The Name of the Lord
And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.
Genesis 4:26 (NKJV)
I recently taught a message on the revelation of the Name of the Lord. It was opened to me by the Holy Spirit during my time of meditation, and it gave me a fresh perspective on who the Lord really is. This is a more coherent version of that revelation.
As early as the fourth generation after the Fall, men began calling on the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26). This took place after the birth of Enosh, Seth's first son. The question is how it was known that the name of the Lord could be called upon, and the only logical conclusion is that the Lord Himself must have given light on this truth. I want the reader to notice that they did not call on the Lord; they called on His name. One may assume that these are the same thing, but the Holy Spirit is very deliberate in His use of words in the Scriptures. So let us investigate why they called on the name of the Lord, what that name is, and why the Lord commanded early civilisation to call on that name for help.
To understand this, one must look at the Hebrew word for "name" in Genesis 4:26, שֵׁם, shem, which means the authority, character, fame and reputation of someone. A name is associated with the character and authority of the person who answers to it; it is who the person is, and all his reputation is forever linked to the one who is named by it. This implies that men were calling on the reputation and fame of God, and that is strange: why not call on God Himself? From the Scriptures we know that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; that the name of the Lord is a strong tower, a fortress, and those who run into it are safe. We know that kings called on the name of the Lord in battle and were victorious; that David killed Goliath in the name of the Lord; that the Lord put His name on the temple, and there the glory of God came down. This name was instrumental in the achievements of God's people on earth. God gave men a name by which they could solicit His hand.
The work of the name preceded Jesus. It was saving, delivering and prospering mankind generations before the arrival of Christ, because God gave mankind the name to call upon before He gave them Jesus. This is where understanding began to open for me, because I saw that the God who taught men to call on this name wanted to be known by the reputation the name represented. I believe with all my heart that this is why Satan rebelled and war broke out among the celestials: it was because of this name. They knew there was a name reserved to be inherited by a man, by which he would wield all the authority and power of God in the universe. This sent shockwaves through the sons of God, because they, and especially Satan, thought themselves the most powerful beings in the universe. Isaiah 14 gives us insight into the thinking of Lucifer, and it is apparent that if he thought he could be equal to God, there must have been something he knew about that possibility. That something is the name of the Lord: it can give man equality with God. Simeon, holding the infant Jesus, uttered a prophetic statement, that this Child was destined for the fall and rising of many, and through the articles that follow you will see it.
The right hand of God was not a position that had always been there; God created it for the sake of mankind. It is a title and an office God consecrated for His Man through the anointing of Himself, and I will say more of this later. Yes, God anointed Himself in order to create the office of the right hand. There is nothing higher or greater than God, but when He wanted to make Himself "greater," He created and consecrated a name for Himself, which would later be inherited by man, to the glory of God. Adam was the first in line to have this name conferred upon him.