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23 Then Lamech said to his wives: 'Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” 25 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.” 26 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 4:23-26
Today, we conclude our study of Genesis 4. As we come to the end of this chapter we notice the contrast continues. In the first two verses of today's passage we are availed to the song of Lamech which is not a song of faith in the God of the Bible. Then, in the final two verses of today's passage we have the birth of Seth to Adam and to Eve. And Seth, will take off where his brother Abel left off, believing in and being defined by the God of the Bible.
In v.23-24 of today's passage we read, "23 Then Lamech said to his wives: 'Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.'"
These words from Lamech were in poetic form. They represent an early song, a kind of taunt on Lamech's part, in which he was justifying his violence. This song is a boast of Lamech to his wives clearly pointing out his arrogance. In this song, Lamech points out that if God avenged Cain sevenfold for taking the life of his brother without any justification whatsoever, then, surely, "I shall be avenged seventy-seven fold for having acted in self-defense."
In this rant, rebellious Lamech justifies the violence he exacted upon one who tried to take his life. Lamech's culture had technological advances which produced comforts and luxuries, in like manner we today in America have the same. In addition, in Lamech's culture, the state was substituting the role of the family. Just as we see in America, in Lamech's culture there was an increasing toleration for sexual excess. And finally, in Lamech's culture, the passionate vindication of violence on the grounds of the protection of rights was at an all-time high. All of this was caused by man's refusal to be defined by the God of the Bible.
Interestingly, the Bible is the only testimony we have about life on this planet before the Flood. And, the testimony of Scripture about the original man is that man was created in God’s image. This made him astonishingly intelligent, amazingly creative and that he was incredibly resourceful. The testimony of the Scriptures bears forth that man was healthy to the degree that they lived for as long as 900 plus years, as we see in this chapter.
The idea that they were like cave men and were not intelligent just is not true. Lamech demonstrated some of the most refined craft in language in his poetry here. Real poetry is the highest level of language. Lamech was not a grunting Neanderthal. Here his poetry was very sophisticated and Lamech demonstrated it quite well.
In v.25-26 of today's passage we read, "25 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.' 26 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."
In contrast to the previous verses in this chapter, there is nothing about human accomplishments mentioned here in the line of Seth. What we are introduced to in these two verses is their worship of the God of the Bible. The emphasis is as it was because the descendants of Cain did not practice the presence of God in their lives, whereas the descendants of Abel did, and they were defined by God. And they were quick to give the glory to the God of the Bible.
The words "Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord" is the oldest reference to worship of the God of the Bible. Man didn’t start out with some primitive religion and evolve to a higher, sophisticated form of religion. Man started with the true, pure worship of the one true living God.
Seth's name means "appointed." Adam and Eve named Seth accordingly because in their minds God had appointed another son to take the place of Abel. When the man of faith is taken out of the world, God's work does not end. God just raises up another man of faith. The name of Seth's son was Enosh, which means "mortal." In the middle of that godless civilization, with its proud refusal to recognize its Maker, God was subtly at work. All the way through the Scriptures we see this scenario played out over and over and if we look closely enough we will see it all around us today.
With the birth of Seth, Eve does something quite interesting. She refers to God as Elohim, not YHWH. This was odd because YHWH is the relational name of God. But now, in the hour of Eve's mourning the fact that God had not yet given her the Savior whom He had promised, it seemed to her that God was far removed from her. Perhaps this was a sign that Eve had lost a bit of the hope that she once had. Perhaps this was a sign that to Eve, God seemed very far away and not too involved in her day to day life.
At the end of v.26 we read the words "men began to call upon the name of the Lord." This is the first mention of people calling on the name of the Lord in the Bible. That which saves anyone is that we "call upon the name" of the Lord Jesus. Just when it appeared that all hope was lost, the relational, covenant name of God appears again. Here, the name of God that is used is not Elohim, it is YHWH. These who called upon the name of the Lord worshipped the God of the Bible by praying, by proclaiming His word, being defined by His word and by praising Him. They knew their God as their Creator and they also knew Him as the Lord of grace, forgiveness, mercy and hope. They knew Him to be the God who works in the details of all of our lives painting a picture that would make sense and that would bring Him glory.
