Then I heard the voice of Adonai saying: “Whom should I send, and who will go for Us?” So I said, “Hineni. Send me.” [Isaiah 6:8 (TLV)]
In Sharon Garlough Brown’s novel, Two Steps Forward, a character choses to pray the Hebrew word hineni during Advent. When another character calls it a beautiful but “costly” prayer, I grew curious about this word. Hineni is composed of two little words, hineh and ani. By itself, hineh is usually translated as “behold” but, when combined with ani (meaning “I”), it usually is translated as “Here I am,” “I’m here,” or “Yes.” However, like shalom, the Hebrew hineni loses the depth of its meaning in translation.
Poh is the Hebrew word used to simply affirm one’s physical presence. We’d respond “Poh,” if the teacher were calling roll or someone asked where we were. Although it’s translated the same as poh, hineni goes beyond a casual “Here I am” or “Yes.” More than a statement of one’s presence, hineni is a declaration of readiness and intent. An offer of total availability, it is blindly agreeing to whatever is asked before the request is made. Like the answer of a servant to his master, hineni is saying (and meaning), “Your wish is my command!” It is emphatic, unquestioning, and unequivocal. Like signing on the dotted line without seeing the contract, hineni can be a costly prayer!
We first find this word in Genesis 22:1. When Abraham responded to God’s call with “Hineni,” he was told to sacrifice Isaac. Without questioning the command, the man took his son to Mt. Moriah, bound him, and laid him on the altar. His knife was at the boy’s throat when an angel of the Lord called to him. Not knowing what more might be asked of him, Abraham again fully committed himself to the Lord’s will with “Hineni.”
Answering hineni often means a change of circumstances with major consequences. Jacob answered “Hineni” twice—when the angel called out and told him to leave Paddan-Aram for Canaan and again when God called and told him to leave Canaan for Egypt. When God called to Moses from a burning bush, the old man answered, “Hineni!” As a result, the eighty-year-old man ended up with a forty-year commitment while leading Jacob’s descendants back to the Promised Land! When God asked Isaiah who He should send as His messenger, the man immediately signaled his availability with “Hineni.” Rather than being coerced into service, these men willingly answered yes without knowing the ask!
Do we have courage enough to pray a word of total surrender like hineni? When God speaks, do we give the humble steadfast response of a servant to master? Do we respond with the trusting faith of a child to his loving father? Do we unequivocally say “I am ready, willing, and able”? When God calls, it takes faith and courage to answer “Hineni!“ How will you answer?
When God calls, He does not do so by way of universal imperatives. Instead, He whispers our name – and the greatest reply, the reply of Abraham, is simply hineni: “Here I am,” ready to heed Your call, to mend a fragment of Your all-too-broken world. [Rabbi Jonathan Sacks]
In what’s known as the Abrahamic covenant, God promised Abram (later called Abraham) that he would found a great nation and that through him all nations would be blessed. After receiving God’s promise, Abraham departed Haran, arrived in Canaan, went to Egypt to escape a famine, returned to Bethel, separated from Lot, and rescued him from King Kedorlaomer. In those ten years, however, despite God’s promise, Abraham’s wife Sarai (later known as Sarah) had not become pregnant. When he grew despondent that he was without an heir, God repeated his promise of a son through Sarah and reassured Abraham of as many descendants as there were stars in the sky.
While reading about David and Goliath, I realized that it’s not just our seniors who can be undervalued or overlooked. It’s as wrong to disregard the youth in our midst as it is to discount the old. Likewise, just as some seniors may underestimate their gifts, the same could be said for those who still count the years rather than the decades! Age is just a number to God—He’s more interested in willing hearts than number of years!
It’s been said that Leonardo da Vinci’s last words were, “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.” A scientist, painter, architect, mathematician, musician, sculptor, geologist, botanist, historian, cartographer, and inventor, da Vinci was a true Renaissance man and it’s difficult to understand how he could feel he failed God or anyone else.
When I learned about people like Abraham, David, Moses, and Samson as a girl, they were the Bible’s version of super-heroes like Batman or Superman. The Bible’s heroes were larger than life, obedient, invincible, and seemed to overcome their obstacles effortlessly. Appearing perfect in their faith and actions, they weren’t people to whom I could relate. In reality, they were as flawed as the rest of us but, for the most part, their imperfections and failures were redacted from the stories we learned in Sunday school.
Every morning, I receive an email from a Christian site to which I subscribe. Having no interest in Temu, make-up, or a “game-changer” pen for seniors, I ignore the ads as nothing more than “click bait.” Today’s ad from a jewelry company, however, caught my eye with its words, “Just in: Angel Numbers.” Having missed all the articles about them in Allure, Reader’s Digest, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Day, Instyle, and Vogue, I didn’t know what an “angel number” was, so I Googled it. Apparently, when you see repeated digits (such as 11:11 on your clock, $9.99 on a price tag, 30303 on a license plate, or a date like 2/22/22), the universe is sending you a message! Rather than a coincidence, these repetitive numbers are a “sign from your guardian angel” (or a dead loved one). Supposedly, the “language of angels,” such numbers are meant to point you in a certain direction or confirm the direction in which you’re going! Of course, a host of psychics, spiritual mediums, and numerologists are more than willing to tell you the meaning of your “angel numbers.” And, as I discovered from the ad, once you find your number, you can purchase it in jewelry!
