Here Am I

One of the few places that we have direction quotations from the Savior before the world was formed comes from this verse in the book of Abraham: “And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first” (Abraham 3:27).  The Son told the Father, “Here am I, send me,” and He later showed that he was will willing to do all things that the Father required of Him in coming to earth as the central part of the Father’s plan. His attitude was simply, “Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.”  Satan likewise offered in the same words—“Here am I, send me”—but his subsequent actions showed that he was completely unwilling to do what the Father required.  He rather “rebelled against [God], and sought to destroy the agency of man” (Moses 4:2-3).  One of our great missions in life is to, in our own way, likewise say to the Father, “Here am I, send me” and then show by our actions that we are indeed willing to do all the Father asks of us. 

               There are several prophets recorded in the scriptures who spoke a similar phrase to the Lord to show their willingness to do whatever God asked.  Isaiah recorded his call to the ministry in these words, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said: Here am I; send me” (2 Nephi 16:8).  He subsequently showed his determination to live by these words as he testified boldly before the kings of Judah and gave the revealed word of the Lord to the people until, as traditions says, he was martyred by Manasseh.  The prophet Samuel was another who testified to the Lord that he would hear and heed Him.  Three times the Lord called and he answered, “Here am I.”  When he finally understood that it was the Lord speaking he added, “Speak; for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:4-10).  He then testified through his actions that he was willing to do whatever the Lord required of him as he served as the Lord’s anointed among Israel; near the end of his life he could testify to the people, “I will teach you the good and the right way: Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you” (1 Samuel 12:23-24). 

               The ancient patriarchs likewise showed their allegiance to the father as they meekly spoke the words, “Here am I.”  In the story of Genesis 22, when Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac, we see how Abraham obediently presented himself to God.  When God first called Abraham to give him this difficult task, Abraham said, “Behold, here I am” (v1).  He went with Isaac to the mount, and when Isaac spoke to him Abraham said again, “Here am I, my son” (v7).  Then when Abraham was about to go through with the sacrifice, the angel came down and called his name, to which Abraham responded, “Here am I” (v11).  Abraham showed in this experience and others that he was, like the Savior, willing to do whatever the Father required of him.  Isaac clearly demonstrated the same humble attitude as he allowed himself to be that sacrifice.  We have record of Isaac’s son Jacob responded to God in similar words: “And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I” (Genesis 31:11).  Much later in his life we read that “God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I” (Genesis 46:2).  He too showed through his actions that he was willing to do what the Lord required as he moved his whole family into Egypt.  Jacob’s son Joseph responded to his father’s request to go find his brothers with the words, “Here am I,” not knowing that this would begin a twenty-year separation from his father in which he would in his own way act as a sacrifice for his family.  He showed like the Savior that he was willing to be sent wherever God needed him, even to prison.  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all showed, as types of Christ, that they lived by the words, “Here am I” in humble submission to the Father.