In some ways, Mary’s experience may have been more straightforward than many of the other followers of Jesus on that first day of the resurrection, because Mary also had the physical presence of Jesus with her when others did not. Nevertheless, we are given stories of various people who heard the voice of God.
A Voice in the Early Hours
Apart from
Mary, there are many other individuals of the Bible who also learned to
recognize the voice of God. The child Samuel of the Old Testament was one of
these. Samuel was the name of a young lad who lived about three thousand years
ago or so, in the days when Israel was ruled by Judges. His task as a young boy
was to serve in the temple of the Lord.
The calling of
Samuel to his work as a prophet came one day in the very early hours of the
morning, before the “lamp of God” had gone out. The lamp of God is what they
called the lampstand that stood in the holy place.
One of the
duties of the priests was to put oil in this lamp in the evenings so that flame
burned throughout the night. As a helper in the temple, this may have even been
Samuel’s own duty. Toward morning, the oil in the lamp would begin to be used
up. The flame would grow weak and then go out. It was before this lamp of God
had gone out one morning that God spoke to Samuel.
But there is a
more subtle meaning in this phrase concerning the lamp of God as well. The text
also mentions that in those days a word from the Lord came only rarely. Society
had drifted so far from the teachings of the Lord that it was at a point where
this light of the Lord was rarely seen. Before the light was extinguished
completely, God called the boy Samuel.
Samuel was
lying in his bed when the call from the Lord came to him.
“Here I am!”
Samuel called out, but he did not know that it was the Lord who was speaking to
him. He assumed it was Eli, the High Priest. Samuel was the priest’s assistant,
and the priest was the one who would usually call out for him. Samuel,
upon hearing his name, ran to where Eli was sleeping.
“No, I did not
call you,” Eli responded when Samuel came to him. “Go back and lie down again.”
This Samuel
did, but as soon as he was lying down, another call: “Samuel!”
Again Samuel
went to Eli. “Here I am, for you called me.”
The boy could
not imagine who else it could have been, so he was confused when Eli told him
that it was not he, and that Samuel should go back to bed.
We are told in
the account that “Samuel did not yet know the Lord.” This does not mean that
the boy did not know who the Lord was, for his entire upbringing had been based
upon the teachings of God. It only means that he had not yet heard the voice of
the Lord.
“The voice of
the Lord had not yet been revealed to him,” the text also tells us.
Samuel did go
back to lie down, but then a third time the voice came to him. Finally, Eli
discerned that God must be calling to Samuel, so he instructed the boy that if
he calls again, Samuel was to say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
As Samuel was
lying down for the fourth time, the Lord called again, “Samuel! Samuel!”
“Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
Other Callings
This is the
calling of God to Samuel. Once the Lord had finally gotten Samuel’s attention,
he began to tell the boy the things that he was intending to carry out, and
what Samuel’s part would be in all of it.
We are not
going to go into the message of God to Samuel at this point, but only use this
calling of Samuel as a springboard to look at other callings of God in the
Bible. It is important to do so, for Christians are often confused about the
calling of God in their own lives. They are left wondering if what they are
sensing inwardly is truly the call of God.
I have often
been asked, “How do I know God is telling
me to do this or that?”
It is actually
not surprising that we are confused, for there are many other callings that
come to us. For instance, I have served much of my life working with churches
in other countries, and I have met many from America and other countries who
have also been involved in similar types of works. Some
have told me that they have always wanted to travel the world, and working in
foreign missions seemed to be for them a good way to do it while still serving
the Lord.
These types of comments have led me to
wonder if what we sometimes take for the call of God to be actually more of a
“call to adventure.”
Especially in
our youth, we feel an urge to get out in the world and experience new places
and new things. We want to travel to those places that we have dreamt about or
have read about. We are looking for a sense of purpose and of self-fulfillment.
It is not a
bad thing to have this call to adventure, but we should not think that this is
God calling us. It is instead the call of our own sense of excitement.
Some short-term
mission organizations especially seem to be based more upon a TV reality show
more than on the call of God. They promote their works by emphasizing the
“adventure” aspect of it.
If we want to
go out and experience some of these things with a sense of adventure, of course
we may do so. But let us not delude ourselves into thinking that we are
answering the call of God.
Besides a desire for adventure, there are other personal goals for self-fulfillment that we may have. It is also a question that all who feel called to enter into a musical performance career and even a speaking career must ask themselves: “Am I doing this because I want to serve God, or am I doing it because I love performing?”
Called by God
The question
remains: How are we to know and distinguish the call of God from other calls?
It is a question that I have also contemplated on various occasions in my own
life.
We are not
alone in this. Imagine what it must have been like for Noah of ancient days,
when God instructed him to build a massive ark, even when Noah had no physical
indication that there would be a flood of any kind, much less a flood that
would cover the entire globe? Nevertheless, we learn that “Noah did everything
just as God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22).
These were truly
astounding instructions. How did Noah know that this was actually the call of
God? Might he not have instead thought that he was going mad? Others certainly
must have thought that he was.
Or what was it
like for Abraham when God suddenly told him one day to pick up his entire life
and leave to live in a land he did not know?
Or even more
extreme when God said to him, “Take your only son Isaac, the son whom you love,
and offer him as a burnt offering on the mountains of Moriah” (Genesis
22:2).
How did these
men discern that it was the voice of God that was telling them to do these
things? I know the Bible is already a very long book, but I would have liked if
it had expanded a bit on the thought processes of these men when faced with
these decisions.
There are very
many accounts throughout the Bible where we learn of God calling men or women
to specific tasks. There are many lessons that we should be able to gain from
each of these accounts.
As we can see
with the calling of Samuel, it sometimes is difficult to know whether what one
is hearing is truly the voice of God or the voice of someone else. It is often
even difficult to know if these thoughts are simply arising out of our own
goals or desires. How are we to discern?
In the calling of Noah and of Abraham, we saw two men who were told by God to do something that no doubt was not what they desired to do. I think this can certainly be said of the building of the ark by Noah, and especially so in the instructions to Abraham to sacrifice his own son.
Moses
When God
called Moses at the burning bush to lead the Israelites out of bondage from the
land of Egypt, neither was Moses looking for adventure or self-fulfillment. In
fact, he used about every excuse that he could think of as to why he should not
be the one to do this task.
“Who am I,
that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
“Suppose I go
to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ What should I tell them?”
“What if they
refuse to believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not
appeared to you.’”
“I have never
been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant,
for I am slow of speech and tongue.”
To every one
of these excuses, God had an answer. Finally, Moses was out of any excuse. It
was now down to what was honestly on his heart. He simply did not want to do
it.
“Please, Lord,
send someone else,” he said at last.
But of course, in the end, Moses obeyed. He could do nothing else. If a call upon one’s life is truly from God, there is no other option—not if one intends to continue in obedience to God.
Jonah
The aspect of
doing something that is not one’s own natural desire actually seems to be common
in the examples that we have in the Bible of the calling of God. One of the
clearest examples that we have of this is the calling of Jonah.
“Arise! Go to
the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has
come up before me,” God said to Jonah.
Jonah did not
want to do this. It was not because he was saddened to hear this terrible news
about the Ninevites. Indeed, he hated the Ninevites!
The reason he
did not want to deliver the message was because he knew that they would
probably repent when they heard this news. Then God, because he is so kind,
would probably forgive them!
This, Jonah
did not want to happen.
In order to
prevent God from sending him, Jonah came up with a plan. He bought a ticket on
the ship headed far away in the opposite direction from the city of Nineveh.
But of course,
this diversion did not thwart the plans of the Lord. God caused Jonah to be
jettisoned from that ship. God then assigned a huge fish to swallow Jonah in
order to carry what may have been his slightly digested body to the very shores
of the country were Nineveh was located.
After the fish
had delivered Jonah to the shores near Nineveh, the dissenting prophet
fulfilled what God had called him to do. He began proclaiming in the city,
“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”
Nineveh was an
extremely large city. It took Jonah three days to go through it all to preach
in every section of it. From the very first day, the people examined their
manner of living and began to repent. Then the king himself made a proclamation
of mourning and fasting. He declared that everyone should turn from their evil
and violent ways.
“Who knows?”
the king asked rhetorically, “God may turn and relent; he may turn from his
fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”
One would
think that this would have pleased Jonah greatly. He had seen instant fruit in
his calling! This does not often happen!
But no—joy was not Jonah’s response. His true desire for the Ninevites again comes out:
Is this not what I said while I was still in my own country?” he said to God. “This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.
Amazingly,
Jonah is sorry that the Ninevites actually repented! So distraught was he over
this that he now wants to die. “O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is
better for me to die than to live.”
It is clear
that this calling from God was not one that Jonah wanted to obey. He fought it
at every step and finally only did so out of compulsion. He even complained
when the calling turned out to be one that brought an entire city to
repentance.
However, even with all of that, we must say that in the end, Jonah did respond to the call of God upon him.
Isaiah
The prophet
Isaiah was a more willing respondent to the call of God. Isaiah heard the voice
of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?”
“Here am I,”
the prophet responded. “Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)
Isaiah’s
motivation in volunteering however, was not the need for excitement and
adventure. From the beginning, he knew his would be a difficult and thankless
task. In fact, it would be quite the opposite ministry of that of Jonah. Unlike
the Ninevites, the people to whom Isaiah would be sent would constantly reject
his proclamations from God and only further harden their contrary opinions.
God told
Isaiah, “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be
ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the hearts of this people calloused;
deafen their ears and close their eyes” (Isaiah 6:9-10 BSB).
Understandably,
this did not sound good to Isaiah. It sounded like it would be an unfulfilling
and thankless job. “How long Lord?” he asked. He perhaps was hoping it would be
a short-term mission trip.
However, it
turns out that God’s answer to him was that it was to be a long time. In fact,
not only was Isaiah to experience only what seemed like constant failure in his
warnings to the people, but also to then live long enough to see the
destruction of the land.
God told him,
“Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, and until the houses are
left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged” (Isaiah 6:11).
Why did Isaiah do it? Again, it was not because this was the result of some inner sense of adventure or a vague idea of self-fulfillment. It was only because God had called him.
There was yet another reason that Isaiah
could do nothing else but respond to God’s calling upon his life. Isaiah had
seen the holiness of the Lord.
Even before the prophet heard the rhetorical question of God saying “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah had been given a vision of God that would so impress upon him the absolute holiness of the Lord, that there was no other option for him than to obey. Isaiah writes:
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. Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
And they called out to one another: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; His glory fills all the earth. The doorposts and thresholds shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4 BSB)
After Isaiah
had received his vision, the only words he was able to utter were, “Woe is me!
I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean
lips, and I have seen the King and the Lord of hosts!”
Isaiah had been witness to the holiness of the Lord of hosts. He was responding not to some need of self, but only to the holiness of God.
Ezekiel
Very similar
to this is God’s calling to the prophet Ezekiel. As with Isaiah, the Lord first
impressed upon Ezekiel the absolute holiness of God by giving the prophet a
vision that defied any description that could be
explained by using mere human words.
Ezekiel also had a vision of the Lord of hosts. The prophet tried the best that he could to describe his vision, but again, the meagre words of the human tongue would fall far short. And like Isaiah, perhaps the very best description is to see what his reaction was to the vision—how it affected him. So overwhelmed was Ezekiel that he fell to his face. Then he heard the voice of God:
Son of man, I am sending you to the
Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. To this very
day the Israelites and their fathers have transgressed against Me. They are
obstinate and hardhearted children. I am sending you to them, and you are to
say to them, “This is what the Lord GOD says.”
And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them. (Ezekiel 2:3-5 BSB)
Like Isaiah,
Ezekiel was not pursuing self-betterment in responding to the call of the Lord.
“Self” had nothing to do with it. Like Isaiah, he was shown an indication of
the holiness of the Sovereign One and had no choice but to respond when he
called.
Ezekiel was responding not to some need of self, but only to the holiness of God.
Mary, the Mother of Jesus
We might
also remember Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary was a young girl, excitedly
engaged to the man with whom she had fallen in love. The couple was not wealthy,
and planning for their life together had challenges enough.
Then one
night, Mary was visited by an angel of the Lord with some troubling news: “The
Holy Spirit shall soon come upon you and overshadow you.”
The angel
told her that the result of this visit by the Holy Spirit is that she would conceive
and give birth to a son, whom she was to name Jesus.
Might not
have Mary felt the same as many of the prophets of old may have felt of themselves,
“Am I imagining all of this? Might I even be going mad?”
If it was
true what the angel told her, it would indeed be a great honor, but frankly,
that is not how Mary felt at the moment. In the immediate sense, it only
presented problems. How would she explain this to Joseph, her fiancée? After
finding that she was with child, would he change his mind about going through
with the wedding? Certainly, that was the culturally appropriate thing to do.
And what
would be the result of her life in that culture? She would be shunned and rejected
by everyone.
Nevertheless,
despite all of these obstacles and fears, Mary’s response to this message was, “I
am the Lord’s servant. May it happen to me according to your word.”
Mary turned her fears into a song:
My soul
magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For He has
looked with favor on the humble state of His servant.
From now on
all generations will call me blessed.
For the
Mighty One has done great things for me.
Holy is His
name.
His mercy
extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.
He has
performed mighty deeds with His arm;
He has
scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has
brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble.
He has
filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.
He has
helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful, as He promised to our
fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.” (Luke 1:46-55 BSB)
Paul
The Apostle
Paul, when he was called to service by God, was actually an enemy of the
church. When God called him, Paul (then called Saul) was in fact on his way to
the city of Damascus to seize certain Christians in order to put them into
prison.
As he neared
the city, he also had a vision of the Holy One. His vision was not of the same
nature as was that of Isaiah or Ezekiel, but is described only as a very bright
light. Nevertheless, in the words of Paul, it was nonetheless a vision (Acts
26:19). There may also
have been more to his vision that we have not been told.
Struck by the
intense light, Paul fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are You, Lord?”
I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Get up and stand on your feet...I am sending you to your own people and to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26:15-18)
This was the
initial calling of the Apostle Paul. Again we see that he did not enter into
this ministry in order to gain some sort of self-fulfillment. Actually, he was
already self-fulfilled. In fact, he was quite proud of himself up until the
time he met Jesus.
Paul told the
Galatians that he was advancing in Judaism far beyond his contemporaries; and
to the Philippians: “I could have confidence in myself if anyone could. Indeed,
if others have reason for any self-confidence, I have even more!”
But as we saw
with the prophets, the call of God is not about self-fulfillment. It is about
responding to the Holy One.
Not for Self, but for God
For most of the men and women whom we read about in the Bible who were called by God to a certain task or ministry, we are not given what inner thoughts they may have had, but there is not one who entered into the service of God for a certain ministry or mission who did it in order to gain some “experience” or “adventure.” Their motive was not so that they could realize some dream of self-worth or self-fulfillment. All did it only in response to the absolute holiness of the God whom they had met.
The Call of Self—Simon the Sorcerer
To give us
some balance to this topic, I would like to also illustrate the opposite
perspective—what it is like to respond to a call in order to satisfy one’s
sense of importance or inner ambition.
To help us in
this, there is one case in the New Testament where we are told of someone who
actually did have self-fulfillment in mind when he sought to minister in the
name of God. He saw it as a way to gain something for himself. It is not a positive example.
This man was
named Simon, who was a sorcerer in Samaria. The people of Samaria said of him,
“This man is the divine power called the Great Power.” Simon no doubt enjoyed
this notoriety, keeping the people in astonishment with his sorcery.
But then the
evangelist Philip came to the area, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God
and telling the people of Jesus Christ. Many believed and were baptized, and we
are told that even Simon believed and was baptized. Apparently, he was
converted from his sorcery!
But as he then
began to follow Philip, instead of seeing people astonished at his own sorcery,
Simon himself was now the one who was astonished by the great signs and
miracles that he saw Philip perform.
Later, after
Philip had left, Peter and John arrived in the city. After learning of Philip’s
previous visit and hearing that the people had believed in Jesus, the two
apostles prayed for the people to receive the Holy Spirit, laying their hands
on the people to be given the Spirit.
When Simon saw
this, he offered Peter and John money, saying, “Give me this power as well, so
that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
His motivation
was not so much because that he wanted to minister the life of Christ, but so
that he could gain some sort of personal satisfaction and reputation. He
remembered how self-satisfied it made him feel in the days that people were
astonished by his sorcery, and he now was looking for a way for them to again
be astonished at the things that he did.
Peter told
him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could buy the
gift of God with money! You have no part or share in our ministry, because your
heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of your wickedness, and pray
to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for the intent of your heart, for I
see that you are poisoned by bitterness and captive to iniquity.”
Simon
seemingly did repent, answering the apostles, “Pray to the Lord for me, so that
nothing you have said may happen to me” (Acts 8:9-24).
We are not
told what the final outcome was for Simon, but his story is an illustration
given to us to show that motivations are important when considering entering
into a work of the Lord. If it is not a result of a calling from God and a
response to his absolute holiness, but instead is a desire for some
“experience” or self-realization, then I am afraid that we would have to
consider carefully the words of Peter to Simon the Sorcerer.
“Your heart is not right before God.”
To Those Who Honor God
God told Eli
the priest in the days of Samuel: “Now the LORD declares: I will honor those
who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.”
The lesson in
all of these callings of God that we have seen in the Scriptures, plus many
more not mentioned, is that in regards to the Lord’s work, self and our own
personal goals should not be factors in deciding what we are to do. I will not
say that a sense of adventure or some other considerations will never enter at
all into our thoughts (all of life is an adventure), but if we are primarily
responding in order to satisfy some sense of self-fulfillment or some other
form of self-benefit, then it would be perhaps better to examine our decision
more carefully.
If we are
faithful in our decisions, we will find that God will give us lives that are
rewarding and fulfilling. It will not be we ourselves who strive for a
self-rewarding life and to be self-fulfilled. In following God, it is not Self
whom we serve, but it is the Lord, the Sovereign Lord of the universe.
Paul said that he found that all former things that he saw as benefit to him, he later saw as a hindrance to his life. In fact, those former goals were more than a hindrance. He saw them as rubbish - as garbage in his life.
"I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8)
Or as Mary, the mother of Jesus said, “The Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is His name.”
Knowing the holiness of God, our response will be those of Isaiah the prophet after he had had the vision of the Holy One:
I heard the
voice of the Lord saying: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?”
And I said:
“Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)
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