And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth, "For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed." And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD. – Genesis 4v26
After a history of Cain’s family the narrative returns to Adam and Eve’s family. God gave Eve a son in the place of Abel. This son Seth had a son named Enosh and when he was born men began to call on the name of the Lord.
Things can get really confusing here if we try to think on a timeline. The Bible does not necessarily always flow in a smooth historical chronological narrative. We are also not privy to all the details of all the events. Obviously somewhere along the line Adam and Eve had daughters who married their sons. Hundreds of years may have passed by. I read one commentator who said that the birth of Enos happened 240 years after Creation, but I have no idea how he came up with that figure.
Anyway, back to the story. When Enosh was born men started to call on the name of the Lord. Something happened here. There seems to be a monumental shift in humankind here. People already acknowledged God. Eve did so when God gave her children. So acknowledging God was nothing new. But with the birth of Enosh they began to call on Him.
I am not totally sure about all that is going on here, but I can’t help but remember the verse that says, ‘Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Don’t get me wrong, I don’t know if Adam and Eve were saved or not, but with Enosh’s birth there is a shift from acknowledging God to calling on Him.
There are plenty of people who acknowledge God today. Most people in fact would probably give Him some sort of acknowledgement. But there is a huge difference between that and calling on Him. There are millions out there who would acknowledge Him, but refuse to call on Him for salvation. The mindset seems to be, ‘It’s nice that God is there, but I really don’t want Him involved in my own life.’
Ignore God, acknowledge Him, or call on Him. Only one of those options has hope for eternal life.
1 comment:
The following comment was left by a poster called 'redeemed' but I hit 'ignore' instead of 'publish' by mistake.
Roger: Enosh was born 235 years after creation. How do we know this? Gen.5 tells us Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born and Seth was 105 years old when Enosh was born.
Before this time God had come to man and conversed with him. Man by this time was becoming so sinful I think God had stopped coming to them and so they called on God. The Bible says YHVH (Jehovah) not just gods.
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