When God says Hineni

Yesterday, I spoke about how we need to say Hineni (Here I am!) to God and how difficult that can be, given all the statement implies. We can take encouragement from the knowledge that God, too, says Hineni to us. In Isaiah 58:9, he says:

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

God promises that when we call him, he too will stand still and listen to whatever we ask him to do. It is a tremendous promise that even surpasses the one he makes in John 15:7, where Jesus says, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

But the promise is not without reservation. The verses that Isaiah writes preceding this read:

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.

For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.