Many times when we read the Bible we take things for granted and so we miss a lot of important things that God wants to speak to us. In Gen. 4:26 for instance we see an important landmark in human history – at the time of Enosh, mankind started to call on the name of Jehovah.
The name “Enosh” means “frail, mortal man” – this means that Enosh realized he is mortal and frail, and he began to call on the name of Jehovah, the everlasting and the strong One. Abel means vanity, and Enosh means frail and mortal; when he grew up, Enosh realized that human life is vanity, and he himself was weak, frail, and mortal.
In order for us to overcome the fall of man we need to realize that we are weak, fragile, and mortal, and we just need to call on the name of the Lord to be filled with His riches and be saved from our situation. We need to go on from the initial experience of Christ as our offerings to have a living of enjoying Christ as our organic Savior by calling on Him all the time!
By calling on the name of the Lord, we breathe Him in, and we are being constituted with Christ as holiness (His holy nature is being infused and constituted into our being). We simply need to call on the Lord’s name, who is so near and available to us.
O, Lord Jesus! Looooooorddd Jeeeesuuuuuus! Oh, Lord! Lord Jesus, I need You! Lord, I really need You! I cry out to You, Lord! I am frail and weak, but You are everlasting and strong! Lord Jesus, I want to experience You! O, Lord Jesus!
Human Life is Vanity, and Man is Weak, Frail, and Mortal
When Eve had her first son, she named him, Cain, which means, acquired – as a result of believing in the gospel preached by God to them, man believed that they acquired from Jehovah this seed who will crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15; 4:1). But then they realized that Cain was not the one….and they named their second son, Abel, which means, vanity or breath. They realized that human life without God is vanity, just a breath.
Look at the people today: even though many of them seem so busy with so many things, doing their best to both make a living and “have fun”, yet inside they are empty. Inside every man there’s a gap, a void, that nothing under the sun except God Himself can fill and satisfy. “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity under the sun” (Eccl. 1:2-3). Man may work really hard to obtain certain things but in the end it’s all vanity and chasing after the wind.
Even more, as the name Enosh indicates, man is weak, fragile, and mortal. We do not know whether we will be alive tomorrow or even in one hour from now. We are so frail, we break so easily, we get sick, and we will eventually die. We need to see the frailty of human life and how mortal we are, and this realization will help us not to be presumptuous before God.
As we see the vanity of human life and we realize how weak, fragile, and mortal we are, we will not be presumptuous but we will contact God desperately, crying out to Him by calling on His name.
Enosh – in the third generation of mankind – realized this: he saw the vanity of human life and he realized how frail and mortal he is; therefore, he called on the name of Jehovah!
Calling on the Name of the Lord
photo credit: Bible Verse Memorization – Rom. 10:13, Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
As a young man and later a young adult I thought, on the one hand, that God blessed me with a strong body and a good health, and on the other hand, that I’m not fragile or even mortal….but then one day God allowed a small accident to happen and I was close to death, in intensive care in the hospital, under medical observation. Then I realized that human life is vanity, obtaining this or achieving that is meaningless, and I am so frail, weak, and mortal.
What can man do or how should man respond when he sees the vanity of human life and the frailty of man? We can simply tell the Lord from our heart,
Lord, I don’t want to be presumptuous in any way. I must live for You and worship You in Your way. Lord, my human life without You is vanity. I am so frail and mortal. I just want to call on Your name! You are everlasting, You are strong, and You are so rich! O Lord Jesus, I need You right now!
We need to audibly call on the Lord’s name, even cry out to Him. Our spontaneous reaction to seeing how frail, weak, and mortal we are should be to call on the name of the Lord to enjoy all His riches and strength! When we call on the name of the Lord, we enter into all that He is and we enjoy His riches, His divine eternal life, and His divine strength.
Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved – and there’s no distinction between English and Polish, American and Romanian, white or black, highly educated ones and unlearned ones, tractor drivers and CEOs, men or women, young or old, tall or short, or anything else – the Lord is rich to all who call on His name (see Rom. 10:12-13).
He left us a provision, a way to be saved moment by moment and day by day – His name, Lord Jesus! We should not be presumptuous to approach God in our merit or based on our good deeds but humble ourselves, take Christ as our way to God, and call on the Lord’s name to enjoy all that He is! O Lord Jesus!
The Lord is so Near to Us and so Rich to Us!
It is fascinating to see that Enosh didn’t call on the name of God (the One who created the heavens and the earth) but on the name of Jehovah (the name of God coming into an intimate relationship with man).
Today we don’t call merely on “God”, the One who is created all things and sustains all things, but on the Lord Jesus, Jehovah our Savior, the One who has become a man, lived a perfect human life on earth, died for us on the cross, and resurrected from the dead to become the life-giving Spirit. When we call on such a One, He is near to us – even in our mouth and in our heart (see Rom. 10:6-10).
Yes, God is on the throne in the heavens, but in Christ He is so near to us, ready and available for us to call on Him. He is rich unto all men who call upon His name! When we as weak, frail, and mortal men call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we enjoy the everlasting One, the strong One, the rich One, and the all-inclusive One! He is so rich to us when we call on Him.
We can call on Him at any time (in the morning, throughout the day, in the evening, at night, and even at any time during the night) and in every place. We can call on the Lord when we wake up, while we brush out teeth, in the shower, before and during breakfast, when we dress up, when we travel, while the plane takes off, when we bike, at school, at work, when we eat and drink, when we talk to others (we inwardly call), when we do this and that, when we relax, when we are in hospital, when we are sick, when we are tired, when we are sad, when we are happy, etc – whatever happens, wherever we are, whatever we do, we can and we should just call on the name of the Lord to be filled with Him and experience Him!
We don’t know what we need – we just know we are weak and mortal – but when we call on the name of the Lord, He strengthens us, He fills us with His life, He dispenses His riches into us, and He becomes our content and reality! How we love to call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Lord Jesus, we repent for not calling on Your name enough. Oh, Lord, how much we need You. Our human life with all its activities and things is so vain and meaningless without You. Lord Jesus, we call on Your name. We are so weak, frail, and mortal, but we cry out to You! Oh, Lord Jesus! You are the great I AM, the everlasting One, the strong One, and the rich One. We call on You to be identified with You and receive from You all that You are. What You are meets our every need. We need You! O, Lord Jesus!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: the Word of God, bro. Dick Taylor’s speaking in this message, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 25) – as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization Study of Genesis (1), week / msg 10, Abel, Enosh, and Enoch.
- Further reading:
# Recommending Gen. 4:26 and footnote 2, and Rom. 10:12-13 with the footnotes there (in the Recovery Version Bible).
# Calling on the Lord (the booklet by bro. Witness Lee) and www.callingonthelord.org – see the list of the Old Testament people who called on the name of the Lord.
# According to the Bible, what does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? Watch this 5 min long video from Bibles for America concerning what calling on the name of the Lord is. Also here, about Calling Out Loud! - Hymns on this topic:
# Jesus! O what a name! / O Lord Jesus! Life-giving name! / Name victorious, name all-glorious, / Name exalted—O what a name!
# Jesus! how much Thy name unfolds / To every opened ear; / The pardoned sinner’s mem’ry holds / None other half so dear.
# O Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord! / Forgive me if I say, / For very love, Thy sacred name / A thousand times a day. / O Jesus, Lord, with me abide; / I rest in Thee, whate’er betide; / Thy gracious smile is my reward; / I love, I love Thee, Lord!
Lord Jesus for in the name we touch, recieve the person of Christ for he is the life giving Spirit
Lord Jesus for in the name we touch, receive the person of Christ for he is the life giving Spirit
Oh Lord Jesus!