A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Enoch, Part 10

We saw Enoch travel to the place in the spirit realm where the watchers are confined and deliver God’s message of rebuke, then in turn write down their petition for mercy which he then delivered to God in prayer and received a vision in his dream that night that there could be no mercy for the watchers. What happens next? Enoch goes into greater detail on the specifics of the trip and the message.

14.1 This book is the word of righteousness, and of reproof, for the Watchers who are from Eternity; as the Holy and Great One commanded in that vision.
14.21 saw in my sleep what I will now tell, with the tongue of flesh, and with my breath, which the Great One has given men in the mouth, so that they might speak with it, and understand with the heart.
14.3 As He has created, and appointed, men to understand the word Of knowledge, so He created and appointed me to reprove the Watchers, the sons of Heaven.
14.4 And I wrote out your petition, but in my vision, thus it appeared, that your petition would not be granted to you, for all the days of eternity; and complete judgment has been decreed against you, and you will not have peace.
14.5 And from now on, you will not ascend into Heaven, for all eternity, and it has been decreed that you will be bound on Earth for all the days of eternity.
14.6 And before this, you will have seen the destruction of your beloved sons, and you will not be able to enjoy them, but they will fall before you by the sword.
14.7 And your petition will not be granted in respect of them or in respect of yourselves. And while you weep and supplicate you do not speak a single word from the writings which I have written.
14.8 And the vision appeared to me, as follows: - Behold; clouds called me in the vision, and mist called me. And the path of the stars, and flashes of lightning, hastened me and drove me. And in the vision winds caused me to fly, and hastened me, and lifted me up into the Sky.
14.9 And I proceeded until I came near a wall which was made of hailstones, and a tongue of fire surrounded it, and it began to make me afraid.
14.10 And I went into the tongue of fire and came near to a large house, which was built of hailstones, and the wall of that house was like a mosaic of hailstones and its floor was snow.
14.11 Its roof was like the path of the stars and flashes of lightning, and among them was fiery cherubim, and their sky was like water.
14.12 And there was a fire burning around its wall and its door was ablaze with fire.
14.13 And I went into that house, and it was as hot as fire and as cold as snow, and there was neither pleasure nor life in it. Fear covered me and trembling took hold of me.
14.14 And as I was shaking and trembling, I fell on my face.
14.15 And I saw in the vision, and behold, another house which was larger than the former and all its doors were open before me, and it was built of a tongue of fire.
14.16 And in everything, it so excelled in glory and splendor and size, so that I am unable to describe to you its glory and its size.
14.17 And its floor was fire, and above lightning and the path of the stars, and its roof also was a burning fire.
14.18 And I looked, and I saw in it, a high throne, and its appearance was like ice, and its surrounds like the shining Sun and the sound of cherubim.
14.19 And from underneath the high throne there flowed out rivers of fire so that it was impossible to look at it.
14.20 And He who is Great in Glory sat upon it, and his raiment was brighter than the Sun, and whiter than any snow.
14.21 And no Angel could enter, and at the appearance of the face of Him who is Honoured and Praised, no creature Of flesh could look.
14.22 A sea of fire burnt around Him, and a great fire stood in front of Him, and none of those around Him came near to Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him but He needed no Holy Council.
14.23 And the Holy Ones who were near to Him did not leave by night or day and did not depart from Him.
14.24 And until then I had a covering on my face, as I trembled. And the Lord called me with his own mouth, and said to me: "Come here, Enoch, to my Holy Word."
14.25 And He lifted me up and brought me near to the door. And I looked, with my face down.
15.1 And He answered me, and said to me with His voice: "Hear! Do not be afraid, Enoch, you righteous man, and scribe of righteousness. Come here and hear my voice.
15.2 And go say to the Watchers of Heaven, who sent you to petition on their behalf: You ought to petition on behalf of men, not men on behalf of you.
15.3 Why have you left the High, Holy and Eternal Heaven, and lain with women, and become unclean with the daughters of men, and taken wives for yourselves, and done as the sons of the earth, and begotten giant sons?
15.4 And you were spiritual, Holy, living an eternal life, but you became unclean upon the women, and begot children through the blood of flesh, and lusted after the blood of men, and produced flesh and blood, as they do, who die and are destroyed.
15.5 And for this reason I give men wives; so that they might sow seed in them, and so that children might be born by them, so that deeds might be done on the Earth.
15.6 But you, formerly, were spiritual, living an eternal, immortal life, for all the generations of the world.
15.7 For this reason I did not arrange wives for you; because the dwelling of the spiritual ones is in Heaven.
15.8 And now, the giants who were born from body and flesh will be called Evil Spirits on the Earth, and on the Earth will be their dwelling.
15.9 And evil spirits came out from their flesh, because from above they were created, from the Holy Watchers was their origin and first foundation. Evil spirits they will be on Earth and 'Spirits of the Evil Ones' they will be called.
15.10 And the dwelling of the Spirits of Heaven is Heaven, but the dwelling of the spirits of the Earth, who were born on the Earth, is Earth.
15.11 And the spirits of the giants do wrong, are corrupt, attack, fight, break on the Earth, and cause sorrow. And they eat no food, do not thirst, and am not observed.
15.12 And these spirits will rise against the sons of men, and against the women, because they came out of them during the days of slaughter and destruction.
16.1 And the death of the giants, wherever the spirits have gone out from their bodies, their flesh will be destroyed, before the Judgment. Thus they will be destroyed until the Day of the Great Consummation is accomplished, upon the Great Age, upon the Watchers and the impious
ones. "
16.2 And now to the Watchers, who sent you to petition on their behalf, who were formerly in Heaven:
16.3 "You were in Heaven but its secrets had not yet been revealed to you; and a worthless mystery you knew. This you made known to women, in the hardness of your hearts. And through this mystery the women and the men cause evil to increase on the Earth.
16.4 Say to them therefore: "You will not have peace."

Sometimes typographical errors will crop up in my text version of the Book of the Prophet Enoch because I am using a very simple OCR application that doesn’t quite know how to read. It isn’t state of the art, but you get what you pay for, and it was free.

But let’s look at this huge passage of Enoch’s vision and his travels in the spirit world. Chapter fourteen is spent explaining the trip and the settings in the dream vision. Enoch is nothing if he is not thoroughly descriptive. His lack of reference is often assumed by the scholars who try to interpret the book according to their own theories and conceits. But remember that Enoch already told us the watchers taught men. Among the things taught was the making of glass. So Enoch knew the difference between ice and glass. If you find a commentary in which the scholar tells you that Enoch mistook a glass wall for ice, you can believe the person writing it does not believe in God.

This is a record of Enoch’s report to the watchers on his vision. So these words are the same as heard by the ones awaiting judgment. It is a harsh judgment Enoch reported to them, but they had many advantages that humans do not have. They were resident in Heaven, in the presence of the Most High God. They saw His glory on a regular basis. They knew He has a plan for creation, if not the particulars of that plan. And most of all, they had a commission from God to care for humanity. An interesting note: the Greek word we translate as bishop, ̛επίσκοπος (episcopos) literally means one who watches or looks upon. These angels were to be bishops for humans.

So God actually set the standard we are to follow for wrongdoing by clergy in His judgment of the watchers. Let’s look at that judgment after we examine Enoch’s interpretation of the throne room of God. Enoch said he was called by the clouds and the mist. He was caught up into the sky in his dream vision. And he came to a wall of hailstones surrounded by tongues of fire. There are others who have studied the lore of symbology who can explain better than I the significance of the ice and fire. But my take is that the fire represents the Holy Spirit. I base this on the description of the “tongues of fire” that came upon the five hundred in the upper room of Mark’s mother’s house the Day of Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts.

Enoch says he saw a series of houses or structures. Speculation among those who don’t want to believe that Enoch saw a vision of a spiritual reality runs from the mundane to the fantastic. Some scholars speculate that Enoch was taken into a pair of different space ships. I find that concept less credible than the idea of a transcendent being enthroned in Heaven and giving visions to people who love Him. Remember, Enoch tells us that this is a vision within a dream. Enoch was not physically present in Heaven at this time, and people who try to put a physical, material interpretation on this vision are being disingenuous. Some of my readers with a background in interpretation of dreams ought to try their hand at this one, and leave a comment at the end of the blog post so I too can benefit.

Enoch tells us three times and more that he was afraid to look at the face of God. Yet God called him to the throne as he would call a friend or a favorite child. Enoch’s fear in the face of utter holiness is a lesson to us. We act so blaze in the presence of the Most High God that He ought to be offended, but He is not. There is no being in all of creation who has a tenth of the power and majesty of the Creator. Enoch’s trepidation at being in the Presence is justified. We Christians of the modern age ought to remember the meaning of the word reverence.

Let us now look at the meat of the message God gave to Enoch for the watchers, the angels who had been charged with caring for humanity and corrupted humanity instead. God told the watchers through Enoch that they were eternally barred from Heaven, a punishment not even Satan suffers (see Job 2:1). The watchers are imprisoned in a spiritual abyss in the vicinity of Earth, and had to watch their offspring, the Nephalim, kill each other and then the survivors die in the flood. But God says the Nephalim will be known among men as “evil spirits.” I have not seen the Septuagint translation of this passage, and I have no knowledge of the Ethiopian Coptic language that is the only complete version of the book to survive the centuries, but I am sure that the Greek word translated here as evil spirits in the Coptic tongue is the word we translate as demons.

God told the watchers through Enoch that their offspring will be confined to the Earth because they sprung from the Earth. And the watchers who knew holiness and lived in Heaven will have no mercy because they were tempted by physical things even though they were spiritual beings, and they corrupted not only themselves but the very humans they were charged with keeping safe and holy. Both the watchers and their children are here, the former imprisoned until judgment and the latter running amok among humanity, but as demons and not able to directly harm the physical world any more. The mysteries of magic taught by the watchers, while often practical and efficacious, were imperfect because God’s plan for the salvation of humanity is superior. Therefore, God calls them worthless, because they have not the power to save one from the bondage to sin and death.

Perhaps you have made contact with a spirit who promised you great power and wealth if you just follow its instructions. Do not be fooled by those lies. The power may be real, as far as it goes, but the power and wealth are fleeting, temporal and lead to damnation. The greater power of God unto salvation is freely given to all who ask Him in the Name of Jesus Christ. The power to destroy is heady and calls to the nihilist in our sinful souls. But the power to create ex nihilo far surpasses the power to destroy what is already created, and that power is the same as the power that delivers humanity from the bondage of sin and death.

Reject all advances from spirits that tempt you to power and wealth that exist only in this world. The temporary existence of the world in which we live is a limit upon any power that stems from it. The power that formed all worlds on the other hand is eternal, timeless and never-ending. Receive that power instead.

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