And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
26. Enosh ] This word, used in Hebrew poetry, means “man,” and is thus to be compared with Adam.
then began men ] In the Hebrew it is impersonal, “then was a beginning made.” The origin of Jehovah worship is here connected with the line of Seth, and is probably intended to be contrasted with the origin of secular callings in the line of Cain.
to call upon ] “Properly, as always, to call with, i.e. to use the name in invocations, in the manner of ancient cults, especially at times of sacrifice; cf. Gen 12:8, Gen 13:4, Gen 21:33, Gen 26:25.” (Driver.)
the name of the Lord ] i.e. the name of Jehovah. This statement by J, who uses this title by preference, is in conflict with the statement that the name was first revealed to Moses (E), (P), Exo 3:14; Exo 6:2. But in view not only of this text, but also of recent cuneiform decipherments, shewing the probability that a form of the name was known in Babylonia before the time of Moses, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the name belongs, as the tradition of J evidently taught, to prehistoric antiquity.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 4:26
Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord
Prayer
Prayer is speaking to God–on any subject, with any object, in any place, and in any way.
I. PRAYER SO REGARDED IS AN INSTINCT. It seems to be natural to man to look upwards and address himself to his God. Even in the depth of lost knowledge and depraved feeling, the instinct of prayer will assert itself. A nation going to war with another nation will call upon its God for success and victory; and an individual man, from the bedside of a dying wife or child, will invoke the aid of One supposed to be mighty, to stay the course of a disease which the earthly physician has pronounced incurable and mortal. Just as the instinct of nature brings the child in distress or hunger to a fathers knee or to a mothers bosom, even so does created man turn in great misery to a faithful Creator, and throw himself upon His compassion and invoke His aid.
II. BUT PRAYER IS A MYSTERY TOO. The mysteriousness of prayer is an argument for its reasonableness. It is not a thing which common men would have thought of or gone after for themselves. The idea of holding a communication with a distant, an unseen, a spiritual being, is an idea too sublime, too ethereal for any but poets or philosophers to have dreamed of, bad it not been made instinctive by the original Designer of our spiritual frame.
III. PRAYER IS ALSO A REVELATION. Many things waited for the coming of Christ to reveal them, but prayer waited not. Piety without knowledge there might be; piety without prayer could not be. And so Christ had no need to teach as a novelty the duty or the privilege of prayer. He was able to assume that all pious men, however ignorant, prayed; and to say therefore only this–When ye pray, say after this manner. (Dean Vaughan.)
The first public revival of religion
I. Consider THE STATE OF THE TIMES HERE REFERRED TO. Then–then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. What was the state of the times, when this revival of religion took place? It was very bad. There were evidently two parties–the children of men and the sons of God–the men of this world and the men not of this world–the faithful in Christ Jesus and the unbelieving and ungodly. And these, it seems–the worldly-minded and corrupt–were growing greatly in boldness and recklessness of crime. They congregated in cities, and so kept each other in countenance; they had their unions for pleasure, for business, for sin; they poured contempt on God and godliness. Meanwhile the godly seed were few and separated. They worshipped God in privacy in their families. They wanted more of union with each other. It was now necessary to make a stand for true religion. What they believed with their heart, it was high time to confess with their lips.
II. Consider THE PUBLIC REVIVAL OF RELIGION WHICH THEN TOOK PLACE. The pious found it necessary and desirable to unite more closely together; and they found their bond of union in the name of the Lord. They began, the margin of our Bible says it may be rendered–they began to call themselves by the name of the Lord. Probably the expression includes both ideas; they began to call themselves by the name of the Lord, and they also began to call upon His name.
1. They called themselves by His name. They owned themselves openly His people. They were not ashamed of Him–of His name, of His truth, of His cause, nor of His people. They knew God in His grace, in the promise of the Messiah, by the help of the Spirit. What they knew, they believed; what they believed, they confessed; they called themselves by the name of the lord.
2. And then they also called upon the name of the Lord. We cannot think that so many years had passed away, and men had not yet begun to pray by themselves in secret, or with their households in family worship. But then men began to call upon the name of the Lord in social, united, and public worship. This probably is the meaning. The enemies of God were publicly united, and the people of God began publicly to unite. Those, for ungodly purposes; these, to promote vital godliness. The former, for profaneness; the latter, for prayer. This was a decided step; when they came out of their family circles and closets, to join together in public worship. Doubtless it attracted much observation, and excited much ridicule. Can you not fancy the ungodly of that day mocking the men of God as they went to their place of worship? disturbing (it may be) the little band when assembled, or following them with their taunts? But in vain. The Spirit of God brought His children to unite as brethren.
III. Consider our OWN INSTRUCTION in this subject. What is the state of our times? Is it good or bad? It is very mixed–much as it was then. Numbers have altogether erroneous views of the way of salvation. Numbers advocate another gospel than that of Jesus Christ. Infidelity also prevails to a fearful extent. But, still, there is a bright side also. There are more than a few now who know and who believe from the heart the promise of the Seed of the woman, and all its glorious fulfilment in the person, in the work, in the doctrine, in the grace of Jesus Christ. These also do call upon the name of the Lord in private. Oh! we are not of their number, if we neglect private prayer. Then, also, most persons of true piety do now call upon God in their families. But would we see religion revived? We must call ourselves after the name of the Lord; confess Christ faithfully before men; be not ashamed of Christian principles. And there must also be revived delight in public worship. This has ever been the case in revivals of true religion. Religion never flourishes without diligent and faithful use of the appointed means of grace. (J. Hambleton, M. A.)
A change in mode of worship
Some change is here intimated in the mode of approaching God in worship. The gist of the sentence, however, does not lie in the name of Jehovah. For this term was not then new in itself, as it was used by Eve at the birth of Cain; nor was it new in this connection, as the phrase now appears for the first time, and Jehovah is the ordinary term employed in it ever afterwards to denote the true God. As a proper name, Jehovah is the fit and customary word to enter into a solemn invocation. It is, as we have seen, highly significant. It speaks of the Self-existent, the Author of all existing things, and in particular of man; the Self-manifest, who has shown Himself merciful and gracious to the returning penitent, and with him keeps promise and covenant. Hence it is the custom itself of calling on the name of Jehovah, of addressing God by His proper name, which is here said to have been commenced. Growing man now comprehends all that is implied in the proper name of God, Jehovah, the Author of being, of promise, and of performance. He finds a tongue, and ventures to express the desires and feelings that have been long pent up in his breast, and are now bursting for utterance. These petitions and confessions are now made in an audible voice, and with a holy urgency and courage rising above the depressing sense of self-abasement to the confidence of peace and gratitude. These adorations are also presented in a social capacity, and thereby acquire a public notoriety. The father, the eider of the house, is the master of words, and he becomes the spokesman of the brotherhood in this new relationship into which they have spontaneously entered with their Father in heaven. The spirit of adoption has prompted the confiding and endearing terms, Abba, Father, and now the winged words ascend to heaven, conveying the adorations and aspirations of the assembled saints. (Prof. J. G. Murphy.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 26. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.] The marginal reading is, Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord; which words are supposed to signify that in the time of Enos the true followers of God began to distinguish themselves, and to be distinguished by others, by the appellation of sons of God; those of the other branch of Adam’s family, among whom the Divine worship was not observed, being distinguished by the name, children of men. It must not be dissembled that many eminent men have contended that huchal, which we translate began, should be rendered began profanely, or then profanation began, and from this time they date the origin of idolatry. Most of the Jewish doctors were of this opinion, and Maimonides has discussed it at some length in his Treatise on Idolatry; as this piece is curious, and gives the most probable account of the origin and progress of idolatry, I shall insert it here.
“In the days of Enos the sons of Adam erred with great error, and the counsel of the wise men of that age became brutish, and Enos himself was (one) of them that erred; and their error was this: they said, Forasmuch as God hath created these stars and spheres to govern the world, and set them on high, and imparted honour unto them, and they are ministers that minister before him; it is meet that men should laud, and glorify, and give them honour. For this is the will of God, that we magnify and honour whomsoever he magnifieth and honoureth; even as a king would have them honoured that stand before him, and this is the honour of the king himself. When this thing was come up into their hearts they began to build temples unto the stars, and to offer sacrifice unto them, and to laud and glorify them with words, and to worship before them, that they might in their evil opinion obtain favour of the Creator; and this was the root of idolatry, c. And in process of time there stood up false prophets among the sons of Adam, which said that God had commanded and said unto them, Worship such a star, or all the stars, and do sacrifice unto them thus and thus and build a temple for it, and make an image of it, that all the people, women, and children may worship it. And the false prophet showed them the image which he had feigned out of his own heart, and said it was the image of such a star, which was made known unto him by prophecy. And they began after this manner to make images in temples, and under trees, and on tops of mountains and hills, and assembled together and worshipped them, c. And this thing was spread through all the world, to serve images with services different one from another, and to sacrifice unto and worship them. So, in process of time, the glorious and fearful name (of God) was forgotten out of the mouth of all living, and out of their knowledge, and they acknowledged him not.
And there was found no people on the earth that knew aught, save images of wood and stone, and temples of stone, which they had been trained up from their childhood to worship and serve, and to swear by their names. And the wise men that were among them, as the priests and such like, thought there was no God save the stars and spheres, for whose sake and in whose likeness they had made these images but as for the Rock everlasting, there was no man that acknowledged him or knew him save a few persons in the world, as Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Sham, and Heber. And in this way did the world walk and converse till that pillar of the world, Abraham our father, was born.” Maim. in Mishn, and Ainsworth in loco.
1. WE see here the vast importance of worshipping God according to his own mind; no sincerity, no uprightness of intention, can atone for the neglect of positive commands delivered in Divine revelation, when this revelation is known. He who will bring a eucharistic offering instead of a sacrifice, while a sin-offering lieth at the door, as he copies Cain’s conduct, may expect to be treated in the same manner. Reader, remember that thou hast an entrance unto the holiest through the veil, that is to say his flesh; and those who come in this way, God will in nowise cast out.
2. We see the horrible nature of envy: its eye is evil merely because God is good; it easily begets hatred; hatred, deep-settled malice; and malice, murder! Watch against the first appearance of this most destructive passion, the prime characteristic of which is to seek the destruction of the object of its malevolence, and finally to ruin its possessor.
3. Be thankful to God that, as weakness increased and wants became multiplied, God enabled man to find out useful inventions, so as to lessen excessive labour, and provide every thing indispensably necessary for the support of life. He who carefully attends to the dictates of honest, sober industry, is never likely to perish for lack of the necessaries of life.
4. As the followers of God at this early period found it indispensably necessary to separate themselves from all those who were irreligious and profane, and to make a public profession of their attachment to the truth, so it should be now. There are still men of profane minds. whose spirit and conduct are destructive to godliness; and in reference to such the permanent order of God is, Come out from among them, touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. He who is not determined to be a Christian at all events, is not far from being an infidel. Those only who confess Christ among men shall be acknowledged before his Father and the angels of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Enos properly signifies a miserable man, to note the great wickedness and wretchedness of that generation, which the Hebrew writers generally observe.
To call upon the name of the Lord; to pray unto God, to worship God in a more public and solemn manner; praying being here put for the whole worship of God, as Gen 12:8; 26:25, and in many other places. According to the marginal version, the sense is this: Then when the world was universally corrupt, and had forsaken God and his service, good men grew more valiant and zealous for God, and did more publicly and avowedly own God, and began to distinguish and separate themselves from the ungodly world, and to call themselves and one another by the name of God, i.e. the sons, servants, or worshippers of God as they are expressly called; and that, as it seems, upon this occasion, Gen 6:2. And in this sense this phrase is elsewhere taken, as Isa 43:7; 44:5; 65:1. Some render the place thus, Then began men to profane the name, i.e. the worship, of the Lord, by idolatry or superstition. But this seems neither to agree with the Hebrew phrase, nor to suit with this place, where he speaks of the posterity of Seth; who were the holy seed, and the only church of God then in the world.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. men began to call upon the nameof the Lordrather, by the name of the Lord. God’s people, aname probably applied to them in contempt by the world.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son,…. When he was an hundred and five years old, Ge 5:6 and this is mentioned as a further proof and instance of God’s goodness to Adam’s family in this line, that there was a succession in it, where the true worship of God was kept, and from whence the Messiah was to arise, and as a pledge and confirmation of it:
and he called his name Enos; which is generally interpreted a weak, feeble, frail, mortal, miserable man; which Seth being sensible of, and observing the sorrows of human life, and especially an increase of them among good men through the growing corruptions of the age, gave this name to his son; though it may be observed, that the derivation of this name may be from the Arabic word “anas” o, to be sociable and familiar; man being a sociable creature, not only in civil but in religious things, and so a reason of the name may be taken from what follows;
then began men to call upon the name of the Lord; not but that Adam and Abel, and all good men, had called upon the name of the Lord, and prayed to him, or worshipped him before this time personally, and in their families; but now the families of good men being larger, and more numerous, they joined together in social and public worship: or since it may be thought there were public assemblies for religious worship before this time, though it may be they had been neglected, and now were revived with more zeal and vigour; seeing the Cainites incorporating themselves, and joining families together, and building cities, and carrying on their civil and religious affairs among themselves, they also formed themselves into distinct bodies; and not only separated from them, but called themselves by a different name; for so the words may be rendered: “then began men to call themselves”, or “to be called by the name of the Lord” p; the sons of God, as distinct from the sons of men; which distinction may be observed in Ge 6:2 and has been retained more or less ever since: some choose to translate the words, “then began men to call in the name of the Lord” q; that is, to call upon God in the name of the Messiah, the Mediator between God and man; having now, since the birth of Seth, and especially of Enos, clearer notions of the promised seed, and of the use of him, and his name, in their addresses to God; see Joh 14:13. The Jews give a very different sense of these words; the Targum of Onkelos is,
“then in his days the children of men ceased from praying in the name of the Lord;”
and the Targum of Jonathan is,
“this was the age, in the days of which they began to err, and they made themselves idols, and surnamed their idols by the name of the Word of the Lord;”
with which agrees the note of Jarchi,
“then they began to call the names of men, and the names of herbs, by the name of the blessed God, to make idols of them:”
and some of them say, particularly Maimonides r, that Enos himself erred, and fell into idolatry, and was the first inventor of images, by the mediation of which men prayed to God: but all this seems to be without foundation, and injurious to the character of this antediluvian patriarch; nor does it appear that idolatry obtained in the posterity of Seth, or among the people of God so early; nor is such an account agreeable to the history which Moses is giving of the family of Seth, in opposition to that of Cain; wherefore one or other of the former senses is best.
o “Consuevit, assuevit, et familiaris evasit”, Golius, col. 169. p “vocari de nomine Jehovae”, Piscator. q “Ad invocandum in nomine Domini”, Montanus, “vel vocare in nomine Domini”, Cartwright. r Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 1. sect. 1. R, Gedaliah, Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 74. 2. Juchasin, fol. 134. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
26. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. In the verb ‘to call upon,’ there is a synecdochee, for it embraces generally the whole worship of God. But religion is here properly designated by that which forms its principal part. For God prefers this service of piety and faith to all sacrifices, (Psa 50:14.) Yea, this is the spiritual worship of God which faith produces. This is particularly worthy of notice, because Satan contrives nothing with greater care than to adulterate, with every possible corruption, the pure invocation of God, or to draw us away from the only God to the invocation of creatures. Even from the beginning of the world he has not ceased to move this stone, that miserable men might weary themselves in vain in a preposterous worship of God. But let us know, that the entire pomp of adoration is nothing worth, unless this chief point of worshipping God aright be maintained. Although the passage may be more simply explained to mean, that then the name of God was again celebrated; yet I approve the former sense, because it is more full, contains a useful doctrine, and also agrees with the accustomed phraseology of Scripture. It is a foolish figment, that God then began to be called by other names; since Moses does not here censure depraved superstitions, but commends the piety of one family which worshipped God in purity and holiness, when religions among other people, was polluted or extinct. And there is no doubt, that Adam and Eve, with a few other of their children were themselves true worshippers of God; but closes means, that so great was then the deluge of impiety in the world that religion was rapidly hastening to destruction; because it remained only with a few men, and did not flourish in any one race. We may readily conclude that Seth was an upright and faithful servant of God. And after he begat a son, like himself, and had a rightly constituted family, the face of the Church began distinctly to appear, and that worship of God was set up which might continue to posterity. Such a restoration of religion has been effected also in our time; not that it had been altogether extinct; but there was no certainly defined people who called upon God; and, no sincere profession of faith, no uncorrupted religion could anywhere be discovered. Whence it too evidently appears how great is the propensity of men, either to gross contempt of God, or to superstition; since both evils must then have everywhere prevailed, when Moses relates it as a miracles that there was at that time a single family in which the worship of God arose.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(26) He called his name Enos.Heb., Enosh, that is, man. We thus find language growing. Up to this time there had been two names for man: Adam, which also in Assyriananother Semitic dialecthas the same meaning, as Sir H. Rawlinson has shown: and Ish, a being. (See on Gen. 2:23.) We have now Enosh, which, according to Frst and others, signifies mortal; but of this there is no proof. Most probably it is the generic word for man. and is used as such in the Aramaic dialects. Thus in Syriac and Chaldee our Lord is styled bar-enosh, the son of man: not the son of a mortal, but the son of man absolutely.
Then began men (Heb., then it was begun) to call upon the name of the Lord (Jehovah).That is, the notion of Divinity began now to be attached to this name, and even in their worship men called upon God as Jehovah. Eve, as we have seen, attached no such idea to it; and when, in Gen. 4:3, we read that Cain and Abel brought an offering to Jehovah, these are the words of the narrator, who in the story of the fall had expressly styled the Deity Jehovah-Elohim, that is, Jehovah-God, or more exactly, the coming God, in order to show that Elohim and Jehovah are one. Two hundred and thirty-five years had elapsed between the birth of Cain and that of Enos, and men had learned a truer appreciation of the promise given to their primal mother, in Gen. 3:15, than she herself had when she supposed that her first child was to win back for her the Paradise. Probably they had no exact doctrinal views about His person and nature; it was the office of prophecy by divers portions to give these (Heb. 1:1). But they had been taught that He who should be was Divine, and to be worshipped. It is the hopeless error of commentators to suppose that Eve, and Enos, and others, knew all that is now known, and all that the inspired narrator knew. They thus do violence to the plainest language of Holy Scripture, and involve its interpretation in utter confusion. Read without these preconceived notions, the sense is plain: that the name Jehovah had now become a title of the Deity, whereas previously no such sacredness had been attached to it. It was long afterwards, in the days of Moses, that it became the personal name of the covenant God of the Jews.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And Seth, to him was born a son and he called his name Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of Yahweh.’
Enosh is another word for ‘man’. It stresses the frailty of man. The phrase ‘call on the name of Yahweh’ does not mean that men have not acknowledged Yahweh before, but that the worship of Yahweh was now regularised (compare Gen 12:8; Gen 13:4; Gen 21:33; Gen 26:25). Some kind of systematic worship was introduced. Thus from the beginning the systematic worship of Yahweh is clearly linked with the family of Seth. We notice the use of the name Elohim and the name Yahweh within two verses, with their distinctive emphases. The writer of the tablet wishes us to see that the two refer to differing aspects of one God.
We note also the contrast between the lines of Seth and Cain. Cain’s begins with fleeing for murder and ends with a plea for protection following a further death. Seth’s begins with the institution of official Yahweh worship, continues with a man who walks with God (Enoch) and ends with the man who walks with God (Noah). But we must note that it is only Noah and his family, not the wider family, who are saved from the Flood. (Some of ‘the sons and daughters’ must still have been around).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 4:26. Then began men to call, &c. Our marginal translation seems to give us the most proper sense: then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord: i.e.. that distinction then took place, which afterwards prevailed so generally between the children of God and the children of men: see chap. Gen 6:2. The true believers were denominated sons of that Lord whom they served, while the rest of mankind were called the sons of men.
REFLECTIONS.Great, no doubt, was Adam’s grief for his lost Abel; and perhaps greater for his rebellious Cain: but he shall not have all sorrow and no comfort. God will in some sort make up the breach. Though he shall have enough to awaken the remembrance of his own sin, he shall not be left utterly destitute. 1. God gives him another son, to be the establishment of his family, and in whose house the worship of God should be perpetuated in the room of Abel. Sanguis martyrum semen ecclesiae, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. 2. The name given him; Seth, typifying that emphatical Seed, the Messiah, who should be placed as an ensign on a hill, and to whom should the gathering of the people be. And now they behold a comfortable prospect of the perpetuity of the true religion.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 10
INSTITUTION OF PUBLIC WORSHIP
Gen 4:26. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
OF the various institutions of religion, some were clearly founded on an express appointment from God himself; others appear to have arisen, in the first instance, from the suggestions of holy men, and to have been afterwards authorized and established by divine authority. It is manifest that baptism was practised by the Jews long before it was appointed by Christ as the rite whereby his followers were to be consecrated to his service: but when it was first introduced, or whether by any express command of God, we know not. The change of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first was sanctioned by the practice of the Apostles: but whether they received any particular direction respecting it, we are not informed. The presumption indeed is, that all the observances which God has sanctioned, originated from him; and that men began to practise them in consequence of some intimations from him: but as this is not declared in Scripture, we must be contented to leave the matter undecided. We are not any where told that God commanded men to meet together for the purposes of public worship. If we take the text in the precise sense that it bears in our translation, it should seem that public assemblies of worship were rather the offspring of necessity; and that they arose out of an increase of population, and a growing neglect of personal and family religion.
The text indeed is, in the margin of our Bibles, rendered differently: Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord: Nor are commentators agreed to which of the versions we should give the preference. We shall therefore include both; and take occasion from the words to shew,
I.
In what manner we should confess God
The descendants of Cain, who had become a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, soon cast off all regard for God, and addicted themselves to open and shameless impiety. Lamech broke through the restraints which the Creator had imposed in relation to marriage, and took unto him two wives; leaving thereby an example, which in process of time effaced the very remembrance of Gods original institution. From these and other abominations arose an imperious necessity for the godly to separate themselves from the ungodly, and to maintain by an open and more visible profession the honour of God in the world. This they did: and in so doing they have taught us,
1.
To separate ourselves from the ungodly
[There is a certain degree of intercourse which must subsist between us and the world. But it is by no means desirable to extend it beyond that which the duties of our calling absolutely require. Our Lord repeatedly declares that his faithful followers are not of the world, even as He was not of the world [Note: Joh 17:16.]: The Apostles also with one voice guard us against cultivating the friendship of the world; [Note: Jam 4:4.] and teach us to come out from among them [Note: 2Co 6:14-18.], and to live as a distinct peculiar people [Note: 1Pe 2:9.], shining among them as lights in a dark place [Note: Php 2:15.]. We should go to them, indeed, when duty calls, as the physician enters the infected chambers of the sick: but we should never forget, that evil communications corrupt good manners [Note: 1Co 15:33.] ; and that an undue familiarity with them is far more likely to weaken the spirituality of our own minds, than to generate a holy disposition in theirs. In us should be verified the prophecy of Balaam, Israel shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations [Note: Num 23:9.].]
To make an open profession of our attachment to Christ
[The godly, in the antediluvian world, called themselves Children of God, as distinct from those who were only children of men: and it was foretold that a similar distinction should obtain among the followers of Christ [Note: Isa 44:5.]. If in one instance Peter failed in acknowledging his Lord, on other occasions he witnessed a good confession, and manfully withstood the threatenings of his enemies [Note: Act 4:8; Act 4:10; Act 4:19-20.]. It may be thought perhaps, that, because Christianity is the established religion of the land, there is no occasion for such boldness now: but the sons of Cain and of Ishmael are yet amongst us [Note: Judges 11; Gal 4:23; Gal 4:29.]: there are in every place those who deride all vital godliness: and it requires almost as much fortitude to withstand their sneers and contempt, as it does to brave more cruel persecutions. There is the same necessity for us to take up our cross and follow Christ, as there was for the primitive Christians: and the command given to them to be faithful unto death, is equally to be regarded by us: for the same conduct will be observed by the Judge towards men of every age and nation; he will confess those before his Father who have confessed him in the world, and deny before his Father those who have denied, or been ashamed of him [Note: Mat 10:32-33; Mar 8:38.].]
But the text instructs us also,
II.
In what manner we should worship him
We cannot doubt but that Adam and his pious offspring maintained the worship of God both in their families and their closets: but till the human race were considerably multiplied, there was no occasion for what may be called public worship. But when the families became so numerous that they were obliged to separate, then it was necessary to call them together at stated times and seasons, that, by forming different congregations, they might all receive instruction at once, and keep up in their minds an habitual reverence for God.
The necessity for public ordinances is obvious; and the benefit arising from them is incalculable.
1.
They preserve the knowledge of God in the world
[There is reason to fear, that if there were no public ordinances of religion, the very name of God would be soon forgotten. Notwithstanding the establishment of such institutions, the generality are perishing for lack of knowledge: darkness has overspread the land, even a darkness that may be seen and felt [Note: Exo 10:21 with Isa 9:2.]. But there is some light shining in the world; and that is diffused almost exclusively by the public ministry of the word. Occasionally, God is pleased to instruct men by his word and Spirit, without the intervention of human agents: but, as he has set apart an order of men for the express purpose of propagating his truth, so he delights to honour them as his instruments to convey his blessings to the world [Note: Compare Zec 4:11-14 and 2Co 4:7 with Act 8:26-39; Act 10:9-44.]. Doubtless he vouchsafes his blessing to those who read and pray in secret, provided they reverence, as far as their circumstances admit, his public institutions: but never did he, from the foundation of the world, impart his blessing to those who continued to live in an avowed contempt of his ordinances: No: he loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob [Note: Psa 87:2.].]
2.
They are the means of perfecting his work in his peoples hearts
[God has told us that this was a very principal end for his ordaining men to preach the Gospel [Note: Eph 4:11-15.] ; but it is by means of the public ordinances chiefly that Ministers can address the people: and consequently the ordinances themselves are the means by which God accomplishes his end. We have said before, that God will also reveal himself to his people in secret: and it sometimes happens that their communion with him in private is more sweet and intimate than in the public assembly: but may we not ask, on the other hand, whether, when the heart has been cold and formal in the closet, it has not often been warmed and animated in the church? And is not much of the enjoyment experienced in secret, the result of instructions administered in the public ordinances? In the one they gather the food; in the other they ruminate and chew the cud: but the pleasure and nourishment derived to their souls must be acknowledged, in part at least, as originating in their public duties. To these has God promised his peculiar blessing [Note: Exo 20:24; Mat 28:20.] ; and therefore we should reverence his sanctuary, and join with one consent in a public surrender of ourselves to God [Note: See Zep 3:9; Zec 8:20-22.].]
Address,
1.
Those who have others under their control
[Parents, and Masters, you are responsible to God for the exercise of your power and influence. Will you then, either by precept or example, encourage a conformity to the world, or a disregard of the worship of your God? O destroy not their souls, for whom Christ died! Employ your authority for God: and, whatever opposition you may meet with in the world, learn to say with Joshua, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord [Note: Jos 24:15.].]
2.
Those who are acting for themselves
[If you have chosen the good part, be careful that it be not taken away from you, either through the love of this world, or through the fear of man. Be steadfast, and endure unto the end, that you may be saved at last. If you lose your life for Christs sake, you shall find it unto life eternal. But if you are walking in the broad road, think whither it leads: and begin to serve your God in this world, that you may be honoured by him in the world to come [Note: Joh 12:26.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 4:26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
Ver. 26. Then began men to call upon, &c. ] Publicly, and in solemn assemblies to serve the Lord; and to make a bold and wise profession of his name: “shining as lamps” a amidst that “perverse” generation of irreligious Cainites, “who said unto God, Depart from us,” &c. Job 22:17 This Job speaks there of these wicked, “which were cut down out of time, their foundation was overflown with the flood.” Job 22:16 The Jews translate it to this day, Then began men to fall from God; as Maimonides, their most learned rabbi, observes.
a . Php 2:15
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Enos = trail, incurable.
began. See notes on next page.
began. Not began to worship: for Abel worshipped, and others, doubtless, long before. But here: “began to call upon [their gods] by the name of Jehovah, “or “began profanely to call upon the name of the Lord” (see App-21). Enos, though the son of Seth, is included here because he went in “the way of Cain”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Enos i.e. mortal.
call upon the name Or, call themselves by the name of Jehovah. Contra. Gen 12:8; Gen 26:25.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
am 235, bc 3769
To him: Gen 4:6-8
Enos: Heb. Enosh, to call upon the name of the Lord. or, call themselves by the name of the Lord. Deu 26:17, Deu 26:18, 1Ki 18:24, Psa 116:17, Isa 44:5, Isa 48:1, Isa 63:19, Jer 33:16, Joe 2:32, Zep 3:9, Act 2:21, Act 11:26, Rom 10:13, 1Co 1:2, Eph 3:14, Eph 3:15
Reciprocal: Gen 4:2 – a keeper Gen 5:6 – begat Gen 6:2 – the sons Gen 12:8 – called Gen 13:4 – called Gen 21:33 – called Num 24:17 – all the children 1Ch 1:1 – Sheth Luk 3:38 – which was the son of Adam
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE FIRST TRUE WORSHIPPERS
Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
Gen 4:26
Prayer is speaking to Godon any subject, with any object, in any place, and in any way.
I. Prayer so regarded is an instinct.It seems to be natural to man to look upwards and address himself to his God. Even in the depth of lost knowledge and depraved feeling, the instinct of prayer will assert itself. A nation going to war with another nation will call upon its God for success and victory; and an individual man, from the bedside of a dying wife or child, will invoke the aid of one supposed to be mighty, to stay the course of a disease which the earthly physician has pronounced incurable and mortal. Just as the instinct of nature brings the child in distress or hunger to a fathers knee or to a mothers bosom, even so does created man turn in great misery to a faithful Creator, and throw himself upon His compassion and invoke His aid.
II. But prayer is a mystery too.The mysteriousness of prayer is an argument for its reasonableness. It is not a thing which common men would have thought of or gone after for themselves. The idea of holding a communication with a distant, an unseen, a spiritual being, is an idea too sublime, too ethereal for any but poets or philosophers to have dreamed of, had it not been made instinctive by the original Designer of our spiritual frame.
III. Prayer is also a revelation.Many things waited for the coming of Christ to reveal them, but prayer waited not. Piety without knowledge there might be; piety without prayer could not be. And so Christ had no need to teach as a novelty the duty or the privilege of prayer. He was able to assume that all pious men, however ignorant, prayed; and to say therefore only this,When ye pray, say after this manner.
Dean Vaughan.
Illustration
Unfallen man held communion with his Maker of a more direct and confidential character than a being spoilt and deformed by sin is at present capable of. But some communication and intercourse with God remained or was reinstituted after the first transgression. Even Cain, much more Abel, addresses and is answered by the Lord his God. There seems to have been after them some revival in the form of ritual and sacrifice of an open quest and search for God by His sinful children.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Gen 4:26. And to Seth was born a son called Enos, which is the general name for all men, and speaks the weakness, frailty, and misery of mans state. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord Doubtless Gods name was called upon before: but now, 1st, The worshippers of God began to do more in religion than they had done; perhaps not more than had been done at first, but more than had been done since the defection of Cain. Now men began to worship God, not only in their closets and families, but in public and solemn assemblies. 2nd, The worshippers of God began to distinguish themselves: so the margin reads it. Then began men to be called by the name of the Lord or, to call themselves by it. Now Cain and those that had deserted religion had built a city, and begun to declare for irreligion, and called themselves the sons of men. Those that adhered to God began to declare for him and his worship, and called themselves the sons of God.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:26 And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to {t} call upon the name of the LORD.
(t) In these days God began to move the hearts of the godly to restore religion, which had been suppressed by the wicked for a long time.