Hearing the Call

There's a sub-genre of literature scattered and hidden throughout the writings in the TaNaKh-collection that is actually one of my favorites to read.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Prophetic Oracles; That is, the prophetic writings of the great prophets of yore (Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, for example) that have been preserved even unto today.

But embedded within the collected oracles, you can also sometimes find background biographical information about the prophets themselves; And if you're really lucky, you might even find a prophet's Origin Story! The moment that he was called, or summoned, by YHWH in order bring forth YHWH's message to the Israelite people!

below: Which prophet do you think this is? It looks like quite an important mantle he's got on, so maybe Elijah or Elisha? But then again, he also looks quite young, which leads me to consider either Jeremiah or Samuel... hard to tell.

Let's take a look at a few of these together, going in chronological order, with our first one being the story of arguably the most important prophet of them all:

Thus begins what will end up being one of the most intimate relationships YHWH would ever have with a person of flesh-and-blood.

YHWH and Moses.

There's a nice contrast between this moment, in which Moses is so overwhelmed so as to hide his face, with what happens all the way at the end of their story, in which the following is written:

In our passage in Exodus, none of the Israelites even knew YHWH's name, which is why YHWH had to introduce himself at first merely as the same elohim with whom Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had a relationship. And it was in response to this revelation that Moses became afraid.

Note also how the story can't seem to make up its mind as to whether Moses is meeting an angel, as it says in verse 2, or YHWH-Himself, which is what seems to be the case in verses 4 and 5. This is not the only place where there is ambiguity about the identity of a divine being. We're not going to go into the sources here, but here are a couple other places for you to keep your eye open for it: Who wrestled Jacob; Man, angel, a god, or YHWH? Who led Israel from Egypt; An angel or YHWH? Any thoughts on WHY this is a recurring thing? Why not just tell us plainly and unambiguously what's doing what?

Let's look at a few others origin stories, skipping ahead to the 11th century BCE, to the very end of the pre-monarchic era when one of the last of the Shoftim, or judges, is but a boy.

You'll notice that it has quite an interesting tone, coming to us as a comedy; A slapstick, even!

What a wonderful passage! I love this one, and get a kick out of it every time.

I picture Eli, an aged and wizened priest trying to get some sleep, only to become increasingly irritated as, in the middle of the night, his young and over-eager lad-servant repeatedly jolts him awake, shouting "Here I am! What do you need!?"

Meanwhile, YHWH is peaking out from behind the curtain of the Holy of Holies watching... and possibly chuckling! Every time Samuel closes his eyes again, YHWH calls out and has him running over to wake up Eli! (Did you ever realize YHWH had such a sense of humor?)

Finally, Eli has had it! And so what does he say?

You know Samuel, I'll tell you what. Next time you're hearing voices, don't come pestering me again. Just speak back to them and have a conversation; Tell them you're willing to to listen and do what they have to say; Just let me sleep already!

Little did Eli know that this voice would continue to speak back.

Let's now think for a bit; Does this passage give us any indication as to why Samuel, of all people, is called to be a special servant of YHWH? Why not, for example, Eli himself?

I think that if you really spend some time going over this narrative and thinking about a few things, you might be able to formulate a theory that sounds pretty good. I would personally start out by listing all of the pieces of information about Samuel that this chapter gives us; Who is he? What is he doing? How are his actions, and he himself, described? Where, exactly, is all of this taking place?

Any thoughts come to mind?

Let's now fast-forward several generations, leap-frogging over the period of the united monarchy under Saul, David, and Solomon; Taking us to the 8th-century prophet Amos.

Amos is a fascinating figure. (Come on... Are there any prophets who aren't?) He was from Tekoa, a village quite close to Jerusalem, actually. And yet, his career as a prophet was predominantly in the north. We spoke about him at quite some length already in Mountains Dripping Wine,(https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/233705?lang=bi).

While I don't want to go into as much background as we did in Mountains, and I recommend you reviewing it for more context, there are a couple of points worth mentioning again.

If Amos is ministering in the 8th century BCE, this puts him during the time of the split kingdoms. And what's a kingdom without its own religious system? And so King Jeroboam, who broke away from King Solomon's son, King Rehoboam's united Israel to become the king-of-the-north, would institute new shrines for northern religious worship.

Here is that moment recorded in the Histories.

This would be around the second half of the 10th century BCE, and these shrines would continue to exist as the religious capitals of the north until the northern kingdom's fall in 722 at the hands of the Assyrians.

During this period, at some point Amos would leave his home and his profession as a cowboy and keeper-of-trees behind and make his way to Bethel, the southern tip of the northern kingdom where one of these shrines would be located.

Here is the account of what would happen once the northern priests would get wind that Amos was around prophesying the downfall of their country:

I find this to be a pretty amazing moment. Let's think about what we have here;

Amos, from the south, makes his way to the north bringing warning of impending doom. (You can think of Amos as the doom-and-gloom prophet). What will be first to fall? The sacriligeous shrines!!!

Naturally, the priests of said shrines are not going to be too welcoming to such a message. And so Priest Amaziah brings word of all of this to King Jeroboam, the other source of authority that Amos is threatening.

(Amos is certainly not looking to make many friends when he, as a southerner, visits the north only to announce that both the religious as well as the political establishment is soon to come crashing down).

What I really like though, about this passage is Amos's response when Amaziah tells Amos to "get out of here you seer, nobody wants you prophesying in these parts! Go back to Judah!"

Let's look at Amos's response again:

Isn't this quite interesting? On one hand, Amos professes to speak on behalf of YHWH; But then on the other hand, denies being a prophet or even coming from a line of prophets himself. Why do you think he might be doing that?

It seems that we would have to conclude that he is using the term "prophet" differently than how we tend to; For in our case, one who delivers the word-of-YHWH is by definition a prophet.

But what does Amos mean with this term?

It's a worthwhile question to take some time to think about. But even more relevant to our opening topic, note that we are getting Amos's own account about the moment when he did, indeed, become an agent of YHWH. What was that moment like?

Amos was minding his own business, tending his trees and his animals on his property; And suddenly, YHWH appeared and demanded that he leave his life behind and travel northward to bring a message of destruction.

There are many more questions here. One more that I'll leave you with before moving on is; Why have a southerner bring this rebuke to the north? Isn't it possible that Amaziah would have been more receptive to the message if it was brought by one of his own countrymen?

We're now going to stay in the 8th century a bit longer, and move southwards back to Jerusalem, where the next origin story is EXPLOSIVE. Let's just jump right in.

Of course, there is SO MUCH to speak about here. We could pick this one passage and dedicate an entire reflection to it, actually. With that acknowledged, let's think about what we have:

The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz (note: not Amos from above!) of Jerusalem, in the 8th century BCE encounters the presence of YHWH on his throne in the Temple, being attended to by his serafs, which are probably dragon- or snake-like, winged celestial beings. As they are calling out their praise to YHWH, Holy Holy Holy!, the walls and doorposts shaking, smoke filling the room, Isaiah gets scared because he, a man of unclean lips, has now laid his eyes upon YHWH-on-his-throne.

But then, in response to his fear, his lips are purified by coal as he hears the booming voice of his Lord bursting forth, asking: Whom shall we send?

And how does Isaiah respond?

Does he ask for more info? Send where? To do what? For how long?

No; Of course not.

His hand shoots up into the air and he says what might be one of the most powerful words in the writings in the TaNaKh: Hineini:

Here I am. I'm your guy. I'm ready.

This is not the first passage that we've looked at together here in which we see someone give this response to after having been summoned by YHWH. Did you notice the other ones?

Go back up and re-read the account of Samuel. How many times does he say it? (I'd recommend looking for it in the Hebrew, too.). Then review the passage of Moses, as well. This one word has actually been quite prevalent in these narratives.

I'll share a couple of other fateful moments in which the power of this word is invoked.

If you read through the account of YHWH putting Abraham to the test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his beloved son, you'll actually find it several times.

Let's just look at the first appearance:

Notice any similarities to its occurrences in Moses and Samuel and Isaiah above?

I certainly do.

In all of these, it is YHWH doing the summoning; And in Abraham's Samuel's and Isaiah's case, the listener responds with a willingness and a zeal to heed the summons and carry out whatever instructions are forthcoming. (Moses, less so.)

Similarly, in every moment above, we are all seeing a defining moment in the lives of these individuals. They say "Hineini," here I am!, and by the end of the episode they will be transformed forever. Moses, Samuel and Isaiah will come out of it as prophets acting as intermediaries between YHWH and Israel, while Abraham will come to realize that his connection to his elohim is strong enough so as to be prioritized over everything else in Abraham's life that he values.

There are a few other occurrences of this word in a context in which someone is being summoned, not by YHWH, but by an earthly king.

Here is passage describing a moment when someone brings an update to David of how a battle fared that was waged by the Israelites, led by King Saul, against the Philistines:

As mentioned above, this one breaks the pattern we've seen thus far, in that the person uttering the word is not responding to YHWH, but to a person. (Admittedly, perhaps something similar can be said of Samuel, who mistakenly thought he was responding to a summons that came from Eli.). And yet, the hierarchical relationship is the same; Someone in position of authority is calling out to another who owes him fealty or allegiance and demanding something.

Before showing you an example of this word which turns much of the above on its head, I want to invite you to think about the following: Have you ever had a "Hineini" moment? A moment where you felt called, like it was your moment, where you could (and should) do something that no no one else could, or was willing to do? If not, then what do you think could inspire you to stand up and cry out "Hineini!" with everything you have?

Let's now turn to an incredibly stark contrast, which comes to us from the Herald of Zion.

Tragic.

Notice how in every other instance there was first a summons by either YHWH or a king, followed by the Hineini-response, and finally the instruction.

But now, we have YHWH saying "hineini," crying it out repeatedly, waving his arms and trying, desperately, to be seen; To be seen by those who are uninterested, who didn't even ask, who have long since ceased calling out in his name.

It is a tragic moment. Gone are the days when there was a thirst to receive acknowledgement from YHWH and an alacrity to do anything and everything he asked. Now, the Israelites won't even look his way.

I wonder if part of the reason YHWH is shouting out "Hineini" specifically here is to try to call to mind, for the Israelites, a memory of the times when there was a real relationship, real connection; When they themselves were yearning to have an opportunity to rise to an occasion to declare, "Hineini! You need someone? I'm your guy!"

Perhaps, one take-away from this can be that if you feel neglected, if you feel unheard in prayer, that you can follow in YHWH's footsteps, calling out in his name and shouting, Hineini!!!!!! Look at me! Hear me! I am here! --- just as YHWH did when feeling neglected by Israel.

Let's now retrace our footsteps and turn back to our origin stories. We've been going in chronological order. We've seen Moses, we've seen Samuel in the 11th century; Amos and Isaiah in the 8th; Now we'll jump ahead yet again to the 7th:

Wow.

Imagine; You're still child, whatever the age, interested in the expected childish things. Suddenly, a voice breaks forth from a realm beyond the physical, declaring to you that you are a Chosen One. Stating emphatically and with no room for discussion that YOU will uproot kingdoms and pull them down, making room for you to then build something else anew.

I can't blame young-Jeremiah for reacting with fear, feeling as if he is in way over his head. Though it's still an interesting contrast with Samuel, who was able to respond with an eagerness to serve while he, too was a lad.

There are other recurring themes, too. How about the mentioning of the lips?

• Isaiah's were impure, purified by coal;
• Jeremiah didn't know how to use his until touched by YHWH;
• And while we didn't get this far as we were first reading about Moses, look how Moses responds later in the exchange:

This was a nice "try" by Moses, Isaiah and Jeremiah; But at the end of the day... Did they really expect this to get them out of it? Even if they truly did have any legitimate lip-problems, YHWH surely would have known, and chose them for the job anyway!

Can you imagine if, after Moses mentioned his mouth-heaviness, the Torah then records that YHWH responded with, "Oh! Your mouth is heavy!? My bad Moses! You're good then, keep shepherding, I'll do it all myself."

Let's now take a step back;

We've spent this time looking around at the origin stories of 5 different Israelite prophets (Moses, Samuel, Amos, Isaiah and Jeremiah). Now that we've done so, it seems to me that it's almost like, if you were an ancient Israelite and wanted to craft a prophetic origin-story, there would be a certain number of "stock-motifs" that you would draw from.

Here are some of the ones we've spoken about:

• Unknown identity of the voice (Moses, Samuel)
• Fear/hesitancy/excuses (Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah)
• Hineini! (Moses, Samuel, Isaiah)
• Lips (Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah)

I bet, if you go back and re-read through some of these, that you can pick up on some other interesting overlaps; Perhaps you noticed some already! And also, keep an eye open as you read through more of the works in the TaNaKh for any other origin stories of our prophets of yore. And ask yourself; Do they share any of these motifs? Are there any new features that you start to notice that we missed over here?

Finally, as usual I'll leave you with some ancient Israelite-proverbial wisdom.