Power of the Call
Genesis 4:26… At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord.
A bit random, coming at the end of a chapter and in the same paragraph where it talks about the birth of Adam’s son, Seth. It’s sort of like- ‘and, uh, I forgot to mention that men began calling on the name of the Lord.’ What is very interesting, though, is that this is the last statement before one of those favorite parts of the Bible for all of us- some of the ‘begats’. But, these ‘begats’ have a little different form to them- they state the age of the participants, how long they lived before they begat their son, the years after that before they died, and their total age. My quick research shows that this is the only set of ‘begats’ that reveal this information for all involved. The reason, though, might be that all of these guys lived to be more than 700 years old, all except for Enoch, who didn’t really die, just went on up. Though the correlation isn’t actually declared, the placement of the ‘called’ statement right before the genealogy could very well be seen as a demonstration of what happened to those men who began calling on the name of the Lord.
The other element of this that inspires another ‘hmmmmm?’ is that they were calling, but I’m sure without the great volume of worship resources that are available to us today. They didn’t have hymns and the latest worship cds. They couldn’t go online and stream sermons from the most eloquent and inspiring ministers around the world. They didn’t even have scriptures that they could hide in their heart and keep them from going the way of Cain. All they must have known was to simply call, without scriptural correctness and musical preparation. All of that stuff must not have been necessary, though, for their calling to be effective and powerful. Theirs was a relationship with God that was pure and without pretense, but filled with an awareness of what happens to those who, like Adam and Cain, choose to fall out of worship and act as if God isn’t there. Theirs was a direct one-on- one that touched every part of their body with significance and longevity.
There are these little commercials that are used at the beginning of movies to impress the power of a telephone call and how important it is to silence your phone. I believe this section of ‘begats’ is like those, but with a reverse purpose. There is power in the call to bring a long, long life of abundant fellowship with God. Too many lines of communication have lost signal (or never found it) and reduced the impact of the call’s incredible power to bring life. Rather than silencing our phones, there is a great need to have them charged, on the high level, and filled with God’s ids for quick calling. Might not make it past 100, but there is promise of greatly enhanced and extended life of salvation and wholeness for all who will, like those early men, begin simply calling on the name of the Lord.