Daily Devotionals

Then came Chanukkah in Yerushalayim. It was winter, and Yeshua was walking around inside the Temple area (John 10:22-23).

There are two individuals in the Scriptures named Enoch. The first was the son of Cain. Cain had murdered his brother and was condemned to be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, away from the presence of the Lord. Cain fathered a son and built a city, calling them both Enoch. In order to find the peace for which he so fruitlessly yearned, Cain invested himself in these two symbols of his earthly, human achievement. The other Enoch was a 7th-generation descendant of Adam, through his son Seth. Of this Enoch it was said that he walked with God, giving him pleasure, and that God took him without his seeing death.

The Hebrew for the name Enoch is Chanoch. It means "dedication," and is from the same root as the word used to refer to the Feast of Dedication—Chanukkah. In the days of the Maccabees, there existed a well-armed enemy seeking to subjugate Israel. However, that was not the heart of the conflict. Then, as now, the fiercer battle raged within the souls of the people—the battle over which direction they would take. Would they follow the path of the first Enoch, dedicating themselves to glorifying human ability and achievement, which was the focus of Hellenism? Or would they, like the second Enoch, dedicate themselves to walking with God in his ways, which transcend the power of death? This same choice is also ours today.

...dedicate myself to walking with God.

MM