When Enoch had spoken his final words, something extraordinary happened. People from far and near — two thousand of them — heard that the Lord was calling Enoch home, and they came running.
They gathered at the place called Achuzan, where Enoch stood with his sons. The elders of the people, the entire assembly, came and bowed before him and began to kiss him.
"Our father Enoch," they said, "may you be blessed by the Lord, the eternal ruler. Bless your sons now, and all the people, that we may be glorified today before your face. For the Lord chose you above all men on earth. He designated you the writer of all His creation — visible and invisible — the redeemer of human sin, the helper of your household."
Enoch answered with one final speech. He reminded them of the beginning — how God created the visible from the invisible, how He formed man in His own likeness with eyes to see, ears to hear, heart to reflect, and intellect to reason. How He divided time into years and months and days and hours, so that every person might measure their own life, count their deeds — good and bad — and know that no work is hidden before the Lord.
"When all creation comes to its end," Enoch told them, "then all time shall perish. The years will vanish. The months, the days, the hours — all will merge together and cease to be counted. There will be one great age. The righteous will be gathered into it. They will live eternally — no labor, no sickness, no humiliation, no anxiety, no darkness. Only great light."
"Walk before God's face with awe and trembling," he urged. "Serve Him alone. Bow to no idols made by human hands. Walk in long-suffering, in meekness, in honesty, in faith and truth — loving one another — until you depart this age of sorrows and inherit endless time."
"Blessed are the righteous who escape the great judgment," he said. "They shall shine more than the sun sevenfold."
Then the Lord sent darkness upon the earth. A thick blackness covered the people standing around Enoch. And in that darkness, the angels took him — carried him up to the highest heaven, to the place where the Lord waited, and set him before God's face.
The darkness lifted. Light returned. But Enoch was gone.
The people looked around in confusion. They could not understand what had happened. They glorified God and found a scroll on the ground in which was traced the words: "The Invisible God." Then they went to their homes.
Enoch was born on the sixth day of the month of Sivan. He lived three hundred and sixty-five years. He was taken to heaven on the first day of Sivan, remained there sixty days, wrote three hundred and sixty-six books, handed them to his sons, spent thirty days on earth, and was taken up again on the sixth of Sivan — the very day and hour of his birth (Genesis 5:24).
Methuselah and his brothers erected an altar at Achuzan — the place of Enoch's departure. They sacrificed oxen. They summoned all the people. And for three days, they held a great feast — rejoicing and praising God, who had given them such a sign through Enoch. They vowed to hand it down to their sons, from generation to generation, from age to age.