Invoking the Lord
The First Call
I’ve been writing about a Biblical theme I’ve been fascinated with for years. “Calling on the Lord.”1
I shared earlier that we first see it in Genesis 4:26, and it repeats almost exactly in Genesis 12:8. If we want to get nerdy (and you know I do), we are talking about the Hebrew verb קָרָא. The root shows up over 200 times in the Old Testament.
This word has many different meanings: calling, invoking, summoning, sending for, proclaiming, granting, and a few others (depending on the translation you are reading). I think to begin to get the bigger idea, we have to look at how it is used in these two Genesis passages.
In Genesis 4, we read about humans first calling on the name of the LORD after the cursing of Cain, his lineage, and the story turns back to Adam and Eve with the birth of their son Seth. This particular Hebrew verb is also used to describe naming something or someone. It shows up all over chapter 1. It’s inside these weird complications that I get fascinated.
But about Genesis 4:26 and what makes it unique.
The NRSV uses the term “invoked,” and most other translations say “call”. I like the NRSV translation of this passage because it quickly gets us into the meat of the specific idea. One quality of this word is “establishing contact with someone”. It isn’t unlike the idea of hollering for someone for a specific reason. We are inviting someone into a situation.
If we look at the larger narrative of Genesis 2-4, a bunch is happening. Adam and Eve are created, live in the Garden, fall into sin, Cain and Abel happen, we see this alternate line of Cain developed, a new son is born, and there seems to be some sort of reset in the original line of humanity.
So why are they calling on God now?
This is where it gets interesting.
There is a larger theological argument for what is called “the ontological necessity of the incarnation.” This means there is something about the character of God as providing grace and a power that humans are incapable of self-generating. God, because of His character, has to intervene with humanity in a way that provides grace. The text also doesn’t tell us that it was Adam necessarily invoking God. It is humans. As Brueggemann says, people began to intentionally rely on the Lord here.
We also don’t see a later, more generic usage.
This is specifically calling on “the name” of the Lord. This is a specific knowledge of His character. In the first email in this series, I mentioned how I began to be fascinated with this passage and how some interpreters refer to this as the beginning of worship. We can’t worship what we don’t know. What we are invoking are the actions the Lord reveals to us.
So chew on that.
Calling on the name of the Lord. Are you starting to see this as a fundamental part of faith? A God who has revealed Himself to us. We call to get His attention and ask Him to do the things we know He does.
So here is a devotional challenge. Take time this week to specifically call on God for specific situations. Name His character and the promises of scripture. Thank Him for the ways you have experienced Him as good and ask for the same things to be done.
See you back in the next email, where we get into the book of Job, what his sin might be, and how this calling on the Lord acts in a wider Biblical idea of refuge.
Here are the earlier articles in this series.
Calling on God as Fundamental | Part 1
What Calling on God looks like | Part 2