Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. Genesis 22:2.

[Abraham] was one hundred and twenty years old when this terrible and startling command came to him in a vision of the night. He was to travel three days’ journey and would have ample time for reflection. Fifty years previous, at the divine command, he had left father and mother, relatives and friends, and had become a pilgrim and a stranger in a land not his own. He had obeyed the command of God to send away his son Ishmael to wander in the wilderness. His soul was bowed down with grief at this separation, and his faith was sorely tried, yet he submitted because God required it….

Abraham was tempted to believe that after all, this might be a delusion. Stricken with grief, he bowed before God and prayed as never before for a confirmation of this strange command, for greater light if he must perform this terrible duty. He remembered the angels sent to tell him of God’s purpose to destroy Sodom and those who bore to him the promise that he should have this same son Isaac….

He finally awakened Isaac softly, informing him that he was commanded of God to offer sacrifice upon a distant mountain, and that he must accompany him. He called his servants and made every necessary preparation for his long journey. If he could unburden his mind to Sarah and they together bear the suffering and responsibility, it might bring him some relief; but he decided that this would not do, for her heart was bound up in her son, and she might hinder him. He went forth on his journey, with Satan by his side to suggest unbelief and impossibility….

The journey of the third day is commenced. Abraham lifts his eyes to the mountains, and upon one he beholds the promised sign. He looks earnestly, and lo, a bright cloud hovered over the top of Mount Moriah….

He was yet a great distance from the mountain, but he removed the burden from the shoulders of his servants and bade them remain behind while he placed the wood upon the shoulders of his son, and himself took the knife and fire.—Signs of the Times, April 1, 1875.

From From the Heart

In the Lord all the descendants of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory. Isaiah 45:25.

Abraham was called out from an idolatrous family and was appointed of God to preserve His truth amid the prevailing and increasing corruptions of that idolatrous age. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.” …

The Lord communicated His will to Abraham and gave him a distinct knowledge of the requirements of the moral law and of the salvation that would be accomplished through Himself. It was a high honor to which Abraham was called, that of being the father of the people who for centuries were the guardians and preservers of the truth of God for the world—of that people through whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed in the advent of the promised Messiah….

God conferred upon His faithful servant special honor and blessings. Through vision and through the angels that walked and talked with him as friend with friend, he was made acquainted with the purposes as well as with the will of God….

But the descendants of Abraham departed from the worship of the true God and transgressed His law. They mingled with the nations who had no knowledge or fear of God before their eyes, and gradually imitated their customs and manners until God’s anger was kindled against them, and He permitted them to have their own way and follow the devices of their own corrupt hearts….

But when they humbled themselves before God and acknowledged His dealings and cried unto Him earnestly for deliverance from the oppressive yoke of the Egyptians, their cries and their promises to be obedient reached heaven. Their prayers were answered in a most wonderful manner, and Israel was brought forth from Egypt, and the covenant made with their fathers was renewed to them.

Thus was the knowledge of the law of God preserved through successive generations from Adam to Noah, from Noah to Abraham, and from Abraham to Moses.—Signs of the Times, April 22, 1886.

From From the Heart

And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. Genesis 5:24.

After Adam’s fall from a state of perfect happiness to a condition of sin and misery, there was danger that men and women would become discouraged…. But the instructions which God gave to Adam, and which were repeated by Seth and fully exemplified by Enoch, cleared away the gloom and darkness and gave hope to all that as through Adam came death, through Jesus, the promised Redeemer, would come life and immortality.

In the case of Enoch, the desponding faithful were taught that while living among a corrupt and sinful people who were in open and daring rebellion against their Creator, if they would obey Him and have faith in the promised Redeemer, they would work righteousness like the faithful Enoch, be accepted of God, and finally exalted to His heavenly throne.

Enoch, separating himself from the world and spending much of his time in prayer and communion with God, represents God’s loyal people in the last days, who will be separate from the world. Unrighteousness will prevail to a dreadful extent upon the earth. People will give themselves up to follow every imagination of their corrupt hearts and carry out their deceptive philosophy and rebel against the authority of high heaven.

God’s people will separate themselves from the unrighteous practices of those around them and will seek for purity of thought and holy conformity to His will until His divine image will be reflected in them. Like Enoch, they will be fitting for translation to heaven. While they endeavor to instruct and warn the world, they will not conform to the spirit and customs of unbelievers but will condemn them by their holy conversation and godly example. Enoch’s translation to heaven just before the destruction of the world by a flood represents the translation of all the living righteous from the earth previous to its destruction by fire. The saints will be glorified in the presence of those who have hated them for their loyal obedience to God’s righteous commandments.

Enoch instructed his family in regard to the Flood. Methuselah, the son of Enoch, listened to the preaching of his grandson Noah, who faithfully warned the inhabitants of the old world that a flood of waters was coming upon the earth. Methuselah and his sons and his grandsons lived in the time of the building of the ark. They, with some others, received instruction from Noah and assisted him in his work.—Signs of the Times, February 20, 1879.

From From the Heart

Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints.” Jude 14.

The Lord opened … to Enoch the plan of salvation and by the Spirit of prophecy carried him down through the generations which should live after the Flood, and showed him the great events connected with the second coming of Christ and the end of the world.

Enoch was troubled in regard to the dead. It seemed to him that the righteous and the wicked would go to the dust together, and that would be their end. He could not see the life of the just beyond the grave. In prophetic vision he was instructed in regard to the Son of God, who was to die as a sacrifice, and was shown the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, attended by the angelic host, to give life to the righteous dead and ransom them from their graves. He also saw the corrupt state of the world at the time when Christ should appear the second time—that there would be a boastful, presumptuous, self-willed generation arrayed in rebellion against the law of God, denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, trampling upon His blood and despising His atonement. He saw the righteous crowned with glory and honor, while the wicked were separated from the presence of the Lord and consumed with fire….

By the blessings and honors which He bestowed upon Enoch, the Lord teaches a lesson of the greatest importance, that all will be rewarded who by faith rely upon the promised Sacrifice and faithfully obey God’s commandments. Here, again, two classes are represented which were to exist until the second coming of Christ—the righteous and the wicked, the loyal and the rebellious. God will remember the righteous, who fear Him. On account of His dear Son, He will respect and honor them and give them everlasting life. But the wicked, who trample upon His authority, He will destroy from the earth, and they will be as though they had not been.

After Adam’s fall from a state of perfect happiness to a condition of sin and misery, there was danger that men and women would become discouraged…. But the instructions which God gave to Adam, and which were repeated by Seth and fully exemplified by Enoch, cleared away the gloom and darkness, and gave hope to all, that as through Adam came death, through Jesus, the promised Redeemer, would come life and immortality.—Signs of the Times, February 20, 1879.

From From the Heart

After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years. Genesis 5:22.

Enoch learned from the lips of Adam the painful story of the fall and the precious story of God’s condescending grace in the gift of His Son as the world’s Redeemer. He believed and relied upon the promise given. Enoch was a holy man. He served God with singleness of heart. He realized the corruptions of the human family and separated himself from the descendants of Cain and reproved them for their great wickedness. There were those upon the earth who acknowledged God, who feared and worshipped Him. Yet righteous Enoch was so distressed with the increasing wickedness of the ungodly that he would not daily associate with them, fearing that he should be affected by their infidelity and that he might not ever regard God with that holy reverence which was due His exalted character. His soul was vexed as he daily beheld them trampling upon the authority of God. He chose to be separate from them and spent much of his time in solitude, giving himself to reflection and prayer. He waited before God and prayed to know His will more perfectly, that he might perform it. God communed with Enoch through His angels and gave him divine instruction. He made known to him that He would not always bear with human beings in their rebellion—that it was His purpose to destroy the sinful race by bringing a flood of waters upon the earth.

The beautiful Garden of Eden, from which our first parents had been driven, remained until God determined to destroy the earth by a flood. The Lord had planted that garden and especially blessed it, and in His wonderful providence He withdrew it from the earth and will return it again, more gloriously adorned than before it was removed. God purposed to preserve a specimen of His perfect work of creation free from the curse which sin had brought upon the earth….

Enoch continued to grow more heavenly while communing with God. His face was radiant with a holy light…. The Lord loved Enoch, because he steadfastly followed Him…. He yearned to unite himself still more closely to God, whom he feared, reverenced, and adored. The Lord would not permit Enoch to die like others, but sent His angels to take him to heaven without seeing death. In the presence of the righteous and the wicked, Enoch was removed from them.—Signs of the Times, February 20, 1879.

From From the Heart