Here I Am!

0:00In this episode of the Discover the Word podcast, at least some organ is going to trace with Bill Crowder and Daniel Ryan Day. The phrase, here I am across five pivotal moments in the Old Testament where God reached out to someone and they responded by saying, here I am. And so as we look at these instances, was it like this? In elementary school, I don't even know if they still do this, but the teacher would call out your name and you say, here, that's how they would take attendance, you know? Or was it more like this? I'm picturing this series like Marco Polo, where it's like God is saying Abraham or whoever we're talking about it. And they're like, here I am. And so the calling response is like, name, here I am, name, here I am. Hmm, maybe not. Well, as we explore these, Lisa says, we're going to discover that God is still calling out names today, our names, and the question is, how might we recognize his call and respond

1:06confidently with a, here I am. I'm willing. I'm able. Well, discover the word is Bible engagement for life from our daily bread ministries, which we explore topics and passages that inform the way we read the Bible. And we're going to challenge us as we live our lives as followers of Christ and point us to discover Jesus, the living word of God in the pages of the written word. And over the course of the next hour, Lisa will be leading this study with Bill and Daniel called here I am exploring these five instances in the Old Testament where God called someone's name and they responded with a here I am. And part of what makes this so significant is that the here I am response isn't always our first choice isn't I think we all have to admit that our tendency is not always to say here I am, I'm willing, I'm able. Our tendency is too often related to another kids game. And so to begin this study, Lisa has another image for us to consider as we get into this.

2:07It's not Marco Polo, but it is another kids game that may relate to how people in scripture and how we can respond when God in a sense reaches out and calls our name. I remember playing hide and seek as a kid. And now I play with my grandkids, usually in the house and I like the hiding part better than the seeking part. What about you guys? Yeah, I would agree, especially because when my kids were younger and we played this more, the hiding part was an excuse for me to try to find a place where I could lay down or something and see if I could even fall asleep. He was sneaky dad. Right. And I even thought about hiding between the box spring and mattress one time because I was like, man, if I go in there, they'll never find me and then I can just navigate. I feel just suffocated. No worries. They'll know what about you. Well, when I was a kid, I liked the hiding part.

3:09And now when I play with my grandkids, I like the seeking part just because I like to see how clever they can be. I think that's cute. And it's so fun to find them and tickle them and whatever else. Oh, absolutely. I guess. It's an interesting thing to think about. We're going to consider five instances in scripture where God reached out and how humans kind of identified themselves before him rather than hiding. And they used to phrase, here I am or some older translations are here, I am. These are instances and many of them attach to leadership moments when a human's invited into a leadership capacity where the human says to God, here I am. We're going to look at five different instances. And today we're going to start with Abraham. Before we go there though, somebody grabbed Genesis chapter three verses eight to ten and

4:12just quickly read that and it reveals a troubling beginning for creation. I can get it. Yep. So Genesis three eight through ten, they Adam and Eve heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? He said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. So Adam and Eve have sinned, they have fallen and when God calls, there and eight responses to hide. It's a troubling beginning for humankind, isn't it? Well, and it shows such a reversal in the relationship because before they had had perfect communion with the Creator and there is no hindrance to that relationship at all. And now this huge barrier has come up because, as you said, Alisa of their sin.

5:17So whole that is context for these conversations, if you would, because that's kind of our innate gut reaction when God calls, is to hide. Now to look at our first character, Abraham, we're going to scoot into the story of him in Genesis chapter 22 and it's verses 1 through 11. This is the whole test of Abraham. Let's just read that together, starting out in verse 1 and then just reading on through to verse 11. Okay, I'll start. Sometime later, God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham, here I am, he replied. Okay, there's number one. Okay. Then God said, take your son, your only son whom you love Isaac and go to the region of Mariah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain, I will show you. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had

6:20told him about. On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you. Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father, Abraham's father. Yes, my son, Abraham replied, the fire in the wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering my son. And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven. Abraham, Abraham, here I am, he replied. There's a second, okay?

7:22And he goes on, he says, do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God because you've not withheld your son from me, your only son. Abraham looked up and there in the thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns and he went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place, the Lord will provide him to this day. It is said on the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided. And let's pause there. So twice we see this, here I am, it's God calling out and Abraham is answering. Just a brief synopsis of Abraham's life. You just just click. What are the basic facts here? Well, he started off at the earth, the Caldys and he and his father, Tara and his wife, Sarah, went and left the land of earth, the Caldys went to a place called Haran. And their Abrams father died and he and Sarah were called by God to go to an unknown place

8:28and establish themselves and God promised him that he would make of him a great nation of people. And was it easy for Abraham to have children? No, not at all. In fact, him and Sarah are well advanced in age as the story progresses and to the point where when God finally comes and says it's time, she laughs, which makes total sense based on how old that she is at that point, at a point when she shouldn't be able to bear kids anymore. Garfetched. And before that, there's that horrific story of how they treat Hegar because they don't feel like God's keeping His promise. They feel like they need to do it themselves. So they have Abraham and Pregnate the servant, Hegar, and they have Ishmael. So it was so not easy for them to have kids that they tried to do it through not good means and then ultimately laughed at God when God said, now is the actual time when

9:29it's going to happen. So it's quite significant that God would test Abraham by calling out to him and telling him to take his only son and sacrifice him. So there are two here I am's in verse 1 and that's the first one and then in verse 11, which is right before he's about to obey God. The word there literally is behold me. That calls out to Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, and Abraham responds, here I am. And it means look at me. Notice me and Daniel, you let us in a conversation. And this was one of the Hebrew words that we spent quite a bit of time on. What did you discover there for us? Yeah, to hold on to something or to look at something for a long time, to gaze intently at something. Is it that interesting and your focus was that we need to pause and behold God, behold his work in our world. Here, Abraham says, God, notice me.

10:30And it's a kind of formal response to God calling out. And what's interesting here is that in Abraham's responses to God, he is confident that God's going to provide and indeed he does. And I think just to lay that on this context that we talked about, it was the first start of this conversation. Creations bent, humankind's especially, is to hide from God. Sin has corrupted us and feared us into a posture of hiding that when God calls our gut response is to pull the blanket over our head and hide from him. And God finds us and the whole beautiful reality of the story of Jesus in the Bible is Jesus coming and saying, here I am in Revelation 3. I stand at the door and I knock and we see in Hebrew as well look at some of those instances

11:34where Jesus willingly became the sacrifice, became the ram and the thickets, so to speak. I just want to lay that out for us as we consider how might we have courage to recognize God's call in our lives and our daily and in our crossroads of decisions in what we do with our everyday moments, how might we recognize His call and respond confidently with a, here I am. I'm willing. I'm able and in such a way participate and discover God's provision for what we lack. Yeah, good start to this episode in which we'll be looking at several instances in the Old Testament where God spoke to someone, called their name and they responded with, here I am and how that affected the direction of their life and how when we responded faith

12:37to God calling our name, our lives changed as well. All right, so next we're going to look at an occasion where Abraham's grandson received a call from God. You know, we look at these events and expect a lot from these people, but like us, in real time they didn't know how things were going to turn out. So here I am is at its foundation, a faith issue, isn't it? So let's study another section of the Bible together where here I am is part of the story. We can look at another human being who responded to God, here I am and this guy is Jacob. Okay, let's do a little background, a little quick study on Jacob, who was he? Well, I think he's one of the most unlikable characters in the whole Bible. His name means he'll grab her, in other words, somebody who trips people up for his own advantage and we see him doing that with his father, we see him doing that with his brother.

13:37He's not really a particularly good guy, even though God used him to father the 12 tribes of Israel ultimately. And so he's one of the twin sons of Isaac who is the son of Abraham. So now he's a grand son of Abraham and part of that promise of descendants that would outnumber the sand on the seashore and he ends up through a series of circumstances having two wives and having children by those two wives and their two handmaidens and that's where the 12 sons of Israel come from. But at the same time, this is when we finally are starting to see the promise that God made to Abraham start to actually feel like it maybe could happen because if you think about how slow the promise takes off, hey, I'm going to make you into a great nation. You're going to have more descendants than the sand on the seashores. Here's one son. And then where you guys start with one, right?

14:38I mean, you're going to start with you getting any more into you get the one. And then Isaac, two sons, wow, this is really going well. And so it's not so Jacob that it's like, okay, we're starting to see a little more momentum even if that momentum happens in the weirdest way with this little competition between wives and handmaidens and who can have the most kids and all those things. Thank you. And there is so much complexity and it's troubling to see how much mess has to happen in order. I mean, we had to have what three, four women be a part of Jacob's life in order to get those descendants as numerous as the sands on the shore. That's troubling too. His favoritism toward Joseph, right? I mean, Jacob is the reason that Joseph and the brothers don't get along. Yeah. So I think it's interesting that God can use his in spite of our here I am's or our lack thereof. But as we look at the stories that we're focusing on in these conversations of when he calls

15:40out and we say, here, what else happens? Even with broken humans like Jacob was, let's look at just the context of this here I am. And this is in Genesis chapter 46 verses 1 and 2. Did somebody grab that? So Israel, that was Jacob. God renamed him to Israel. So Israel set out with all that was his. And when he reached Bersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, Jacob, Jacob, here I am, he replied. Hmm. Now in verse three, the very next verse, God says, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt for I will make you a great nation there. Okay, here's this promise again and again and again. Why would Jacob be afraid to go to Egypt? Well, they're really not supposed to be going to Egypt usually. Right.

16:41This is the one time it's okay because there's a big famine. And God used all of the horrible things that had happened to Joseph to lead Joseph to not only rescue the people of Egypt, but to rescue the whole known world by having extra food in Egypt that also led to Egypt exploding in wealth and other things too. But there's all this extra food in Egypt and to survive a famine, Jacob and his sons, giving them permission to go down to Egypt and to survive. I think part of the reason too, Daniel, that maybe he was afraid is because at that time, he was a man without a country. Yeah. Egypt, by contrast, was the most powerful nation in the known world at that time. And so there's a pretty big intimidation factor there of going into this very powerful country when it's just you and your family. And you don't have any strength to support or protect you from whatever might happen to

17:45you as a foreigner in this very powerful land. Okay. In that context, God weaves his promise through this conversation yet again. Read again verse three and then add verse four and let's see how God answers Jacob's fear. I am God, the God of your father, he said, do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph's own hand will close your eyes. Okay. Before you continue, Alisa, I just want to ask a question and I'd be happy to hear from each of you on this. It feels to me very significant that when in verse one, he says he went to offer sacrifices, he doesn't say to his God, he says to the God of his father, Isaac. And then when God speaks to him, he doesn't say I am your God, he says I'm the God of your father. And it makes me wonder just exactly where Jacob stood in relationship to God.

18:46That's a very interesting catch Bill. I appreciate that. I think this whole story is a story of reconciliation. The way that last little piece went in verse four and Joseph's own hand will close your eyes. So here Jacob adored Joseph and he's been separated from him as his brothers took him off and then he was captured, et cetera. You know, Joseph and Jacob are going to be brought back together. And this is how God's going to complete his promise of making Israel a great nation. I think that's a huge point there. Has he been reconciled to God? Yeah. I also think we in a Western context are so hyper individualized that we think a lot about a personal relationship with God. And we so overemphasize that that we kind of miss how a lot of the world even today operates when it comes to faith.

19:46And there's a communal aspect to following God that we can easily lose sight of in our churches and in our world. So I think it would probably be too much to read into this that he didn't have a relationship with God because he referred to God as the God of his father Isaac. That would feel I think a little too far because this family is still following God and he's going through the obedience of honoring God even if he calls him the God of his father Isaac. And that name God keeps repeating that over and over again throughout the history of Israel. I am God of your father Abraham of Isaac of Jacob. So there is this sense of which these patriarchs, these three first men of the Israelite lineage. This is the God that came with this family into the ancient world. So I feel like that's probably playing into this a little bit too. That's helpful.

20:46Thanks Daniel. That's really interesting. And if we pick up the end of this story like in verse 29, I'll read that Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. So here they are. And as soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. And Israel slash Jacob said to Joseph, now I'm ready to die since I've seen for myself that you're still alive. And then we have more of the story with the famine, et cetera. And God's provision there. Again, as we look at this here, I am. There's a way in which he responds in an identification of I'm in, I'm the one. And Jacob has me entered all around in his quot obedience to God. He's been with Laban, he's been with Esau, his wives. He's a messy dude in terms of what he's done. And now God is inviting him into Egypt into a reconciliation through which God will then

21:52bring all of Israel forward. And again, I think about how impossible this is without God's provision. It's impossible for us to respond with a here, I am, without God's provision. And I think again, back to Revelation 320, where Jesus stands at the door and knocks and he identifies himself here, I am. I think sometimes when God hollers out our name, our innate tendency is to hide. And there's a lot of reasons as Jacob had to be afraid. But I think what God shows in this story is that he provides what is needed for us to utter the here, I am. He provides it. And Jesus, He provides it in however we need it in that moment. And I want us to keep thinking about that. How does God's provision for us in the story of the Bible, the big story of the Bible, through his son, through making the sacrifice himself, how does it give us the courage to

22:53respond here I am when he calls? And more to think about, more perspective that we can gather from the story of Jacob and his here I am, response to God. As with all of us, there are a lot of factors to consider, but ultimately it's a matter of faith, isn't it? It's trusting that God is provided and can give us the courage to say, here I am. Well in this edition of the Discover the Word podcast, we're talking about something that I think most followers of Jesus have experienced at one point or another. It's the nudge that you sensed was from God to do something, to talk to someone, to invite them to church with you, to get involved with an organization that was doing something that would allow you to live out your faith in Jesus and express His love for people that you could help. It's kind of like God was calling your name and asking you to do this. And I think we've all experienced saying no and not following through on that nudge that

23:55we received. And we've also had times when we said, yes, here I am, I'm willing, I'm able, I'll do it. And so Alisa and Bill and Daniel will talk about some of their own experiences of having felt that nudge that call from God on their lives. And then look at a time when Moses responded to God's call with, here I am. But first let's take a quick time out for a word from our daily bread ministries. Now Discover the Word is an aspect of our daily bread ministries, a Bible engagement ministry providing a number of resources designed to help you interact with Scripture on a regular basis. And probably the most well known of those resources is the our daily bread daily devotional, which has been helping people connect with God in this word in meaningful ways since 1956. Our printed edition reaches 50 plus million people around the world every year.

25:02Each day's entry includes a Scripture passage for you to read and an inspiring daily devotional along with a lot of other features to help you. And did you know that you can get the our daily bread devotional mailed directly to your home? When you sign up for a monthly subscription, you get 12 devotional booklets through the mail every year. Or you could opt for a quarterly subscription and get four devotional booklets a year. Our hope is that you'll make the our daily bread devotional part of your daily life. There's a link to sign up for an our daily bread subscription in this week's show notes on our website at DiscoverTheWord.org. And now back to Alisa and Bill and Daniel and the next Here I Am story from the Old Testament an event in the life of Moses. They begin by talking about some events in their own lives where they sensed a call from

26:05God. When in your life and have you ever really sensed either a very specific Alisa, Bill, Daniel, call from God or a kind of a nudge that you knew as God and he was pushing you forward and it was just for you. It was about halfway through my second year in Bible college when I had this awareness that God wanted me to preach. And awareness is a good word, Bill. I think that's a good word. Yeah, I've never been able to define it. I believe that was what sometimes is referred to as a call to ministry. I believe that was mine. But it wasn't like this lightning bolt out of the blue and it wasn't like an audible voice and it wasn't even like a nudge to use your word as more just this sense of, oh,

27:06so that's what I'm supposed to do with my life. Okay. That's cool. Yeah, God has never called me Bill either. So, He hadn't called me Daniel, so we're good. But there have been a few times with different things where the one that comes to mind was in high school. I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Romania after my senior year of high school before college. And I just remember so many different things coming together that made it really clear and obvious to me that that's what I was supposed to do for those months. So when I think of a nudge, that's the story that comes to mind for me. It was even stuff as seemingly random at the time as like hearing a song that mentioned something in the song that was related to what I was being offered to do and a sermon that I heard and like those types of things coming together as well, along with the actual details of I had to raise money and that came in and I had to get accepted to it and that

28:10happened to those things too. You're bringing up a great example of the call may come and when we get for enough into it, we can see our concern that a lot of other things need to fall in place in order for that call or that awareness to really make sense, right? I think it was Hudson Taylor, maybe, who said, where God guides God provides. And I thought that was Daniel was telling us some Romania story. Yeah. And I've shared before getting a phone call and an invitation to apply to become the president of this organization. I was like, yeah, me, you know, I was the least likely person to do it. And yet I had been reading in my devotions, if you will, just along in the book of John and I came to John 15, I think it was 16. I've chosen you to bear fruit, fruit that would last. And this particular organization was all about that. And it was so humbling, but I knew it was for me.

29:12As we continue our conversations here I am, we want to look at a very well-known one. And it's Moses responding to the burning bush of God's call. Give us a background first on Moses. Let's net out. We know he was the son of a Hebrew woman who, because of the dangerous plots for Hebrew boys, baby boys, she put him in a basket and put him in the river and watched with her daughter while Pharaoh's daughter came and discovered him and raised Moses as her own son. Okay, take it from there. What else do we know? Well, as a son of Pharaoh's daughter, he received probably the best education Egypt had to offer and that he was a man who was very proficient, both in speech, but also was a gifted military leader for Egypt as well. And then some surprising things happen. Evidently, he knew his story and where he came from because one day he's walking around

30:17as the prince of Egypt and sees an Egyptian slave master beating a Israelite and his anger wells up and he kills the slave master and buries him in the sand. And then thinks that no one saw it, outside I guess of the slave that you rescued. And then the next day there's two Israelites that are fighting with one another and they make the comment to him, what are you going to do to us, what you did to that guy the other day? And that freaks Moses out. And so he runs away and for good reason because Pharaoh also finds out about it and decides that Moses is going to have to die for that. And so Moses runs away into the wilderness and ends up getting married and he's gone from being the prince of Egypt to taking care of his father-in-law's sheep on the far side of the wilderness. And that's where the story picks up.

31:18Let's read this is an Exodus 3. Let's read just the first four verses. Okay. You want to start off Daniel? Sure. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Median and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to horib the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him and flames a fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight. Why the bush does not burn up? When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush. Moses, Moses, and Moses said, here I am. Where was Moses when God called and Moses said, here I am? Where was he? He said that he was on horib the mountain of God. And horib is just another name for Sinai. He was actually on Mount Sinai where some pretty significant things are going to happen later in Moses' story. Yeah. He's in the back side of the desert on Mount Horib away from his people alone.

32:22And by a burning bush, in the other instances we've looked at people who have responded to God with a here I am, it's been just God and them. You've got a burning bush accompanying God's Moses, Moses. Okay, let's read verses 5 to 10 and see what happens, what is God's call to Moses specifically. Okay, verse 5, do not come any closer, God said, take off your sandals for the place where you're standing is holy ground. Then He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. But this Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I've heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I'm concerned about their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from the land of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the home

33:23of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parasites, Hivites and Jibbiusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt. So how does Moses respond? You know, it's because it's going to go on from verses like 11 down to 21. But you know, sum it up, he's going to say, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, you know, he went with a bunch of excuses, normal fears, objections, but it doesn't always have to fall in place in order for us to say, here I am. Sometimes it falls in place after we say, here I am, right? Yeah, sometimes it doesn't fall in place until not only after we say, here I am, but we start doing the thing that we're supposed to do because sometimes God provides much later. And I don't think we should make that the rule that we're always going forward without God having provided yet. But sometimes I think God does ask us to do that.

34:25Yeah, I agree, Daniel. And I think in Moses' case, every one of the deficiencies that he uses as an excuse God responds to with his own sufficiency. And I think it's a tremendous lesson to all of us about the sufficiency of our God who is more than enough for anything that he calls us to do or to be in his name. In fact, verses 14 and 15 in chapter 3 of Exodus, who do I say, sent me, God says, I am who I am. This is what you're just saying to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. And God said to Moses, say to the Israelites, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob has sent me to you. There we see the lineage again that we talked about in our last conversation punctuated by a burning bush. I love that too. He actually gives his presence in a very unique way that is undeniable for Moses. And again, I think of how God fulfills our ability to follow through on our here I am by

35:30being with us. And that verse in Revelation, where Jesus says, I come and I stand at the door in docket, he goes on and he says, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, what happens? I'll come in and do what? I'll eat with them and they with me. And this whole concept of fellowship of unity, I think of the vine and the branch and being attached to God. We can't respond here I am by ourselves. He then is the one who provides and we open the door and enjoy the fellowship with him. He enables us to fulfill our here I am. Even with our butt butts. Yeah, responding with here I am may not be our initial default answer like Moses. We may hesitate with reasons to say no. But trusting God to provide and being willing to say, yes, here I am, that's what people

36:30of faith eventually do. And that's giving us plenty to think about concerning our response when we sense God's leading or nudging or calling on us. Well, the next here I am story we're going to look at is actually the first one that came to mind for me when they said this was going to be our topic for this episode. Samuel and his difficulty had first in asserting who it was that was actually calling his name, which may be a struggle that we have at times as well. We've been talking about how we know that God's actually been nudging us, calling us, giving us an awareness of something he wants us to do. Have you actually ever struggled to know is this what God wants me to do or is this what everybody else wants me to do? Have you struggled with differentiating who's God and who's someone else? When I was pastoring the final church that I pastored, I received a call from the head of a mission agency asking me to meet with them.

37:34It was a mission agency that I had a high degree of respect for. He wanted to know if I would be willing to leave pastoral work and come on staff and learn under him for about five years and then take it over when he retired. I didn't know what God wanted me to do. I just knew that I respected that organization and I knew that I felt the Lord had been loosening our roots for some time and preparing us for something. I just didn't know if this was the something he was preparing us for. That's a really helpful illustration because it's a worthy call to devote oneself to. How about you, Daniel? Yeah, I think the question of is this what God wants or what I want is always there. It's really hard to distinguish between those two sometimes. I think it's the bigger life-change moments are the ones where that jumps out to me more. Is this what God wants me to do?

38:34Is this what I want to do? Is it okay that it's something I want to do? Because I think also sometimes we carry this assumption that what God wants us to do is the thing that we would probably most hate doing. Totally. Which is the case. Totally. I can remember trying to decide about seminary and I was down to two. One of my friends said, where do you want to go? I said, well, Denver. They said, why? I said, why does it seem like a wonderful place? They said, well, why don't you just go there? I said exactly that. Surely God wouldn't want me to be in a happy place. We can get really mixed up, can't we? As we go into our next character, it's not that he didn't want to do what God wanted. He didn't really struggle with his will or God's will. He just had a bit of a hearing impairment. God's voice was not familiar to him. He kept getting confused as to who was actually talking. We're talking about Samuel. So give us a little background on Samuel just to touch here and then we'll dive into his call in 1 Samuel chapter 3.

39:36Well Samuel would become the bridge between the judges and the kings and he would anoint the first two kings of Israel. And in addition to that, he was generally regarded as the first of the great prophets of Israel. So he has quite an important role in Israel's life and history. But he started off as an answer to his mom's prayers. She hadn't had any children. She was in a polygamous situation where her rival, the other wife, had had plenty of children, but she hadn't had any. And she prayed desperately to God for a child and God gave her Samuel. And she gave Samuel back to the Lord to serve him. And he's probably about eight or ten years old when we come into this story. That's great. Bill, thank you. Let's go ahead and read it. Daniel, if he'd start us off, just let's do verses 1 through 10 and you and Bill can

40:39trade off. The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days, the word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, here I am. And he ran to Eli and said, here I am, you called me. But Eli said, I did not call you. Go back and lie down. So he went and lay down. But again, the Lord called Samuel and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here I am, you called me. My son Eli said, I did not call. Go back and lie down. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. A third time the Lord called Samuel and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here I am, you called me. Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy.

41:41So Eli told Samuel, go and lie down. And if he calls you, say, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there calling us at the other time. Samuel, Samuel said, speak for your servant is listening. Excellent. What elements in the narrative reveal why it might have been difficult for Samuel to recognize and respond? Well, it starts off by saying that visions and messages from God were rare at that time. Yep. And then later it says that in verse 7, Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Samuel would know about the Lord to some extent. But this is probably a more intimate knowing God, having a relationship with God. And the phrase, the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. That's something the history of the prophets later.

42:41There is a sense of the passing down of the word of the Lord or the message of God from one prophet to another prophet for their generation. I think of Elijah and Elisha and the mantle. Instead of Elijah being the lead prophet, now Elisha is the lead prophet. And so I wonder if that's kind of a playoff of here as well. You had Eli who was supposed to be leading worship in this space at the time. And now it's like Samuel is going to be the next leader. And the word of the Lord is getting ready to be passed to him in this story. I think there's also Daniel a sense in which with so many of the prophets, their ministry is launched by some very end to the phrase, the word of the Lord came to. Yep. So the word of the Lord has not yet come to Samuel in the sense of launching him into that official role as prophet of Israel. But it's coming. This is a true calling moment into a prophetic role. One thing I like so much about Samuel's here I am.

43:45He's living in a posture of obedience and yieldedness, any who. I mean, he lives there 24 a seven in the culture around him. We've been told the suns are evil and there's just, it's a bad context, the world that he's living in. But Samuel seems to have a really sweet, pure, yielded heart. And I think about theologian saying that being a Christian is like giving all of who I am to all I know of God. And that's what I see with Samuel. It's like here a family runs to Eli. He's hearing a call, but he doesn't recognize it as God's call directly to him quite yet until he sees that. And I love how patient God is with him. And before we walk away from Samuel, let's pick up verses 19 to 21 and see what happens as a result of Samuel's here I am to God. With what if you get that? Sure. The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up and he let none of Samuel's words fall to the

44:49ground. And all Israel from Dan to Bershiba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word. The Lord changes Samuel, the Lord changes the people, the Lord changes all of Israel through Samuel's here I am, speaker servant is listening. And you know what, Alisa? The text doesn't specifically tell us this, but it seems to me that what we're seeing in this yielded, innocent, pure little heart of Samuel is the influence of his mother, Hannah. Hannah who was so desperate and her desire for a child that her response to that desperation was to pray so passionately that Eli thought she was drunk and she wasn't drunk. She was just heartbroken and when you hear her prayer of thanksgiving, her song of thanksgiving

45:55in chapter 2, you see such a rich comprehension of who her God is and you wonder just how wonderfully she was able to transfer some of that into the little heart of her son, Samuel, before she handed him off to Eli at the tabernacle. That's beautiful, Bill. Her whole posture was a yielded here I am posture as she prayed. And all the days of my life I'll give this child over to you, God. That's what she prays and then she names him, Sammy, which means I'll do, I trusted you and you provide it. It's amazing. So as we look at Samuel, it took two or three times, two or three here I am for him to understand what he was really saying. And yet as he entered that process saying as much as he knew of himself giving it that to as much as he knew of God, it was enough. And through Samuel, God brought about change not only for Samuel but for all of Israel.

46:59The story of Samuel and the impact this call from God and his here I am response had on his life and actually the future of the entire nation of Israel. We're tracing that phrase here I am across five pivotal moments in the Old Testament and reflecting on what it might mean for us when we're faced with the decision about how we'll respond to God's moving in our life. It's been an insightful episode as we've looked at how Abraham, Jacob, Moses and Samuel declared those simple yet profound words to God, here I am. And we've got one more instance that we'll look at another familiar one involving a prominent Old Testament character right after we pause to take a look ahead and we'll be studying together in our next episode. In the next episode up, the Discover the Word podcast, Rasul Barri is going to be back

48:03at the table once again. He's going to lead a study with Elisa and Bill and Daniel called the unspoken contract. And he wants to know, do you always read the contracts you agreed to? My last one was a rental car agreement that I signed this morning that I just put the initials of my name on a tablet. It wasn't even real ink. Now, here's the question because I know I didn't read mine. How closely did you read each word of that contract that you signed? Yesterday, I flew through a couple different airports and I checked the end user agreement for using the internet and I didn't read any of it unless I scroll straight to the bottom and said, agree, and I don't know what I agreed to on those. Yeah, but we still have expectations, don't we, of what that agreement gets us. Now, Rasul believes that nearly all the disappointments and disillusionments we get in life are rooted in unmet expectations.

49:04And often we blame God for not keeping his promises. But is it possible that we haven't read carefully enough and we've added expectations that have no basis and what God actually said? Well, it's an important study called the unspoken contract. Next time on The Discover the Work Podcast. And so now, let's wrap up this episode by looking at one more example in the Old Testament of someone God reached out to, someone who struggled with God's invitation, but eventually came to the place where he said, okay, here I am, send me. It's the story of Isaiah and his struggle involves something that can and does keep us from saying yes to God as well at times. What role does shame over who we are, what we've done, play in how we respond to God's

50:10invitations in our lives? You ever struggle with that? Yeah, not so much shame, but just a tremendous sense of unworthiness. I'm at the point in life where you start looking back and saying, how did I get here? There's so many things that the Lord has graciously done in my life and I look at it and say, man, I'm just a kid from West Virginia. You know, how does this even happen? But it just caused the kindness of God and the more kindness He shows, the more unworthy of that kindness I tend to feel. I think shame and fear in particular really impact all of our relationships to some extent, not just with God, but also with one another, how we see ourselves. And God desires so much for us to find freedom from that, but how much of our effort, our decisions, our reasons we hide, the reasons we say something, the reasons we don't say

51:15something, all that tied to fear and shame in some ways. Yeah, all the time just about when I'm going to be the one leading discover the word, I wrestle with, I don't know enough. Sometimes the issue of shame or impurity or even adequacy or fear can get in the way. And as we look at one more character in the Old Testament who responded eventually with the here I am to God's call, we're going to see this issue to grude in his life. And here we're talking about Isaiah. So let's just again remind ourselves who is Isaiah. What do we know about him? And then we'll read this particular passage. So who was Isaiah? He's a prophet and he's one of the major prophets, meaning he has a lot of words in the Bible. And his story or that particular book covers a lot of history in Israel. There's one main tension that really comes out in Isaiah which is that the Assyrians are

52:21threatening. And are they going to go to Egypt and look to Egypt for help or are they going to trust God to deliver them? And the law, the Torah, the instruction forbade them from going to find help from Egypt. And Isaiah is probably a pretty lone voice pushing back on that and saying that we need to trust God and that God can deliver us. Even through this. One of the interesting things about Isaiah's book is that in the first five chapters he pronounces woes of judgment upon different cultures and different surrounding peoples and different things. So what's really interesting is that when you get to chapter 6 and he comes into the presence of God himself for the first time he says, woe was me. In the presence of God he is made aware of his own shortcomings and his own feelings. Let's read verses one through four of chapter 6 and then dig more into what you're saying

53:25there Bill. Do you want to start off? Sure. In the year the king, Uzziah died. I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were Sarah theme, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. With the sound of their voices the door posts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. So where is Isaiah when he eventually responds with a here I am? Well it's some kind of vision and this vision has him in the holy of holy throne room of heaven. And so it's the most sacred place where God's throne is where these really crazy looking creatures are with six wings and it's a scene of worship.

54:30Probably some of the most famous words that to this day we recite and sing and pray holy, holy, holy is the word Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory. There's a sense of context to this as well. Uzziah had been king in Israel for over 50 years and it was a time of tremendous prosperity. In fact some people have said it was second only to the golden age of Solomon for a time of prosperity in Israel. And now after decades and decades of his leadership the throne of Israel is vacant. But God calls Isaiah into this vision to tell him the throne of Israel might be vacant but the throne of heaven is not. And no matter what happens in the political context of where we live or the leadership of our nations, God is still on his throne and we can rest in him in spite of the craziness that might be going on around us.

55:32Great. Take away. Okay. So how does Isaiah respond in verse 5? Woe to me I cried. I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among the people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty. So God hasn't actually called out yet but even in his presence Isaiah responds with this woe like you're saying Bill as you looked at he was woeing on everybody else and now he's woeing on himself. And what specifically does he think is wrong with him? Well he's like everybody else in his country. He's a man of unclean lips which may refer to a lack of integrity. It may refer to not being truthful. I also wonder if it's tied to what's happening there is you have all calling out this phrase holy, holy, holy as the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory and Isaiah's life. I don't have clean enough lips to say that. I think so there's a ritualistic uncleanness here.

56:35I'm just as bad as everybody else have been looking at going on here. That word ruined. I'm cut off. I'm undone. I'm destroyed. It's really, really graphic. So before any invitation is even rendered, Isaiah is just overwhelmed with who he is in contrast by God's presence. He's asking Bill's question. How did I get here? Okay. So what's God's remedy in verse six through eight? You want to read that Daniel? Yeah, sure. Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live cold as hand which he had taken with tongues from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, see this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away in your sin atoned for. So God himself steps in there and fixes matters. I say, then comes the question. Okay. In verse eight. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And I said, here I am, send me.

57:35What's your take on that? Well, just again, completely overwhelmed by the presence and the majesty and the holiness of God. He nonetheless wants to be obedient and service to God in contrast to Moses who said, basically, here are my send Aaron. Isaiah says, here are my send me. And that's a real insight into his heart. You know, we've looked at Abraham and Jacob and Samuel and Moses. And now we're with Isaiah. And I think what the big idea here is that God calls us all into connection with him. And as he calls us, he also equips us by his own effort, his own sacrifice. And in fact, it's really interesting to read in the New Testament various references to the reality that we see in the Old Testament. Those here I am only come about because of Jesus' sacrifice.

58:37In fact, I think about in Hebrews 2 verses 10 to 13, Bill, could you get that? And let's listen for how God provides the cleansing that's necessary for us to respond. Okay. Hebrews 2, in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered, both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters. In the assembly, I will sing your praises. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, he says, here am I and the children God has given me. Jesus here am I makes possible hour here am I in response to God's call. You know, and the ultimate one that I think of is in Revelation 3 20 where he says, here am I stand at the door knock and anyone who opens the door and invites me and I'm going

59:41to sit down and dine with him and he with me and do life together. And we enter into a relationship of call and equipping an example of the cooperation with the Father and an ongoing promise to provide whatever is needed to fulfill our answer to him when we say, here I am. Yeah, perspective shaping episode to be sure of tracing that phrase, here I am across five pivotal moments in the Old Testament in the lives of Abraham and Jacob and Moses and Samuel and Isaiah. And seeing how often we are faced with the same faith-related question in our lives. And will we, like Isaiah, say, despite our objections and reasons to say no, here I am, send to me. Thanks, Alisa, for putting this study together. Alisa Morgan, Bill Crowder, and Daniel Ryan Day with our Bible engagement for life in

1:00:42this edition of Discover the Word. Discover the Word is a group Bible study from our daily bread ministries and Grand Rapids, Michigan, in which we invite you to walk with us through topics and passages that inform the way we read the scriptures, challenges as we live our lives as followers of Christ and always point us to discover Jesus in the pages of the Bible. Discover the Word is part of our daily bread ministries and our mission is to make the life-changing story and wisdom of the Bible understandable and accessible to all. And you may not know about all of the ways that we do this around the world, but in addition to our radio program and podcasts and devotionals and books. We also have unique programs that reach out to people with specific needs across the globe. One example is our Africa Literacy program that teaches people how to read using our materials. We are so grateful for your support, which makes it possible for us to fuel a worldwide Bible engagement movement.

1:01:43So if you'd like to help financially, please go to DiscoverTheWord.org and click the Donate button that's up at the top of the page. Thanks. And thanks for listening. I'm Brian Henning at Discover the Word is provided by our daily bread ministries, Bible engagement for life.