Walking with God

Walking with God Enoch and Noah walked with God. However let's look further. In the previous study, we saw that Adam was around when Enoch lived. But let's look at man's relationship with God from Adam. Adam disobeyed the command of God and was put out of Eden.  We are not told specifically in scripture that Adam walked with God while in the garden, but the implication is there. After the transgression, after mankind was removed from the garden, we are told of Cain and Abel. Abel and Cain the first sons of Adam and Eve, gave sacrifices to God. It is not said that they walked with God. "Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire  is  for you, but you should rule over it" (Genesis 4:2-7 NKJV). Interesting, God told Cain that sin desired him but he should rule over it. God was not going to rule over it for him. Seems like Cain had a choice. They gave offerings to God. Abel gave from his flocks, Cain from his garden. Abel's offering was accepted, Cain's was not. I have heard it taught that Cain was not accepted because he brought the poorest of his crops instead of the best. They however offered different things. Abel offered from his flocks. Back in Genesis chapter 3 we see God's rejection of leaves as a covering for man. "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they  were  naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings."...."Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:7, 21 NKJV). God took the skins of animals, which implies that the animals were killed, blood shed, to cover the nakedness of man. The nakedness represents their disobedience, since the realization of it was a result of the disobedience. If the fig leaves were good enough why did God give them animal skins? How did Cain and Abel know to give offerings? Either their human Father taught them or their Heavenly Father taught them and so on until Noah. "As Moses’ Teachings tell us, blood was used to cleanse almost everything, because if no blood is shed, no sins can be forgiven" (Hebrews 9:22 GWT). This was the law of Moses but we see  the shedding of blood before Moses was ever born. "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar" (Genesis 8:20 NKJV). And when Abraham went to offer Isaac , Isaac was familiar with sacrifice and asked where the lamb for the sacrifice was. "But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. Then he said, Look, the fire and the wood, but where  is  the lamb for a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:7 NKJV). So how does this relate to walking with God? We see sacrifices/ offerings made to God but we also see obedience to what God instructed them to do. Everything was good with Adam and God until Adam disobeyed the command to eat from a certain tree. Cain's offerings which was produce,not animal sacrifice, was rejected. And in his exchange with God we see an attitude;  "but he didn’t approve of Cain and his offering. So Cain became very angry and was disappointed. Then the Lord asked Cain, “Why are you angry, and why do you look disappointed? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? But if you don’t do well, sin is lying outside your door ready to attack. It wants to control you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:5-7 GWT).  If Cain knew his offering did not please God, why didn't he just bring God an offering he knew would please Him? It seems he wanted to please God in the way he wanted to and he became jealous that God did not accept him but did accept Abel who did the things he knew would please God. "Faith enabled Enoch to be taken instead of dying. No one could find him, because God had taken him. Scripture states that before Enoch was taken, God was pleased with him. No one can please God without faith. Whoever goes to God must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who seek him.  Faith led Noah to listen when God warned him about the things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God and built a ship to save his family. Through faith Noah condemned the world and received God’s approval that comes through faith. Faith led Abraham to obey when God called him to go to a place that he would receive as an inheritance. Abraham left his own country without knowing where he was going. Faith led Abraham to live as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God" (Hebrews 11:5-9 GWT). Even though we are looking at grace in the OT, the NT book of Hebrews as above really explains how these men in the beginning of human history really found favor and acceptance with God. The word faith itself is not used in the OT until the writings of the prophets, but it sure was demonstrated! I know we could find more examples in the OT of favor/acceptance but I do believe we have looked at sufficient evidence as to how Noah, Enoch, and Abraham found acceptance from God. They offered sacrifices of the blood of animals (we saw scripture that backs this up!) to cover their sin, but of equal importance, they OBEYED God when He gave them instructions to follow. Let's look at one last example from the OT. We learn in the life of King Saul of Israel, the importance of obedience.  "Why didn’t you obey the Lord? Why have you taken their belongings and done what the Lord considers evil?”  “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul told Samuel. “I went where the Lord sent me, brought back King Agag of Amalek, and claimed the Amalekites for God. The army took some of their belongings—the best sheep and cows were claimed for God—in order to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”  Then Samuel said,“Is the Lord as delighted with burnt offerings and sacrificesas he would be with your obedience?To follow instructions is better than to sacrifice.To obey is better than sacrificing the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15:19-22 GWT); remember if you know your Bible history, Saul lived after Moses, after the law was given, The Mosaic law  was in effect. Sacrifices were an important part of the law yet, God still preferred obedience to His instructions. It cost Saul the favor/ acceptance of God. So to summarize what we found so far, Adam disobeyed the command of God and sin began. God put animals skins on him to cover the evidence of his sin, his nakedness. We see a pattern of sacrifice that must have existed with Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Isaac. But the thing that seems to have gained them the acceptance of God was their belief that He was, their trust in Him that was evidenced in their obeying the instructions He gave them. Noah obeyed by building an ark, Abraham lived a life of obedience starting when he left his Father's house as instructed by God.  We do have to remember one thing; their obedience was their choice. God did not make them obey. Cain choose to kill his brother rather than present a better offering. Noah did not have to build the ark, and Abraham could have stayed with the rest of his family instead of going on the greatest adventure of his life. Saul choose to halfway obey which was the same as not obeying.   They believed God, trusted Him, gave offerings (sacrificed animals) and chose to obey when He gave them instructions. They found grace and walked with God. They were accepted. This is Old Testament grace before the law of Moses and basically the same after the law was given ,the instructions were now written down. Next week we will start looking at grace from the new testament.