alive:

“And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that … Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

What happened to Elijah? To be sure, he was simply but miraculously caught up into the air, into the enfolding whirlwind. The Hebrew word for heaven is also the word for air in the Old Testament.6That this is the way to understand Elijah’s experience is corroborated by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament:

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:16-17).

The parallels with Elijah’s experience are obvious. And in vs. 17 Paul uses a word that means air. It is not the customary New Testament word for heaven.7

Yet for all of this, heaven is perhaps the way to understand 2Kgs 2:1! The taking away of Elijah was an earnest of heavenly things to come. It pointed forward to the time, still future, when Elijah, and Elisha, and the prophets who looked on from afar, and we who also look on from afar, will be caught up together into the presence of God. Elijah’s experience pointed forward to the time when heaven will come to earth. The Lord will descend and we will ascend, and faithful men will meet with God.

Where is Elijah now? The simple fact is that we are not told. It is worth repeating that we are on solid ground — and will remain on solid ground — if we avoid explanations that circumvent the fundamental Biblical principle of sin and death. In other words, it is axiomatic that all men die, without exception.

If we want the resolution of Elijah’s story, then we need to accept the resolution that God provides and not speculate about things he doesn’t tell us. The story of Elijah, along with the stories of Enoch and Moses, find their resolution in the New Testament, in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the way the record is written.

The transfiguration

We turn the clock forward another 700 years.

“But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:27).

The way Jesus announces this to his faithful friends and the transfiguration that follows invite comparison with Enoch’s experience:

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him” (Heb 11:5).

This is not to say that translation and transfiguration are the same thing. Yet, like transfiguration, the translation of a man that he should not see death is a kingdom of God experience! When faithful Enoch is found again, he will be in the kingdom of God. He will be found in divine glory, forever beyond the reach of death. This is the resolution of his story.

And it is the resolution of Moses’s and Elijah’s stories as well:

“And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elijah: Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:28-31).

The life stories of all men and women are incomplete until they connect themselves with the decease — the exodus from sin and death — that Jesus had to accomplish at Jerusalem. Everything turns on this, and now it is done.

The mount of transfiguration assures us that glory with Jesus on earth will follow. This is the kingdom of God in which Enoch will be found alive. It is the Promised Land that Moses will inherit when God raises him from the dead. It is the heaven where Elijah will also be found, in the presence of God. It is where we will ever be with the Lord.

This is the resolution of every faithful life that has been lived since the earliest days of man’s frailty. Therefore comfort one another with these words:

“When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col 3:4).

  1. See Matthew Harrison, “The Way of Cain, (8) Enoch Versus Lamech”, The Tidings, May 2014, pp.167-173, for a helpful consideration of this subject.
  2. Jesus equates paradise with his coming kingdom in Luke 23:42-43.
  3. [Editor] Dr. Thomas wrote in Elpis Israel (p. 43,,Logos Edition): “Jesus was changed to εις πνεύµα into a spirit, and was therefore enabled to pass through it to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. Enoch, Elijah, and Moses, are also cases to the point.” Most would, however, disagree with him.
  4. Dr. Thomas, “Immortality, Heaven And Hell, Section IX, The Tree of Life,” The Christadelphian, 1870, p.199. Emphasis added.
  5. Deut 21:17.
  6. H8064, shaw-mah’, is translated heaven 398 times and air 21 times in the Old Testament (KJV).
  7. In 1 Thess 4:16, the word for heaven in G3772, ouranos; in 1Thess 4:17, the word for air is G109, aer.