The Name of the Lord

Genesis 4:26 tells us that after Seth named his son Enos meaning “mortal” “then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.” As scholar Cassuto noted, the verse pairs two names: man named truthfully as frail and dying, and God named truthfully as YHWH, the self-existent and eternal One. By naming his son Enos, Seth confessed that humanity offers no ultimate hope; only God does. And to “call upon the name of the LORD” is far more than praying it is approaching God as He has revealed Himself, not as we imagine Him to be. Just as Seth refused to soften the truth about man, we must refuse to invent soft fantasies about God. Many today address God according to their wishes, not His Word, proving they do not truly call upon His name. The living God has named Himself in Scripture and in His Son; the question is whether we approach Him on His terms or whether Isaiah’s lament applies to us: “There is none that calleth upon thy name.”