Character Witness: Enoch — Walking Into the Unseen

Some lives in Scripture are loud.

Others are almost silent… yet they speak across the whole Bible.

Enoch is one of those.

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A Man Who Walked With God

We’re introduced to Enoch in Genesis in the middle of a genealogy—a list most people read quickly.

But then the pattern breaks:

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”

That’s it.

No battles.
No sermons recorded.
No long story.

Just this: he walked with God.

And then—he was gone.

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Not Just Living… Walking

A lot of people in Genesis “lived.”

Enoch walked.

That word matters. Walking implies:

• direction

• relationship

• agreement

It’s not a moment—it’s a life.

In a world that was quickly descending into corruption before the flood, Enoch lived differently. Quietly, steadily, consistently aligned with God.

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The Commentary in Hebrews

The New Testament gives us insight we wouldn’t otherwise have. In Hebrews 11, Enoch is pulled forward as a witness:

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death…”

Now we understand:

• His walk was by faith

• His removal was not random—it was pleasing to God

The passage goes further:

“For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”

Enoch didn’t just believe God existed—he lived in a way that agreed with Him.

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A Pre-Flood Voice

There’s also a small but important note in Jude:

Enoch prophesied…

That tells us something surprising:

Enoch wasn’t just walking—he was warning.

Before the flood ever came, there was already a voice saying:

• judgment is real

• God sees

• accountability is coming

So while Genesis gives us a quiet picture, the New Testament lets us hear his voice.

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Taken, Not Lost

“God took him.”

That phrase sets Enoch apart from everyone else in that chapter.

Over and over Genesis says:
“and he died… and he died… and he died…”

But not Enoch.

He becomes a living testimony that:

• death is not the final authority

• fellowship with God is stronger than the grave

He didn’t escape reality—he stepped into a greater one.

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A Witness of What Faith Looks Like

Enoch’s life answers a simple but deep question:

What does faith look like when no one is watching?

Not dramatic moments.
Not public displays.

Just a steady walk with God in the middle of a broken world.

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A Quiet Foreshadow

Without forcing it, you can see why Enoch stands out in the larger story:

• He walks with God in a corrupt age

• He speaks of coming judgment

• He is taken before that judgment falls

It’s not the full picture—but it’s a pattern worth noticing.

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Why Enoch Matters

Enoch doesn’t give us much to analyze—but he gives us something better to consider:

• Faith is not noise—it’s direction

• Pleasing God is not complicated—but it is costly

• A life aligned with God may not make headlines—but it will be seen by Him

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Final Thought

Enoch never wrote a book.
Never led a nation.
Never built anything we can point to.

But he walked with God.

And that was enough to leave a testimony that still speaks.

Character Witness: The Open Ending

There’s something unusual about how the Old Testament ends.

Not in our English Bible—but in the way the Scriptures were arranged in the Hebrew tradition. The final words come from 2 Chronicles, and they don’t sound like an ending at all:

“Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.”

Those words are spoken by Cyrus the Great, the king who allowed Israel to return from captivity.

But instead of wrapping everything up neatly, the text leaves us standing at the edge of something unfinished.

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An Ending That Feels Like a Beginning

Israel had gone into exile because of disobedience. Now, by God’s mercy, a door had opened.

“Go up.”

Go back to the land.
Go rebuild the temple.
Go restore what was lost.

But if you keep reading the story through Ezra and Nehemiah, something becomes clear:

They returned… but not fully.
They rebuilt… but not completely.
They resumed worship… but something was still missing.

The deeper restoration—the kind the prophets spoke about—had not yet come.

So the Old Testament, in this order, doesn’t close the story.

It leaves it open.

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A Long Silence… Then a Voice

Centuries pass.

No new prophets. No new writings. Just expectation.

Then the New Testament opens with the words of Gospel of Matthew:

“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David…”

Matthew doesn’t begin with an explanation—he begins with a declaration.

The King has come.

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From “Go Up” to “He Has Come”

If you hold these two moments together, a pattern starts to emerge:

• Chronicles ends with a call to return

• Matthew begins with the arrival of the King

Chronicles points people back to a physical land and a physical temple.

Matthew points to a person.

What the return from exile could not fully accomplish, Jesus comes to fulfill.

The restoration Israel longed for wasn’t just about geography—it was about redemption.

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The Witness of an Unfinished Story

In that sense, Chronicles becomes a kind of “character witness.”

Not by telling us everything—but by leaving something unresolved.

It testifies that:

• God keeps His promises (they returned)

• But the promise was always pointing beyond itself

The command “go up” was real and necessary.

But it wasn’t the end of the story.

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Why This Matters

It’s easy to read the Bible as a collection of completed moments—finished stories neatly tied together.

But this ending reminds us:

God’s work often moves forward in stages. As it states in Ephesians 3:10.."the manifold wisdom of God..."

What looks complete in one generation may only be preparation for the next.

And sometimes, the most powerful testimony isn’t in what is finished…

…but in what is still waiting to be fulfilled.

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A Final Thought

The Old Testament closes with an invitation:

“Let him go up.”

The New Testament opens with an answer:

Jesus Christ has come.

The story didn’t restart—it continued.

And the One who arrived is the fulfillment of everything that was left unfinished.

Character Witnesses Of Faith. Abel: Faith That Speaks Louder Than Sacrifice

 Hebrews 11:4 – “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain…”

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Have you ever felt unnoticed or overlooked, even when you were doing the right thing? Abel did. In a world where appearances and outward gestures often get attention, Abel reminds us that God sees the heart—and faith matters more than recognition.

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Who Was Abel?

Abel was the second son of Adam and Eve, a shepherd living in the shadow of his older brother Cain, a farmer. Though his life was simple and his role seemingly minor, Abel’s story teaches us that faith elevates ordinary acts into extraordinary worship.

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Abel’s Act of Faith

Hebrews 11 highlights what made Abel’s offering special: he brought the firstborn of his flock with the right heart, seeking to honor God rather than impress men. His faith was active, obedient, and sincere—even when no one else could see it.

• Faith in action: Offering the best, not the leftover

• Faith in principle: Trusting God’s standard, not human approval

• Faith with risk: Standing rightly while his brother chose wrongly

This faith was so genuine that God accepted Abel’s offering, but Cain’s was rejected. Tragically, Abel’s commitment led to his death at the hands of jealousy—but Hebrews 11 reminds us: “Though he died, he still speaks.”

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Lesson from Abel

Abel shows us that faith isn’t measured by size, wealth, or recognition—it’s measured by the heart. True faith honors God, not people. It may not be applauded, and sometimes it may even bring opposition—but God remembers.

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Applying Abel’s Faith Today

1. Prioritize heart over show: In work, family, or service, seek God’s approval first.

2. Offer your best: Faithful actions, even small, count for God.

3. Stand firm quietly: Don’t compromise when others take shortcuts.

Your “Abel moments” may seem unnoticed, but your faith has eternal impact. Just as Hebrews 11 says, Abel “still speaks”—his faith echoes beyond the grave.

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Reflection Box: Abel’s Character Witness

• Faith Action: Offered a pleasing sacrifice to God.

• Faith Lesson: God values sincere faith above outward appearances.

In the Shadow of Empires: Psalm 44 and the Voices of Suffering

 Earlier we looked at how the fall of Egypt at Carchemish and the rise of Babylon shaped the prophetic world of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. But there is another voice, softer yet piercing, that captures the human side of living through these events: Psalm 44.

This psalm reads like a diary of a nation in crisis — a people who remember the victories of the past but now face daily humiliation and suffering. Its words echo the tension we see in Jeremiah as the Babylonian threat looms over Jerusalem and Judah.

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Psalm 44 and the Historical Context

Psalm 44 is not a chronological history, but when we line it up with the events Jeremiah witnessed, a pattern emerges:

Psalm 44 Theme	Corresponding Historical Event
Remembering past victories (vv.1–8)	Judah recalls the promises of God and the triumphs of earlier kings, yet contrasts them with current defeat.
National defeat and humiliation (vv.9–16)	Babylonian armies sweep through Judah, deporting nobles and craftsmen (597 BC), threatening Jerusalem and temple worship.
Scattering among nations (v.11)	Early deportations, captives taken to Babylon; Jeremiah sees the exiles leaving their homeland.
Daily suffering, oppression (vv.12–16)	Hunger, fear, and public shame under the shadow of foreign power.
Protest of innocence (vv.17–22)	Judah’s faithful remnant cries out: they have not abandoned God, yet judgment still comes — echoing Jeremiah’s lament for a people suffering despite covenant faithfulness.
Plea for God’s intervention (vv.23–26)	A cry for rescue and redemption, a hope that mirrors Jeremiah’s visions of restoration (Jeremiah 29:4–14; Jerimiah 32).

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What This Teaches Us

Psalm 44 is powerful because it captures the experience of God’s people under duress:

• Faithful suffering: They are not rebelling, yet feel crushed.

• Covenant awareness: They remember God’s promises and their identity as His people.

• Hope in crisis: Even in humiliation, the psalmist calls for God to act.

When read alongside Jeremiah, we see the human side of prophecy — the fear, the protest, the faithful persistence in hope.

In the Shadow of Empires: Studying Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel

 If you want to understand the prophetic books of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, it helps to step back and look at the world they were living in.

These men were not writing in quiet times. They were prophesying in the middle of collapsing governments and rising world powers.

In 605 BC, at the decisive Battle of Carchemish, Egypt fell and Babylon rose. What looked like political news was, in reality, the turning of a page in God’s redemptive timeline.

That single transfer of power shaped:

• The warnings of Jeremiah

• The visions of Ezekiel

• The captivity and court scenes of Daniel

Jeremiah prophesied as Jerusalem trembled.
Ezekiel saw visions from exile.
Daniel stood inside the very empire God had raised up.

None of this was random.

Daniel would later say that God “removes kings and sets up kings.” That wasn’t theology in a classroom — it was history unfolding before his eyes.

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Why Background Matters

When we study these books without their historical setting, they can feel disconnected — a collection of warnings, visions, and symbols.

But when we understand that they were written during the rise and fall of empires, something becomes clearer:

God governs the transfer of world power.

Empires appear permanent.
They are not.
They rise.
They fall.
And the Word of God continues.

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A Brief Thought Toward Revelation

Without trying to settle every prophetic detail, it is worth noting something.

When Revelation 17 speaks of successive kings and an eighth that rises (Rev. 17:11), this could be seen not as an isolated mystery, but as the continuation of a biblical pattern already present in the prophets.

Jeremiah saw one empire fall and another rise.
Ezekiel prophesied under foreign rule.
Daniel was shown a sequence of kingdoms that would come and go.

Revelation does not introduce the idea that God governs empires — it brings that theme to completion.

That observation is not meant to force a system, but to encourage study. Scripture often builds forward. Later revelation assumes earlier foundations.

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An Invitation

If you want to study prophecy well, start here:

• Read Jeremiah with Babylon in view.

• Read Ezekiel knowing he is speaking from exile.

• Read Daniel remembering he lived inside the empire he described.

Then, when you come to Revelation, you are not stepping into unfamiliar territory. You are seeing a pattern reach its climax.

The kingdoms of men rise and fall.

The kingdom of God does not.

And that is a thread worth tracing from beginning to end.

Dead Men Who's Influences Are Still With Us Today Episode 10

 

1️⃣ Kierkegaard as the Father of Existential Emphasis

Breese presents Kierkegaard as a major influence behind modern existentialism — the shift toward:

• Subjective experience

• Personal inwardness

• Individual decision

• The “leap” of faith

Kierkegaard reacted strongly against:

• Dead orthodoxy

• Cultural Christianity

• State-church complacency

Breese recognizes that critique had force.

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2️⃣ Where Breese Raises Concern

The issue, in Breese’s view, is what happened after Kierkegaard.

When faith becomes heavily centered on:

Individual inward experience

It can drift toward:

• Relativism

• Anti-rationalism

• “Truth for me” thinking

• Emotionalism detached from objective revelation

Breese suggests that while Kierkegaard intended to defend authentic Christianity, later thinkers used existential categories to detach truth from fixed authority.

In other words:

Kierkegaard aimed at awakening faith.
Later movements sometimes weakened doctrinal certainty.

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3️⃣ Tone Toward Kierkegaard

Breese’s tone here is more respectful and complex.

He tends to portray Kierkegaard as:

• Intellectually serious

• Spiritually earnest

• Reacting to real spiritual decay

But he views the existential turn as opening the door to modern subjectivism.

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4️⃣ The Broader Pattern Breese Sees

Across the three:

• Wellhausen → Scripture becomes historical development

• Keynes → Economics becomes managed engineering

• Kierkegaard (as received later) → Truth becomes internalized experience

Different disciplines.

Similar underlying move:
From objective external authority
To Me centered interpretation or management.

Breese’s concern is not conspiracy — it’s philosophical drift.

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5️⃣ And Here’s the Careful Balance

It’s worth noting:

• Kierkegaard himself defended core Christian doctrines.

• He was not a liberal theologian in the modern sense.

• Many conservative Christians still value his insights.

Breese critiques the trajectory more than the man’s heart.

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Now here’s something I think you’ll appreciate.

The earlier comment about an “invisible hand” guiding intellectual development — Breese’s argument is actually subtler:

He would say ideas share common soil.
When culture shifts its starting point (authority, revelation, transcendence), thinkers in different fields reflect that shift independently.

Not coordinated.
But connected by presupposition.

That’s less mystical — and more philosophical.

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Get the book HERE 7 Men Who Role The World From The Grave

Dead Men Who's Influences Are Still With Us Today Episode 9

 In Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave, Breese treats John Maynard Keynes not primarily as an economist, but as a shaper of modern assumptions about money, government, and man's responsibility.

Here’s the pattern of how he presents him:

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1️⃣ Keynes as a Shift in Economic Philosophy

Breese argues that Keynes represents a turning point from:

• Economic restraint → managed stimulus

• Balanced budgets → deficit spending

• Market correction → government intervention

• Moral economics → technocratic economics

In Breese’s view, Keynes normalized the idea that governments could:

• Spend beyond their means

• Use debt strategically

• Manage economies through centralized policy

Breese sees that as more than economics — he sees it as a philosophical shift about authority and accountability.

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2️⃣ Tone Toward Keynes

Like with Wellhausen, Breese does not portray Keynes as evil or foolish.
He portrays him as:

• Brilliant

• Influential

• Culturally catalytic

But also as someone whose ideas carried unintended moral consequences.

Breese tends to emphasize:

• Keynes’ confidence in elite management

• His dismissal of long-term consequences (“In the long run we are all dead”)

• His belief that economic structures could be engineered

Breese interprets that famous line as symptomatic of a mindset that prioritizes immediate relief over enduring moral order.

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3️⃣ The Larger Concern

Breese connects Keynes to a broader 20th-century move:

From:

Self-discipline and providence

To:

System-management and state dependency

He suggests that once economic order becomes detached from moral law, it becomes subject to political manipulation.

In Breese’s framework, Keynes becomes emblematic of:

• The technocratic confidence of modernity

• Faith in systems over character

• Management over stewardship

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4️⃣ Important Context

To keep balance:

• Keynes was responding to the Great Depression — a real crisis.

• Many mainstream economists still credit him with stabilizing economies.

• Debate continues between Keynesian and free-market schools.

Breese writes from a clear Christian worldview lens, so his evaluation is moral-theological, not purely economic.

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5️⃣ It's almost as if an  “invisible hand” 

 not in a conspiratorial sense, but in an uncanny philosophical continuity.

Breese’s point across these men Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Julius Wellhausen, John Dewey, Sigmund Freud, John Maynard Keynes, and Soren Kierkegaard. is not that they collaborated.

It’s that:

• They shared modern assumptions.

• Those assumptions weakened transcendence.

• Those ideas filtered into institutions.

Wellhausen reshaped how people read Scripture.
Keynes reshaped how people view money and authority.

Different fields. Similar philosophical confidence in people's management thinking.

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for supporting this  blog.

Get the book HERE 7 Men Who Role The World From The Grave