December 11
Genesis 4.25-26
25 Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.
For a short recap of the events before this, Adam and Eve have been exiled from the garden after eating from the tree that they were told not to eat of. Adam and Eve had Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel and then was exiled from the rest of the people. There is a listing of the family line of Cain up to his descendant Lamech. Lamech has two wives and brags to them about having killed more people than Cain has.
Now we step back and see the line of Adam and Eve again with Seth. In contrast to the line that comes from Cain where we see the beginnings of polygamy and we see violence and murder, the line of Seth begins with the statement: At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.
Long before Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and even further back before Moses leading the people, we see the beginnings of faith as people call on the name of the LORD. The reverse will take place in the days of Noah about to come when we see in Genesis 6.5, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” But here, at the beginning, we see the connection to the God of creation. The connection to the promises of restoration that were made in Genesis 3.
We can look at the world today and see that there are those who wish to use life to gain for themselves only. Living like Genesis 6. We can also see that there are many others who wish to live in the Genesis 4 place of calling on the LORD. Some who come with us and have begun to understand the ways of following in the grace of Jesus. Others who are searching, yet need to find Jesus with us yet. And most of us somewhere along that line of understanding a bit better each day.
As we sit in this midpoint of Advent, we look to understand where we have come from and where we are heading. And we call on the name of the LORD, through the grace of Jesus, seeing that his coming once showed the promises of life were begun, the beginnings of birth pains we saw yesterday in Mark 13. We see that it is looking forward to the certain return that completes his work of grace and transformation for us. We, and all creation, restored to the presence of God. The place from which we were once exiled and now are beginning to see as the reality of life for us, both now and forever.
Song – Soon and Very Soon
Prayer
King of Glory, you are God. You are powerful. You rule the entire world. We praise you because you are so great. But you became a baby. You were tiny and weak. You were just like us. We praise you because you came, and we look forward to when you will come again. In your name we pray. Amen.