Seth, covenant relationship, and calling upon the Lord

In a post several months ago, I spoke of the significance of Seth in redemptive history. It was relatively short, but it spoke on the idea that Seth represented the continuity of the divine covenantal lineage originating with Adam that would someday lead to Jesus Christ (as opposed to Cain, who retained the image of the serpent from the Garden). This post will continue that line of thinking, as the Sethites began to "call upon the name of the LORD" and identify themselves as the people of Yahweh.

Meredith Kline breaks this down for us in his Kingdom Prologue:

Genesis 4:26b relates that the Sethites identified themselves as those who belonged to the Lord, as Yahweh-people. Such is the meaning of the statement rendered in the AV: "then began men to call upon the name of the Lord."(1)

The contexts contain explicit covenantal references and identification with the name of Yahweh is explicated by formulae traditional in God's covenants. One such equivalency is taking hold of God (Isa. 64:7[6]), a familiar idiom for affirming covenant relationship in the Bible and in ancient international treaties...Association of this naming idiom with such expressions of covenantal commitment suggests for it the particular meaning of recognizing and invoking God in covenant oath as divine witness and judge.

Of special importance are passages where the people's acknowledging that Yahweh is Lord through the act of surnaming themselves after him is matched by a divine response acknowledging that the people are indeed God's special covenantal possession. This reciprocal acknowledgement of Yahweh as Lord by Israel and of Israel as his people by Yahweh expresses the core of their covenant relationship.(2)

The words in Genesis 4:26b (within the context in which Kline conveys them here) are now intensified by the fact that they are laid against the backdrop of covenantal language between two parties - the Sethites and the Lord God. He graciously and sovereignly claims us as his own possession, and we respond in declaring him Lord of all. He is our protector, savior, witness, and judge. We are his people who call upon his great name and identify ourselves with him who creates, redeems, reigns, and will consummate all things.

(1) Kline, Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview. Wipf and Stock Publications, 2006, pg. 190.
(2) Ibid., pg. 191.