Seth also has a son, and names him Enosh. The chapter closes with a landmark observation: at that time, people began to call on the name of the LORD. This is the first recorded collective turning toward God in worship in Genesis, and it emerges not from Cain's city or from the builders and warriors of his line but from the quiet family of Seth. Calling on the name of the LORD is a phrase that carries enormous weight throughout Scripture. Psalm 116:17 uses it as the language of gratitude and sacrifice, and Joel 2:32 — quoted in Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13 — promises that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. The contrast between Lamech's boast in verses 23–24 and this verse could not be sharper: one line names itself, the other calls on God's name. The application is the perennial question of worship: whose name do you invoke when you are in trouble, when you are grateful, when you are afraid? The habit of calling on God's name — regularly, specifically, not just in crisis — is what this verse marks as the beginning of something new.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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