Ananias—Heeding God's call to support (Acts 9:10-19)

HINENI: HEEDING THE CALL OF GOD (Acts 9:10-19)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2002

Most students do not look forward to exams. Consequently, part of the relief of graduating is knowing that you will never have to take another test...or so you think.

A teacher, a thief, and a lawyer all die in the same freak accident. When they reach the pearly gates, St. Peter tells them that, unfortunately, heaven is almost full, so they each have to answer a question correctly for admission. The teacher is first, and St. Peter asks, "Name the famous ship that was sunk by an iceberg?" "Phew, that one's easy," says the teacher, "The Titanic." "Right," says St. Peter, "you may pass." Then the thief gets his question: "How many died on the Titanic?" "That's tough," the thief replies. "Fortunately, I just saw the movie. The answer is 1500 people." So he passes through. Last, St. Peter gives the lawyer his question... "Name them."

Tests do not end with graduation and, while there may not be an entrance exam for heaven, there are occasions on earth when God will ask something difficult. When that happens, I hope you are up to the challenge, as was the person in this morning's passage, the only New Testament example in the series: Ananias—Heeding God's Call to Support.

 

The response to Peter's sermon on Pentecost marked the start of significant growth by the church. On that day alone, "three thousand were added to their number" (Acts 2:41). With the healing of a lame beggar in the temple court, "the number of men grew to about five thousand" (Acts 4:4). Even "a large number of [temple] priests became obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:7). Given this rate of increase, the reform movement Jesus founded had the potential to spread throughout most of Judaism within a few years. Alas, the gospel had its opponents, those who viewed the messianic message as heretical and who attempted to suppress it. The murder of Stephen at the hands of an angry mob emboldened the opposition in Jerusalem and initiated "a great persecution" (Acts 8:1) that caused many believers to flee the city. Not satisfied with their dispersal, a most ardent adversary named Saul attempted...

Acts 8:3 ...to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.

Saul then sought to expand his heresy hunting to include Jewish communities outside Israel, such as the sizable one in Syria.

Acts 9:1b He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

Saul's goal was not merely their incarceration but their execution. Luke calls Saul's intention "murderous" (Acts 9:1), and later, Saul himself says...

Acts 22:4a I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death....

Isaiah—Heeding God's call to speak (Isa 6:1-13)

HINENI: HEEDING THE CALL OF GOD (Isa 6:1-13)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2002

Life is full of frustrating experiences, situations that try our patience and make us wonder if a particular task is worth the effort.

A teacher was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his boots. He had asked for her aid, and she could understand why. Even with her pulling and his pushing, the boots resisted. By the time the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat. She almost sobbed when he said, "They're on the wrong feet." She looked and, sure enough, they were. It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her composure, though, as they worked together to get the boots back on—this time on the right feet. He then announced, "These aren't my boots." She bit her tongue rather than scream, "Why didn't you say so?" Once again, she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off. Then he said, "They're my brother's boots. My mom made me wear them." She didn't know if she should laugh or cry, but she mustered up the grace to wrestle the boots on his feet again. "Now, where are your mittens?" she asked. "I stuffed them in the toes of my boots."

Life is full of frustrating experiences. When such a situation is God's doing, it really makes us wonder, as it probably did for Isaiah—Heeding God's Call to Speak.

 

After Solomon's reign, when the United Kingdom split into northern and southern factions, the rulers of these two entities did not always follow God as they should. In the Northern Kingdom of Israel, all the kings were apostate. Despite repeated prophetic warnings, they forsook the Lord and embraced the gods of the surrounding, pagan nations. In the Southern Kingdom of Judah, those who occupied the throne vacillated between serving the Lord and serving idols. They, too, had the benefit of a prophetic witness, calling for righteousness and devotion to God alone, but not all the Judean kings heeded that call. In both kingdoms, as is often the case (even today), the general populace followed the lead of their rulers. Good kings had a good influence on society; bad kings had a bad influence on

society.

 

The eighth century BC saw the ministry of several prophets: Amos and Hosea in the north, Micah and Isaiah in the south. Isaiah, perhaps the most well-known and well-respected of these divine spokesmen, seems to have had free access to the royal court of Judah and used that access to represent God before the king. Early in the prophet's ministry, perhaps even before he assumed the prophetic mantle, Isaiah had a disturbing vision. Please turn to Isa 6, where the new prophet receives a command from God, and...

 

I. The order is startling (Isa 6:1-8)

Isa 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty." 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Send me!"

Samuel—Heeding the call of God (1 Sam 3:1-18)

HINENI: HEEDING THE CALL OF GOD (1 Sam 3:1-18)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2002

Because children will often test the limits of acceptable behavior, it is important for parents, youth leaders, coaches, anyone who works with them, to establish clear boundaries from the start, to make sure they know who the boss is.

A schoolteacher injured his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. Fortunately, it fit unnoticed beneath his shirt, so he did not have to explain his condition to everyone he met. On the first day of the new term, still wearing the cast under his shirt, he discovered that he was assigned to the toughest class in the school. It was a particularly hot day, so when he walked into the rowdy classroom, he opened the window as wide as possible before sitting at his desk. A strong breeze made his tie flap around, annoying him and causing a titer among the students that grew louder as he kept trying to rearrange it. Finally, fed up with the flapping, he grabbed the stapler from his desk and stapled the tie to his chest in several places.... Discipline was never a problem after that.

Proper discipline can prevent problem behavior. Without such restraint, however, the natural tendency some children have to indulge their sinful nature can run unchecked. At that point, the only thing left to do is to watch them self-destruct. That was, in part, what Samuel did with the sons of Eli, Heeding God's Call to See.

At this time, a couple from Ephraim dedicate their son, Samuel, to the Lord, which means they relinquish their claim on him and leave him in the care of the priests, whose ranks he will eventually join. While Samuel is still a young boy, God speaks to him. At first, Samuel thinks it is the voice of Eli that he hears, until Eli realizes it is the Lord.

Moses—Heeding God's call to service (Exod 3:1-14)

HINENI: HEEDING THE CALL OF GOD (Exod 3:1-14)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2002

There are sayings that advise us to be cautious, such as, "Look before you leap" and "Watch your step." Many times these warnings are just figures of speech, expressions that admonish us to be careful. Other times they are quite literal.

Driving down a country road, Dennis came up behind a Mennonite buggy. This was not an unusual sight in southern PA, and normally he would just go around it. The road, however, curved too much to see if any cars were coming from the other direction, so Dennis came to a virtual crawl. What he noticed—and would certainly have missed had he simply passed the buggy and moved on—was a hand-printed sign on the back of the carriage that read: "Energy efficient vehicle: Runs on oats and grass. Caution: Do not step in the exhaust."

In our passage this morning, Moses gets a similar warning to watch his step but for an entirely different reason. He is about to encounter the Lord, and the very ground of that meeting place is holy. It is the prelude to a remarkable series of events, and Moses soon finds himself Heeding God's Call to Service.

 

The history of God's people suffers a significant gap in the biblical record. After the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—their descendants spend over 400 years in Egypt. The only description of that period, though, is a single verse in the opening chapter of Exodus...

Exod 1:7 ...the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.

That is not much to say about four centuries, and it raises many questions.

• Did God appear to the people during this period?
• Who served as the great religious leaders, the stalwart examples of faith?
• Did the Israelites' spiritual condition keep up with their numerical increase?

We do not know the answers. When next God speaks, however, He does include some theological education.

 

Before we get there, though, let me make one observation: While this series about Heeding the Call of God focuses on men, I do not want to give the impression that women play an insignificant role in the history of God's people. On the contrary, as we make our way to this next subject of our investigation, it is not the men who distinguish themselves. They are, in fact, conspicuously absent from the narrative. Recounting these events, the author of Exodus, acknowledges the crucial role of women in advancing the divine plan.

• When Pharaoh attempted to disrupt that plan by killing all newborn males, the text says nothing about the fathers' reaction but does tell how...

Exod 1:17 The midwives...feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.

• When the infant Moses was in jeopardy, it was not his father who intervened but his sister, encouraging another woman, Pharaoh's daughter, to care for the child.

Without the actions of these women, there might not have been a Moses, Heeding the Call of God. That is just an aside to help keep us men from thinking too highly of ourselves.

Jacob—Heeding God's call to safety (Gen 46:2-7)

HINENI: HEEDING THE CALL OF GOD (Gen 46:2-7)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2002

No one likes to be in a hazardous situation and, given the choice, a person wants to extricate himself as quickly as possible. There are, however, some circumstances that might cause hesitation in responding to a possible rescue.

A farmer decided his injuries from an accident were serious enough to take the trucking company responsible for the accident to court. In court, the company's lawyer questioned the farmer. "Didn't you say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine?" The farmer said, "Well, I had just loaded my favorite mule Bessie..." "I didn't ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted. "Just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, 'I'm fine!'" "Well," the farmer replied, "I had just put Bessie into the trailer...." Again the lawyer interrupted. "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the highway patrolman that he was fine. Now, several weeks after the accident, he's trying to sue my client. I believe he's a fraud. Please instruct him simply to answer the question." By now, the judge was interested in the farmer's answer, so he said to the lawyer, "I'd like to hear what the plaintiff has to say about the mule." The farmer thanked the judge and proceeded.. "Well, I had just loaded Bessie into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this semi ran the stop sign and hit my truck. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurtin' pretty bad and didn't want to move, but I could hear Bessie groaning and knew she was in terrible shape. When a highway patrolman arrived, he heard Bessie's moaning, so he went over to her. After he looked at her, he took out his gun and shot her. Then he came across the road and said, 'Your mule was in such bad shape, I had to shoot her.... How are you feeling?"

There are times when a person might hesitate in responding to a possible rescue. A similar hesitation may have been the initial response of Jacob—Heeding God's Call to Safety.

 

The author of Genesis records highlights from the lives of the three Patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—including some of their encounters with God. To each of the patriarchs, God made the same promise:

• To Abraham, God said...

Gen 17:8 "The whole land of Canaan.. I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you...

• To Isaac, God said...

Gen 26: 3b "to you and your descendants I will give all these lands."

• To Jacob, God said...

Gen 28:13b "I will give you and your descendants the land..."

The Lord made this repeated promise a prominent component in the patriarchs' expectation of what He would do. When God then appears to Jacob and tells him to leave the land...

 

I. The order is surprising. (Gen 46:2-4)

 

Please turn to Gen 46, and we will look at Jacob's response.

Gen 46:2 . . . God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, "Jacob! Jacob!" [He replied: Hineni] 3 "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. 4 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."

Abraham—Heeding God's call to sacrifice (Gen 22:1-14)

HINENI: HEEDING THE CALL OF GOD (Gen 22:1-14)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2002

When adults are kidding, sometimes children take them seriously. The opposite is also true. When children are kidding, sometimes adults take them seriously.

The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem, dialed the employee's home phone number, and was greeted with a child's whisper, "Hello." Is your daddy home?" he asked. "Yes," whispered the small voice. "May I speak with him?" The child whispered, "No." Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, "Is your mommy there?" "Yes." "May I talk with her?" Again the small voice whispered, "No." Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, "Is anybody else there?" "Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman." Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked "May I speak with the policeman?" "No, he's busy", whispered the child. "Busy doing what?" "Talking to Daddy and Mommy...and the fireman," came the whispered answer. Growing concerned and even worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter, the boss asked, "What is that noise?" "A hello-copper" answered the whispering voice. "What is going on there?" asked the boss, now alarmed. In an awed, whispering voice the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper." Alarmed, concerned, and even more then just a little frustrated the boss asked, "What are they searching for?" Still whispering, the young voice replied along with a muffled giggle: "ME."

Hide-and-Seek is not a game to play with God. (The prophet Jonah tried that and became fish food.) Not only is there no place you can hide from God, when you hear His voice, you had best answer, Heeding the Call of God.

There is a little Hebrew word that appears in scripture well-over 1000 times. Because of its frequent occurrence, many readers tend to overlook it. Even modern translations often ignore it. When we encounter this word in the KJV, our impression is of a quaint, archaic form of speech. No one uses it today, but in the biblical period it had several practical functions. The Hebrew word is traditionally rendered "behold." One of its common uses was in response to a call, in which case the word adds at the end, which means "I," The result is: Hineni. Try it. This is something you can use to answer people and to impress them at the same time. So, when someone asks, "Where are you?" You can respond..

This word is particularly significant in answer to God's call, and there are only six people in scripture who hear the divine summons and respond in this way: Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, and, in the New Testament, Ananias. It sounds like an exciting prospect—to get a call from God. ("Wouldn't you like to get a call from God?") For these men it is exciting...until they hear what God has to say. Then it is probably distressing, even frightening. What He expects of them is not easy, but the Lord apparently regards it as essential to His program. The only question is: Will they heed the call?