In A Word: ‘Hineni’ (Here I Am)
In A Word: Hineni (Here I Am).
CAUTION. In this era of amazing advances in technology, there are sometimes unexpected consequences that turn out to be harmful to our Christian faith. One of these harmful improvements is the flood of believers who read scripture online, on the smart phone, on the computer screen. I’m convinced there should be a warning label on every one of the online Bibles… CAUTION: SKIM AT YOUR OWN RISK. So many of us now read the Word like we would read our emails or social media or the daily news. We skim the material hurriedly, superficially, carelessly. We skim the Scripture. Skim-reading the Bible doesn’t really bury the seed very deeply, of course. And in our skimming, we would be more likely to just skip over an important word or phrase without thinking, a word that could be vital to the whole passage. The fact is, the Bible is full of single words or short phrases that are too important to simply gloss over as if it wasn’t there. There are times in the Word when single words are intended to feed us, nourish our faith, stimulate us to think at a deeper level about the biblical text.
There are single words in Scripture that are like stop signs asking us to stop and consider carefully, to pause before moving forward in the reading. This series on my blog will try to unpack some of these power-packed words or phrases in Scripture… Words like: Behold; Rejoice; Truly; Woe; Blessed; Beware; Come; If. And I will attempt to also explore the meanings of some short phrases that are single words in the original biblical language, such as “Himeni” (Here I am); “Shema” (Listen and Do’); “Splagchnizonai” (deeply moved with compassion); “pistence” (believe), and “kal-v’chomer” (How much more). If it is poetically possible to “see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wildflower, and hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour,” as William Blake once imagined, then certainly we readers of Scripture can find a world of meaning in a single word, we can grasp something profound in a simple phrase.
Hineni. A Hebrew word combining “hineh“, “Behold,” and “ani,” meaning “Here I;” so the literal translation of hineni is “Behold, I am;” it is generally translated in the Hebrew Bible as “Here I am.” Hineni is the declaration of one’s presence and willingness to act. In Scripture it is a response of someone to someone else asking for attention. It could be a response to God, to an angel, a response of a child to a parent, or a servant to a master. Sometimes it is even a loving response of a parent to a child. The Biblical Here I am means, You have my full attention; I am at your service; I am completely available to you; Whatever you want, I am all in; I am in total readiness to hear and obey you; I have no hesitation in responding to you. Most of the time in Scripture the person saying Here I am doesn’t yet know what the caller wants from him. So hineni can essentially be a statement of faith and absolute trust. The willingness of biblical characters to say henini can be seen throughout the Hebrew Bible: Isaiah said it in his famous calling, little boy Samuel said it in the Temple, Moses said it at the burning bush, Jacob said it during one of his night-time visions, and Abraham responded to God with a hearty hineni three separate times. Generally, hineni is often stated in a pivotal moment of that person’s life. Here I am can just be a casual response to a caller, but it most often is an important moment in the life of the person responding. The young Samuel is an example of a biblical character who was in that state of readiness to listen and obey…
“So Yahweh called Samuel again for the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli discerned that Yahweh was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Yahweh, for your servant is listening.’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Then Yahweh came and stood and called as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.’” (1 Samuel 3:8-10).
“And now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, ‘Here I am.” (Genesis 22:1).
“So Israel (Jacob) set out with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, ‘Here I am.” (Genesis 46:1-2).
“Moses said, “I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:3-4).
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’” (Isaiah 6:8).
Bible Verse Isaiah 6:8 – Inspirational & Motivational Video (youtube.com)
“Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ And he said, ‘Here I am, Lord.’” (Acts 9:10; please refer to the whole story in Acts 9:1-19 and Acts 22:1-16).
“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: ‘Here I am!” (Is. 58:9).
When someone in authority initiates Here I am, such as God, it is a declaration of presence and readiness to speak or act. In this particular hineni we see God’s humility, His readiness to listen, His availability, His being at our service in order for His will to be done. The mighty God, at our service? To read that God is the Eternal One who says Hineni! to us speaks of His self-giving love for us.
Surprisingly, in Isaiah 58:9, we find that the Lord Yahweh is the one declaring hineni. God in this passage said, “Here I am” to sinful Israel, and by extension to all of us. Amazingly, we find here the Lord of the universe establishing Himself as the one standing at attention, ready to listen, available and at their service. Another aspect of hineni is the implication that the one saying hineni is also suggesting here… Here I am, I’m right here, look at me while I’m looking at you. I am available to you, and I want you to likewise be available to me. So with God’s hineni, we see His Lordship as well as His humility, His authority as well as His presence and availability. There are at least ten other passages in the Hebrew Bible when God declares hineni, saying Behold, here I am, right here with you, including Isaiah 52:6, 58:9, 65:1; Ezekiel 5:7-9 and 6:1-7; Jeremiah 30:18-27 and 33:2-9; Zephaniah 3:17-30; Zechariah 8:7-8).
The Prince of Egypt – God Speaks to Moses [1080p HD] (youtube.com)