The Household of God
Volume 1
The early history of mankind
- Chapter 51 -
JARED'S DELIGHT IN HIS SON ENOCH
And behold, now Enoch went to carry out Adam's bidding, observing everything as Adam had told him.
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When he came to the nearby hut of Seth, he found the latter still asleep and did not dare wake him, for Seth was next to Adam a highly blessed patriarch to him. As he gazed searchingly at the starry sky and then towards the east to judge the time of sunrise from the extent of the dawn, Jared approached, blessed Enoch and said to his son:
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"My dear son, look. I was unable to sleep for joy that you have found so much grace before God. For who, except Seth, would ever have dared out of holy awe to enter the hallowed hut of Adam after sunset, and you are now even allowed to dwell in it! And now all the more so since we were yesterday eye-and-ear witnesses of the immeasurable grace bestowed on this hut from the supreme heights of God.
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"O my dear son, my joy is too great for me to be able to show you how happy, grateful and filled with love my heart has become. I feel as if I should lovingly embrace every tree and kiss its bark, and even the stars seem particularly close to me today, breathing all love towards me.
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"O Enoch, behold, joy and love are overwhelming me and my tongue is trembling with bliss so that I can no longer talk with you! Just tell me what has called you here so early away from the hallowed dwelling of our arch-patriarch?
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"For that which kept me from sleeping could not have driven you out because my joy and grace are before me, whereas you are within joy and grace. Therefore, a higher will must be guiding you. O Enoch, my dear son, do not hide from me the holy gift which was laid into your heart, for it cannot be an insignificant thing, which you are carrying in your heart and following. O do not keep it from me, your father!"
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Having heard this, the devout Enoch thanked his father for the blessing, caressed him and said:
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"O dear father Jared, you know your son and that all he possesses is also yours, for I have nothing which I have not first received from you. My love is your foundation and my joy your blessing; through my eyes looks a soul out of you and your blood fills my veins. All my organs are out of you and you taught me also only God and His love and drew my attention to His grace. And behold, thus all my actions are your work thanks to the great grace from above and nothing that I do could be unknown to you; but he who sent me out is more than you and I and is Adam, the arch-patriarch of all of us. Why he sent me here, he alone may know first as he is the first on earth among us, and because what he entrusted to me belongs neither to me nor to you, but to him.
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"Therefore, dear father, you should not seek to find out about it until you hear it from him whose property it is, so that he may then give it to all who need it.
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"He will soon come out and then you will hear it from him at sunrise."
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While Enoch was still speaking, Seth came from his hut, saw the two, stepped up to them and blessed them both and they bowed to him respectfully, and gratefully. Seth asked Enoch the same question Jared had asked him, but got out from Enoch as little as Jared before him. Seth was surprised at Enoch's secrecy and Enoch replied:
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"Father Seth, you are in place of Abel a blessed son and know that you have God and Adam for a father, closer than I and my father Jared. Has he not given you all that was his and has now become yours? If Adam has sent me to investigate that which is close to his heart, how can you now ask me to give it to you before I have given it to him whose heart bade me gather it for him so that he, as a father, might have something to give to all of you in the morning?
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"Behold, you can have all that is mine without reservation because it had been yours long before it became mine. However, Adam has a certain advantage over us and so he must also receive first so that he can give it to you and all the others. Look, the sun is on the point of rising, the pale moon hurries towards setting and the stars retreat from the great arena of the night and father Adam is already standing at the open door of his dwelling waiting for me. So just a little patience and you will soon receive what I was sent out so early to gather!"
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After these words Enoch took his leave from his fathers and hurried to Adam's hut, threw himself to the ground before it and thanked Me. When Adam called him he rose, entered the hut respectfully and reported everything he had faithfully observed.
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After listening to Enoch's report, Adam rose and said first to Eve: "Eve, my faithful wife, rest peacefully in God's grace until I return accompanied by Enoch. On all the mountains the children are already waiting for my blessing. And you, my beloved Enoch, accompany me up the hill towards morning so that my blessing may not come later than the rays of the morning sun to all the children on the mountains as well as to those who as shepherds dwell in the small plains between the mountains and that the Lord may spare those in the lowlands still for a while from His severe judgments. Now let us hurry! Amen."