Jehovah Jireh
Genesis 22:1-14, Matthew 7: 7-11, John 3:16
When Abraham brought his son Isaac up to the mountain and tied him up, doing what God asked him to do was probably the last thing he wanted to do, but he had faith that God would provide a different sacrifice. When Isaac asked him what was happening, Abraham looked to his son, the one God had promised him would bring about a great nation, and said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:8). Abraham feared God and believed that God would keep His promise to bring about a great nation through his son Isaac. Hebrews 11:19 explains that by faith Abraham “considered that God was able to raise him from the dead…”
This story of Abraham’s faithfulness ends with God providing a ram to be sacrificed in place of Isaac. Abraham names the mountain, “The Lord will provide” (v. 14). In Hebrew this was said Jehovah Jireh, meaning the Lord will provide. This is not the Lord can provide but the Lord will provide.
Oftentimes we worry and lean into our anxieties, forgetting that God will supply our every need (Philippians 4:19). We focus so much on what we need and the fact that we don’t have it and forget that God has, is, and will provide. In Matthew Jesus tells us to not be anxious about any of our daily needs and to trust that God will provide (Matthew 6:25-26). If God sees us as His children (John 1:12, Galatians 3:26, Galatians 4:7), then through His love as a Father to us we can trust that He will provide. God spared Abraham's son, yet through His great love for us, offered up His only Son, Jesus, to be the ultimate sacrifice for the world. Let these words soak in: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The Lord will provide. God is our daily provider as well as our eternal provider. He provides our daily needs as we ask them and He provides the Lamb that died in our place so that we could walk off the altar unharmed and walk into eternity proclaiming that the Lord will provide (John 1:29). Jesus’s sacrifice provides us with a way back to the Father, an eternity of worshiping our Creator. And if He provides us with eternal life, what more can we need?
Would we come to our Father with adoration and praise calling Him by one of His many Holy names, Jehovah Jireh. Would we believe that the Lord will provide and walk in obedience through our faith in Him. Let’s thank Jesus for being the provided Lamb and cry out to God with our needs believing that He is the Jehovah Jireh.
When do you tend to forget that God will provide?
How can you walk in faith this week, believing that God is our Jehovah Jireh?
