The problem of God Calling

The problem of God Calling -  
as in being called by God  
or  
hearing the call of God  
or ???  
But what does it really mean?
It's not like it's a real phone call.

I'm writing this as a detailed explanation of "Calling" for an article called "The "Healthy" and the "Sick.  What did Jesus really mean? If you're coming from there - glad to see you.  If not - maybe you'd like to check it out afterwards?

So - the "Call of God".  It's one of those church words.  It's used, with an assumption that everyone knows what it means.  Or maybe, that everyone will figure out what it means.  Or - maybe - it's one of those words that is so polarizing that no one wants to really touch what it means,

Personally, I vote for the last option.  Given that this is an introductory type of discussion, I won't go into that here.  However - at some point, it is good to know why this disagreement over something that seems to important.   I'm working on something else titled The problem of Either/Or & Both.  When it's finished, I'll put a link to it in here.  You can also subscribe to this site to get emails of all new posts.  Just use the subscribe button on the right side of this page - towards the top.

"Calling" - as a general topic is God's summoning of people to Himself, as well as for particular tasks.
That's nice - but it really doesn't say much that's meaningful to a non-church person, does it?

So  let's add a couple examples of "Calling" from the Bible.  BTW - this still won't be enough, but it will start to paint a picture.

"Calling" of Isaiah

Isa 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

This verse if from the book of Isaiah - and it tells of of the moment when God "called" Isaiah to deliver a message to God's people.

So - you may ask, where is the word "call"?  It's not there.

Well, it is.  Sort of.  Just not so you can see it.  But the "church" people - they know it's there.  It shows up in the meaning of the word that we just read as "saying", as in Isa 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”  Turns out, if we look at the meaning(s) behind the Hebrew word that get's translated as "saying" in your Bible, we see this -

559 אָמַר, אָמַר [ʾamar /aw·mar/] v. A primitive root; TWOT 118; GK 606 and 607; 5308 occurrences; AV translates as “said” 4874 times, “speak” 179 times, “answer” 99 times, “command” 30 times, “tell” 29 times, “call” seven times, “promised” six times, and translated miscellaneously 84 times. 1 to say, speak, utter. 1A (Qal) to say, to answer, to say in one’s heart, to think, to command, to promise, to intend. 1B (Niphal) to be told, to be said, to be called. 1C (Hithpael) to boast, to act proudly. 1D (Hiphil) to avow, to avouch.  ¹Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

You can see, in definition 1B - to be told, to be said, to be called.  So, when doing the translation, NIV and KJV (and many others) chose to use the word "saying".  However - the "churchy" word is "calling" - as in I heard the voice of the Lord calling. 

The "Calling" of Levi

This example comes from "The "Healthy" and the "Sick.  What did Jesus really mean? that I mentioned earlier is the reason for this particular article.  The passage in question is -

Mk 2:13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

Since Jesus was present on earth in Human form, the difficulties of the word "Call" are significantly lessened.  When one person asks another to "follow me" - the intent is pretty obvious.  The speaker wants the person to whom they are speaking to - well - for lack of a better phrase - follow them.

God calling His people - through Ezekiel

Earlier, we looked at God calling Isaiah.  There's only one other instance of the exact Hebrew words that were translated as The Lord says / saying - the words used to call Isaiah in the Old Testament.  They come in Ezekiel, but there's something a bit different here.