The Gospel of Isaiah: Ch. 65:1-2, “Here I Am!”
The Gospel of Isaiah: Ch. 65:1-2, “Here I Am!”
WANTED: An imaginative scribe who can write exquisite poetry. A faithful, articulate believer in Yahweh who can switch from one extreme to another at the Lord’s command… from a sublime vision of God’s glory, to a ridiculous demonstration of shameful nakedness; from confronting the people over their sinfulness, to comforting people with hopefulness; from being an outspoken messenger one minute, to a living object lesson the next; from having one foot in the immediate surroundings one minute, to one foot in the future messianic realm the next. Must be adaptable, thick-skinned, and extraordinarily brave. Person who answers, “Here I am. Send me!” will be especially considered. (from The Jerusalem Post, 740 BC).
“I was ready to respond to those who didn’t even bother to ask or know about Me. And I was ready to be found by those who haven’t even bothered to look for Me. I said to a nation that did not call on My Name, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ but they ignored Me. Day after day I have graciously outstretched My hands to a people who turned their backs on me, whose way of life is corrupt, who followed after their own thoughts and insisted on going their own way.” (Is. 65:1-2).
“Here I am! The Hebrew word, Hineni, literally means, “Behold, I am!” but is generally translated in Scripture as “Here I am!” It is the spirit of humble servants like Isaiah, Samuel, Moses, Abraham and Jacob, all of whom were quoted as saying hineni when the Lord was calling. In the Bible, Hineni 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. It is in that spirit that we find the unusual situations in Isaiah in which twice God is the one saying Hineni. Besides this passage in chapter 65, Henini was spoken by the Lord in 58:9, “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: ‘Here I am!” The Scriptural Hineni, the 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 listen to you; I will have no hesitation in responding to you. It’s amazing that God is saying that to sinful Israel, and to us, when we pray. In Isaiah we see this profound response of God to our pleas for His attention. In this particular Hineni we see God’s humility, His readiness to listen, His availability, His being at our service. The mighty God, at our service? To see that God is One who says Hineni to us speaks of His self-giving love for us, especially when we consider God is proclaiming His availability to people who aren’t even asking for Him or seeking Him in the first place. The heart of God is perhaps best expressed in Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son, in which the waiting father is on the road in the profound spirit of Hineni .
Stretching Out His Hands. This prophetic phrase points us directly to Christ on the Cross. As St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 313–386 AD) taught: “He stretched out His hands upon the Cross, that He might embrace the ends of the world; for this Golgotha is the very center of the earth.” And as it says in the Eucharistic prayer to the Father God in the Book of Common Prayer… “Jesus stretched out His hands upon the Cross, and offered Himself in obedience to Your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.”