Here I Am!

I used to love playing Hide-and-Seek. And I was really good at hiding. 

For one thing, I was a SMALL kid. For another, I have very loose joints, which makes me quite flexible, so I could hide in spaces so small you would think there’s no way I could hide in there.

My favorite thing to do when the searcher would give up was to sneak out of my hiding place and move away from it so nobody would see where it was and I could use it later.

Only then would I call out, “Here I am!” To give myself away.

 

I want to take a look at a few people in the Bible who said, “Here I am.”

 

Genesis 21 tells us the story of Abraham and his son Isaac. God had promised Abraham a son, and it wasn’t until Abraham was 100 years old that God delivered on that promise.

Then God told Abraham to take his son – his ONLY son – up on a mountain and offer his son as a sacrifice offering to God. Abraham must have been devastated, but he followed what God was telling him to do.

When they got to the place of sacrifice, Abraham prepared the altar, laid wood on it, tied up his son, and laid him on the altar. Abraham then took out his knife and raised it to kill his son.

Genesis 22:11 – But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" He replied, "Here I am."

The Angel of the Lord then told Abraham not to harm the boy.

 

Before moving on, I want to point out that repeating a person’s name is a Hebrew expression of intimacy. I mention that because we will see it later.

 

Genesis 27:1 – When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could not see, he called his older son Esau and said to him, "My son." And he answered, "Here I am."

Isaac went on to give instructions to Esau to prepare to receive the blessing from his father, Isaac. The younger son, Jacob, however, schemed with his mother to trick Isaac into blessing him instead.

We’re not going to go into all of that right now. I just want to note that Esau said, “Here I am.”

 

After deceitfully getting his father’s blessing, Jacob feared for his life from his brother Esau and he ran away.

He went to the country that Abraham had come from, and there he found a wife. After some time, he wanted to return to his own home, so he gathered his family together. He told his wives about a dream that he had had and how God had given him instructions about how to become prosperous while working for his father-in-law.

Genesis 31:11 – In that dream the Angel of God said to me, “Jacob!” and I said, “Here I am.”

After a confrontation with his father-in-law, Jacob returned to his own country.

 

Years later, Jacob had 12 sons. Ten of them sold their brother Joseph into slavery and he was taken to Egypt, where he rose to prominence.

There was a great famine and Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to get food.

Skipping over a lot of that story, Joseph sent his brothers to get their father and their families and move them all to Egypt.

As they traveled to Egypt, they stopped at Beer-Sheba and Jacob offered sacrifices to God there.

Genesis 46:2 – That night God spoke to Israel in a vision: "Jacob, Jacob!"  And Jacob replied, "Here I am."

God told Jacob that it was ok to go to Egypt and that God would make his family into a great nation and bring them back from Egypt.

 

Four hundred years later, the people of Israel had greatly multiplied in Egypt and had been enslaved there.

Moses was a Hebrew baby that was adopted by an Egyptian princess and was raised in the palace. After he grew up, he was out among the people and saw an Egyptian abusing a Hebrew slave. Moses killed and buried the Egyptian. Once Moses was made aware that he had been found out, he fled from Egypt and became a shepherd in Midian. After about 40 years of shepherding in the wilderness, Moses came upon a bush that was on fire, but was not burning up. Seeing this strange sight, he went closer to take a look.

Exodus 3:4 – When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses, Moses!"   "Here I am," he answered.

God told Moses that he would lead his people out of slavery.

 

Our next story is Samuel, but I want to pass over it for now. When I come back to it, you will understand why.

 

After Saul became king of Israel, David and his men ended up running and hiding from King Saul. David asked a man named Nabal for food for his men, but Nabal refused and was quite ugly to David.

Nabal’s wife Abigail went behind her husband’s back and sent food to David and his men.

1 Samuel 25:37 says, “In the morning when Nabal sobered up, his wife told him about these events. His heart died and he became a stone.” 

I love the way that is worded.

David sent some of his men to get Abigail and bring her to him to become his wife.

1 Samuel 25:41 – She bowed her face to the ground and said, "Here I am."

 

I’m also going to bypass Isaiah for now, too.

 

Let’s look at a couple of New Testament examples.

 

In the book of Acts, we are told about Saul’s persecution of the Christians.

As he was traveling and nearing Damascus, a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground, blind, and heard the voice of Jesus asking why Saul was persecuting him. Jesus told Saul to go into the city and wait to be told what to do.

Acts 9:10 – Now in Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias!"   "Here I am, Lord!" he said.

The Lord sent Ananias to witness and minister to Saul.

 

Now let’s go back and pick up the two stories that I skipped.

 

Samuel was a boy about 12 years old and he lived with the priest Eli, serving the Lord in the temple.

One night after they had gone to bed, Samuel heard a voice calling his name. He went to Eli and said, “Here I am,” but Eli told him he had not called him.

This happened three times. On the third time, Eli figured out that it was God calling Samuel and he told Samuel what to say when it happened again.

1 Samuel 3:10 – The Lord came, stood there, and called as before, ”Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel responded, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

God told Samuel what He was going to do in Israel in the near future.

 

Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord in heaven.

Isaiah 6:8 – Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking, “Who should I send? Who will go for Us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”

 

All of these “Here I am” statements are really like the last two. It’s not like when I would come out of hiding and say, “Here I am.” God (and other people) already knew where they were!

These people are all saying, “Here I am, ready to serve. Put me to work.”

 

When God calls to show you a job that He has for you to do, don’t try to play Hide-and-Seek with God. I can tell you that doesn’t work! Instead be committed to telling God, “Here I am, ready to serve. Put me to work.”